The Price of Progress: Who Pays for Everett's Pavement?
Everett’s labor organ argues that the city’s rapid transformation into a 'metropolitan' center is crushing its working-class residents under the weight of improvement taxes.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The past year has seen an enormous amount of street work done in the city and much more is contemplated. We are extending our sewer system—an absolute necessity to the health of the city—laying cement sidewalks, and paving our thoroughfares. All this is very nice, of course; it improves the appearance of the city, makes us attractive to the prospective investor, and enhances the value of property. We are rapidly emerging from a frontier type of town to all the air and manners—and prices—of a metropolitan city. But behind this progress there is a different story: the story of the plain working man who is paying for this 'spick-and-span' appearance. We have advertised far and wide that this is essentially a city of workingmen's homes—and so it is. Only the man who labors ten long hours a day for a beggarly pittance knows of the sacrifices involved to feed and clothe his family and pay for his little home. The city is dotted with these small houses where industrious men are meeting their obligations as best they can, but many are now asking how they can possibly pay for these new, expensive improvements being piled upon them. The owner of business property can pass these costs on, but the laborer cannot add the cost of paving to his wages. Isn't it better to go a little slower in this improvement campaign?
“The laboring man cannot add the cost to his wages but must pay it out of his wages or face the alternative of losing his property.”
Everett’s 1909 struggle over infrastructure costs and the resulting displacement of the working class remains a central tension in the city's modern growth. The 'frontier town' shifting to 'metropolitan' status resonates with current concerns over gentrification and the affordability of homeownership in the Puget Sound region.
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