Published: Friday, July 30, 2010
Everett no longer feels quite so safe
It was an ordinary question on a happy, midsummer Saturday: Where would you like to have lunch?
I had driven to Camp Hamilton south of Monroe on Saturday morning to pick up my 11-year-old. He had been there a week, and was tired, grubby and had new friends' phone numbers written with Sharpie markers on his arms. I offered to take him to lunch anyway.
He picked Taco Del Mar on Hewitt Avenue in downtown Everett. At about the same time, at a McDonald's a few blocks away at Everett Avenue and Broadway, a man suffered a gunshot wound. Another man was arrested. Police later described an altercation in the parking lot.
My boy wouldn't have picked McDonald's, but that's not the point. Since when has choosing where to have lunch on a sleepy Saturday in our own hometown been a life-or-death decision?
It could have turned out that way -- for us or anyone else who happened to stop in the wrong place at the wrong time that day. If my hungry son had said he hankered for a Quarter Pounder and a McFlurry -- and hey, why not, he'd been at camp for a week -- I could have unknowingly walked him straight into the middle of a perilous situation.
Last weekend's shooting at the fast-food spot came on the heels of a real tragedy in downtown Everett. Sixty-four-year-old Judy Garcia was stabbed to death on the night of July 18 at the Edison Apartments on Colby Avenue. Steven R. Well, a tenant with a history of mental illness, was arrested after the attack.
Obviously these were random incidents, unrelated and completely different in nature. But they did have two things in common, beyond happening the same week: violence and downtown Everett.
For those of us who frequent the city's core, it's hard not to think of recent mayhem when we walk or drive past these familiar places where it occurred. It's just a feeling, but it's tough to shake.
These high-profile incidents may mean little in our area's overall picture of crime. Am I any less safe now than I was a year ago in my north Everett home or near my downtown workplace? Probably not.
Still, feeling safe is about perception. And it's personal. It could have been my son's homecoming destroyed by gunfire at McDonald's. I think of that every time I drive past that place, and it will be a long time before I think about stopping there again.
I'm on an e-mail list for block-watch alerts from Everett's Northwest Neighborhood Association, so I'm used to seeing reports of nearby home burglaries, ransacked cars and stolen porch furniture. It's good information that helps neighbors watch out for themselves and each other.
What I'm not used to is feeling fearful. I recently took my evening walk not as I normally do, from home with my dog, but from work by myself. I started around 8:30 p.m. on a route I often take during the lunch hour with a co-worker.
Alone that evening, between The Herald and my neighborhood to the north, I felt just a bit uneasy. On Thursday, I found out that a Herald colleague's Honda Civic was stolen from its parking place near our office on Grand Avenue in the middle of a work day.
The truth is, anything can happen anywhere.
My parents live on Spokane's South Hill, in a quiet neighborhood where houses are shaded by towering pines. Nothing ever happens there. Except this: In 2000, suspected serial killer Robert Lee Yates Jr. was arrested in Spokane. Yates, whose victims were prostitutes, later pleaded guilty to 13 counts of first degree murder. He was also convicted of killing two Pierce County women and admitted to other slayings. He was sentenced to more than 400 years in prison.
The house where Yates lived until his arrest -- a beige two-story with a basketball hoop -- was a block east and five blocks south of my parents' lovely home.
Bad things can happen anywhere. When they happen too close to home and too often, you start to wonder about the place where you've chosen to live.
Everett, I love you. But these days, other places feel safer.
On Sunday, I took my 11-year-old to a skate park -- in Edmonds.
Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460, muhlstein@heraldnet.com.
I had driven to Camp Hamilton south of Monroe on Saturday morning to pick up my 11-year-old. He had been there a week, and was tired, grubby and had new friends' phone numbers written with Sharpie markers on his arms. I offered to take him to lunch anyway.
He picked Taco Del Mar on Hewitt Avenue in downtown Everett. At about the same time, at a McDonald's a few blocks away at Everett Avenue and Broadway, a man suffered a gunshot wound. Another man was arrested. Police later described an altercation in the parking lot.
My boy wouldn't have picked McDonald's, but that's not the point. Since when has choosing where to have lunch on a sleepy Saturday in our own hometown been a life-or-death decision?
It could have turned out that way -- for us or anyone else who happened to stop in the wrong place at the wrong time that day. If my hungry son had said he hankered for a Quarter Pounder and a McFlurry -- and hey, why not, he'd been at camp for a week -- I could have unknowingly walked him straight into the middle of a perilous situation.
Last weekend's shooting at the fast-food spot came on the heels of a real tragedy in downtown Everett. Sixty-four-year-old Judy Garcia was stabbed to death on the night of July 18 at the Edison Apartments on Colby Avenue. Steven R. Well, a tenant with a history of mental illness, was arrested after the attack.
Obviously these were random incidents, unrelated and completely different in nature. But they did have two things in common, beyond happening the same week: violence and downtown Everett.
For those of us who frequent the city's core, it's hard not to think of recent mayhem when we walk or drive past these familiar places where it occurred. It's just a feeling, but it's tough to shake.
These high-profile incidents may mean little in our area's overall picture of crime. Am I any less safe now than I was a year ago in my north Everett home or near my downtown workplace? Probably not.
Still, feeling safe is about perception. And it's personal. It could have been my son's homecoming destroyed by gunfire at McDonald's. I think of that every time I drive past that place, and it will be a long time before I think about stopping there again.
I'm on an e-mail list for block-watch alerts from Everett's Northwest Neighborhood Association, so I'm used to seeing reports of nearby home burglaries, ransacked cars and stolen porch furniture. It's good information that helps neighbors watch out for themselves and each other.
What I'm not used to is feeling fearful. I recently took my evening walk not as I normally do, from home with my dog, but from work by myself. I started around 8:30 p.m. on a route I often take during the lunch hour with a co-worker.
Alone that evening, between The Herald and my neighborhood to the north, I felt just a bit uneasy. On Thursday, I found out that a Herald colleague's Honda Civic was stolen from its parking place near our office on Grand Avenue in the middle of a work day.
The truth is, anything can happen anywhere.
My parents live on Spokane's South Hill, in a quiet neighborhood where houses are shaded by towering pines. Nothing ever happens there. Except this: In 2000, suspected serial killer Robert Lee Yates Jr. was arrested in Spokane. Yates, whose victims were prostitutes, later pleaded guilty to 13 counts of first degree murder. He was also convicted of killing two Pierce County women and admitted to other slayings. He was sentenced to more than 400 years in prison.
The house where Yates lived until his arrest -- a beige two-story with a basketball hoop -- was a block east and five blocks south of my parents' lovely home.
Bad things can happen anywhere. When they happen too close to home and too often, you start to wonder about the place where you've chosen to live.
Everett, I love you. But these days, other places feel safer.
On Sunday, I took my 11-year-old to a skate park -- in Edmonds.
Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460, muhlstein@heraldnet.com.
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