Supporting a Seattle folly

Some of us in Bellevue consider Lake Washington a moat protecting us from the follies of Seattle. Now the Metropolitan King County Council, which unfortunately reaches across the moat, has voted to support a Seattle folly providing a place of business for basketball: a game in which overpaid tall guys jump up and down a lot [“County: Yes on arena, City: Let’s talk more,” page one, July 31].

If I asked the council for $2,000 to help erect a small building in which I could do business, it would laugh me out of the council chambers. But when a multimillionaire asked for $200 million to help build a building for his business, it voted yes! Wiser council members would have voted no and let the multimillionaire finance all of the building with his own money — it’s called private enterprise — and not put King County taxpayers at financial risk.

Let us hope that when the Seattle City Council votes on this topic, it will be guided by the gods of wisdom, rather than the gods of folly.

— Harry Petersen, Bellevue