Growing, Everett
Growing, Everett
From a downtown office window, a longtime Everett resident reflects on a city reshaped by new housing, businesses, public spaces, and generations of civic care. Through the changing seasons, the essay celebrates the everyday investments that help a community take root—and considers the shared responsibility of leaving Everett stronger for those who will call it home.
Recognizing generational commitment to extraordinary
by Tyler Chism
they made an Everett memory beneath a mural that says exactly what I hope our city always does: welcome you.
Looking out the window from my tenth-floor office in downtown Everett is something I never take for granted. I’ve worked, and for much of my adult life lived, in or on the edge of downtown.
As I enter my 40s, I’m tempted to think I’ve discovered something profound about life and love. But if I’m fortunate enough to read this again at 60, I suspect I’ll smile too and think, You knew so little.
One of life’s greatest gifts is realizing there is always another layer of wisdom waiting for us. Another way to see the world, another perspective, another chance to appreciate what we once overlooked.
For now, here’s what I think I know.
Loving a place, just as with loving a person, isn’t about wishing it would stay exactly as it is. It’s about growing alongside it.
Just as I am not the person I was 20 years ago, the Everett I fell in love with in my twenties isn’t the Everett I know today. Downtown has grown. The waterfront has transformed. New housing has risen. Restaurants have opened, closed, and opened again. Public spaces have been reimagined. New traditions have taken root. A new generation has stepped into leadership.
Cities don’t become extraordinary by accident. They become extraordinary because generation after generation decides they are worth loving.
Every welcoming café, every neighborhood park, every restored historic building, every mural, every thriving small business, every trail, every community event, and every tree casting shade over a sidewalk exists because someone invested something of themselves. Time. Talent. Creativity. Hard work. Resources. Vision. Hope.
Everett’s growth and transformation is the result of countless ordinary acts of love.
When we admire what Everett has become, we’re seeing the harvest of seeds planted by people we’ll never meet. The shade we enjoy today was planted decades ago. The festivals we look forward to each year began as someone’s hopeful idea. The storefronts we admire exist because someone believed this place was worth investing in. Our strong economy exists because generations of engineers, machinists, entrepreneurs, and risk-takers believed they could build something extraordinary right here in Everett.
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The changing seasons remind us of that, too.
Summer is joyful and energetic. Everett hums with activity. Visitors fill restaurants and hotels. Festivals, concerts, farmers markets, and neighborhood events create a rhythm that carries everyone a little faster.
Then, almost imperceptibly, the pace changes.
The air cools. The light softens. Leaves begin their quiet transformation. We trade our T-shirts for puffer jackets, yet still insist on dining al fresco whenever the weather gives us half a chance.
Autumn invites us to harvest perspective. It reminds us that growth isn’t measured only by what is new. It’s measured by what has taken root. It reminds us to keep the soil healthy for the next growing season.
Working in economic development, it’s easy to become preoccupied with what’s next. New businesses. New housing. New investments.
Those things matter. But the more my hair grays, the more I find myself appreciating what already exists because someone cared enough to build it, protect it, or imagine it before I ever arrived. Communities thrive not because they chase change for its own sake, but because each generation accepts the responsibility of leaving a place a little better than they found it.
That’s the Everett I see outside my window.
It’s not simply a collection of buildings, streets, and unfamiliar faces, but a living community shaped by people who have loved this place enough to keep investing in it. Some have devoted decades to public service. Others have opened businesses. Some have raised families. Others moved here to begin new ones. Some planted trees whose shade they knew they would never sit beneath. Our engineers, tradespeople, educators, artists, entrepreneurs, volunteers, and neighbors are all helping build a future that is difficult to imagine today but one future generations will simply call home.
I don’t know what Everett will look like 20 years from now.
But I know it will be different.
So will I, if I’m lucky. I hope I’ll still be discovering new reasons to love this city.
Because that’s what it means to truly love something. Not asking it to remain the same, but cherishing it while growing alongside it through every season.
The Everett I inherited is a gift.
The Everett we leave behind will be our gift to the next generation. Φ
Dedicated to Paul Roberts, Everett’s passionate advocate, civic leader and committed citizen.
