Encyclopedia
Bellevue is a suburb of Seattle and rapidly-growing city in
King County,
Washington,
USA, across
Lake Washington from
Seattle. It is sometimes categorized as an edge city or a boomburb. In 2003 the
Census Bureau estimated the city had a total population of 112,344, making it the fifth largest city in the state and the largest on the Eastside of King County. According to the Washington State Office of Financial Management's April 1, 2006 estimate, the city has a population of 117,000.
Downtown Bellevue is undergoing rapid change. Lincoln Square, which opened in 2005, and a recently-completed overhaul of the former Qwest building into a new City Hall appear to be the leading edge of a development boom. Over the next few years, the area will see the construction of several additional high-rises and other projects for office, residential, and retail space.
Based on per capita income, Bellevue is the 15th wealthiest of 522 communities in the state of Washington.
History and growth
Bellevue was founded in 1869 by William Meydenbauer and was officially incorporated on March 21, 1953. Prior to the opening of the
Lake Washington Floating Bridge in 1940, Bellevue was a rural area with little development. Once the bridge opened, access from
Seattle improved, and the area gradually grew into a bedroom community.
Following the 1963 opening of a second bridge across the lake, the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge, the city began to grow more rapidly. It has since become one of the largest cities in the state, with several high-rise structures in its core and a burgeoning business community.
Reflective of Bellevue's growth over the years is Bellevue Square, now one of the largest
shopping centers in the region. Opened in 1946, Bellevue Square underwent a significant expansion in the
1980s. More recently, an expansion to Bellevue Square along Bellevue Way called "The Lodge" and the new One Lincoln Tower directly across Bellevue Way from the Square promise to solidify downtown Bellevue as the primary Eastside shopping and dining destination. The Bravern, a large mixed-use project currently under construction, will feature a Neiman Marcus as well as other upscale shops.
After a regional downturn in the early 2000s stopped construction in its tracks, Bellevue is again growing. The first phase of Ashwood Commons, a mostly-residential hi-rise, recently completed construction. A second tower is under construction at Lincoln Square; a new mixed-use development with a Safeway flagship store and luxury apartments and a two-tower luxury condominum project have already broken ground. Another development similar to Lincoln Square is also planned for the site of the current Safeway. A "superblock" development called Washington Square will cover nine city blocks and eventually include no fewer than six 22-story towers.
Other projects in Bellevue's future include Meydenbauer Place, a new Performing Arts center, a second City Center office tower , three more residential towers, and, at long last, construction has resumed on the abandoned Tech Tower site, now to be called Tower 333. Developers have reported that they do not expect to have any difficulty finding tenants for all this new space.
Geography
Bellevue is located at .
According to the
United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 87.8 km² . 79.6 km² of it is land and 8.2 km² of it is water.
The city's name is derived from a
French term for "beautiful view". Under favorable weather conditions, scenic vistas of the
Olympic Mountains and
Cascade Mountains can be viewed from hilltops within the incorporated city.
The city lies between
Lake Washington to the west and the smaller
Lake Sammamish to the east. Much of Bellevue is drained by the Kelsey Creek watershed, whose source is located in the Larsen and Phantom Lake greenbelt and whose outlet is near where
Interstate 90 meets Lake Washington's eastern shore. The city is bisected by
Interstate 405 running north-south, and the southern portion is crossed from west to east by Interstate 90.
South of I-90 the city’s
Eastgate neighborhood continues up
Cougar Mountain. To the west of Cougar Mountain, Bellevue includes Coal Creek and Factoria, an unincorporated neighborhood.
Bellevue is bordered by the cities of
Kirkland to the northwest and
Redmond to the northeast along the Overlake neighborhood. Across the short East Channel Bridge, I-90 connects Bellevue to
Mercer Island to the southwest.
Issaquah is to the east, down I-90 at the south end of Lake Sammamish. The city is also bordered to the west by the extremely wealthy suburbs of
Medina,
Clyde Hill,
Hunts Point and
Yarrow Point.
Transportation
Bellevue is the main Eastside hub for both the local transit authority, King County Metro, and
Sound Transit, the regional transit system. The Bellevue Transit Center, which serves both Metro and Sound buses, is located in the heart of the downtown business district and is connected to Interstate 405 by NE 6th St. and a direct-access Texas T HOV ramp. Local buses run into Kirkland, Redmond, Issaquah, Renton, and the University District; regional buses go to Bothell, Lynnwood, Everett, Seattle, Renton, Kent, Auburn and Federal Way, among other cities.
The East Link light rail line is planned to run from Seattle through Mercer Island and Bellevue before ending in Redmond. A package including this and other road and transit projects will go before voters in November of 2007. However, transportation systems are not planned and built in a vacuum, and the light-rail proposal is competing with other Puget Sound area projects for funding.
Among the various proposals under consideration is a Sound Transit / package tentatively to be put before the voters in 2007. The joint Sound Transit / RTID seeks to avoid the classic roads vs rail debate and fund light-rail completion north in Seattle as well as East Link. There are also plans to expand along most of the urbanized length, a replacement of the across Lake Washington, and the replacement of the in Seattle. The financial uncertainty of the area's numerous transportation projects reflect the political fragmentation of the Puget Sound area. What is becoming apparent are the associated with the central Puget Sound's regional transportation infrastructure.
Government and politics
Bellevue has a non-partisan council-manager form of government, with seven council members elected at large for staggered four-year terms. The city council selects a mayor from among its members, who serves as council chair but has no veto power.
As of 2006, the mayor is Grant Degginger and the city manager is Steve Sarkozy.
The position of mayor is largely ceremonial in Bellevue because the city manager runs the city's day-to-day operations. The mayor runs council meetings, helps choose the issues that get on the council's meeting agendas, and serves as the city's most visible spokesperson.
In the
2004 U.S. presidential election, Bellevue residents cast 57.10% of their votes for Democrat
John Kerry.
Education
Bellevue is home to City University and
Bellevue Community College.
The city hosts the Bellevue School District, with four main public
high schools:
Bellevue High School, Newport High School, Interlake High School, and
Sammamish High School. All four were included in
Newsweek's listing of the in 2005 , with the first three ranked in the top 50. Bellevue also has two alternative high schools, International School and Robinswood High School.
At the elementary level, Bellevue is home to the Eastside's only Waldorf Education, at .
Economy
With its immediate proximity to
Redmond, home of
Microsoft, and direct highway access to
Seattle via
Interstate 90 and
Washington State Route 520, Bellevue is now home to the headquarters of many small and large businesses. Many of these are technology companies, most started in the
1990s. The city has numerous thriving commercial districts. Interestingly, Bellevue is also the world's leading exporter of yak butter. It also immediately borders the tiny but extremely affluent
Lake Washington “Gold Coast” district , whose residents include
Bill Gates and control a large portion of the local wealth.
Companies headquartered or with major operations in Bellevue include:
...
- A leading online
pharmacy and information site for health, beauty, wellness, personal care, and pharmacy products.
- Eddie Bauer - Is relocating its Headquarters from Redmond, WA to a 28-story office tower at Lincoln Square, which will be completed in mid-2007. It will share this tower with Microsoft's
...
North American Sales Headquarters.
...
- A growing
Internet private-label
search engine and online directory that survived the dot.com bust of the
1990s. It’s reemerging in the mid 2000’s with a mobile entertainment offering.
...
- Recently announced that it will lease the top 15 floors of a 28 story office tower being built at Lincoln Square, across the street from Bellevue Square. They will relocate their North American Sales Group Headquarters to the building and will share it with Eddie Bauer's world Headquarters.
- Paccar Inc – A multinational technology company that manufactures heavy duty Class 8 trucks sold around the world under the Kenworth, Peterbilt, and Foden nameplates.
- ShareBuilder - An online broker allowing investors to automatically and regularly invest in stocks and ETFs, even in small amounts.
- T-Mobile – Headquarters for their US operations are located in Factoria, a neighborhood of Bellevue. They operate an all-digital, national wireless phone network, and a Wi-Fi network with over 6,000 public locations. Employs Catherine Zeta-Jones as its international spokesperson.
- Uievolution - A mobile software company .
- Valve Corporation – A video game developer made famous by its first product, Half-Life.
- WizKids - Non-electronic game developer producing everything from collectible miniatures games to board games.
Demographics
As of the
census of 2000, there were 112,344 people, 45,836 households, and 29,060 families residing in the city. The
population density was 1,411.4/km² . There were 48,396 housing units at an average density of 607.7/km² . The racial makeup of the city was 74.33%
White, 1.99%
African American, 0.32% Native American, 17.39% Asian, 0.23% Pacific Islander, 2.54% from
other races, and 3.19% from two or more races.
Hispanic or Latino of any race were 5.32% of the population.
There were 45,836 households out of which 27.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53.0% were married couples living together, 7.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 36.6% were non-families. 28.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 7.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.37 and the average family size was 2.93.
In the city the population was spread out with 21.1% under the age of 18, 7.8% from 18 to 24, 32.6% from 25 to 44, 25.0% from 45 to 64, and 13.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females there were 98.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 96.6 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $62,338, and the median income for a family was $76,868. Males had a median income of $56,456 versus $37,124 for females. The per capita income for the city was $36,905. About 3.8% of families and 5.7% of the population were below the
poverty line, including 5.7% of those under age 18 and 6.3% of those age 65 or over.
Culture
Bellevue is the site of the popular annual Bellevue Arts & Crafts Fair, held since 1947 at the end of July.
The Bellevue Arts Museum first opened in 1975, then moved to Bellevue Square in 1983. In 2001 the museum moved into its own building, designed by
Steven Holl. The museum subsequently ran into financial difficulties and was forced to close to the public in 2003. After a lengthy fundraising campaign, a remodel, and a new mission to become a national centre for the fine art of craft and design, the museum re-opened on June 18, 2005 with an exhibition of teapots.
The Rosalie Whyel Museum of Doll Art contains one of the largest doll collections in the world—more than a thousand dolls—displayed on two floors of a Victorian-style building.
Opened in December 2005, Bellevue’s newest museum to date is KidsQuest Children’s Museum. Located in Factoria Mall, a shopping complex in the midst of a major remodel, its primary visitors are mothers and care givers with children from pre-crawlers to 12 years of age. Its 10,000 square foot space houses play and discovery areas, exhibits, offices, educational activities and classroom space.
The biennial Bellevue Sculpture Exhibition draws thousands of visitors to the Downtown Park to view up to 46 three-dimensional artworks from artists around the country.
Bellevue is rapidly growing in size and diversity. As of August 2006, latest census estimates show Bellevue has a higher percentage of nonwhite residents than Seattle. Nearly a third of the city's residents are foreign-born, up from a quarter five years ago. Bellevue has the highest percentage of foreign-born residents among major cities in the state. In 2005, 32% of residents are nonwhite. The largest communities come from China, India, Russia and Mexico, attracted to business and tech industry jobs, manual labor jobs, quality schools and parks.
25% of the city's residents identify themselves as Asian, a rise from 17% in 2000, the highest in Washington state. East Indian and Chinese communities have doubled in size since 2000.
Sports
Bellevue is home to the American Basketball Association team, the
Bellevue Blackhawks. The Blackhawks in 2005, despite being ranked 13th in the league, made it to the championship game in front of 15,000 fans in
Little Rock, Arkansas.
Famous residents
...
Points of interest
- Bellevue Botanical Garden
Sister Cities
Bellevue has the following
sister cities, according to and :
External links
