Government should consider existing residents | Letter

Satisfied with Redmond, vote for incumbents: David Carson, Hank Meyers. Angela Birney has impressed me as a proxy for our current mayor and maintaining status quo.

I am dissatisfied because:

1. Congestion. Residents remember when Home Depot to Grass Lawn Park didn’t take 30 minutes.

Incumbents:

a. Removed two lanes. There were six lanes, now there are four, 33 percent fewer.

b. Turned one-way streets to two-way, introducing left turns with turn lanes and advanced left-turn lights.

c. No alternative to get around/through downtown, such as two lanes on Willows Road.

d. Apartments without setbacks — Amazon, UPS, Lyft, postal service, park on the street and/or block a lane.

2. Financial responsibility. Two-way street conversion: $43 million; Downtown Park: $42 million; Redmond Central Connector trail: $30 million; Cleveland Street: $9 million. $124 million.

a. It all comes from our taxes.

b. Downtown Park for $42 million, huge expense.

c. $30 million — alternative trail to Sammamish River beside a busy road. Very questionable. Sammamish River Trail ignored.

d. Redmond Reporter wrote impact fees are at 2008 levels, have not been adjusted or reviewed. Thousands of new residents. Where is the money for additional schools, police, fire?

3. Ignoring bicycling.

a. Disregard of regulation: RZC 21.10 DOWNTOWN REGULATIONS

21.10.010 which states: “…designated bicycle areas…to provide the highest level of safety for the protection of human life and to ensure that there are transportation choices for people.”

b. No bicycling lanes in downtown Redmond.

c. Destinations without bike lanes: 60 Acres Park, Microsoft, residential areas to Sammamish River Trail.

d. Very few biking improvements in the past 12 years.

We need a city government that first considers existing residents who have invested time and money in Redmond. We are second for the benefit of development.

Brent Schmaltz

Redmond