Is everyone against building a parking lot next to the Community Center (on a hillside made of fill dirt when the Community Center was built)? Maybe the idea came and went before anyone had the chance to form an opinion. Hard to tell. Maybe people don’t care or don’t know.

Yet, it seems that having more parking has been a hot topic on these shores for years. A keyword search of the Reporter’s content over the past five years or so, seems to indicate that a lot of people have been concerned or at least aware of the lack of spaces to park a car.

A search of the Mercer Island Reporter website for the word “parking,” brings up 1,800 results.

People do seem to care about how they get around. The word “traffic“ alone had 1,480 mentions.  The word “tolling” occurred in our pages 1,970 times. “Town Center“ came in 810.  And Islanders care about parks. “Luther Burbank Park” had 1,100 mentions – much of it in our Calendar listings. But the term “Open Space“ popped up just 219 times.

Also instructive is a search for phrases that described controversial subjects. “Island Crest Way” and the infamous phrase, “Road Diet,” combined, showed up 1,280 times. Yet, the term “School Board” combined with “school bond,” was counted 616 times in the paper.

So what does this mean? We believe we cover topics of interest or concern to Islanders. If so, we would expect that some just might want to find out more about the possibility of a  parking lot near the Park and Ride – maybe just maybe – at the Community Center.

Anyone?

To be complete, we must disclose that the term “City Council” tops the list of most common words or phrases printed in the Reporter – for letters, stories or briefs – with 2,150.

Kite Hill had three.