We received many comments about the over-development story we published on the front page last week.
We made the case that the city needs development but that over-development must be stopped.
Why?
To save the neighborhoods from being trampled and changed so that they are unrecognizable.
The city needs a cohesive development schedule or plan.
Presently, anyone can build anything they want (so long as the mayor is their friend or benefactor).
We need more planning for development than now goes on at city hall.
The vision the mayor has of a great Everett metropolis like Sinclair Lewis’ mythical city of Zenith in his great novel, “Babbitt,” is not going to happen here.
Everett’s charm, if you will, is not found in monstrous apartment houses and now planned for skyscrapers – although the eastern side of the Parkway is a good place for giant developments like that.
Everett’s charm, its history, its place in the community of cities and towns surrounding it is its personality and its neighborhoods formed over many decades.
Those neighborhoods are now disappearing or being remade, however one chooses to look at it.
The majority/minority city of Everett’s neighborhoods is its strength and its charm.
The mayor cannot be allowed to remake the city after his own fashion.
The over-development and crowding and traffic must be mitigated or the future will be grim.