By Josh Resnek
In the foreground, a Western Union Check Cashing station on the Parkway stands out like a sore thumb.
In the background, a new upscale development of hundreds of new units that will rent for $2500-3500 a month is rising.
One is smaller business.
The other is a several hundred million development bringing a new face to the city.
These two coincident locations abutting one another are what word smiths would call incongruous
Incongruous means not in harmony or keeping with the surroundings.
In this case, the new apartment development of one of the city’s formerly most polluted useless pieces of undeveloped land is more incongruous than the check cashing store in front of it, the car wash on the side of it, and the mish mush of smaller industrial sites still remaining all around it.
The check cashing store has every right to remain where it and to serve as a service to those who do not have checking accounts and who need a place to cash their checks and or to wire money back home.
However, the new apartment complex and the many hundreds of residents who will be living there, deserve something more than a check cashing store as its direct neighbor.
Again and again the Leader Herald has called for an effort for the city’s bold and aggressive development scheme to be aided side by side with a modest amount of commercial development so all those moving into new upscale apartments in Everett will have a place to go to buy their food, or to have a coffee, or to shop for things they need, or even to buy a Lottery ticket.
There is an old adage. You can pick your friends but you can’t pick your neighbors.
In this case, the check cashing location would be better elsewhere in order to give gravitas to the new housing rising behind it.
Some things change.
Some things remain the same.