Californication nearly complete

Published 1:56 pm Friday, December 12, 2014

We’ve turned into a little California in this small state of ours. The biggest influx of out of state residents who have moved here since the 1960s has been, and still is, from California. Their people, their traffic, their problems have all been brought to our state.

I hitchhiked to California in 1970. The air quality was so bad my eyes were beet red. Some parts of the highways weren’t visible because of smog. Today, in Washington, they’re cutting more and more trees to make room for more houses, apartments, retail outlets and parking. We’re beginning to toll everything as California does. I’m surprised we don’t have more cloverleaf highways; but, for lack of space for roads, we are trying to put our highways underground.

Traffic is bad, our burn bans come faster, and we have a quarter of a million undocumented people in Washington. In other words, too many people! Our little towns are going away and more than ever big city influence is taking over.

Our little Evergreen State of Washington, as we knew, it is gone forever. I miss it and the simple lifestyle I grew up with and could afford.

Gary Fisher

Lake Stevens