Pubdate: Sun, 09 Sep 2007
Source: Herald, The (Everett, WA)
Copyright: 2007 The Daily Herald Co.
Contact:  http://www.heraldnet.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/190
Author: Julie Muhlstein, Herald Writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?159 (Drug Courts)

EVERETT DRUG COUNSELING CLINIC -- AND ITS CLIENTS -- DESERVE A CHANCE

Mary Zuanich loves downtown Everett, especially Colby Avenue with its 
block of chic stores.

She not only shops on Colby, Zuanich enjoys cooking classes at J. 
Matheson Kitchen & Gourmet.

"And I like her," said Zuanich, 68, who lives with her husband, Andy, 
in Everett's Lowell neighborhood.

Her? I didn't need to ask. Zuanich meant Judy Matheson, who opened 
her original shop, J. Matheson Gifts, at 2615 Colby Ave., in 1991. 
Her kitchen store, a couple doors to the north, is a newer addition 
to the block that includes Pave Specialty Bakery, Burkett's women's 
clothing store and Erickson's Jewelers.

I like her, too. In the 16 years I've been her customer, Judy 
Matheson has never failed to be friendly, helpful and interested in 
what I've needed.

Matheson has done as much as anyone to bring life to a downtown once 
dead. It wasn't that long ago I wouldn't have felt safe walking alone 
on parts of Hewitt Avenue. What's so much better now began with 
Matheson's faith in downtown.

Zuanich and I both like her. We just don't agree with her.

In a Herald story Tuesday, Matheson and several neighboring shop 
owners recently voiced strong opposition to plans by Catholic 
Community Services Northwest to move a drug counseling clinic from 
Pacific Avenue to an office building at 2601 Wetmore Ave.

J. Matheson Gifts and the other Colby shops would share an alley with 
the counseling office.

While they appreciate the work Catholic Community Services is doing, 
they worry about the center's proximity to two schools, Immaculate 
Conception/Our Lady of Perpetual Help school and Everett High School.

The Pacific Avenue clinic now serves about 300 teens and adults with 
counseling services each year. Many are referred by drug court or 
Child Protective Services.

"Let's give everybody a chance," said Zuanich, who believes the 
clinic should be located near the shops. Her take is that there's no 
problem until there's a problem.

"And if something happens, and this is a detriment, we would all 
stand behind the shop owners to protest that. We won't let that 
happen. Colby is too important."

Lora Miner works in Edmonds but is keenly interested in the Everett 
dispute. She's been where the addiction clinic clients are today.

"On Monday, I'll be 16 years clean," said Miner, executive director 
for the Center for Counseling & Health Resources Inc., a private 
facility founded by Dr. Gregg Jantz. The Edmonds-based center treats 
people for substance abuse, depression, eating disorders and other issues.

"When you face up to what you've done, that's who shows up at a 
counseling center," said Miner, who was a cocaine user when she went 
into treatment 16 years ago. The shop owners, Miner said, "should be 
sending them fruit baskets and saying keep up the good work."

Drug addicts are everywhere, Miner said.

"They're in doctors' offices and hospitals giving you medication. 
They're in your school and in your family," Miner said. "There is no 
face to addiction. I was disappointed to hear people so judgmental. 
It's an illness. I lived it. I got into trouble, and the legal system 
saved my life."

Heidi Sawdon has her own issues with downtown Everett but agrees with 
Zuanich that the city ought to be accepting.

"There's a kind of stereotyping of a certain type of person," Sawdon said.

The 31-year-old Everett woman is a manager at a local Starbucks, but 
she also runs a business, Hotrod Heidi's Vintage Closet. She sells 
vintage clothing at hot-rod and motorcycle shows.

Her husband, Matt Sawdon, runs a tattoo shop in Everett, the Sunken 
Ship. The couple live in the View Ridge area and have two children.

They'd like to open a vintage clothing store and tattoo shop 
downtown, but rules enacted by the Everett City Council prohibit 
those uses in the city's core. "What's happening now, basically 
they're trying to gentrify," she said.

Sawdon finds it ironic that a city that pushed for a Navy homeport 
would ban tattoo parlors downtown. "Rich people come here," she said 
of her husband's tattoo shop, which is on Everett Avenue east of 
Broadway. "Aesthetically, I wanted an art deco building downtown. I 
wanted to break the stereotype."

No one wants the bad old Everett back again. There were years when 
downtown was scary. Now, there's something else to fear. Wash away 
the life, it won't be a city. A newly antiseptic place, it will only 
look like one.

Zuanich is right. Colby is for all of us.