We are active community members on Mercer Island, and parents/grandparents of children with diverse interests. We feel strongly that the Mercer Island Center for the Arts (MICA) would be a welcome addition to what is essentially a soulless downtown that is devoted primarily to consumption.

We are convinced that a performing arts center, built and supported by arts organizations and selfless donors, is a very generous trade for an abandoned recycling center. We hope that Islanders will embrace the opportunity to improve our downtown by creating community and enriching it with art.

What is being missed in this discussion is one that gets missed with every education discussion — the school district is able to provide woefully little for art, theater and music. Band Boosters and the Mercer Island Schools Foundation make our excellent music program possible, and kids who are athletes or cheerleaders get a huge amount of spending directed towards them but kids good at science/math or theater are significantly underserved.

Facilities such as Youth Theatre Northwest (YTN) are an integral part of the educational infrastructure of the Island and also provide a home and community for children whose interests are focused on the arts. The real estate values on the Island are driven primarily by its location, its fantastic lifestyle and by young families wanting their kids to be educated on the Island.

Seniors who support MICA will get back their home values and more — plus the pleasure and convenience of attending theater, concerts, recitals and art exhibits on Island. We chose to move to Mercer Island for the quality of life and educational opportunities, and as a community we should commit to expanding arts opportunities and be grateful to the volunteers and donors who are trying to give us this great gift.

It is important to note that we are also “parks people.” Some of us visit Mercer Island parks on a nearly daily basis, and two of us are board members of the Friends of Luther Burbank Park.

As community members, we are dismayed by the efforts to block MICA with the poorly drafted “protect our parks” initiative that does nothing to protect our green space (allows deforestation and limitless artificial turf) but fully prohibits a nonprofit arts center.

Bharat Shyam, Katharine Lamperti and Paneen Davidson

Mercer Island