July 2026 Message from Mayor Amy Howard

A Mid-Year Reflection

We are six months into 2026, and I'm still thinking a lot about joy.

Not the easy, uncomplicated kind, though there's been plenty of that too. I mean the kind of joy that shows up in unexpected places, sometimes right in the middle of something hard.

This job gives me a front-row seat to a lot of difficult conversations. Budget tradeoffs. Constituent concerns. Policy disagreements. And what I've found, again and again, is that when we slow down and work through those conversations, something shifts. People come in guarded and leave with a little more understanding of where everyone else is coming from. That process, the slow, sometimes unglamorous work of listening, brings me joy. It's not flashy, and sometimes we can’t leave in full agreement, but listening is the foundation everything else is built on.

And then there are the moments that are a little more Port Townsend-y in nature.

I was downtown when the Race to Alaska launch and the Brass Screw Consortium were both happening. The Race to Alaska is a deeply weird human-powered boat race that draws a deeply committed crowd. The Brass Screw Consortium is a deeply weird Victorian-adjacent costume party that draws a deeply committed crowd. On paper, these two things have nothing to do with each other.

In practice? They were completely delightful together. People in full costume with elaborate goggles and top hats were mingling with people who are committed enough to get up at 3 in the morning to see the boats off and both sets of folks were happily explaining to each other what they were doing. By sight, you could absolutely tell the two crowds apart, but then you turned a corner and heard sea shanties being bellowed somewhere down the street and had absolutely no idea which group they were coming from.

It didn't matter. It was quintessentially, perfectly Port Townsend.

As our community grows, and stretches, and navigates all the discomfort that comes with growth, it's easy to feel like we're losing something. Like we're becoming something more generic, more ordinary. But Port Townsend keeps proving that wrong. The whimsy is still here. The willingness to be a little weird, a little wonderful, a little unexpected, that's still very much who we are.

John Mauro's piece in this newsletter focuses on the real, tangible progress the City has made in the first half of this year: the PROS Plan, Lawrence Street funding, police accreditation, and more. All of it matters. All of it is the result of hard work by dedicated staff, community volunteers, and council members who care deeply about this place.

What I want to add is this: the work is meaningful not just because of what we're building, but because of who we're building it with, and for. It's for us, for you and for me. For the person arguing passionately at a council meeting and the person who just wants their street fixed and the person who showed up to a festival this summer and remembered why they love this town. And we share a responsibility, all of us together, to make sure we're building something that works for the children too. The ones in our schools right now. The ones who will be hollering sea shanties down the street someday, no matter which crowd they’re with.

Heave away, haul away, we’re bound for the future of Port Townsend.

Amy Howard
Mayor, City of Port Townsend