Money Magazine came out with its list of America’s [100] best small cities.
Number five on the list: My home town of Redmond, WA. Well deserved, if I do say so. Here’s a KOMO-TV report on it.
The next best Washington small city on the list is Bellevue at #40.
The snapshot for Bellevue mentions, “Traffic into Seattle is a perpetual snarl,” but that “a light-rail line that will connect Bellevue and Seattle is in the works.”
Huh…imagine that. The light rail from Seattle to Bellevue isn’t even built yet. Just having it planned is adding value to Bellevue.
Suck on that, Rob McKenna!
Suck on that, Kemper Freeman!
Wouldn’t it be ironic if the value of Freeman’s property goes up a couple hundred million dollars because of light rail.
Wait! I just figured out why Freeman has spent millions to oppose light rail! If his property values go up, his property taxes will go up, too! So he’s against light rail because he doesn’t want to pay higher property taxes!
LOL… Bellevue’s a medium sized city. Population 124K.
Suck on that, Michael Medved!
Isnt Redmond and Bellevue where all TEH EVUL RICH PEEPUL live?
dont those two cities kinda lean republican?
doh!
There was once a plan to make a nice pedestrian corridor between Bellevue Square and the transit center. 20 years later, it’s still only partially complete.
Bellevue is more walkable than when I was kid. But it falls short of its potential.
I live in Seattle and work in Bellevue, and I think Bellevue traffic is WAY worse.
I work in Bellevue, also. I noticed a long time ago that in central Bellevue, parking is generally reserved for (a) those that live there; and (b) those that shop there. If you don’t fit within those categories, you will have a hard time finding a parking spot to simply walk & browse the shops and restaurants. This is a major difference between Bellevue and most other suburban cities.
If you work in downtown Bellevue, you had better hope that your employer provides you with parking, or you might as well take mass transit to avoid parking issues.
It occurred to me that light rail might not bring that many shoppers to Bellevue. What it might do, however, is bring the workers to Bellevue. Which has the unfortunate feeling that, like apartheid, the servant class is allowed to come and go, but not remain overnight within the city limits.
Note: East Bellevue (Crossroads) has different issues.
@6
Redmond is were all the lefty Microsoft people live.
@8, @9 With the exception of the central business district, Bellevue’s walkability basically sucks. There are quite a few major intersections where you can’t get across “all four ways”, and motorists seem to have very little awareness of pedestrians. Furthermore, all the swells (and would-be swells) roaring around and trying to one-up each other in their expensive (and noisy) sporty cars (not to mention the steadily increasing population of Harley riders) make being on foot not only unpleasant but a minute-to-minute battle for survival.
This blog is very King county focused. Anyone out there live anywhere else than King County? Yes, there are lots and lots of people in WA who don’t live in King County and who don’t consider King County the center of the Universe!
@12 You could help decentralize this blog’s demography by moving to Montana.