Editor,

Lose Ken’s Korner as one of just four shopping plazas on South Whidbey? No! We’ve taken it for granted. We didn’t notice that, in 2021, while COVID had many of us working — and shopping — from home, it became a target for an out of state developer specializing in self-storage.

You could say Ken’s Korner — like downtown Langley — is a living room for our community home. Good Cheer, Red Apple, Jim’s Hardware, Rumors, Critters, Pickles, Sprinkles, Patron, the Smoke Shop, the Nail Salon, the Gym and more. This is not just a mall to be bought and sold — even though that’s within the rights of capitalism — it is a community hub.

The owner wanted to sell, fully within his rights, but no local buyer showed up, and we didn’t notice until Good Cheer, with great grace, announced it had to be out by the end of August. Where will these businesses we count on go? Where will the hundreds of daily shoppers go?

We’re a rural island, committed by our county plan to preserve the rural character of this place — no matter what. What tools of government do we have? Is our planning department committed to the community or to development? To our people or the new owner’s profit? Critters isn’t Petco. Patron isn’t Taco Bell. Money spent with local businesses circulates locally, not to corporate headquarters.

How can the Economic Development Council, or the school district, or our myriad of nonprofits mobilize their tools and resources to find a solution? The empty spaces will soon fill with self-storage. Are there local businesses or entrepreneurs that can land there instead? I feel like Paul Revere or Cassandra, a role I don’t cherish, but I am alarmed by what this hole in our living community may herald. Will our community become a suburb serviced by Amazon? Will bustling Ken’s Korner become dead storage for our surplus stuff? Is there no other solution?

At the very least, we can help the remaining businesses meet their costs by shopping there. #shopkenskorner.

Vicki Robin

Langley