Bellevue, Washington Totally Explained

Everything about Bellevue Washington totally explained

Bellevue ("BELL-view") is a rapidly growing city in King County, Washington, U.S., across Lake Washington from Seattle. Long known as a suburb or satellite city of Seattle, it's now 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 8th 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. 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's manager is Steve Sarkozy.
The position of Mayor is largely ceremonial in Bellevue as 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. The position of Mayor is part-time. In practice, operational authority is held by the City Manager, the position that supervises an employee/consultant form of municipal authority. Indeed, more consideration is given the selection of City Manager than many candidates for City Council, the position of Mayor elected not by popular vote but by the seven members of Council.
In the 2004 U.S. presidential election, Bellevue residents cast 57.10% of their votes for Democrat John Kerry.

Education

Bellevue is home to Bellevue Community College (BCC) and City University. The highly rated BCC is the largest community college in Washington and the third largest institution of higher education in the state.
The city hosts the Bellevue School District. There are four main public high schools - Bellevue High School, Interlake High School, Newport High School, and Sammamish High School, as well as 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 Three Cedars School, and to several Montessori schools.

Economy

With its immediate proximity to Redmond, home of Microsoft, and direct highway access to Seattle via Interstate 90 and 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. It also immediately borders the tiny but extremely affluent Lake Washington “Gold Coast” district (Medina, Hunts Point, Clyde Hill, and Yarrow Point), whose residents include Bill Gates and control a large portion of the local wealth . Besides Bellevue Square, there are three major shopping centers in the city: Factoria Mall to the south, Crossroads Mall to the East, and the Overlake Shopping District in the north.
Companies headquartered or with major operations in Bellevue include:

180 Solutions, Inc. - "Permission based" marketing software - aka spyware.
5TH Cell - A video game developer that works on handheld, mobile and PC.
ArenaNet - PC game developer famous for Guild Wars; many ArenaNet employees used to work for Blizzard Entertainment.
Brio Realty – A national real estate company that utilizes the internet to deliver better home buying experiences for its customers.
Centeris - Leader in the Windows to Linux migration software industry.
Clark Nuber - A regional accounting firm headquartered in Bellevue.
Coinstar, Inc. - Owner and operator of coin-exchanging kiosks found in supermarkets.
Drugstore.com - An 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.
Expedia, Inc. – An online travel company.
The Generations Network - Headquartered in Bellevue, version 2.0 of MyFamily.com is a secure social networking service which allows anyone to create a family or group website (for example, a class reunion site, a club site) within a matter of minutes.
InfoSpace - 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.
Microsoft - Recently announced that it'll 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. (Microsoft Pacific Northwest District already occupies space in Bellevue at Civica Office Commons.)
Orahealth Corporation – A pharmaceutical manufacturer specializing in oral health care products
Paccar Inc – A multinational technology company that manufactures heavy duty Class 8 trucks (Semis) sold around the world under the Kenworth, Peterbilt, DAF and Leyland nameplates.
QFC - Quality Food Centers, headquartered in Bellevue, is a Washington and Oregon chain of upscale grocery stores. (A wholly-owned subsidiary of Kroger).
ShareBuilder - An online broker allowing investors to automatically and regularly invest in stocks and ETFs, even in small amounts.
Symetra - Life insurance company.
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 18,000 public locations.
Uievolution - A mobile software company (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Square-Enix).
Value Village - A second-hand clothing chain. (Also known as Savers).
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 3,563.6 people per square mile (1,411.4/km²). There were 48,396 housing units at an average density of 1,574.0/sq mi (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. Bellevue residents are known as Bellevueites.
   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.
   According to a 2006 estimate, the median income for a household in the city was $76,757, and the median income for a family was $89,020.(External Link

) 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.
Bellevue was rated one of the 25 safest cities in America

, based on the per-capita incidence of violent crime. On the same subject, the Bellevue Police Department is strongly supported by the community.
Bellevue is rapidly growing in size and diversity, a fact which outdates old censuses. It is now home to a larger 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.
Bellevue has the largest and most affluent Asian population in the state. As of 2005, 25% of the city's residents identify themselves as Asian, a rise from 17% in 2000. East Indian and Chinese communities have doubled in size since 2000.

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.

Sports

Bellevue was 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. The team has been inactive since 2006.

Notable residents

Shaun Alexander (Former Seattle Seahawks running back)

Michael Allan (NFL player for the Kansas City Chiefs)

William S. Ayer (Alaska Air CEO)

Jay Buhner (former baseball player for the Seattle Mariners)

Kemper Freeman Jr. (Developer and CEO, Kemper Development Co. Owner, The Bellevue Collection)

Stone Gossard (Musician, Pearl Jam)

Heart (band)

Megan Hilty (Broadway Actress)

Page Hopkins (Fox News Anchor)

Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik (writer and artist of Penny Arcade, webcomic)

Mike Kling (Kid Nation Participant)

Etty Lau Farrell (vocalist, Perry Farrell's Satellite Party)

Harvey Manning (noted author of hiking guides and climbing textbooks)

Edgar Martínez (Ex-Mariners DH, third baseman)

Jeff Probst - (Host of Survivor (TV series))

Paula Rosput Reynolds (American businesswoman, Safeco CEO)

Larry Sanger (Wikipedia co-founder, former resident and Bellevue native)

Layne Staley (musician, Alice in Chains)

Jerramy Stevens (tight end for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers)

Ichiro Suzuki (baseball player for the Seattle Mariners)

Cuong Vu (Jazz trumpeter, b. 1969)

Mark Arm (musician, Mudhoney)

Points of interest

Bellevue Botanical Garden

Bellevue Downtown Park

Lake Hills

Seattle Temple (actually located in Bellevue)

Neighborhoods

Bridle Trails

Crossroads

Downtown

Enatai

Factoria

Lake Hills

Longmont

Meydenbauer

Newport Hills

Newport Shores

Overlake

Somerset

Vasa

Wilburton

Woodridge

Sister Cities

Bellevue has the following sister cities:

Hualien, Republic of China (Taiwan)

Yao, Osaka, Japan

Kladno, Czech Republic

Liepaja, LatviaFurther Information

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