PortBainbridge

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for those who are doing a quick roundtrip on the ferry

also, the historical society

Bainbridge Island is blessed with a great public school system as well as a small number of excellent private and parochial schools.

The Bainbridge Island School District includes all public schools on Bainbridge from K through 12.  Island school students consistently score high in the WASL, the state assessment tests designed to measure student skill levels.

Island elementary schools run from grades K thru 4. The elementary schools are Blakely, Ordway and Wilkes plus  the grade 1 thru 8 of Commodore Options Schools’ Odyssey multiage program.

Sonoji Sakai Intermediate School serves Island students in grades 5 and6. Sakai is nationally recognized for its green design which includes solar panels and a restored salmon stream.

Woodward Middle School is located next door to Sakai and serves the 7th and 8th grade students of the Island. Both schools are a short walk from Bainbridge High School and are centrally located on the outskirts of the Winslow urban core.

Appearances can be deceiving. Despite its mostly rural appearance, Bainbridge Island is, in fact,  The City of Bainbridge Island.

Bainbridge is governed by a mayor-council system and has it own professional police and fire departments , each of which is run by a full time chief. There is a municipal court located on the Island, but most legal matters go to court in Port Orchard.

The City of Bainbridge Island was the response of Island residents to gain control of Bainbridge Island’s development. The Island has a master plan that calls for concentrated commercial and high density residential development in several urban density zones, with the rest of the Island remaining as low density and rural residential.

Bainbridge Island is a part of Kitsap County, which covers most of the primarily rural Kitsap Peninsula.

First and foremost,  Bainbridge Island is a bedroom community for downtown Seattle.

Every morning the Bainbridge-Seattle ferry runs are full of doctors, lawyers and corporate chiefs and drones of all shapes and sizes headed for their jobs in Seattle (not to mention the Microsofties headed for the software mines of Redmond). Every weekday afternoon, those same workhorses come running back to their Island refuges on the late afternoon Seattle-Bainbridge runs. Those ferries are full of carpools, bicyclists, motorcycle riders, individual drivers and walk-ons who will be picked up at the terminal or take one of the Island’s commuter transit buses to get home.

Until the Great Real Estate Meltdown of 2008, residential real estate development, residential construction and home sales were the ultra bright novas of the Island’s economy.  Things have slowed a lot in one year. Which means there are bargains galore in land and homes to be found on Bainbridge Island. The best perspective is to look at Bainbridge as a great place to raise kids that is only a short ferry ride from downtown Seattle and its international airport. A place where there is only a finite amount of acreage available. Bainbridge is not just another suburb without end, amen.

The Island also has a thriving community of businesses that service state, national and international clients and customers. The downtown Winslow area has numerous two and three story office buildings offering space for Island entrepeneurs and professionals. The middle of the island is home to companies that range from bio-tech to fly rod manufacturing.

Downtown Winslow’s main streets, Winslow Way, Madison, High School Road and Ericksen, are the cultural, arts, tourism shopping and economic ground zero of Bainbridge Island. This is where Islanders come to do their government business, banking, supermarket shopping, see their doctors and dentists and attend cultural and artistic events. Tourists stream off the ferry and make the rounds of Winslow’s shops, restaurants, galleries, and museums before heading back to Seattle. The Island’s two hotels and a European style Inn are located in the Winslow core for visitors who wish to stay a little longer.

The hidden part of the Bainbridge island economy is the number of people who work from home; in offices and studios that are hidden among the trees or have waterfront views. Writers, artists, architects, engineers, software developers, film directors, and even a hedge fund work from home based offices on the Island. And that is just a quick short list of home based Bainbridge Island businesses.

Like we said, Bainbridge Island is a nice place to live

From the City of Bainbridge Island website

Bainbridge Island is located within
the Central Puget Sound Basin, east of
the Kitsap Peninsula and west of the City of Seattle. The Island has 53 miles of shoreline and is approximately
five miles wide and ten miles long, encompassing nearly 17,778 acres, or
28 square miles (73 km²), and is one of the larger islands in Puget Sound.

Bainbridge Island Statistics

• Population: 23,180, based on US Census figures and OFM estimates for 2008.
• Area: 27.78 square miles
• Incorporated: August 23, 1947,
  City of Winslow
• Annexed the unincorporated
  areas of the Island: February 28, 1991

A Lot of Statistics on CNN’s Best Places to Live 2008

Bainbridge Island is located on the Kitsap Peninsula side of Puget Sound, 6 miles and a 40 minute ferry ride from Seattle. The Island is approximately 13 miles long and 3 miles wide, about the size of Manhattan Island. The main difference is that Bainbridge has a population of about 20,000 humans, almost as many raccoons, quite a few opossums, numerous deer and the occasional black bear. Bainbridge Island is incorporated as a city, although most of the Island is rural with a lot of fir, cedar, alder and madrona trees. The main business and population center is the town of Winslow, where the ferry terminal is located. .

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The following tales are best told around the home fires on a cold winter’s night…When the thought of 110 degrees in the shade sounds like a great place to be….This trip has been time-shifted, the actual event took place in August of 2007…  Long story that.

If you want to drive Baja… NOW is the time to go, when the air is cool and you can see whales…Look at these shots… where would YOU rather be this time of year?

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(of course it’s easier to fly… like the smart gull on the cactus)