When City Council members visited neighborhoods during National Night Out in August, one of the most common questions neighbors asked was about downtown construction and downtown parking. I’ve spent hours searching the city website and emailing city officials trying to get a straight answer — even a simple list of construction projects, and the most Mayor Marchione’s administration can come up with is “Major Projects Under Construction, dated Sept. 30, 2011.”

Why is it so difficult to get a straight answer when “customer service” is at such a premium by the mayor? I believe the mayor is in a defensive mode with the election only two years away and he wants to minimize the severe traffic congestion issues we will be plagued with once the thousands of “sleep and eat” apartments with inadequate underground parking are installed.

Redmond is destined to be one grid-locked, “drive through” boring community unless the downtown business community can be revitalized. But delaying the two-way lane conversions at Redmond Way and Cleveland Avenue until after the election only limits predictability and business migration to our downtown.

Some council members appear to be looking the other way with interests outside of Redmond and anywhere but here. One result: we now have more than 20 “H” wayfinding hospital signs in Redmond where no hospitals exist. Council did clarify in its last meeting “we DO have a downtown park.” It’s that green patch of grass used by dog walkers, awaiting the mayor’s “Master Plan.”

Another patch will be added in a year after Marchione demolishes the Brown Building and quasi-historic Redmond Cycle. How about a water fountain for the downtown technology workers and their pets? In the meantime, neighborhood housing projects continue to develop and scar our hills. Will Redmond be drivable in five years? Livable?

Bob Yoder, Redmond