The Skeeter Daddle Diaries

In the wake of the Stanwoodopolis Chamber of Commerce’s spectacular crash and burn, numerous groups have jumped in to fill the vacuum left by the now defunct Chamber. Over the years the Camano Chamber attempted to join forces with the city’s group without much success. Given that the island entrepreneurs vacated their own Visitor Center years ago, big surprise neither managed to create a larger vision. Stanwoodopolis, of course, suffered from the ‘twin city syndrome’, the toxic vestiges of east vs west that dates back to the pioneer days. Separate cities with their own city halls, schools, fire departments, all within a rock’s throw from each other, prevented mutual trust. Put a weekend art show on the east side, the west side felt slighted. History, for those who ignore it, has a way of getting the last laugh.

But … where there’s a vacuum, fools rush in. Jimmy Slattery, owner of the now defunct Rock and Gem Shoppe, stated recently that he is looking into a new group that would take the place of the old Chamber. “We’re going to call it the League of Capitalism,” Jimmy told the Cracker in an exclusive interview. “Fresh start, new blood, lower dues. We have some pretty adventurous ideas for reinvigorating the downtown flood zones. Nothing solid just yet, but you wait and see. I think the citizens of this town will be excited by what we’ll have to offer.”

Me, I’m not holding my breath. I’ve lived in a lot of places, some small, some as large as Stanwoodopolis, a town metastisizing fast as new suburbs can be built, roads paved and the slap-boxes annexed, but none with a Chamber of Commerce run completely into the swamp. In its dying breath this Chamber needed to keep its final summer music venue in order to fulfill its fiscal obligations. Maybe they just needed a name change, something other than commerce in the title. At any rate, probably a merciful death. Out here in the hinterlands the Island Chamber plugs along, offering the Stanwoodopolis chamberites a membership if they want to join up with the realtors. Business as usual, boyz, business as usual. And Jimmy, best of luck.

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This entry was posted on Monday, March 27th, 2023 at 2:16 pm and is filed under rantings and ravings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.