Tallbucks

Do we really need another coffee place on Kitsap Way in Bremerton? That was my first thought when I read that a Starbucks will be located in the Walgreens parking lot at the intersection of Kitsap Way and National Avenue. As the new building began to take shape this week (see photo), another question arose: does it need to be so tall?

Motorists who drive the busy ¾-mile stretch of Kitsap Way between the Chevron station and Westbay Auto are already well served when it comes to coffee. There are three drive-through espresso stands plus the classy Coffee Spigot house on Adele Avenue a block off Kitsap Way. There’s no excuse for falling asleep at the wheel on Kitsap Way.

A new Starbucks means jobs, more tax revenues, and, ultimately, higher property values. Those are good things given the state of the economy. The tradeoff is increased traffic and the possibility that one of the existing coffee places, all of which serve excellent coffee, will go out of business. The Kitsap Way-National Avenue intersection functions smoothly now given the number of cars it handles. Whether it will work as well after Starbucks opens is another question.

Economics aside, what I wasn’t ready for is the change in sight lines that the new building will bring. When driving west on Kitsap Way, it will block the view of the trees below the old Chieftain motel and the beginning of the steep hill going up National Avenue. Driving east, it will even block some of the view of Walgreens, the business it shares a parking lot with.

By definition a building constructed in a parking lot isn’t going to have the same setbacks as most businesses on Kitsap Way. So obviously it is going to change the view. I don’t know what I was thinking—that the new Starbucks would be built underground or would be the height of an espresso stand? Clearly neither design was in the company’s plans.

Joni Mitchell sang: “They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.” At this point a parking lot might be preferable.

Actually, the Starbucks that opened a few years ago in Belfair in the Safeway parking lot is a beautiful building. Hopefully the Starbucks on Kitsap Way will end up adding to the neighborhood’s aesthetics.

I will post a picture when construction is complete.