Blurbs From the Exurbs

During my recent trip home for the holidays, I spent most of my time at the family cabin in Silverton, Washington -- population, oh, twelve on a good day. Nestled amongst the Snoqualmie National Forest, crime in Silverton is limited to the occassional DUI, generator theft, property line dispute and disregard for fishing regulations on the South Fork of the Stilliguamish.*

But down the road in Granite Falls and Lake Stevens, it's a different story entirely. Gossip traded over New Year's Eve beers at my neighbor's place involved no less than two overdoses and an inebriated auto death in the last two months. Beset upon the bored youth - victims of white flight, Christian evangelism and Pacific Northwest winters - a long history of pill-popping, unemployed lumbermen and you've got a serious drug problem on your hands.

Luckily, I pulled a few back issues of the boosterish local fishwrap, The Lake Stevens Journal, from the fire bin. While it does include a weekly syndicated sermon column by a Presbyterian theology professor, it also prints a blotter. Sadly, for the sake of the community's image, the names of the suspects and the particular intoxicants that got them into their particular mess are not included. I think it makes it all the darker and more mysterious, like the dense, temperate rainforests which shroud the shoulders of the North Cascade peaks overlooking Monte Cristo.**

Besides the unsolved murder of homeless woman Lori Ruth Emr-Knowles of Bothell on Mt. Pilchuck, a couple of kids caught smoking pot in their cars behind a store on Machias and a couple with a court-ordered injuction caught together in a car on East Lakeshore, the Journal reported the following on September 14th:

Sept. 3, Callow Rd. and Lundeen Parkway. Resisting Arrest. A 27-year-old female was pulled over for speeding. During the stop, it was discovered that the female had outstanding warrants. The female fled on foot and purposely cut herself to avoid going to jail. Aid was called out to the scene to treat the injuries. The female was then booked into jail for her warrants and resisting arrest.

In the November 23rd issue, while Dr. Dennis Prutow holds forth in his column entitled "The Bread of God" that...

We equate bread and money. "Give me my bread, man." We love money. Money, we think, allevates our present problems and assures our future. The Bible warns, although not harmful in and of itself, "the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil" (1 Timothy 6:10). So it is.

...the Lake Stevens Police were busy responding to 587 incidents in two weeks, including these:

Nov. 2, 12000 block of 20th St., N.E. Fourth-degree assault. A 28-year-old woman was arrested after punching a 39-year-old woman in the face.

Nov. 3, 700 block of E. Lakeshore Dr., Reckless Driving. A 19-year-old was cited after being observed driving at speeds twice the posted limit.

Nov. 10, 3200 block of 113th Ave. NE, Malicious mischief/theft. A car parked across from Highland Elementary was broken into and a handbag stolen.

Nov. 11, 2900 block of 113th Ave. NE, Warrant service. A 16-year-old male student with outstanding warrants was arrested at the high school and taken to the Denney Youth Center.

While I missed a few issues in between, I've only seen one blotter -- a year-end roundup of total calls in Granite Falls and Lake Stevens -- since the November 30th issue. But that edition's article, "Urban expansions to get another hearing," speaks to the complexity of sprawl:

One of the more controversial changes [to the Snohomish County Comprehensive Plan] would add 590 acres just north of Lake Stevens to the Marysville Urban Growth Area. The rural area, situated north of Soper Hill Road, west of SR 9, east of 83rd Ave. NE and south of 64th St. NE, would be rezoned for higher density housing. Thirty acres would be set aside for an urban commercial center. The City of Lake Stevens, the Lake Stevens Fire Department, the Lake Stevens Sewer District and the Lake Stevens School District have all expressed concerns about the proposal. The City of Marysville has argued that the expansion is needed to accomodate growth.

It's been troubling to see the progress of development in a kind of stop-motion, as at best I'm haunting my old stomping-grounds twice a year. Roads that were empty are now choked, foothills recovering from clear-cuts now developed, and good people like my brother are swallowed in the failures of righteous indignation and the recursive horror of xenophobic self-denial. You can't run from yourself; better to accept that you're trouble now than let it catch up with you in a dark corner.

* Just so you know, you can fish catch-and-release year round if you use fly tackle and file down the barbs on your hooks. Frankly, what scares me most is some out-of-town rube who catches a Dolly Varden on a Wal-Mart spincasting rod and is too stupid to know they're both endangered and, like Steelhead, not particularly good eatin'. The same rube can kill and eat as many mangy racoons as he likes, but if he touches that beautiful monster I turned over with a drifted Royal Coachman... That, that deserves rough justice.

** Alternately, you can play the always fun "Guess which psychoactive cocktail they're on!" game. But honestly, these are poor people with starkly narrow horizons, so give 'em a break.