Prime farmland has given way to a prime consumer supply center. Goods are hauled to regional shoppers on freeways that intersect at Kent, carried to other U.S. cities along the valley floor's train tracks, or sent throughout the Pacific Rim via ports in Seattle or Tacoma and nearby Sea-Tac Airport. Now, it's all distribution points. The mountain's still there, but it's a completely different environment. There are other signs of movement in a city that is not fighting change, but working hard to manage it.
Shoppers swarm between East Hill's housing developments and strip malls.
Commuters pack arterials and freeways en route to jobs throughout the Puget Sound area. At five stories high, the center is the biggest building in downtown Kent. Kent's boundaries, bolstered by population growth and several recent annexations, have stretched from an area of 1 square mile in 1953 to 26 square miles today. City officials say there are now just under 62,000 people in Kent, but that could soon swell to 73,000 with pending annexations of areas such as Meridian Valley, including Meridian Valley Golf and Country Club and surrounding upscale homes. About the only thing that has slowed is apartment construction.