It’s enough to make you want to dance.
First, hundreds of Lincoln families nearly filled local hotels earlier this month to welcome home our sailors, and this weekend we played host to more than 600 young dancers here for their Pacific regional festival.
This is the kind of money we want to generate — families coming in to sleep, eat, shop and maybe take in a movie during their short stay. Once they’re here for a specific event, they just might decide — like some of the Lincoln families mentioned — to come back for another visit. Everybody wants tourism dollars, but we can’t all be quaint little towns with country craft shops as our focal point. That niche is already smartly filled here. Tourism comes in all shapes and sizes and the wise community with a nose for economic development and stability will find another need and work like crazy to fill it better than anybody else.
That’s what’s happening in communities such as Lynnwood and Everett and north county — and throughout the rest of Snohomish County. It’s easy to start feeling excited and optimistic, even if the economy is still in the dumps and we’re pushing Congress to extend unemployment benefits. People are starting to spend money again. It might be slow, but it’s happening. And if the Lincoln homecoming taught us anything, people are looking for reasons to gather and celebrate.
The Everett Events Center isn’t even up and running, yet, and this community and county are busy attracting people. Those who thought no one would come to Everett to hold an event were mistaken. Showing potential businesses what this area can do even before the events center is complete should help them take the risks this community needs to secure and complete its revival.
Like death and taxes, an ever-changing economy is also a sure thing. We have to adjust. That means doing everything we can to keep those high-volume family wage jobs and looking in every nook and cranny for other economic opportunities, both short and long term.
We’re fortunate to have business leaders and officials in this county who are able to pick up on such opportunities and make the most of them for the rest of us. That kind of effort never lets up and, like a good dancer, it takes plenty of balance and flexibility.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
