With all due respect to Mr. Peter Newland, several of his points in his mill site commentary were correct, while others were naïve and ill-informed.
He is correct in his assessment of the lack of progress in developing the old Weyerhaeuser and Marina District. He is naïve in his assessment of the Kimberly-Clark site, and ill-informed about Baltimore’s inner harbor redevelopment.
The port has done an excellent job of developing its facilities to handle cargo for Boeing’s Paine Field operations. With 41,000 direct employees, not to mention associated aerospace employment, Boeing is by far and away Snohomish County’s largest employer. Material for several Boeing lines flow through both downtown Everett facilities and the Mount Baker terminal on the Everett/Mukilteo border.
With port operations on the south side of the Kimberly-Clark property, the county’s second largest employer, Naval Station Everett, is located on the north side of the property. The Naval station employs 6,350 workers. It is extremely naïve to think that aerospace manufacturing does not have a future in our county. It is extremely naïve to think that, in this post 9/11 world of increased security, retail development similar to Baltimore can exist alongside an aircraft carrier task force.
Mr. Newland is ill-informed about Baltimore’s redevelopment. Baltimore did not have a prime piece of property sandwiched between a port operation that supported one of the largest and most high tech corporate operations on the planet, and one of the most modern, secure naval installations in the country.
Industry, in the form of aerospace, remains an extremely viable industry, and it is in all our interests to make sure we have as competitive an environment as possible. With global military emphasis shifting to the Pacific and Near East, it would seem that the Navy will remain a viable presence in our region for many years.
With these two anchor tenants, there will be fairly severe site access for the general public, no matter how the site is developed. This is not a positive development scenario for a Baltimore-style redevelopment.
Dan Clements
Everett
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