n Kirby Arnold’s April 5 article, “Warming up to NASCAR” regarding the track in Avondale, Ariz., Arnold apparently attempts to “warm” us to the idea of a track here in north Marysville. However, the situations are not comparable.
In Arizona, the racetrack was built in the boonies, with residences slowly coming closer. Even now, 40 years later, housing and schools are still a couple of miles away. Here, schools and large residential developments already surround both proposed sites, many within a couple of blocks of the sites.
In Arizona, seating capacity began at 10,000 and slowly grew, with infrastructure growing accordingly; here the plan is to put an 80,000-seat facility in a largely residential area with plenty of traffic problems, with no concrete solution to the traffic problems and no consideration given to the residents already here.
In Arizona, apparently International Speedway Corp. contributed to road improvements; here ISC has said that it will not do so, leaving that to our already burdened taxpayers.
Besides the torment to local residents by noise, air pollution and traffic, Gleneagle Golf Course – very close to the proposed sites – will likely suffer as residents head to Mount Vernon or Kayak Point to escape the noise. And Evergreen Speedway has been here for years; it deserves our loyalty. It’s not the size of the proposed NASCAR facility; however, Marysville and Arlington are not large cities.
Houses and large commercial ventures will increase traffic congestion; however, they will come gradually, not in one fell swoop, as a NASCAR facility would do. And they will not contribute the noise and air pollution that a NASCAR facility will force upon local residents, human and otherwise. We residents have made investments here. We do not deserve having to choose between leaving the area or having the quality of our lives destroyed by a racetrack.
A large racetrack in Washington is fine in an appropriate location, not north Marysville.
Arlington
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