I love this town, and having lived here all my life, I have lots of fond memories of Walla Walla before it became a wine destination.
I’m also a big supporter of business, especially our local wineries. The positive things that that industry has done for the area are innumerable — creating full-time jobs not least among them. But not everyone feels this way.
Local citizens, expressing their opinions at city council meetings, in letters to the editor, and especially on Facebook, seem to feel that the local wine industry — evidently flush with money — should pay to fix street potholes, resurrect the privately owned Blue Mountain Mall, and build a public swimming pool.
The corner of Main Street and First Avenue is shown in this November 1990 photo
Some anti-wine industry folks have even posited that the city’s fining of the downtown purple mollusk was driven by the wine industry, and followed it with the inevitable “I wish Walla Walla was the way it used to be.”
In the holiday spirit, my gift to the community is that, for one evening, these folks get their wish during a long winter’s nap — to clearly see Walla Walla “as it used to be,” and then to visit it in a future where no wineries were thriving. Just like Ebenezer Scrooge, who got to walk with the ghosts of Christmas past and future, perhaps they will come to see the error of their ways.
If you lived in Walla Walla 30 years ago, you will remember the way Walla Walla “used to be.”
The Ghost of Christmas Past whisks us downtown where we see dirty streets with narrow sidewalks and historical architecture either in dingy disrepair or hidden with outdated facades.
Many of the buildings are empty, waiting for a retail tenant to bring them back to life. The historical and once-grand Marcus Whitman Hotel, which hosted dignitaries and celebrities in the past, is now in decline, left with scars from flophouse landlords and remnants of bankrupt restaurants.
Unemployment is higher than ever, and there is no need, let alone money, for a four-lane highway from Walla Walla to the Tri-Cities.
Tourists? No reason to visit Walla Walla, unless a traveler seeks gasoline or a restroom, or, by serendipity, reads a roadside sign for the Whitman Monument and becomes curious
about local history.
Wheat, pea and onion farmers are looking for alternative crops to plant. Many third-generations are considering desk jobs over tractors. Farmers may have some sentimental attachment to their past, but they understand that farming is a business and progress is needed to survive.
If we take a walk with the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, which route shall we take? Life in Walla Walla with, or without, the wineries? Some Scrooges claim there are too many tasting rooms in Walla Walla. Are they suggesting landlords and realtors not sell or rent to wineries and hold out for some non-wine-related business? If that’s our future, we would once again face our past of 30 years ago — empty buildings. Bah humbug!
Life without the wineries means we would not have a vibrant downtown, day and night, filled with locally owned shops, restaurants, music and, yes — tasting rooms. If there were no wine tourism, the Marcus Whitman Hotel would not be able to employ 95 to 100 people 365 days a year as it does now. The gem of our city would not fulfill the dream of our early city fathers, and the building would be an eyesore or, even worse, a vacant city block.
Without tourism, there would be no reason for the hotel to hire young workers, giving them the training and opportunity to begin careers in the hospitality industry. Without tourism there would be no reason for any lodging, let alone the existence of new hotels and inns that create jobs and revenue.
There would be no reason to permanently employ at least 200 people year-round in the wine industry, giving the area over $100 million annually in revenue and tax dollars for our highway and educational systems. Life without wineries would mean that farmers would no longer have another crop to grow that helps them keep their land in agriculture.
And most of all, life without the local wineries would mean no additional time and dollars donated to our local youth programs and other non-profits or to a yearly fundraiser, The Auction of Washington Wines. Proceeds from this three-day event are donated to the Seattle Children’s Hospital to ensure all children in our region receive the best medical care available regardless of a family’s ability to pay.
In 2009, 184 of our children from the Walla Walla Valley received uncompensated medical care from the Seattle Children’s Hospital, thanks to the wineries in Washington state, including those in Walla Walla.
Perhaps armed with this dream-induced Christmas vision, the Scrooges of Walla Walla will awake with clear minds and warmed hearts. Wine has been good to us. Let’s embrace it.
