I think many of us consider 2016 as one of the strangest and perhaps the unkindest year in a long, long time. We have lostmany notable figures, on the local, national and world stages. Cancer has now surpassed heart disease in Washington stateas the leading cause of death.
Our roads are packed in the morning, packed at noon, packed in the early evening into the night. We find more chemicalsand, frankly, stuff not good for your health packaged in processed foods at every turn. Children are suffering from maladiesthought long gone, like mumps.
Everyone is being impacted by “chronic diseases,” which are ongoing, generally incurable illnesses or conditions, such asheart disease, asthma, cancer and diabetes. These diseases are often preventable and frequently manageable through earlydetection, improved diet, exercise and treatment therapy. Stress of one’s everyday life should be mixed into the equation aswell, and that’s one that causes people to reach for an alcoholic drink or smoking cigarettes, et cetera. Overindulgence ofeither of those is very bad for you.
The weather pattern has been changing over the past couple of decades, so much so that the average gals and guys on thestreet are making observations like, “Gee, it’s certainly nice out today,” and today happens to be mid-December in thePacific Northwest … really? Think water shortage next summer!
In Federal Way, we watched the possibility of a potentially deadly freezer warehouse go away mainly influenced by the largepublic outcry, but what is it going to be replaced with as Industrial Retail Group is dead set in turning the formerWeyerhaeuser Campus into something completely different than what the nearby neighbors have known for decades?
Recently in the dead of night, Dec. 14 the mayor and City Council convened what was being called an “Emergency CouncilMeeting” in attempts to address a proposed moratorium on warehouses on the former Weyerhaeuser property. A rocketscientist could have predicted the outcome as well as the local bubble gum supplier: The moratorium failed. Two ayes andfour nays. An observer reflected it was just providing cover for those who will be thinking about being re-elected in thecoming months and years.
Rumors of a million-square-foot warehouse on the campus (yes, that’s 1 million square feet) loom in the vision of manyfamiliar with the property as well as in IRG’s ambitious plans to change the face of Federal Way. This idea will bringthousands of cars, trucks, tractor trailers onto our city streets, Highway 18, as well as Interstate 5. If you thought traffic wasbad now, just wait for the biggest back-up in history to arrive in a very short time!
I thought, overall, the citizens of Federal Way have been very nice and thoughtful, participated in many events around town,like the farmers market, Souper Supper, lighting of the gorgeous Christmas tree lately. So why are we expecting a lump ofcoal as our IRG gift for the new year?
Roger Flygare, Federal Way
