Belltown Blues

Do we really want our town to become just another assimilated, urbanized Seattle neighborhood full of box like cubes. My wife Gwen and I purchased a condo across from the Seattle public library anticipating future retirement there. After a few stays we reconfirmed what we knew all along. We love Mercer Island lifestyle . We like to visit Seattle, we don’t want to live there! My son on the other hand loves it. He and we have different things we are looking for in our day to day lives. We don’t need to “compete with Seattle” as some council members have stated. We want to remain unique. Worse yet we face the real danger of becoming a divided city, with an ever expanding urban culture, the ‘Townies’, passing along millions of dollars of infrastructure and increased government bureaucracy costs to current residents in the form of higher taxes with a reward of congested facilities. Our current school district dilemmas provide a perfect example. This is a direct result of putting growth demands ahead of Island livability. Demands signed onto by previous “region first” councils led by former mayors like Judy Clibborn, Fred Jarrett, and others whose policies align with those of my opponent and deputy mayor Dan Grausz. It is these same mayors who have gone on to the legislature where they vote and lobby to saddle us with tolls and other increased taxes.