Peninsular Thinking

Quincy Jones, who spent a fair chunk of his teenage years here in Bremerton, credited the “Sausalito of the Northwest” with helping him launch his lifelong affair with music. Charles R. Cross, writing for the The Seattle Times, quoted Jones as he made a speech Thursday at his induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Here’s how Cross described the ceremony, which this year took place in Los Angeles:

Oprah Winfrey made a surprise appearance to induct Quincy Jones. Though she didn’t talk about his Northwest connection, Quincy did, in a long, emotional speech.

“To me, that journey [in music] began in Bremerton,” he said. “You know Bremerton, Washington, don’t ya?”

Scattered applause followed but also bewilderment from many in the Los Angeles crowd.

I’m trying to get a copy of Jones’ speech. If I get one, or if I find a video of it I’ll post it here.

At the old Bremerton Beat blog we provided Jones’ telling of how he found music here. It’s a sweet story.

Bremerton: Quincy Jones, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Your move, Port Orchard.

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Some years back, the first time I covered Bremerton, a committed atheist began attending the Bremerton City Council meetings pretty regularly. This citizen was not going because of any God issues, but as many of you know the council has a regular practice of opening its meeting with the pledge and a prayer.

Around the country the issue is coming up, according to an AP story online Wednesday in the Seattle Times.

All these years I’ve wondered when the day might come when someone would express offense at the regular request to deity. I kept it to myself, though, because we reporters like to be somewhat cautious about where we start fights. This wasn’t an argument I wanted to be blamed for initiating. No one complained.

In 2007, when Bainbridge Island’s city council voted to stop saying the pledge of allegiance, then Bremerton Mayor Cary Bozeman told the council, following a pledge and a prayer, that he was glad his city did both. Council members chuckled and said nothing more.

That may continue in Bremerton and even if a fight does happen it doesn’t necessarily mean the city would have to stop praying. But there is some question whether the city would be willing to spend the money to defend its practice in court. And the AP story suggests that the silence of whatever opposition there might be won’t continue forever.

“Lawyers on both sides say there is a new complaint almost weekly, though they don’t always end up in court. When they do, it seems even courts are struggling to draw the line over the acceptable ways to pray. Some lawyers and lawmakers believe it’s only a matter of time before the Supreme Court will weigh in to resolve the differences.”

Bremerton is the only local entity I know of that starts with prayer, but the state Legislature and Congress do it too. It’s not just some ancient tradition of American backwaters.

In the meantime I suppose Bremerton’s meetings will continue to be led by representatives from the city’s different religions and traditions. No one is objecting.

Yet.

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Yvonne Dean saw her husband retire while their two daughters were preparing for college and decided to take work as a substitute teacher in the Bremerton School District.

That was 1988.

On Tuesday she was celebrated by fellow members of the Bremerton Professional Education Association. Dean is retiring.

“We’re going to be lose a historian,” said Wanda Liner at Tuesday’s regular meeting that turned into a tribute. “We’re going to have some big shoes to fill, especially in the union.”

The union is made up with the school district’s equivalent of the “people for that.” You know, like that time you spilled the shrimp sauce on the carpet at Alex Rodriguez’ house. You started to clean it up yourself, but Alex gently reminded you not to worry, that “We have people for that.”

The “people for that” in the school district do clerical work, manage offices and serve as paraeducators and custodians. If the school district were a human body, the BPEA and its statewide union, the Public School Employees of Washington, would be the liver. I know no one wants to be called “the liver,” but take one out of your body try living without it. You can’t.

There were moments Tuesday, too, when it became clear that there are times these employees feel as unappreciated as a liver. There are contract talks at play now, and not everyone is happy about the direction those are going.

Dean started as a sub, then worked as a clerical assistant and office assistant at Crown Hill Elementary, Magnuson Community School and the district’s business, maintenance and transportation offices. She didn’t drive the buses, (“No way would they get me on a bus with 70 kids behind me,” she said. “That takes a special person.”) but she handled transportation issues in the office so a bus driver could focus on driving a route.

“I have grandkids,” Dean said when asked why she’s retiring. “It’s time for a change.”

Change is something she has seen over 24 years. One thing she mentions is how parents are much less willing to accept responsibility for what their children do now than when she started working in the district. Before, a child acting up in class would lament that the “worst thing was Mom and Dad were going to know and they would do something.” She also said all the technology available has made us all less willing to look at each other and say, “Hi.” That, she said, will prove difficult for today’s kids. “I understand it’s great, but we need to communicate.”

My recollections from my years in school were that some of the classified employees we met were among our favorite personalities. Olie was the custodian at my elementary school and Bernie served that role in high school.

Even if we didn’t know them directly, they certainly had an impact. When I tried to ditch school it wasn’t a teacher I tried to trick into believing I was my dad. I went to school that day at the gentle prodding of a nice woman whose name I no longer recall. Nonetheless, she had as much to do with my education experience as some of the teachers. I just didn’t know it or appreciate it at the time. So many important things were done for us students, things we never had to notice because the school district made sure we had “people for that.”

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About 180 people took shelter in the old East (Bremerton) High gymnasium for an event that necessarily has its highlight outside.

It was a groundbreaking for the Youth Wellness Center, in particular the teen center for the Boys & Girls Club and the Lindquist Dental Clinic.

Those are expected to be built and ready next fall. A wellness center, kitchen and marketplace are expected to be built by 2014.

Norm Dicks and Derek Kilmer were on hand to speak, as was Bremerton Mayor Patty Lent.

The golden shovels were ready outside. If anyone complained about the weather I didn’t hear it. If nothing else it made the ground softer for digging.

Dicks told of playing for West in the old gym. He says he hit the game-tying shot. Any fact checkers out there?

Dicks also said he was able to get one of the last earmarks for the Wellness Center site. “It was not a big one, ” he said.

SIDE NOTE: I love this gym. Our photographers hate the lighting in there. Having never taken a photo from inside there before today I knew it probably had to be a challenge. Now, using the panorama feature on my phone, I get my first firsthand experience.

Still, what a beautiful interior, odd lighting and all.

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Following up on Wednesday’s story about the Bremerton City Council’s move to (eventually) kill off the city’s B&O tax, City Council President Jim McDonald contacted me Wednesday to provide updated information I didn’t have. We were unable to speak on Tuesday, otherwise this would have been in the story.

McDonald was the one backing the 2.5 percentage point credit option, having it go up 2.5 points a year. He’s now backing off. City staff had argued the credit complicated tax collections, an issue that was pointed out in the story.

What McDonald would propose now is an automatic 20,000 rise in the exemption floor every year. “You actually have to take action to not implement it (each year)” he said.

McDonald had opposed the exemption rise before because inflation would reduce the benefit over time if the exemption were not continuously raised by the council. Making the rise automatic addresses that point.

If the city were actively trying to annex beyond current boundaries, the tax would be a hindrance, McDonald said. Where that would likely come into play is south towards Gorst, he said. The city has built sewer infrastructure in that area. The Wheaton corridor north of Riddell, while it could probably generate enough sales taxes to make killing the B&O possible, is not on the radar. Much of that area is in an urban growth area, but is not affiliated with any city.

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Mark Goldberg, lead contact on the Bremerton Towers project discussed Thursday in the Kitsap Sun, returned my call this morning and provided additional details to the story.

1. These will be apartments. “There’s nobody building condominiums now,” he said.

2. The company will build the one tower first, with no definite plans for the second two. The first tower, with 140 residences, is on Goldberg’s property at 510 Washington Avenue. He hopes construction will begin in spring or summer 2013, but there is no firm commitment on that.

3. The property where the second and third towers would go are bank owned. The bank, First Citizens Bank & Trust of Lacey, has a third party on contract to pursue possible development of those towers, Goldberg said. He might be involved in that work, but that’s not certain at this point.

To reiterate something I wrote in the comments section of the story, more or less repeating something from the story, this project was essentially approved by the city in 2009.

To elaborate on that, any proposed project that meets the city’s zoning standards by law has to be approved. It’s why Wal-Mart is in Poulsbo. The city had zoned for a big box years before. Opponents, including a couple on the council, tried to block it by not approving it, but I remember quite clearly Ed Stern making the case that the city is obligated by law to approve a project if it meets the standards the city has set. In this case that decision fell upon Bremerton’s Department of Community Development and it was made in 2009.

Goldberg believes the first Bremerton Tower will be attractive to a mix of renters. The building would be a rare waterfront highrise, which he said doesn’t exist anywhere in the Puget Sound region.

To clarify other issues. Goldberg was not the developer on the project that cost the county and the city money. His condo complex was completely private and was next to the housing authority condo complex. When Goldberg’s project was stung by economic downturn, those condos went to auction.

Goldberg did own the property where the debris was left. As our story explained before, he paid to have the building on site knocked down, had six months to clean it up, said he ran out of money, got foreclosed on at which point the legal responsibility to clean it up went away.

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Bremerton, as promised, will host a free, public event at which it will rename a street Nathan Adrian Drive. The location is off Schley Boulevard, across from the Glenn Jarstad Aquatic Center. The event is at 4 p.m. Monday.

Nathan Adrian, for those of you from Port Orchard, is a Bremerton High School grad and recently went to London and came home with some precious metal in the form of two gold medals and one silver from the London Olympic Games. One of his gold medals was for being the fastest 100-meter freestyle swimmer in the world.

Blogger’s note: Port Orchard folks, don’t be offended. My ribbing of you and Chris Henry’s lame attempts to make fun of Bremerton go way back. If you like, you should consider yourself “on notice.” And it should be noted that someone I went to school with in California lives in Port Orchard, or at least South Kitsap, and is quite the swimmer, too. He’s no Nathan Adrian, but you can hold your head high.

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Taylor Niemy opened a free speech conversation here by using his chalk to post Occupy messages on Bremerton sidewalks. Wednesday’s story, running alongside election results from Tuesday, has generated a lengthy conversation among our readers.

In Los Angeles it’s something more. As recently as mid July LAPD was arresting chalk protesters for plying their craft at that city’s art walk. While the magnitude is predictably greater in a much larger city, the conversations are pretty much the same as they are here. From a Los Angeles Times story: “‘We were handing out free chalk for freedom of speech,’ said Cheryl Aichele, 34, a member of Occupy L.A.”

In a separate L.A. Times story it’s interesting where a police officer draws the line between protest and vandalism. From that story: “‘The chalking was not limited to the sidewalk, it was also on the buildings,’ Frank said. ‘This was vandalism.’”

In Wichita, Kan. a blogger writes that police stopped him from chalking his protests of two recent killings.

In 2011 a federal appeals court ruled there is no constitutional right to write chalk messages on sidewalks, according to a story on The First Amendment Center website. The ruling stemmed from a complaint in Washington, D.C. that its ban on sidewalk chalk statements was unconstitutional. The court said signs and banners were fine in the public area near the White House, but that it was not a “writing tablet.”

A similar issue is happening in Minnesota.

And while Niemy is calling for a chalk event on Aug. 19, Occupy Washington, DC wants you to “Chalkupy the world” on Thursday.

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Elks Club members conspired with city employees to surprise the mayor at Wednesday’s Bremerton City Council meeting. They did it so she would have no knowledge she was going to receive the state “Citizen of the Year” award.

Lent received the same award locally in May and was pitted against 38 other nominees from throughout the state.

Steve Jankowski, past exalted ruler of the Bremerton lodge, said finding a local nominee is in some part looking for someone who works with the underprivileged, veterans, children and the handicapped.

Jankowski said the organization found multiple individuals and businesses that merited the award, but the one name that kept coming up as “a bright star on the horizon” was Lent’s.

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I’ve made a call to the operators of the new theater in Bremerton to triple check the planned opening of the facility at 4 p.m. Friday.

If you’ve driven by the place you might have noticed the Madagascar 3 and Prometheus posters. There is room for more, last I looked and the signature signage was going up Tuesday morning. That’s what you see here.

This is the latest addition to downtown that has those who champion the city keeping their fingers crossed this will work.

For it to work it means some people will have to change habits. For anything new to work that’s a requirement. For me it would mean going to more movies while they’re in the theaters. I actually think this place might make that happen for me. Particularly if a movie has relevance to the subject matter here or on the Kitsap Caucus blog I will be more likely to go. I will also say that my wife and I will often travel a longer distance to watch a movie in a theater we like rather than going to the most convenient locale. If this theater lives up to its promise it could become our new favorite.

Some of you, I know, don’t like how all this went down. It may be the public investment in the parking garage that gets you. It could be Gary Sexton’s management of the project. Now there are questions about how much workers were paid in building the facility and a spate of documents soon to be released could spark other questions.

All of this may leave just enough of a bad taste in your mouth to make you committed to not go to the movie theater, for fear that doing so only encourages more of the same behavior you don’t like.

Or, even if you don’t like it, you might be like my uncle. He was against the funding mechanism for both of the downtown stadiums in Seattle. Now that they’re done, he has told me, he’s going to enjoy them. I went to a Mariners game with him once, so I know he’s telling the truth.

I mentioned in a Kitsap Caucus blog post I might want to have some friends with me when The Campaign is released. It’s Aug. 10. No takers yet.

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