A possible definition of suburb might be a city or town that has no identity of its own, whose sense of place exists primarily through its relationship with urban centers.
By this definition, Bothell is the quintessential suburb. Even the City’s advertising campaigns admit it. Anna was going through a Sunset magazine and came across this ad for Bothell that reads: “Seatlle? Canada? San Juans? Think Bothell.” Bothell, it seems, is only known through the places it is within proximity of.
If you take a moment to Explore Bothell, the site mentioned at the bottom of the ad, you might notice that of 7 the 19 “attractions” are at Country Village. CV is an old-timey antique mall where unpainted shingles and folksy atmosphere are supposed to take the place of true history. They mostly sell Americana meant to decorate the interiors of suburban homes, a pastiche of the pastoral to subdue suburban malaise… at least that’s my take on it.
For those of us who grew up in Bothell, this sort of ad isn’t worth more than a laugh; anyone who vacations in Bothell has been had, plain and simple. It’s hard enough living there. Yet, perhaps we laugh because the ad is also a painful reminder of what little character Bothell actually has, what little real sense of place our hometown can claim. In the Sunset ad, the word “hometown” is even put in quotation marks!
The new town motto seems to admit this too. Before, it was “Bothell - for a day or a lifetime.” Now, it is “Bothell - closer than you think, better than you know.” Is it just me, or does the new motto sound incredibly defensive? Unlike the previous motto, which defined Bothell in terms of time, this new slogan is directed outwards, at someone who would dare doubt Bothell’s worth.
At least it makes for a better combination with the common defacement of “Bothell” as “___hell.” Now it sounds seductive and transgressive: “hell - closer than you think, better than you know.” Unfortunately, Bothell proves the adage that hell isn’t exciting; like Simone Weil said of evil, it’s “gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring.” Alas, Bothell and hell alike are essentially banal.
