Why do we have to prepare for growth? Stupid question, right? Well maybe it is, but for years our leaders have promoted more growth. So just how then does growth benefit us? More cash in cash registers? Yeah, what else? More crowded highways, more crime, more taxes, more of everything? Tried to find a campsite in the summer? How about a place to park for hiking our many mountain trails? Driving our freeways is an adventure just to go from Everett orTacoma to Seattle. Olympia to Seattle is an expedition. Try returning home on I 90 some sunny Sunday.
Maybe we should be asking what growth brings us that we don’t already have? Growth sure hasn’t improved our highway system the way it is supposed to. And we darn sure don’t need more crime and social problems.
I was raised in Redmond. Population signs I think read 549 people but we had everything we needed. You knew everybody. Now it’s more than 80,000 people. I look at it now and don’t even recognize a single thing except Anderson park that still exists among the apartments. You don’t fish in Bear creek anymore. You don’t race your bikes down school hill anymore. You don’t see your friends in the grocery stores either. I couldn’t even find my way back out of town when done looking for something that connected me to my childhood. I saw nothing desirable about living amongst 100 or a 1,000 times more people. So where’s the benefit?
Don Curtis
Stanwood
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