Well, I must say, it’s been a week of such interesting developments in Puyallup—first they’ve got that reptile show coming to town this weekend, all those snakes and lizards and whatnot, and then there’s the city council wanting to allow more urban farming on residential lots, which is fine, I suppose, but they never even asked us about it, did they? I remember when we used to have community meetings about every little thing, not just send out a SEPA form and call it a day. And don’t get me started on the new subdivision they approved—62 homes on 4.78 acres, and not a single person in the neighborhood knew about it until it was already in the works.
And another thing, I saw that career tour at Keller Williams the other day, and I couldn’t help but think back to when I used to walk downtown and see the hardware store on every corner, the one that sold nails and hammers and garden tools for the neighborhood. Back then, if you wanted to build a garden or a fence, you’d just pop in and ask the owner, and he’d give you advice for free. Now, it’s all about these big developers and their fancy subdivisions, and we’re just left wondering where the old neighborhood went. And don’t even get me started on the fact that they’ve got a new karate class for kids at the park, and I haven’t seen a single kid from my block playing in the street anymore. It’s like the whole town is moving forward without us.
I’m telling you, it’s been a long time since we had a community meeting about what’s going on in Puyallup. The school board has meetings coming up, sure, but who’s going to show up to those? It’s all just paperwork and Zoom calls now, and nobody’s asking the people who actually live here what they want. And I’ll say this, I’ve seen a lot of changes in my lifetime, but I’ve never seen a city move so fast without even checking in with the folks who’ve been here for decades. That’s all for this week. You know where to find me.