As someone in favor of the retention of the Northeast 42nd Street gate, I appreciate the Issaquah Reporter’s recent coverage of the latest City Council confirmation of the many previous council decisions to retain the gate.

As Councilmembers Ramiro Valderrama and Tom Odell eloquently wondered, why are we revisiting this issue for the ninth time? Can the mere passage of time reduce the many safety problems? It certainly won’t reduce the number of cars that would use the neighborhoods of Timberline, Timberline Park, Waterbrook and Hidden Ridge as a cut-through. The city now estimates that 3,600 cars daily would drive through the gate, which is 20 percent of the volume of Sahalee Way. Sahalee Way is intended to be an arterial road; by contrast, our neighborhoods were intended to be neighborhoods.

Greg Reynolds, safely protected from cut-through traffic in his quiet part of Timberline, continually agitates to open the gate. He says some Timberline residents would go west through an open gate, easing congestion on those going east to Sahalee Way. He apparently cares nothing for the far larger number of non-residents who would use Timberline streets as a cut-through.

There simply is no upside to opening the gate for any of these neighborhoods.

Three homeowners associations with required quorums continue to have unanimous votes in favor of retention, and we’re tired of these fire drills. Let the council’s recent resolution be the final word on the subject. The City Council has better things to worry about than “fixing” a non-problem.

Bob Seidensticker

Sammamish