||| FROM WASHINGTON STATE FERRIES |||
There is currently no available parking at the Anacortes terminal. All parking lots are full. Updates will occur when more information is available.
This alert was sent on 07/3/2026 at 11:48AM to subscribers of the following routes:
- Anacortes / San Juan Islands
**If you are reading theOrcasonian for free, thank your fellow islanders. If you would like to support theOrcasonian CLICK HERE to set your modestly-priced, voluntary subscription. Otherwise, no worries; we’re happy to share with you.**
Bigger, better, faster, more… more money. More, more, more! “You pave paradise and put up a parking lot.” Joni Mitchel
Mindless capitalism brought to you by SJC’s finest county councils (past and present) via the Chamber of Commerce and the Visitors Bureau.
But never mind, join the party… as we watch the demise of everything precious about our islands, don’t forget, it’s for us! That is, it’s for all 18,000 of us, and 1,000,000 of them.
It’s a madhouse weekend in Eastsound. Not sure I’ve ever seen the town so packed. It’s crazy that there are people here who actually want to attract MORE tourists. To do this would require more parking lots, more flights, bigger airports, more lodging. And incredibly, there’s talk of SJC wanting to operate its own ferry system, even as the county faces a budget shortfall of nearly $4 million.
The pro-growth and pro-tourism crowd – consisting of hoteliers, restaurateurs, realtors, construction companies, whale watching tour operators, VRBO operators, and organizers of diverse “cultural programming” such as beer festivals, etc – are making money hand over fist, while simultaneously ruining everything that’s good about this place. They sell quiet and exclusivity while importing noise and crowds, making the islands virtually indiscernible from every other PNW tourist trap for several months of the year. At times like this I genuinely pray that a recession will take the wind out of their sails.
You could really see it at the annual July 4th parade, which I’ve never seen so mobbed. Even our tourist Congressman was present, with a following of about a dozen supporters!
“At times like this I genuinely pray that a recession will take the wind out of their sails.”
It IS a bit of a conundrum when it takes something as calamitous as 9/11, or COVID, or a recession to remind us of what it was like here when things were more in balance, of what things were like before the moneyed crowd took over, to remind us of the very reasons why most of us chose to live here in the first place.
It’s funny that “nostalgia,” “the good old days” is the main driver of real-estate sales (the brand, narrative, the pitch, whatever you want to call it). Not what it is, but what it was.