Bellevue developer Kemper Freeman, he of the light rail opposition and the deep pockets, has a few things to say about Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn's plan to raise parking rates downtown.

Like, oh, "McGinn is Knifing Seattle Retail." (Over in Bellevue, a city that Freeman apparently sees a beacon of great urban planning, the parking is free.)

Freeman, a fourth-generation Bellevue land baron, continues, livid. ā€œThis guy (Mayor McGinn) doesn’t have a clue how to run a city. I should be dancing, but I’m not. It hurts the whole region, believe me. It’s like he hates people and he wants to run ā€˜em out of there.ā€

Rather than just grousing, Freeman offers some counsel for Mayor McGinn.

ā€œNo. 1, ā€œ he says, ā€œ I would start with the concept that healthy retail in downtown is the catalyst for a healthy economy for all other forms of commercial real estate in Seattle, such as office buildings, hotels, restaurants, apartments, condos and so forth. So if your goal is to have a healthy economy for Seattle, as far as downtown is concerned, there’s nothing more important than making sure that retail is healthy.ā€ For one, he says, that means not raising the parking rates from $2.50 to $4 an hour.

It goes from there, with Freeman closing with this bit of advice to McGinn: "Don’t make the car your enemy. It’s actually your friend.ā€