The opening of the Downtown Park this past weekend adds a new dimension to open space throughout downtown: from historic Anderson Park, the Heron Rookery, the Redmond Central Connector, river walk along the Sammamish River, to the municipal campus.
On the surface, another park in downtown is a necessary addition to our extraordinary and “signature” system of parks, open spaces and trails that have been planned, developed and maintained for more than 50 years. With the explosive development of apartments in downtown, open spaces for its residents are imperative for providing some semblance of urban quality of life for those who have chosen this as their neighborhood.
But below the surface, the approximate $42 million cost of the park and its questionable funding cast aspersions on city leadership. Why? Because close to $20 million was spent with no public vote. When an additional $20 million was needed to develop it, there was a vote of the people who resoundingly said “NO.” Yet Mayor Marchione, along with council presidents Hank Margeson and later Angela Birney, ignored the public decision and proceeded to find and spend another $22 million for a total of $42 million.
Many people agree that open spaces with different uses are needed throughout our community. However, many think that downtown developers and their tenants, and businesses are the beneficiaries of this very expensive investment in one section of downtown and that they are the ones who should have borne most of the expense rather than the general public.
I know city finances very well from my 16-year tenure as mayor from 1992 to 2007. I believe that the $42 million spent on this downtown park came from raiding sources of revenue that resulted in other projects going unattended, not being completed or postponed and services may have been reduced, done away with, or not started.
Budget season is nearing. You will hear city leaders applaud themselves for their Budgeting by Priorities process. However, I’ll wager that very soon the public will learn about facilities and services that need significant financial resources because city leadership valued this Downtown Park more than maintaining existing facilities and providing services throughout the community over the past decade.
Rosemarie Ives
Redmond mayor, 1992-2007
