A Seattle Times piece by columnist Jon Talton outlines how Bellevue has become a competitor for Seattle businesses and future development projects.
Talton observes that Bellevue’s pro-business politics gives it a current advantage over Seattle, from which Amazon is transferring thousands of employees to move to Bellevue.
As Seattle struggles to address homelessness throughout the city, sidewalk camping is not tolerated in Bellevue, which has a far smaller homeless population than Seattle, Talton observes. Among the advantages Bellevue enjoys is a light rail connection to Seattle in two years and 50 major commercial and residential projects currently underway.
While acknowledging that Bellevue won’t become Seattle in the foreseeable future in population or as a port and trade center, Talton concludes that Seattle must reckon with Bellevue as a real competitor for business growth and development.
