Strip malls are so passe. Places were people can shop, eat, gather for a cup of coffee and appreciate various forms of art in the great outdoors, or indoors, all at the same time is in. Call these new gathering places whatever you like, on Camano Island they’re calling it the Camano Commons.
Internet coffee mogul Jeff Ericson appears to be on the right track with his venture, which includes a cluster of local businesses surrounding a grassy area open to public use and creativity. Neighbors and visitors will have to wait until October to make something of this blank canvas opportunity, but with all the artists in the area, that shouldn’t be too difficult.
Development is everywhere in Snohomish and Island counties – and unavoidable in the near and distant future – no matter how far people move to get away from it all, it seems. Embracing creative ideas for growth and business that combine a healthy economic opportunity with community gathering space and involvement appears to be what people are asking for more and more. Yes, many still shop at the larger malls and smaller strip malls, and battle the traffic that often comes with them for the chance to peruse a host of stores and sales all in one spot. But when smaller projects pop up in our neighborhoods we want a different look and feel to them – a small-town feel in the middle of a growing suburbia.
Projects like the Camano Commons fall into that category, and businesspeople and developers should be encouraged to pursue them. It was community nudgings, Ericson told a Herald reporter, that helped keep him moving along with the project. Ericson’s business sense and his company’s environmental and social outreach made him a natural for the project. Other business owners who live there jumped in to participate.
Similar partnerships would do well in other areas. And with all the ideas and business projects underway throughout the region, it’s easy to imagine more projects like the Camano Commons coming to fruition.
Ericson said everybody should try something like this once – and he’s had his shot. Now it’s someone else’s turn – and another neighborhood’s.
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