Eastside: booming cities, issues

Burgeoning growth on the Eastside presents suburban cities with challenges that are no different from those faced by older, established metropolises. Calls for more cops and parks weigh heavily against commuter demands for more bus service and roads.

Two of the fastest-growing cities in King County, Issaquah and Sammamish, are navigating a course of rapid growth requiring agile, experienced leadership.

Issaquah

• Fred Butler is our choice for Position 2 on the Issaquah City Council. He offers regional thinking, serves on the Sound Transit board and has made a priority of including North Bend and Snoqualmie Ridge in the Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority boundary. One needn't travel up and down Interstate 90 very often to get the importance of including outlying cities in transit solutions.

Opponent Bryan Weinstein calls for the kind of regional cooperation Butler is already involved with.

• In a close call, Vincent Ippolito gets the endorsement over Joshua Schaer for Position 4. Ippolito pulled out of the race briefly when he thought a work situation would conflict. When that was resolved, he began actively campaigning. In his two years in Issaquah, the information-technology professional has quickly become involved and is a member of the Highlands Community Development Committee. He wants to work on public safety and emergency preparedness in the rapidly growing city. He also wants to focus on better connectedness, such as between the city and the Issaquah School District and Old Town and Issaquah's newer neighborhoods.

Schaer, a lawyer and longtime Democratic Party activist, is an impressive candidate.

Of the two candidates, we prefer Ippolito's open-minded, if skeptical, view of the much-debated $40 million Southeast Bypass Highway, under study for the past decade. Schaer's mind is made up against the possible transportation solution.

• In Position 7, David Kappler's four terms have centered on navigating Issaquah's growth. Opponent Bill Werner has campaigned on education issues, but Kappler focuses on matters actually under the city's control, such as transit and development. Kappler favors redevelopment along Issaquah's business-heavy Gilman Boulevard, replacing aging buildings with residential and commercial structures located near transit. He proposes as an alternative to the Southeast Bypass an underpass for drivers to access both sides of I-90 and avoid congested on- and offramp backups.

Sammamish

Managing Sammamish's 18-percent growth over the past seven years offers the clearest distinction among the candidates for City Council.

• In Position 2, The Times favors Michele Petitti. She showed leadership on the creation of the East Lake Sammamish Trail and a 30-acre acquisition within King County's Soaring Eagle Park.

Opponent Karen Moran doesn't have Petitti's vision, but we hope she remains involved in city planning.

• John James is the better of two knowledgeable and committed candidates for Position 4. He offers innovative and pragmatic solutions, such as trimming a planned East Lake Sammamish Parkway improvement project to include less shrubbery, other beautification and more road space for commuters. He favors multiuse facilities such as a community aquatic center that high-school swim teams could use.

Nancy Whitten's single term in office wasn't compelling enough for a second term.

• Mark Cross is our choice over Stan Gunno. Cross works professionally as an urban planner whose expertise helped Sammamish get the lake trail built. He wants the city's planned Town Center to include a wide range of housing and supports building a waterfront park at the north end of Lake Sammamish.