Thursday, September 27, 2018

FOR RENT

Centralia, Washington

Centralia used to be a thriving lumber town, and now lives on a combination of tourism (on a clear day you can see Mt. Helens, but we couldn't because of the smoke) and commercial traffic to the "Outlet Centers" that have sprung up on the edges of the town. It sits halfway between Seattle and Portland (although back when the name was coined it was halfway between two other places) with an I-5 interchange barely a mile from the center of town.

Unlike some other towns where outlet centers have invaded, the old town center seems to be doing just fine. This might have been the only vacant storefront I saw in an hour or so of hobbling up and down Main Street Wednesday evening and Thursday morning (hobbling because of a sciatic nerve flareup that just might have been encouraged by many hours jammed into an American Airlines sardine can for the cross country ticket).

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