Save us from California’s fate
THE things that attracted me to the Puget Sound region are fast disappearing. My once-optimistic view of the region is fading, as my former passion for California’s Bay Area faded to the point that I no longer wanted to live there. Our region will face serious problems like California’s if development is not curbed.
I moved to Seattle with my then-spouse almost 40 years ago. We were en route to Alaska, where he had been hired as the project manager on a heavy-construction project. We returned and settled briefly in Bellevue, then in Renton. Although it took a while for me to get used to the rain, I loved the natural beauty of the area, uncrowded neighborhoods, reasonably priced housing and relatively unclogged freeways. Because the Puget Sound region was in the middle of the late 1960s “Boeing bust,” it was not easy to find a job, but I managed. I had to. The alternative was going back to California, and I did not want to do that.
I was determined to stay even though the marriage ultimately dissolved and there were several careers that did not work out. In 1975, I joined the nonprofit agency where I am still employed, and in 1976 I met my husband of 30 years. He is one of that increasingly rare breed known as a native Washingtonian. He has seen today’s Renton emerge from a small coal-mining town. He also served as one of the first five African-American police officers in Seattle.
Except for a strong job market, all the wonderful qualities that I fell in love with are either gone or soon will be. Renton is barely recognizable. I do not think my city leaders ever met a developer they did not like.
Development is not necessarily all bad, but it must be controlled. Thousands of CO2-absorbing trees are gone. Untold acres have been leveled to make way for seemingly endless cookie-cutter housing - which is far from reasonably priced. Many longtime middle-class residents struggle to pay ever-increasing property taxes and utility charges. The relatively unclogged freeways are long gone - a transformation that started 20 years ago. Traffic congestion is now comparable to California’s, and I do not mean the California I left 40 years ago.
I am sad to see the “Californication” of Renton, King County and the Puget Sound region. It seems that all must be sacrificed on the sacrosanct altar of growth. Being a realist, I recognize that growth is inevitable. I am not opposed to all growth, but there must be a better way to manage our expanding region.
The Puget Sound region cannot absorb 1 million new residents without losing even more, if not all, of what has made it such a desirable place to live. Is it not possible for our so-called civic leaders to look beyond an immediate increase in the tax base and short-term economic gain to consider what Renton and King County will look like 15 or 20 years from now? The greenest of lifestyles cannot compensate for 1 million more people. It is just not possible.
California had a chance to do things differently after World War II. A chance not taken. Postwar California was a time of tremendous optimism, economic expansion and a sense that nothing could ever go wrong. The infrastructure was still relatively new. Everything worked. There was plenty of land, resources and opportunity, but limited foresight and regulation. Farmland, forests and coastal areas were quickly paved over and turned into suburbs and strip malls with little thought to the future and increasing automobile dependency.
People kept coming and builders kept building. Sound familiar?
Californians are now paying the price. Water and power shortages, flooding, sinkholes and mudslides have become commonplace, in addition to increasingly destructive wildfires. Many of these catastrophes are related to overpopulation, overbuilding and shortsighted decisions about the use of land and resources.
It is not too late to save us from California’s fate. We can still save Puget Sound from overdevelopment. We need to call a moratorium on unrestrained growth, now.Elizabeth A. Rogers is a former Californian and Stanford University graduate. She has lived in Renton since 1985, and works at the Recovery Centers of King County.