Industrial to Destination?

On my way up the coast of Washington, I stopped in Hoquiam, WA (Hoquiam, population 9,097, is an Indian word for “hungry for wood”) to talk with Mayor Jack Durney. He is a rather unique individual in that while he has been mayor of Hoquiam for a year and a half, he was previously mayor of neighboring Aberdeen 20 years ago.

Both Hoquiam and Aberdeen sit at the end of Gray’s Harbor, about 15 miles from the Pacific Ocean (25 miles by road). They were great sites for industrial operations. Timber, sawmills, paper production and ship building (Johnny Carson’s $12 million yacht was built here) were all important industries in the past. However, each has seen its better days and blue-collar towns like Hoquiam have to continue to reinvent themselves.

I asked Mayor Durney how he was approaching this challenge, “We have to figure out how to transition from a resource based economy based upon pulp and wood, into redeveloping our waterfront. I’d love to see it be a vibrant mixed use area with condos, businesses, marinas and housing developments. We’ve started a Main Street program, modeled after successful ones in Centralia, Port Townsend and Walla Walla.”
The mayor has rallied 300 local citizens for a series of strategic planning sessions on Sunday nights to establish a common vision of what Hoquiam will look like in the future. They’ve discussed the need to tie the waterfront together with a river walk, trying to get the people driving thru the town on their way to the ocean to stop by the town.

One of his comments really made sense to me, “We want to attract younger people to our community because of all of our attributes and then have them look for a job.” Mayor Durney has a vision of how he wants to transform his town, creating that special “sense of place” that I continue to search for in towns. I hope, for the sake of the citizens, that he is able to do so.