I wanted to congratulate the city of Everett on the successful experiment at Harborview Park to address the drug problem at that location. At Harborview Park, construction equipment and piles of dirt and gravel were placed in the parking lot for a few weeks. The cover story was to install handicapped access in the park, in concert with local Rotary volunteers; this is a noble goal by itself. However, what we have seen is a dramatic decrease in the amount of drug-related transiency, drug deals in the parking lot, and drug impaired individuals pulling out (dangerously) onto Mukilteo Boulevard.
This is an ingenious approach. By locating labor-related items near the park, the natural inborn abhorrence of drug addicts to actual labor has led to abandonment of this park as a preferred drug dealing location! Perhaps, now that the work is complete, we could place decoy cardboard laborers around the park, or leave a few shovels in piles of dirt as a continued deterrent.
A new industry might even be developed that manufactures ‘druggie-away’ products to repel potheads from various locales. Just as one wears garlic around the neck to ward away vampires, one could send children to school with protective ‘druggie-away’ fashion gear, to protect them from peers who are baked. Perhaps we’ll see security signs for homes that read, “danger – hard working people inside” or something similar.
Thank you, Everett – keep it up!
Tim Brown
Everett
