I have a sinking feeling that Maple Valley is about to become irrelevant in a few years, except as a provider of customers to Covington and Black Diamond businesses. The former alpha dog of the Valley towns is going to look more like the omega (last to eat) unless something changes drastically, and soon.

Sure, the new Fred Meyer store and the mandatory attached strip mall appears to be coming soon, but that’s probably going to be it for a while. In the meantime, Covington is about to add emergency departments and possibly a hospital and continue with their retail growth, becoming the hub of retail activity in southeast King County.

Black Diamond is going to be as big as Maple Valley in the next two decades, except with preplanned business centers that will accommodate every need of their residents. Shoppers in Black Diamond won’t have to drive to Maple Valley any more to go to Safeway, and they’ll probably end up with a better way to get to Covington that doesn’t involve Maple Valley’s business centers.

You might think, “That’s fine with me; I already hate driving through the mess on Kent-Kangley. These retail places just make the traffic worse.” Sure they do, but as I’ve pointed out before, when you’re spending your retail dollars in a different city, you’re helping to support city services for their residents; not you. That extra five minutes you spend in traffic is caused by shoppers who are funding several police officers in that town. The lack of big retail sales tax dollars in your town means that you’re going to have to make that up somewhere else (think higher utility taxes).

Well, complaining about it isn’t going to change the situation. So what is a soon-to-be-irrelevant city to do?

Don’t get your hopes up for a miracle retail explosion, such as a Kent Station-style development. The population isn’t here to support it, nor can it support a Trader Joe’s, Target, movie theaters, or modern bowling alleys. People in neighboring population centers are not driving out here to spend money either, because there’s no reason to.

Instead, Maple Valley is going to have to work on its image and its identity.

Right now, Maple Valley is very average in a lot of areas. Even the slogan, “Where Community and Nature Unite” is passive and bland. It doesn’t inspire people to get in the car and go see what that unification looks like.

Think about Leavenworth for a moment. Their slogan is, “Your Bavarian Getaway”. I’ve been inspired (read: dragged by my wife) to go to Leavenworth for their Christmas lighting festival. When you finally get there, you don’t have a whole lot to do except shop inside a strip mall that’s playing Bavarian dress-up while you wait for them to turn the lights on.

Any town can buy tons of Christmas lights, and their outdoor activities are pretty similar to what’s available in this area, such as hiking, golf, horseback riding, kayaking, etc. So what’s the big deal?

The deal is, Leavenworth has an image. An image so captivating that a small town of 2500 people attracts about two million visitors each year. The whole town buys into it, and even the McDonald’s has to play along by having a Bavarian exterior.

Las Vegas has an image too, and they spend lots of money to promote it, such as the “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” commercials. Well, you can get stupid drunk, gamble a lot, and sleep with strangers at the Auburn or Marysville casinos too; the only real difference is the image.

I’m not suggesting that Maple Valley transform into another Bavarian village, or start encouraging random sexual escapades, but I would like the city leaders (whoever they are) to start thinking about what Maple Valley’s identity should be. A city with a real identity is attractive to people, inspires tourism, healthy businesses and higher property values.

It may start with the undeveloped Legacy site, but the image should eventually extend to the rest of the city. It won’t be easy, and will require the kind of bold leader and advocate for greatness that we don’t have at the moment. Leavenworth was a struggling city until they made a bold move 48 years ago to be interesting; Maple Valley should do the same.