Construction noisy, so are the workers

I was home quite a bit more last week, during spring break from my job with Everett Public Schools. Never did I think I would say working with almost 400 elementary-aged students is more peaceful than staying in my own living room. Let me explain.

It begins at 6 a.m. when employees of Providence Everett Medical Center’s Colby Campus begin circling my block like vultures, looking for convenient parking. Never mind that street parking is often the only option for area residents. These folks either choose to ignore the many parking options given to them, or feel entitled to what limited street parking there is. Then the drone of construction equipment begins from either the sewer line replacement crews or hospital construction. Large cement mixers fight with space on the narrow streets with school buses and aid cars.

Add to this the workers’ shouts of obscenities and garbage dropped on their way from 7-Eleven back to the work site. When out picking up this garbage, residents notice the grafitti sprayed on a local business that houses frequent drug activity. Calls to Code Compliance are answered with “The buisness owners are victims of this.” … of the drugs or the grafitti? Therefore they don’t have to remove it? I bet if it was in the mayor’s alley once again, the answer would be different. Peace returns to the neighborhood at about 5 p.m., and once again, I love my home and neighborhood.

Residents were assured that when the north Everett area was going to become a major construction zone, their best interests and quality of life would be No. 1 in importance. How quickly that has changed into a “you must have misunderstood.” Area residents have once again been shown “It’s not what is said, it’s what is done.”

Stephanie Larson