Remember that phrase "If we fail to plan, we plan to fail?" Nothing could be closer to the truth when it comes to our neighborhoods - and a good chunk of Washington state - if Initiative 933 passes.
We live in a great place. One way I like to measure it: Where can I get to safely and easily on my own two feet?
One evening's stroll leads me from my house and across the fields of the Good Shepherd Center to groceries and the hardware store on [North] 45th [Street], dinner nearby and about five spontaneous meetings with friends and neighbors along the way.
I notice the pleasing balance of homes, shops, parks and schools - and thank the foresight of those before us who had the sense to develop rules to keep things balanced. And to keep things, well, neighborly.
Paying the price
Now imagine the lawlessness that would be I-933. No rules, no balance, no kidding!
Let's see, how about pulling out, say, a dozen Craftsman[-style] houses and throwing down a strip mall? Or, better yet, how about paving an acre of paid parking?
I-933 is all about nonsense loopholes, and if it passes, our community character - and that of places all across Washington state - is in real trouble. The fabric that holds our neighborhoods together (that fabric I so enjoy walking through) frays and great places become not-so-great places.
Either that or we taxpayers will have to pay unneighborly sums to entice people to follow sensible laws already on the books. (I consider an unneighborly sum to be anything greater than a cup of sugar, and many estimate that I-933 will cost each of us well more than a thousand dollars a year - a sweet deal only for those unneighborly types.)
Some food for thought
Some of my greatest fears hit me quite literally in the gut.
Anyone who enjoys eating as much as I do - and buying directly from those who grow and make fresh food - must have enjoyed more than a few Saturday mornings at one of our local farmer's markets.
As I pick up another batch of nectarines, try some goat cheese or pick up a few ears of corn, I consider the threats to Washington farmland.
If I-933 passes, this productive farmland that makes such local delicacies possible could be transformed into auto-dependent, sprawling subdivisions- not the kind of neighborhood that would be fun to walk through.
Trade my connection to my food for a subdivision? Trade the sweetest nectarines in the world for the crunchy, tasteless marbles at a supermarket? Now I feel like we've all been hit in the gut.
Look for a better future
The more I realize the diversity of groups and people who are standing up for our neighborhoods and against I-933, the more I consider the impacts of irresponsible development, and the more I consider what we have to lose, I become more determined that this initiative should fail.
Let's plan for a far better future than what I-933 would give us.
John Mauro lives, eats and walks in Wallingford.
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