Failure to notify property, business owners laughable

TO THE EDITOR:

The last city council meeting has re-affirmed my beliefs that the majority of the sitting council members and our mayor have no vision of this city in coming years. I will explain.

The vote to create "No Parking" zones in certain areas of the downtown district is, at the least, laughable. For the record, I could care less as I need the exercise and now I have to walk! The issue however is much deeper than that. If the street committee is worried about safety or hazardous conditions, it seems faster and more cost effective to enforce laws that they have already passed, like semi truck traffic (this one is particularly troubling), one way streets that our own police officers and locals use both ways.

With that said, creating and voting in any new law applications where retail or professional edifices are being used daily without the property owners or business owners being notified is, well, laughable.

Is closing these streets to parking part of the bigger vision for a cleaner, more tourist- and businessfriendly Washington? No. Because there is no vision. If there is it would be nice to see that vision at least half as much as we have seen the vision for the re-development of the southwest section of town which, by the way, I am in complete support of.

In closing, any city of our size of any consequence has a long term vision, a painting on the wall usually in the Mayors office, of what the city will look like in 10 years, 20 tears, etc. So when the elected official tasked with getting the city to look like the painting are sitting in a room, they use the painting as a guide. It would sound something like this: "Well after hearing your concerns, and comparing your request to our goals in the coming years it would seem inappropriate to allow you to re-pave your parking lot on our main street without adding a planting strip in front of the property;" or " Since the street you are complaining about has retail space in front of it, we will first need to notify the business owner as this type of courtesy is the core of an 'Entrepreneurial Friendly City.'"

Thank you for this opportunity to have my voice heard.

Bradley Barber