The swirl about K2 has a close relative in the desperate attempt to find a use for an expensive gadget you cannot for the life of you find a use for. A second cousin is finding a use for the unused portion of a batch of mixed epoxy: K2 is here, it is big, ergo the question is how to use it. But a far more important question goes unasked and that is how to use our Island. Pull your heads out of the swirl of words about K2 and look at what is happening willy nilly to America and will soon be happening to Vashon. Bled white and with the Damocles sword of abrupt climate change over our heads we join the third world. Predictions of when it will happen differ wildly but all trend sooner, not later. And while you are calculating, do not forget war. When, then? My mailbox finds a consensus of next summer. There’s the context, and the above noted far more important question is how we use Vashon. Let’s simplify the challenges by two slight exaggerations: when the change has fully developed ferry fares will prohibit commuting to work, and natural gas will be too expensive to use for heat.
Ten thousand souls will inhabit land that once supported ten hundred Indians, souls included. Our resources in order of importance are us, sun, land, grid electricity, and junk. Our needs in order of importance are food &shelter and jobs. Now let your imaginations soar beyond our pet elephantine factory. There will be a three-tiered society, the homeless, the workers, and the rich. These must get along, or the Island will be trashed. It follows that a symbios has to develop. I’ll now try on a plan.
Growers will expand into leased areas on a scale like the old chicken and berry days. Furthermore, they will be assisted by CC sponsored agronomy studies. The goal is at least half our calories from island soil.
Solar hot water cost for a household of four will be reduced by half from the present $5000. Passive solar construction will be promoted by the CC.
The economic engine needed for this scale of public works will be built of two parts, nicknamed recycling and research. The currency will have to be isolated from the US dollar, and will evolve into the de-facto medium of social stability.
“Recycling” means re-use. Simply put, what we now pay to have carted off island will be used, or offed, here: There will be a homeless camp at the dump whose members will have first dibs at the loot. Recycle of the rest will include manufacture of building materials from glass and paper and farm implements from junked steel. The foundry and machinery for such will be broadened to include car engine rebuild and battery rebuild.
“Research” means sweatless work. Vashon could become a powerhouse of technical innovation and re-invention of lost skills. Vashon College is just the beginning, a frill that would become a framework. The theme: stop beating up on mother nature. Much of the work would be in solar thermal engineering. The income from this intellectual product would supplement local currency circulation.
That’s the direction we must take. As regards the K2 rezone to Commercial, my initial reaction upon joining the CC board was that the CC had failed its responsibility to the Island in not taking a stand on the rezone. The corollary to that was opinion that Industrial zoning would create the more jobs. This position may have been taken by some to be a recommendation for appealing the rezone. That is not the case as the matter has been worked to the bone and reworking it would be entirely counterproductive. I understand that without the rezone there is consensus that the property would decay. I merely state that the site would serve Vashon best if it were devoted to serious productivity. Nothing prevents the new owners from devoting all or most all of the space to serious productivity.
Finally, as you’ll gather from the above plan I think it just possible for Vashon to have united to raise the money to buy K2 for manufacture of goods from junk. The reason this didn’t happen would appear to be lack of consensus on the future of this island, and have little to do with the economic feasibility of such manufacture. The reason I think I know more than some of you is my e-mail box. I have five devoted radicals in Seattle who sift the blogs and zines for news too fit to print. Their findings begin my day in near panic.