I moved recently. It was a good move. Many fine and generous people helped me accomplish what would have been a daunting task in only a few hours.
Have you noticed changes in Lynnwood in recent years? I have. The deli at the beautiful Lake Serene Safeway Store on 148th and Highway 99 had to get rid of the seating in the deli area. I asked them why they had to do it. They said it was because of “the bums.” And you will notice that there is construction going on in the store. A Starbucks is being added. But when I asked one of the staff in Safeway about it he made sure to add; “But I don’t think there will be a seating area.” Why? “Because of the bums.” So once again as in so many other cases in our society, five or ten bad apples can cause 5,000 or 10,000 to suffer.
Wouldn’t it make more sense for the Safeway Corporation to bite the bullet and admit that the true cost of doing business in our troubled land includes the cost of uniformed security guards in grocery stores? That way, instead of robbing 5,000 or 10,000 people of the convenience of having a place to sit down, the “bums” could be dispatched by the security guards as was the case when I was a kid in a very different country called “The United States of America.”
Ditto for store restrooms. Many businesses in Lynnwood now feature signs on doors and windows that say, “no public restroom” or, “restroom closed at night due to vandalism”. QFC on 176th and 99 closes their restrooms at night now. When I asked why, they said it was because heroin addicts were coming in at night and leaving used syringes in the restroom; among other things! Is it bad to say that these things are happening? Can government do anything else to help us with these problems? I doubt it. They seem to be more geared up for billion dollar railroad projects or $50 million dollar convention centers that nobody but the fat cats and their pals want or can afford.
Once in a while government does something right. And for that they deserve credit, but mostly it is the pattern that prices go up and services and quality of life goes down. Case in point the constant vandalism at the Lynnwood Park and Ride. I spent six years trying to get permission to go in as a volunteer once a week and clean the wind shelters of trash, garbage and vandalism in the form of graffiti. The lawyers absolutely would not allow it. And yet the wind shelters are as filthy today as they were five years ago and no one seems to be able to do anything about it.
Lynnwood
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