Culture and Community

Bulletin #14

November 5, 2005

For the past several months we have been burying you in Affordable Housing Bulletins, mostly defining the problem and potential solutions. We have all the statistics that one could possibly need, and reams of data on how to “model out” the solutions. However I feel we have not explained in sufficient detail where we are heading with this program in terms of impacting our culture and the human face of our community. Hopefully we will do a better job with some direct human interest stories that are in the works.

I was dwelling on the “culture issue” last night while driving home from a good meal following by a wonderful musical event at The Living Room. We went with some friends to one of the best restaurants on Orcas Island. The place was buried with locals, now that the tourists have left, and we all had a great time wandering from table to table greeting friends and dining on fine food and wine. It was the perfect environment for retirees. As a matter of fact, looking around the restaurant, with a very few exceptions, the age range was 55 to 75, and this was a packed crowd. We drove from there to downtown Eastsound and “The Living Room.” For those on the other islands, this is a former house that Robin Woodward has turned into an alternative small theater for new, sometimes struggling and sometimes top rated talent. There were three young musicians playing there with a repertoire of original compositions and wild eyed enthusiasm about their own music and talent. The audience was equally enthusiastic and ranged from two to about age 45. The place was half full, not as a reflection of the quality of the band, but more a reflection of the changing demographics of the island. The gastronomic pleasure may have been at the high-end restaurant, but the beauty, the creativity, the uncritical belief that youth and enthusiasm can solve all of life’s problems still lay in front of the audience at The Living Room.

These are the people still experimenting with alternative life styles, new visions in music and art, and raising children who have not been exposed to the bored lifestyle, TV domination and material accumulation of our own grandchildren who live in suburbia. What a loss of all of us when these exceptional and adventuresome people will no longer be able to work and afford housing in our community. What will potlucks and picnics be like with no children? What will our schools be like when the vast majority of the population has no direct interest? What will it be like to be purchasing local good and services from people who commute from the mainland, have no vested interest in the community and could care less about your concerns?

We may not be able to adequately define our community and its culture, but we can sure define its absence!

As always, our most recent publications are posted at our website http://orcasresearch.org/  and now also at http://SanJuanHousingBank.org/.  You can contact us at any time at Losleben@rockisland.com.

Tax deductable donations to help support the Housing Project and to help pay for educational materials and supplies are gratefully accepted through Navigating Our Future, Housing Project, PO Box 298, Deer Harbor, WA 98243.  This is a totally volunteer effort, so your help is appreciated.

Signed,

Lee Sturdivant, San Juan Island

Paul Losleben and Steve Garrison, Orcas Island

Sandy Bishop, Lopez Island