Message from Councilmember Monica MickHager

Family Portrait courtesy Port Townsend Main Street Program

August 1, 2025
 

Creating a Kind and Inclusive Community

A big 'hello' to everyone who calls our community home and thanks for taking the time to read this monthly column from one of our city council members!

For all of us here who love Port Townsend, I want to share what it meant for me in the past and why I hope all of us make a better effort to create a kind and inclusive community that could help us work together for our future.

These last few weeks I've spent my free time reading the first drafts of our future Comprehensive Plan now appearing in the agenda packets of our Planning Commission. I just finished the Introduction and Community Direction section draft where much of our history as a town and who we are now is talked about. And it has got me thinking about my life spent here in PT over 4 decades … so far. 

I was a 30 year old new mom when we moved here in 1985.  There was a deep security knowing we were in a connected community where we looked out and helped each other.  It didn’t matter that we didn’t really know everyone well or even know much about each other's individual lives. We were joined by our strong sense of connection and we would work together when needed.  If my kids were out and about and needed help, someone would step in and help, getting them home with a broken bike, or splitting up an argument with one of their friends.  My days were full raising kids and working but I would do the same for others' kids, for someone having car problems on the side of the road or someone who looked like they needed a little help. In the evenings when I would go out to find my tardy kids that had not come home when the street lights came on, inevitably my truck would end up being full of everyone else's tardy kids and I would drop them off at their homes, too.

The town was much smaller in population and while we didn’t necessarily socialize together, we all acted in ways that were kind to each other because we were part of our collective community.   You could count on someone helping out when you needed it. Volunteering has always been something most county and city residents have done.   It has generated hundreds of nonprofits here and many festivals because all of us support ideas and causes we believe in.  

Our little town started growing in fits and starts about 20 years ago.  There were some recessions that slowed the growth and economy down but our town would slowly recover and continue to grow again. There are now streets and neighborhoods that look different or didn't even exist 20 years ago.  More people, more houses, trees much taller. Neighborhoods extend all the way out to our city limits now.  Homes have been built and then rebuilt larger and grander in our older sections of town.  As population has grown, the relative proportion of children is lower, and median age has increased so we have the oldest median age in the state (and I am now in that age group).  Many young people and families can’t afford a house here like I could when I moved here in 1985. Rentals are few and priced out of reach.

I like to think people move here now for the same reasons those of us before them settled here - to be a part of a community that takes care of each other. We now need to work and pull together to make sure we sustain a community that is more inclusive of all people.  We need people who want to work the jobs here be able to find a home that they can afford so we have a thriving economy and strong schools educating our future generation. We want many more young families back here being part of our community and building the future of Port Townsend.   We have to be making the best choices for our whole community so it becomes generational again and it will sustain itself into the future and we have to do this work together. We need to care for each other with respect as we try our best to work together instead of being angry in our discourse.

In years past, council chambers were often full of residents.  I brought my knitting because I knew I would be there for my evening to hear what my council was working on.  I didn’t make decisions on just what I heard around town or from a media outlet. Community members stepped up to file for an elected seat so we had choices to make with our vote.  It doesn’t feel like many in our community are participating anymore.

Perhaps all it would take for us to be a strong and connected community again is for all of us to be kind and respectful to each other. We know we are different and have different views but let’s keep leaning in and work together through these differences.  Let's all take part in our civic process and work together to create the new directions and changes we need to sustain an inclusive and connected community.

I know that we have much to discuss as a community, about what we want for our town. But moving here and then wanting to stop changes that happen after you have arrived because you want the town to stay just as it was when you fell in love with it isn’t going to work.  I know this to be true from seeing all that has changed here in PT over my time here. 

Too many express our thoughts and frustrations in ways that show little respect or kindness to the people in our community.  I see this weekly watching drivers speed up to go around the bicyclist that is sharing the road in front of them, not stopping to let walkers cross the road or leading with angry and demeaning words speaking their thoughts to someone in our community.

Many more people live here now and I think they moved for the same reasons those of us who came before them. We choose to settle here to be part of the energy of a community that takes care of each other and is inclusive.  Let's choose kindness as a first response.