Where are the voices of the citizens calling out for high-rise, mixed-use buildings in the new Town Center? Where is the public testimony pleading for the city council to provide high density apartments and condos in the downtown core? Where are the yard placards proclaiming support for a revitalized Town Center regardless of the impact to the surrounding family neighborhoods? Where is the public outcry calling for the city to compete with Alderwood mall and the Lynnwood strip malls to attract their traffic, crime and pollution? I have yet to hear these voices!
Yes, I have heard a few council lackeys echoing the empty statements issued by the city leaders as they forge blindly ahead in their quest to transform this quiet family community into a revenue spewing engine of economic rebirth. And some of the city employees have chimed in with their self-serving dreams of the perfect workplace in which to toil away the hours while reaching for even more. And then, of course, there has been the din of investors and developers clamoring away, demanding even more concessions and public investment before they will be willing to stick their collective neck out and punish us with their construction noise and congestion. These voices I have heard!
I hear voices asking: but what of the impact to the surrounding community? But what of the overwhelming increase in population density? But what of the already crowded schools? But what of the over 1,300 citizens who signed a petition declaring they did not want this kind of Town Center? Where are the voices that are drowning these citizen voices out? Where are the citizen voices shouting damn the negative impacts, full speed ahead, there is money to be made here in sleepy little Mountlake Terrace? I have yet to hear these citizen voices!
Jack S. Allen
Mountlake Terrace
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