Love it, hate it, it’s here to stay | In Our Opinion

Published 2:45 pm Friday, November 19, 2010

We noticed an interesting trend at the city hall open house Wednesday night. People who live outside city limits seemed to be the ones gushing most about city’s new modern digs. Residents of the city proper still found reasons to rag on the building, even while reveling in its expansive council chambers.

The city hall project met opposition at every turn in its strange history (in case you’ve forgotten all the twists we provided a timeline on page 13). First there was venom over its location. The city teetered between locating the building in downtown or somewhere with more space. The scope drew fire next. The hall was too big and two expensive for a little city, many argued. Then there was the design, bare of Scandinavian influence and glaringly out of place in its humble surroundings.

The list of complaints ran on, through endless council meetings and countless Herald letter pages. Through it all, the project marched on, surprisingly unscathed, until it was suddenly towering above downtown — Poulsbo’s Taj Mahal.

The building of city hall has been a decisive issue for so long in Poulsbo that it’s almost disorienting to have it finally open. What did we complain about before we complained about city hall?

We haven’t heard the last of the grumbling, but the time to tear down the city hall project has come and passed. This is the time to turn our attention to making sure councilors keep the promises that paved the way for their new workplace.

Love it or hate it, this city hall is here to stay. It’s time to embrace it and make sure the next civic project doesn’t tear our city apart.