The Bremerton Complex

By Mike Seely Mon., Jan. 22 2007 at 12:25 PM

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When critics talk about how crappy they think Seattle's waterfront is, they often point to Bremerton and Tacoma as close-to-home examples of municipalities who've done right by their shorelines. After spending a lovely weekend in Bremerton, I'm calling bullshit on the Bremerton half of this assault. Bremerton's waterfront, with a brand new convention center, hotel, Anthony's Homeport, condo-complex-to-be and boardwalk-to-be, is great -- for Bremerton. What's been done down there has been replicated on Seattle's watefront and then some with the Bell Harbor Conference Center and the Marriott and condos across the street. What Seattle's waterfront needs is a handful of destination hangouts and shops for locals -- not tourists. Whether the completion of the current aquarium renovation or knocking down the Viaduct will breed such development is an open question. But we've already got what Bremerton's got; and such comparisons are apples and onions to begin with. I will say that Bremerton's downtown has an old-school Midwestern river town grit that's pretty tough to come by around here and worth checking out, highlighted by the Eagles Club on Washington Ave.

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I\'m very happy about the fountain park. Perfect for a picnic. I\'m also excited about the JC Pennys block being sold to that Bellevue Developer guy. He\'s turning it into The Harbor Commons. It\'s gonna be commercial and residential. I\'d like to see some markets along Burwell. It\'s a perfect strip for shopping. I think a hot topic would do well here. Bremerton is becoming more upscale. Westpark is raising rent until it\'s poorfolk are gone then it\'ll construct another condo. Part of Bremertons feel is that of the Bohemian lifestyle. The artists, hippies, skaters, the Navy people who ended up here and left the service, wanderers. If we banish the bohemian element, the Brem-oisie will have displaced them.
I totally agree that Fraiche Cup is the best cup in town. Westside Burrito? I\'ve made better with moldy meat. And I\'m pretty siked abut the \"security improvements\" the Navy is putting in. Those are going to be parks and open space. The feds don\'t want cars parked next to the shipyard for ... terror reasons, so, we new grass where a McDonald\'s used to live. And there are plenty of empty storefronts in town for the local merchants that were chased away. Plenty.
As a Bremerton resident, I was not happy with the development at the waterfront. Many local merchants were chased out of the area as their buildings were torn down (some of them historic!) Now, we have Subway, Starbucks, etc... There are a few holdouts like Fraiche Cup (The best coffee available on the Waterfront!) and the Burrito Connection. So sad to see the Wheelhouse and Sammy\'s Triangle Cafe go under the wrecking ball. The Navy has sucked up most of what was lower Pacific Avenue with \"security improvements.\" A building elidgible for the historic register was torn down along with two city blocks. There are two huge condo complexes going in along the water that completely distroy the view. These condos are going to be very expensive to purchase. Who is going to come and live in them when there is nothing to offer them in B-town in terms of services, groceries, etc... Those of us who live here loved the back-water feel of our town. As this change occurs and B-town comes to look more and more like Kirkland, I hope that the people who live here will remain the nice, down-to-earth people they have always been.
Soon we will lose the rest of the waterfront view to more condo\'s. On 6th and Washington, the Tides Apartments I & II are empty now. More low-income residents hurried out. Where are these people going to rent? What happened to the 30 people that had to go for the other condo\'s? Sad. I wonder if the big fir tree will get to stay, the eagles land in it each year. Some say its a nesting tree. Has anyone researched this or anything else dealing with that tree? If your not sure of the tree I talking about, stand across the street in front of the Eagles on the corner of 6th and Washington and look towards the water, can\'t miss it. I used to see an eagle perched on the mast of the Turner Joy daily before the building started. Does it still do it? I\'m having a hard time invisioning the beach walkway generating anymore business than downtown does after 6, if that. Condo crowd won\'t be there, they live there. Ferry riders diffenently won\'t be there, they want out of here. People paying to park won\'t be there, can\'t afford it. Church kids won\'t be there, nothing to do. Cops and security will be there as will the meter readers handing out parking tickets. $25.00 tickets. I miss the parking lots on the waterfront, atleast we knew we had a waterfront. Peace
Forgot about that banner on the parking garage advertising B-Town\'s \"Arts District.\" What a crock of shit: Saturday afternoon and nothing open but a gallery whose works bore a scary resemblance to Thomas Kincaid\'s.
The Roxy, now home to the Calvary Chapel, has a history of putting on all-ages rock shows not unlike the Paradox in Seattle. Band\'s like the Divorce, Schoolyard Heroes and Kane Hodder have played there. I\'m not sure what the rent situation was like for local promoters and performing bands, but the pastor the church would preach between acts. Some of the bands had a hard time complying with the house rules, like, no crowd surfing and no profanity. There haven\'t been any secular rock shows for at least a year after a somewhat nasty incident at a Kane Hodder/Valley of the Dinosaurs gig. What\'s always chapped my ass about that place is that they haven\'t spruced p the marquee. I understand it\'s a spendy endeavor, but seriously, just replace those broken and missing bulbs. Clark W. Griswold would not approve, and neither do the neighbors in Bremerton\'s \"Art District.\"
Hey, you forgot to mention the best part of the waterfront-- the tavern with 50-cent pool, and a juke box that only plays 60\'s rock-n-roll. If you don\'t know which bar I\'m talking about just look straight out from the ferry terminal. Also, there is the (Norm) Dicks Center... who could forget that.
Every downtown wants a grocery store, few get them. Seattle just got a Whole Foods, but it\'s on the outskirts of downtown, and pretty high-end at that. If there\'s an advantage a sleepy, small city downtown like Bremerton\'s has, it\'s the ability to site a real grocery store right in its heart. At that point, Bremerton could rightly be touted as an example for other smaller cities to follow; but again, any comparisons to Seattle\'s situation are pretty ridiculous. Just a totally different set of realities, demographics and challenges.
It\'s the Roxy Theater that was converted to the church. The Rialto Theater, which was demolished a long time ago, was on the site of the current Penny\'s Building parking lot. Rumor has it that the Penny\'s Building is going to be converted into a grocery store, book store, retail shops, etc. for the downtown core.
And as to the Rialto(?), that was a movie theatre that went up for sale when Bremerton started going down the tubes. Apparently the only buyer they could find at the time was that church. I don\'t know if there\'s anything the city can do about them or not.
The other is the Admiral, which is the Bremerton version of the Paramount (hey, we get Chinese acrobats and the Irish Rovers once a year!). Actually, the Admiral is beautiful, just horribly under-utilized. We need a grocery store in downtown Bremerton. Desperately. And I really wish Head\'s Up would do full-mash brews instead of extract-based. Downtown is definitely on the way up, it is just proceeding much slower than anyone would like. Once the new waterfront park is open, that will definitely attract my family down there more often, but I generally only go downtown to pick up dinner or catch the boat into work. But if you want to own your own home and still have Seattle be fairly convenient (and, actually, have Tacoma be MUCH more convenient than it is from Seattle), Bremerton is not a bad place to be at all. I\'ve lived here seven years and don\'t regret a second of it.
Interesting insight, Chris. Thanks. Here\'s a question: What\'s up with all those cool looking old theatres in downtown B-Town that, uh, aren\'t really theatres. One\'s a church that blares the recorded pastor\'s voice on the sidewalk via speaker, and another looks like it\'s only available for special events. Seems like the latter could be (re-)transformed quite easily into a movie theater.
I always thought it humorous when Seattle talked about Bremerton\'s waterfront as something to strive for. The best thing about Bremerton (and much o\' Kitsap) is the proximity to Seattle. Yes, it\'s great that Bremerton no longer thinks that waterfront is a great place to grow parking lots. There\'s a new hotel, Anthony\'s and Fritz Europeon Fry House (try the local beer from Silverdale\'s Head\'s Up Brewery!) But after 6 p.m. the town shuts down. Nobody in Bremerton is looking at Seattle and saying, \"Oh, man, our waterfront is so much cooler than yours!\" And when the comparisons started to get thrown around, nobody was more surprised than us locals. That said, Bremerton\'s got a lot going for it. I subscribe to the theory that once the condos are finished and the downtown core is a few hundred people busier, it\'ll be a much more exciting place to visit, and a killer place to live.