Noticing Nature

This post has nothing to do with the Park issue, I just wanted to share a small thing.

The photos were taken along side the rail tracks where 240th Street ends at Route 9 (Woodinville Washington).

The 240th & Route 9 intersection, as we know, can be a tense driving experience.

There are many dump trucks going to and from the concrete recycling plant ... there's ebb and flow of Aboda and Primus ...and traffic launches w/ velocity in and out of Costco ... and there's almost perpetual bumper to bumper traffic on Route 9.

I doubt most drivers have the time to glance at roadside vegetation.

Late May I did a walk along Route 9 and the railroad track area, looking for photographic possibilities. I noticed one plant which seemed tenacious in a particular location (photo 1).

 I suppose it could be called a weed ... to me, the plant was visually interesting; I decided to revisit the plant after a few weeks passed.

Yesterday morning (Father's Day) the sky was clear and sunny so I revisited the edge of the rail tracks, looking for that "interesting" plant. It was easy to find.

Here are a few locations photos... and then a closer look at the plant.

Nature always provides something worthwhile. In this case, well, you can see for yourself.

Challenging Snohomish County

Today's Woodinville Weekly did a good job with this article  .... 

Of course there's more to the story, there's always more to political (County) intrigues. 

From our vantage point, the task remains - save the park to save the community ... because if the park is developed, so goes the rural nature of Woodinville.
 

We need change at the County government level

Simple analogy:  Imagine all the individual aquarium tanks in a pet store.  Assume for a moment all the fish have intelligence and they have awareness of their lives.  Each tank is a community and separated from other communities because they live in different tanks.

Suppose a problem developed in one tank and the fish living in that tank worried, fretted and bubbled about their problem amongst themselves … fish in adjacent but separate tanks would remain unaware of another tank’s problem.

For whatever reason, a fish is taken from the tank with a problem and placed in another tank … and the new fish discovered the second tank also had problems similar to the tank just left.

Over time, different fish are exchanged within all the pet shop aquarium tanks.  It’s now a real puzzle … All the fish know there’s a systemic problem within all the pet shop tanks but they are in individual tanks, seemingly with no direct way to connect and solve their compartmentalized problems.

What can be done?

When Snohomish County first told us it was a “done deal” that Wellington Hills Park was to become a regional sports complex – the neighborhood didn’t know that parallel controversies were happening in other communities.

We've learned, bit by bit, of various communities in conflict with the County, mostly about development, roads and sweeping changes to neighborhoods.

Locally, we had the sports complex issue and now there’s proposed schools looming over us … 

Other areas are facing or have recently dealt with gun ranges, moto-cross tracks, new housing developments, stable neighborhoods re-zoned for commercial purposes, condemnations for a court house and disasters, such as the Oso tragedy.

I think we've reached the point there’s need for some sort of new oversight and effective policing of the systems & people that manage land use and other public issues.

People and neighborhoods should be treated fairly - It seems fundamental, shouldn’t neighborhoods be involved – and have say - in the decisions affecting their own communities?

Because what we have isn't working.