By Jim Hills
Regionalism. A bit like globalism, but on a, well, regional scale.
Residents in North King and South Snohomish counties are getting up close and personal with a host of issues and projects that have regional origins and local impacts.
Some, such as moving developmentally disabled residents from Fircrest School in Shoreline to another state-run facility in Buckley spring from budget concerns. Sure, those are real concerns in Olympia but the solution has real consequences here. Local jobs are at best moving, at worst disappearing. Support systems that have been in place for years for those being moved will have to be re-created or perhaps lost.
The Fircrest example focuses on a small but one of the most vulnerable groups in our society. On the other end of the scale are the regional projects and decisions that revolve around transportation.
Some of these, such as the interchange at I-5 and 164th Street between Lynnwood and Mill Creek, have drivers waiting on traffic-clogged roads for years while local and state funding formulas catch up. Elsewhere on I-5, commuters squeeze through construction zones that will bring bus ramps and the promise of a more efficient transit system.
Along Highway 99, that’s Aurora Avenue in King County, a segment by segment widening might eventually bring a more viable north-south alternative to the freeway. In the meantime, merchants and property owners suffer in Shoreline while Edmonds residents get what appears to the Sea-Tac third runway plopped down in the wrong spot.
And let’s not forget Brightwater, the regional sewage treatment system that appeared headed for the Edmonds waterfront but will end up north of Woodinville with all the attendant digging and piping that collect the, stuff, and send the treated version out into Puget Sound.
Even the road to my own house, once virtually a two-lane dirt track, is now five lanes of asphalt that spawns speeders and tickets.
As much as we might want to close the gate behind us, growth and the changes to accommodate it are facts of our human existence.
Local governments and local residents rightfully raise voices and concerns about all these projects and more. Thought and reason, seasoned with a dash of passion can play an important role in shaping change to fit a particular locale.
State and county officials, for the most part, have followed proper and established processes that elicit local views. Being charged with delivering change is often a thankless job but most public servants realize that cooperation is the sugar that helps the medicine go down.
As population densities increase, it will help if we all realize that working together will make our local areas and our region stronger.
Jim Hills is publisher of The Enterprise Newspapers.
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