Nothing gets a neighborhood riled up faster than an effort to plop something inside it — witness the ongoing local battles over radio towers, methadone clinics and a regional sewage-treatment plant.
Such facilities, usually deemed to be of benefit to the greater community, sure don’t seem that way when they’re going in your backyard. Still, necessary facilities have to go somewhere, and if a compelling case can be made that a particular site is the best one, the neighbors often lose the argument.
The U.S. Department of Defense, which is considering Naval Station Everett as the site for a gigantic floating radar platform, has failed to make such a case. During a pair of public forums Saturday in Everett, Defense officials indicated that siting the 250-foot-tall SBX platform in Everett would be a good deal for the Pentagon, with financial and quality-of-life advantages. Citizens, however, made it clear that the potential downside of placing the facility in a heavily populated area makes Everett a very poor choice.
The sea-based X-band radar platform is part of a broad strategy for shooting down missiles fired at the United States before they can do any damage. Naval Station Everett is one of six sites being considered. The military will make the final decision, and if Everett is chosen, the big rig will spend about nine months per year docked alongside the other Navy ships in Port Gardner Bay.
Angry residents had plenty of questions for Defense officials Saturday, ranging from the potential impacts on medical equipment and aviation to health dangers from electro-magnetic radiation. Officials say the platform would conduct up to six high-powered tests from port per week, each lasting about 20 minutes, and radiation would be aimed a minimum of 10 degrees above ground level in an effort to avoid interference. That didn’t satisfy many at the Saturday gatherings, including local physicians who worry that not enough is known about the long-term effects of electro-magnetic radiation exposure.
One point made Saturday was particularly hard to dispute: Putting a huge eyesore on the Everett waterfront could put a serious gouge in economic development efforts. Everett has been working hard to turn its former mill-town image into one of a bustling, scenic waterfront community that welcomes clean industry and tourism. Heck, its new marketing slogan is "Great thinking. With a view." By any standard, the SBX platform would not enhance the waterfront view. After all, it’s built to be functional, not pleasing to the eye.
Resistance to the SBX platform should not be read in any way as a repudiation of the Navy — it’s unrelated to the city’s positive relationship with Naval Station Everett, which continues to flourish.
The SBX can perform its strategic function just as well if it’s based in a less-populated area. The potential harm to Everett is too great to put it here.
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