Barbara Tuchman’s best-seller, “The March of Folly,” well-describes the misadventures that pass for statecraft in and around our town, Port Townsend.
I quote from Chapter 1:
“Persistence in error is the problem.
“Practitioners of government continue down the wrong roads as if in thrall of some Merlin with magic powers to direct their steps.
“Yet to recognize error, to cut losses, to significantly alter course is the most repugnant option to them.”
Discounting the warnings of clear-sighted pros like myself, the Port Townsend School Board is about to squander $29 million on a brand-new elementary school — to be built on a hillside, no less.
That’s folly No. 1.
City officials, in association with a moribund Olympic Housing Trust, have foolishly lent support to a four-plex project that cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, achieve the aims put forward by them.
The units are estimated to be $900 to $1,100 per month — no affordable housing, this.
That’s folly No. 2.
Jefferson County Public Utility District commissioners talk of a plan to buy the Union Bank building as their new headquarters.
I suspected such foolishness would be forthcoming when I voted against a local takeover.
That’s Folly No. 3.
Jefferson County commissioners seem to support the Black Point development on the outskirts of Brinnon.
Their accommodating stance galls those of us who see in it nothing less than a rich man’s Shangri-La.
This seems to be where their primary interests lie.
That’s folly No. 4.
Todd Wexman,
Port Townsend