Dollars & Sense: 1973 as Our Future?

Annex and sewers and ziplines, oh my.

High emotion and deep division abound in Woodinville these days. I wonder if di-vision results from not having a cohesive vision of our future together.

Maybe the future isn't worth the trouble. Woo'ville, as my kids called our town as each went to the high school, is almost 20 years old as a city. Perhaps the vision uniting our future is locked in the past, 20 years before incorporation.

1973 might be perfect...

No boundaries. No annexations. No outside development or supersized ventures. Just a quiet, rural valley nestled between hillsides in unincorporated King County. With large lots where children and horses roam. A robust agricultural area with a friendly nursery. One winery. One grocer. One county park. One trailer park. And one new strip club.

If tomorrow was yesterday, we might live in peace today.

Of course, there are no tasting rooms in 1973. For wine, beer or whiskey. No Ste. Michelle concerts or Red Hook movies under the summer moon. No Apple Tree Village or Tourist District. Probably no Warehouse District to quietly discover the next big thing. And no 1,200 small businesses and the jobs they offer locals. In 1973, there's a main street, but no downtown means no Target, no Top Foods, No Hanna Andersson, no McLendon's Hardware. For commuters, there is no bypass around 175th, north or south. Seniors have no Merrills Gardens, no Brittany Park and no Evergreen Hospital here. And kids? Not much in Woo'ville with no Rotary Park, no sports fields and no movie theaters.

We often take the present for granted, forgetting it was once somebody's dream of tomorrow. The old times are seen through dusty lenses that sketch only good times in our mind's eye, not real times or troubled times or conflicted times.

The future happens. Growth is unavoidable. How we prepare is the only question. Our collective answer will spell the difference a great place to live and work, and just "a nice place to visit".

Odds are good if you write down 10 things you like most about Woodinville, at least half the list are things that came after we incorporated in 1993.

What is your vision 20 years from now? Or even just eight years out, say in the year 2020. What do you treasure most about now? What do you see coming next?