Recently, the well-heeled private developer Chris Hansen, who hopes to build a sports arena in the SODO area, threw in the towel and said he would privately finance the whole venture. Public subsidies from the city of Seattle were taken off the table.

In making this decision, Mr. Hansen measured the trade-offs of delays and added expense of dealing with the city of Seattle compared to how quickly he could reach his end goal to bring NBA and NHL franchises to Seattle by doing it himself.

There is a similar situation here on Mercer Island. Mercer Island Center for the Arts (MICA), another private organization, is asking the city of Mercer Island for zoning and parking exemptions, and potentially large capital and operating subsidies, to build an over-sized regional performing arts center in Mercerdale Park. This has been an ongoing development for three years now and the end is not in sight.

I strongly suggest that MICA should borrow a page from Mr. Hansen’s playbook by securing another site other than Mercerdale Park.

Indeed, I believe they’ll be pleasantly surprised at the level of Island support and positive momentum they’ll garner by such an action.

Peter Struck

Mercer Island