With 2022 nearly finished, it is all eyes on 2023.
We believe Everett is poised for a great new year of change and promise.
Some things will change. Other things will remain the same.
The general drift will hopefully be forward and upward.
The city faces a number of challenges in 2023.
Equity for all Everett residents is a big challenge. It will occupy an important place in all policy making decisions during the new year.
How the city treats its people of color and ethnicity – how the city treats all its residents – is a cause for some concern given the events of 2022.
How the city spends its money will be something to be watched and a process that must be nurtured – not just by officials, but with the input from residents and business owners and all of the city’s major stakeholders.
There is no substitute for this type of consortium when approaching sound fiscal policy with an eye toward the future.
A sound fiscal policy is not about spending every dollar in the city treasury or making things look better than they really are.
It is about common sense and the conservative and well thought out expenditure of tax dollars for maximum return to the resident of this city.
This New Year edition 2023 tries to cover many of the bases.
With bits about people, policy, and events last year, we try to take a look in a reasonable way as to what we face coming up in 2023.
If the new year is as good as last year, then we can all breath a sigh of relief.
Last year, despite the inflation, was a decent year for millions of Americans and for the residents of Everett.
Food insecurity puts a bit of damper on things, and this will continue into 2023.
For the struggling working class, the distance between them and the rich grows greater as their poverty sinks them deeper.
In some way, government must act to assuage the needs of the neediest of our residents.
Here in Everett, there is help for everyone if only they go out and seek it.
The public schools need more classrooms and more seats to undo the overcrowding difficulty.
Whether Pope John is used or not or modular classrooms are installed or not is not so important as something is done to allow Everett’s public school students the shot at education that is law in this state.
Putting modular is not a crime.
Doing nothing is a crime.
Some decisions will have to be made about the future of development here in 2023.
A line must be drawn in the sand so to speak about how far, how high, and how big development can go here.
Close attention must be paid to residents and home owner opinions.
After all, what else matters more than that?
Above all, 2023 must be a year of sanity and peace.
It would be nice if it could be a year without rancor and hate, racism and sexism, inequity and blindness to the needs of all our residents and citizens.
Here’s to a great 2023.