The winner of the Most Condescending Speech of the Month award goes to Issaquah councilmember Tola Marts. After numerous Issaquah Highlands residents, including me, expressed concerns at the Aug. 16 city council meeting that the Park Pointe land swap would create overcrowding at Grand Ridge Elementary, Marts essentially informed those parents that they shouldn’t whine because the school that his kid goes to has portables, too, as does some other schools.

Following that logic, if Grand Ridge started getting hit by vandals and Grand Ridge parents asked the council to do something about it, would Marts tell those parents to stop their bellyaching since vandals have been damaging older schools for years?

Sorry, but we’ll do what we can to keep our school from going down the drain, no matter how many other schools have already met that fate.

Besides, Marts assumed that overcrowding was inevitable. But we wouldn’t have overcrowding if the city didn’t keep approving hundreds more housing units. Which is why Issaquah Highlands residents asked the council to stop doing so. Get it?

Then, in response to repeated concerns about the dangers of walking kids to Grand Ridge in heavy traffic, and a solitary remark about crowded swingsets, Marts said, “I wish that Highlands residents could see the Highlands from the point of view of over on Squak Mountain,” where Marts lives. So Marts did his own whining, telling us that, in contrast, his son can’t even walk to school, and that “we don’t have a swing on Squak Mountain” and only “a couple of very small parks.”

Why should Issaquah Highlands residents compare our neighborhood’s amenities to those on Squak Mountain? How big is the typical lawn on Squak? Bigger than the postcard-sized lawns in the Highlands?

How much are your annual homeowner assessments, Tola? Does it approach $1,000, like it does for many in the Highlands? No? Then maybe now you understand why we have numerous parks (most of them privately owned by our homeowners’ association) and you don’t. We paid for them, thank you very much. So I don’t give a rip how many swings you have.

Marts finished with: “There’s a lot of things about the Highlands that are really really great.” You’re right, Tola. And the residents there are trying to keep it that way.

Matthew Barry

Issaquah