Why I love Kent

I Love Kent, and I go days really wondering why. The traffic coming down from the East Hill on Smith or James in the morning leaves me questioning.

Coming home in the evening past ShoWare Center is exasperating, but then comes the railroad tracks, and the river, with all those big bags of sand that belong at the beach, or the golf course. Then the rain coming down in wind blown flurries, every drop seems to have invited a friend or more to drop on our already wet heads.

I know, some of you who pride yourself in seeing the glass half full will contradict me, “but remember the mountains and the river and the green grass of summer,” YEAH, but we have to wait for that, and I want to complain, NOW.

Then I attend a “Preview to 2010 Legislative Session” breakfast sponsored by the South Sound Chambers of Commerce Legislative Coalition meeting at Emerald Downs. And it all floods back to me, and I know why I LOVE KENT.

It’s the people, the leaders in our community who care so very much. The property manager in a little office in Kent who calls himself a grouch, because he tells it like it is. “Large building owners should pay a little more for dam repair because they have so much to lose. It’s like a leaking roof in his business that will drive the tenant out if it’s not fixed. The dam people have to step up and fulfill their promises that they gave my father in the ’50s, that the valley, with this dam, will never flood again.”

And the chamber of commerce people from all over the South End of Seattle represented by droves of people from their prospective areas of the map. They came from Renton in the North and as far South as Enumclaw, filling the seats with people interested in our combined economy and fixing things for their people. Chambers of commerce from every city in and on the edge of our valley, as well as colleges and big and small businesses and the Kent School District were represented.

While you were trying to stay employed, they were trying as hard as they could to keep you employed.

Our own Kent chamber brought staff plus, as did our Kent City government. Much was said by those who were in meetings throughout the year, of attendance by politicians and legislators concerned about the flood and other issues that are plaguing our valley. One speaker likened Mayor Cooke to New York Mayor Giuliani who, after the 9/11 attack took up the leadership and made things happen, putting the people first. He said that she is always at the meetings and always holding up the interests of the people of Kent like a flag bearer.

“When all legislators should be there, Mayor Cooke always is there,” he said.

So as I drove back to my office contemplating all that I heard and saw, the flashing of blue lights loomed in my rear window as the car behind me was pulled over, I drove past our Kent City Hall, through our historic district across the railroad tracks and up Smith Hill, in the rain and wind, under dark late morning clouds, and I knew: It’s the people. The well-dressed person who heard the registration lady whisper, “I’m sorry Sir, your card was declined; the other guy who had his hair blown just like mine, and all the important people with the same rain on their heads, who care about us, and work hard at making it better for us, and they are just like us.

That’s it! That’s why I love Kent. It’s all of us, and we were all represented together in this big valley, to make it safer and more commute-accessible and property-protected, so we can enjoy this rainy beautiful place we call home, with the people of Kent.