Clarence Moriwaki Came for the History, Stayed for the Neighbors

Clarence Moriwaki came to the island in 1997 and fell in love the way a lot of people do. What rooted him was more specific. He knew its history as the first community in the country ordered into the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans, and he knew the Japanese American community that stayed and stayed active. "That made me feel really at home," he said.

Nearly thirty years on, Moriwaki thinks the island has kept the thing people love about it. "When you come off the ferry and walk around, that friendliness, that neighborliness, that's what makes it so desirable," he said. What worries him is whether the people who give the island that character can still afford to stay.

"We're losing the kind of socioeconomic diversity we used to have," he said. When he arrived, BISD was growing. It has since shed hundreds of students, a drop he ties to the cost of living here. By his count, nearly eight in ten people who work here do not live on the island, including about 75 percent of the City's own staff, even though the City pays well. "It's not sustainable to have a community that grows older while the people who make the city work can't afford to stay."

His answer sits at one of the busiest corners on the island. The City tore down the old BIPD station by the ferry, at Winslow Way and SR-305, and Moriwaki is advocating for roughly 90 units of affordable housing there. He is direct about what it is and isn't. "It is not a homeless shelter. These are the people who take care of your kids and your parents, bag your groceries, cut your hair. They just can't afford to live here."

He also chairs Housing Kitsap, the countywide housing authority, which runs about 70 affordable units on the island, including Rhododendron Apartments across the street from BHS and Finch Place Apartments, both with hundreds of names on the waitlist. He does the math out loud: someone driving in from across the bridge, south of Silverdale, can burn $200 a month in gas, so a home on-island is effectively a raise, on top of the commute hours handed back to their kids. Housing Resources Bainbridge just cut the ribbon on the Eriksen Community, 18 affordable rentals from one to three bedrooms. "There are real, concrete steps happening," he said, "but there's a lot more work to do."

Moriwaki has about three and a half years left on the council. He will count his term a success, he said, if that affordable housing is breaking ground by the time he is done.

The council also just signed its new City manager, John Mauro, days ago, after a national search. He steps in mid-stream, Moriwaki said, with the Comp Plan wrapping up and next year's budget due by December.

As for summer, he pointed to National Night Out in a couple of weeks at Waterfront Park, where BIPD and BIFD meet neighbors and kids can climb on a real fire truck.

And the one stop he would give a first-time visitor off the ferry? Walk Winslow Way, then slip behind it to Waterfront Park. "It's right in our town, and you get a pretty good Bainbridge experience."