Mercer Island has wonderful parks. As the Island gets more developed, I believe that our parks are more important than ever. I love the open space, particularly the open space and trail system on the east side of First Hill, and am saddened about the possibility of losing part of it.

My husband and I are 38-year Mercer Island residents. My son went to school on the Island and now my oldest grandson attends Mercer Island schools. I am not anti-children and resent the name-calling used by opponents of this effort to protect our parks. In my years of living here, I have seen the parks and open spaces threatened more than once. There have been proposals to do the following: build a fire station in Mercerdale Park, construct housing in Luther Burbank, sell a portion of Clarke Beach Park to a neighbor who was trespassing on it (this happened in August), and the recent effort to place a multi-level parking garage for Eastside commuters to use in Luther Burbank Park. The same people who pushed forward proposals to develop our parks, for non-park usage, are opposing this effort to protect them.

Please sign our initiative to protect our parks. A copy may be found at protectmiparks.org.

Jean Dunbabin

Mercer Island