Do you ever contemplate healthy future economic alternatives for Kitsap County? Try this one. Picture tens of thousands of people coming here, spending large sums of money, and going home. Some come for an evening — or a weekend. Some come for a week or two. Entertainment includes folk and jazz festivals, Shakespeare, Gilbert and Sullivan, Rogers and Hammerstein, dinner theater.

We have destination resorts: a national historic park at Port Gamble (like Williamsburg, Virginia), a world class naval museum, a half dozen underwater diving parks on both sides of Kitsap, convention centers and more 5-star golf courses. Then add major equestrian centers on Gold and Green Mountains hosting major events and unlimited riding trails; outdoor sports businesses with connections to mountains, rivers, saltwater and three national parks.

This is Kitsap’s natural geographic legacy and should be our future. We are located on the doorstep of downtown Seattle, soon to be a 25-minute passenger ferry ride away. We’re one hour from Sea-Tac airport, the doorstep to western Canada and the Orient. We have a seasonal climate that makes this type of recreation possible nearly year-round (unlike Newport, Ashland, New Bedford and many cities that specialize on only one type annual event and have only a few seasonal months per year where they can do this. Most of our outdoor activities are sustainable for 8-9 months per year and entertainment can continue year-round.

Dozens of Puget Sound universities and colleges would staff the dramatic arts.

Many of Kitsap’s transportation and cost penalties don’t apply to entertainment and vacation. Ferry rides are part of the ambiance and will compete well with the Lake Washington Dinner Train. We should sell our green, rural county on this basis and can reconcile a few social and political problems while we’re at it.

This economic strategy should be able to reconcile many long-standing conflicts between development and preserving Kitsap’s environment. It puts our local environment into an economic framework. It provides a real long-term alternative to dependence on federal employment and provides an alternate economic basis for transportation infrastructure (beyond catering to a small minority at excessive public subsidy). It provides a basis for future employment and a future for our children here in Kitsap.

Some problems will need to be addressed. It is important to maximize Kitsap ownership of the businesses formed and to distribute here at home the equity ownership and wealth that such a strategy will produce; i.e., to avoid a “land-baron/serf” business and employment culture. Businesses with employee stock ownership plans (ESOPS) should be incentivized. The large public lands in the center of our county need to be made available for cooperative public-private enterprises.

This may involve tax credits for the income produced from our jointly owned (“commons”) public lands (which could potentially outperform timber sales in supporting public schools). The Comprehensive Plan would have to be revised and legislative support may be needed to do this. Nevertheless, these actions are feasible and we should start now to develop this unique opportunity for long-term economic viability.

Notice that we also have the waterfront to solve the problem of where to locate the ferry Kalakala. The public-private cooperation necessary to do this could exemplify that needed for the rest of the above ideas.

If you agree with those who think these concepts have potential, contact your County Commissioners. Let’s continue public discussion to develop these ideas.