It is time, once and for all, to shut down the Glaser Avenue sidewalk project and just admit that it was a bad idea that only got worse as time went by. Which is what generally happens when no one puts a stop to bad ideas.

Many moons ago, a Bellevue official -- with no small amount of encouragement from Northgate officials -- decided that high school students were in mortal danger because they were walking in the middle of a small, obscure Bellevue street to reach the high school. No one could say when the last time was that a HIGH SCHOOL student got hit by a car on Glaser. No one could say when the first time was either. Glaser is not exactly Lincoln Avenue at rush hour. Glaser is not exactly Lincoln Avenue at 2 a.m.

Nevertheless, there were grant funds to be had, and Bellevue got 'em. The grant funds covered a percentage of the cost of building sidewalks. Bellevue and Northgate had to come up with the rest, along with the engineering fees.

Then someone discovered that the plan was to build the sidewalk on private property. That's a big no-no. You can't go around spending tax dollars on someone's private property. It starts getting messy, and there are all kinds of senate hearings and grand jury investigations of things like graft, kick-backs, misappropriation of funds...you get the picture.

The private property in question is a portion of the street that is in really, really, really bad shape. In the past, calmer and more rational minds have refused to accept the private portion of Glaser as a public street until private funds brought it up to public standards. Unfortunately, those calmer minds were nowhere to be found, and officials started talking about rebuilding the private road. With public money. Which added a couple hundred thousand dollars to the project. Which would not be covered by grant funds.

Northgate got the idea that if it owned the property along the road, everything would magically become public property and tax dollars could be spent and spent and spent to build the sidewalk. It was an interesting idea, in the way that really dumb ideas often are. It didn't work. Northgate, however, managed to take several lots off the tax rolls and didn't have to bother with collecting the delinquent taxes on them. It's not like Northgate actually needs tax revenue, after all.

Bellevue officials finally saw that the project was becoming a funding sinkhole, and backed off after offering to contribute $50,000. Northgate would have to pick up the rest of the tab, at least for engineering fees. Northgate agreed to chip in another $70,000.

Now, the majority of the property owners along Glaser Avenue have declined to grant the easements needed to put these sidewalks of gold, figuratively speaking, in place along their properties. The Borough of Bellevue could, of course, have the land condemned and taken over for public use. That's where you run into this pesky little provision of the United States Constitution that says the governemt cannot just go in and take people's property with out paying them for it. So Bellevue would have to go to court to condemn the properties (ka-ching!), and then pay the homeowners (ka-ching!), who could always appeal (ka-ching! ka-ching!).

Bellevue officials have wisely said that enough is enough. They're leaving it up to Northgate. We'd like to be able to say that Northgate officials will show the same wisdom, especially in light of the fact that they can't seem to get the district off the list of "High Tax Rate Places You Don't Want To Move To Because You Can Live Somewhere Just As Nice For A Lot Less."

Our message to Northgate is simple -- don't even think about it.