Parks petition seeks to undermine MICA creation | Letter

Published 9:00 am Thursday, April 28, 2016

As Mercer Island residents, we are dismayed by the “Protect our Parks” petition. We support our parks and the diverse activities our Island provides. Our vision of the Island is one of diversity. We love the Saturday soccer and the flag-ridden streets on July Fourth, the Rotary Run and our Mercer Island parade. The petition pursues a course to limit this community vision and to stifle the diverse activity our parks provide. It lacks the belief that we will defend our Island’s rich natural parks.

The petition seeks to undermine the creation of the Mercer Island Center for the Arts, to preserve a small corner of Mercerdale Park that is home to an abandoned recycling station. We, along with a majority of Mercer Islanders, want to protect our green spaces but this petition is intended to prevent MICA from being built.

We have been lucky to have a thriving theater for our youth. Like many young families, we moved to Mercer Island when our kids were little. We were thrilled to discover Youth Theatre Northwest (YTN) was here on the Island and the opportunity it provided for our children to explore the arts. We had no idea how integral it would be to our lives as it has for many families over the years. YTN’s staff, community and leadership opportunities have taught our kids many valuable lessons that have carried with them into their young adult lives.

We now have the chance to do something truly great on Mercer Island by building a center for the arts so that future generations of kids can grow up having the opportunity to participate in the arts. It would be a travesty to let YTN slip away from Mercer Island forever. We should not let our community be misled by this petition.

Judy Kimelman, Bob McRuer

Mercer Island