Letter to the Editor: What I wanted to ask the candidates

To the Editor:

I knew about fake news, but I didn't know we had it in Shoreline. Imagine my surprise when I read this in Sunday's article about the 10/9 RBCA Candidates Forum:

"Part way through the questions that followed, Tom Petersen's skills were challenged again when an audience member started shouting that her questions had not been asked…."

Here's what actually happened:

The question I submitted to Tom did not meet with his approval, so instead of asking the question, he gave me a public lecture on why it was out of line. I did indeed respond to Tom’s condescending mansplanation, but that's a far cry from "an audience member started shouting."

The gatekeeper format is already tremendously disempowering, but having the gatekeeper decide that my question is "not worthy," and then having him publicly chastise me is even worse. Worse still is seeing the incident misreported in the Shoreline Area News.

Here’s the question Tom didn’t want to ask:

“The people of the 32nd Legislative District are suffering from out-of-control growth. ST3 construction and the radical rezone are ruining whole neighborhoods. Small children are being bussed across town to kindergarten because their neighborhood schools are full. At the same time, our politicians are forcing "road diets" on us, reducing road capacity just when they've created increased demand. To top it all off, they give tax breaks to real estate developers to build "affordable housing," causing taxes to rise for the rest of us, while further increasing congestion."

So our politicians are inflicting population growth and road shrinkage on us, severely damaging our quality of life. To add insult to injury, they send us the bill for things we never wanted in the first place.

Council Member Salomon, in the past you have supported ST3, radical rezoning, road diets, and tax breaks for real estate developers. Are you willing to renounce these policies and instead support policies that benefit your constituents?

Senator Chase, do you support these policies? If not, what will you do to help your constituents stop them?

Margaret Willson
Shoreline