— from Christopher Evans —
Scene at West Beach Resort, Friday night (7/17) at 10 pm:
16 people in their 20s gathered around one campfire on the beach in front of cabin 5. Zero masks, zero social distancing. Singing, dancing, and partying like it’s 1999. Blasting pop music from a radio without any concern for anybody but themselves.
As it’s in my neighborhood, I go to West Beach a lot, and their behavior was obnoxious by any standards, much less in a pandemic. It was obviously a group of people from several distinct households (Probably 16 different households.) When I asked them what the hell they thought they’re doing, they all laughed and made drunkenly obnoxious comments. As I walked a couple cabins down and saw a family around their own campfire, I asked them, “Is this OK with you?” They said it most certainly was not but they felt intimidated to say something.
I called the night manager to tell her the situation. She responsibly and quickly responded to the scene. Other than witnessing the groups’ verbal protest against the night manager, I left the scene and don’t know the rest of the story. But it’s quite probable that the next day and today, this same 16 people went into town to the Brown Bear Bakery, or the Island Skillet, or the Island Market, or the Saturday market, Cascade Lake, or…OK, you get it. They most certainly got back on a ferry boat and headed back to wherever they all came from.
We are in Phase 2 which limit social interactions to groups of five or less. It also prohibits nonessential travel. This large and irresponsible gathering is exactly what you hear in real news stories around the country, on display here on Orcas
There is so much wrong with this scenario all at once that it’s hard to unpack. But a lot of it goes under the heading of responsibility.
- Who is responsible for this situation happening? The ferry system that brought them here? The San Juan County Council that wants to keep pushing us to stay open instead of stay home? The San Juan visitors bureau that promoted tourism. West Beach Resort that made the booking?
- What is the point of our local community practicing responsible behavior, when we have this kind of giant crack in the system?
- Who is responsible for policing these kinds of violations? Our sheriff’s department? West Beach Resort? Apparently, in that moment was it me?
- Who is responsible for saying something or doing something about non-essential travel running rampant on our island?
So, with little answers to any of these questions, I write this letter.
You know what? I wanna party like it’s 1999. I have several friends that I haven’t seen since the beginning of March. But in order to protect my community, we are not getting together. I want to work again! I want to sing karaoke. I want to take my family out to eat. I want to do live theater. I want to hug people. But there is a code that the vast majority of us are following, making true sacrifice for the health of our community. I care about this place and our community and since I was the sole witness to this debacle, I wanted the community to know about it
It’s also disheartening to see disrespectful visitors people pile out of cars at the Anacortes landing, into larger groups well over 5, no masks, no social distancing, hugs all around, when 100% of Orcas folks I know are basically huddled in our cars, both at the ferry and on the ferry. So much bad behavior: I was directed to the wing side of the ferry and noticed that everyone before me selfishly and against hand signals took the outermost lane, leaving me to start filling the inner lane. “If I must stay in my car I damn well get a good view!” Is that what’s going on? No announcements that masks are required; WSF personnel instead have to tell the drone “pilots” to stop flying over the docked ferry and “fly that drone back to your hand.” What a circus! And much of this circus ends up at the intersection of Main and North Beach, where the masked and the maskless intermingle freely. We’re getting harmful advice from Trump, and it trickles down to a laissez faire attitude from visitors.
Honorably and well said. I am painfully frustrated that the powers that be allow this to continually go on while most of us have been holed up for months in order to keep each other safe. There is nothing right about any of it and I have no idea how to stop it. But there must be someone who can. Please!!!
Is Phase 2 enforceable by our deputies on Orcas?
One of the many things I appreciate about Orcas Issues is that side column with email links to our state representatives. Today I wrote to every one of them.
I encourage everyone to join in to make sure we are heard and that someone is listening.
Thank you Christopher. The only way this is going to change is by replacing Council with candidates who have integrity and wisdom. The primary comes up in 2 weeks. We should not have to depend on the Governor to set policies which are nevertheless ignored locally; we should expect local decision makers to allocate resources to enforce the law and not set up tension between targeted economic support (phase 2 with modified standards for lodging) vs broad community sentiment. Council is sending a clear messages re tourism, favoring the tourist industry while exposing islanders to behavior, such as you observed, that would not be happening if Council enforced the no non-essential travel ban (which is still the law under phase 2). Council could show a modicum of leadership by withdrawing the phase 3 application, but so far they are demonstrating disregard for legally-mandated behavior and appropriate health practices. Are we not dealing with a dangerous and growing pandemic?
And thank you Christopher
Beginning Friday of Memorial Day weekend I observed similar flagrant violations at West Beach Resort of the regulations then in force and informed Rick Hughes about it. He told me to contact the Sheriff, which I did that Sunday. The person who answered the phone told me to leave a message on the Covid-19 hotline, which I did, leaving my phone number for further information. Nothing happened, and there was no corresponding entry in the Sheriff’s log that weekend in the Sounder.
On the question of enforcement, Rick Hughes and Ron Krebs have been AWOL. What can we therefore expect of tourists and the establishments that cater to them?
Thank you for this.
The ADHD of many people in this country is IMHO due to the combination of privilege and instant gratification due to the culture of gadgets, google, amazon etc. Critical thinking amongst many has vanished, as has the reality of our interconnectedness.
We are collectively shaping the narrative our offspring will read about these times, which includes these ignorant people.
It is really too bad that the political and law enforcement people up the chain are often useless to us.
The other people at WB who were intimidated to speak up… This is the same intimidation that allows knees on the neck while someone is crying for their mama, the same entitlement of people who don’t think they need to stop at stopsigns, the same entitlement and privilege of someone who knows they can build illegally at the expense of their neighbors before the red tape thins and they are held accountable. If we on Orcas can’t resist and offer another angle who can?
I too find myself scowling at the long line of customers in front of Brown Bear or in the ferry lines not distancing and would love to legitimately be able to blame it all on tourism (as we so love to do on so many topics here in the islands). But then I ask myself if I am falling into an easy habit or if I am truly looking at the facts. I find myself in many situations with islander’s who too are refusing to wear masks. I play pickleball several times a week and only a few of us wear masks and more and more of us coming out to play, all islanders. The most recent posted by our Dept of Emergency Management states: “While investigation of recent cases is ongoing, nearly all of the positive cases to date have resulted from those living in the islands traveling to the mainland and returning to San Juan County, or friends or family of islanders coming to SJC. Being an islander doesn’t equate to common sense, being a tourist doesn’t equate to being an idiot. Let’s be fair.
I’ve observed a similar ‘scene’ at the skate park with a larger group and a bus with Oregon plates. The Sheriff responded to my concern.
We’d been thinking of West Beach tonight at 11pm to ‘chase’ the comet. Monday night might be quieter?
Christopher,
Thank you for your concern. Unfortunately, you have jumped to conclusions and have made false accusations that I feel the need to clarify since you posted this in such a public forum. First, the guests you are referring to belonged to one family of eleven guests who had reserved multiple units. This was most certainly not a gathering of “16 different households.” Second, the guests were not in violation of any state or county order for limited non-essential travel.
In the future, we would appreciate a full understanding of the facts before making such defamatory remarks. If you had a concern, you could have contacted us first before coming onto our private property to confront our guests.
Feel free to contact us in the future should you have any further concerns.
I understand your worry Christopher, and agree mostly with you. I was with my family two cabins down from this group of the people, and they were all one group renting two cabins. I believe if you just put your mask on, you can know you are safe.
After dinner drives to West Beach for ice cream cones and while watching the sunset are one of our favorite summer activities. We were there last night. Not everyone in our sight were wearing masks, but those who weren’t appeared to be family groups and were respectfully social distancing. Never for a moment did we feel at risk…..we’ll be back again soon.
My apologies to you Jeremy of jumping to a major conclusion about 16 separate households. That was a total assumption. Fact is I love West Beach resort and mean it no harm. It has a very special vibe and clientele. But what I witnessed was definitely out of the norm even outside of a pandemic.
I did contact the night manager but thank you for the invitation to contact you in the future. WBR is truly a very special place.
Perhaps this is the sort of problem we should look to our political leadership to solve. Are they not there to look out for our interests?
“One family of 11 guests in multiple units.”Is that an explanation that suits? How many separate units did they come from before coming to Orcas?
I KNOW it is hard to grasp ” asymptomatic contagion”, but that is perhaps the cruelest part of COVID-19.IN WA.we just shattered a previous record for cases in one day.We did the same a week before. Masks and social distancing at this point that will not stop the spike , we need something called “delayed gratification” , as invisible to the eye as “asymptomatic contagion.”
Glad to see so many people having opinions on all that is taking place here on Orcas.Unfortunately it is happening everywhere, no masks ,no social distancing, non essential travel and we could go on and on. It isup to all of us to do the best we can about this. It is a Pandemic and it will not be controlled unless each of us takes responsability for our actions. We do have an obligation to try and stop this behavior if we can( thank you Christopher.) I have said all along and written to the Governor numerous time that all of this does’nt even matter if there is no way we can enforce any of the behaviors. Other countries have tried and been fairly successful, but the good ole USA has this idea we are special,we have the Freedom to do what ever we want. Well now we are paying the price for that thinking.