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Bellevue has two projects worth 3.2 billion dollars the Spring Distric and Lincoln Square expansion . There is several towers also several towers under construction.
Yes Bellevue is definitely booming, unfortunately it will never have the charm and character of Seattle.
Location: northern Vermont - previously NM, WA, & MA
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Originally Posted by mjlo
I would think Scottsdale, or sleepy bohemoth Mesa would be closer to second city to PHX over Tempe.
As big as Mesa is, as a city its an afterthought. Doesn't it have one of the world's largest trailer/RV parks? Scottsdale probably has more notoriety than Tempe given the retail and tourism aspect of it along with its affluence. However, have you been to Tempe lately? With the light rail line and the ASU campus, easy access to Sky Harbor Airport, they are doing more urban infill development than any other city outside of Phoenix in the Valley. There is quite a bit of building going on downtown for office space and residential. They are also going to build a streetcar line down Mill Ave.
As big as Mesa is, as a city its an afterthought. Doesn't it have one of the world's largest trailer/RV parks? Scottsdale probably has more notoriety than Tempe given the retail and tourism aspect of it along with its affluence. However, have you been to Tempe lately? With the light rail line and the ASU campus, easy access to Sky Harbor Airport, they are doing more urban infill development than any other city outside of Phoenix in the Valley. There is quite a bit of building going on downtown for office space and residential. They are also going to build a streetcar line down Mill Ave.
Chicagoland is an interesting case for this question because greater downtown Chicago acts as such a central hub for the region both economically and culturally. It always irritates me when people that live in Oswego or Lake in the Hills or some other peripheral suburb tell people that they are from Chicago when they live somewhere 50 miles from the Loop. But to their defense, this is partly because outside of Chicago (and to people that don't post regularly on boards like this one) there are very few common reference points for people not from the Chicago area.
Anyway, to answer the original question for Chicagoland, I don't believe that there is any one city/suburb that embodies all of the qualities the OP was probably looking for in naming a true "Second City for the Second City". Categorically, I would break it out the following way:
Economic 2nd: Joliet (National logistics and manufacturing powerhouse)
Quality of Life/Name Recognition outside of Chicago: Naperville
Most Developed CBD: Evanston
Largest Corporate Presence: (Tie) Deerfield/Schaumburg/Oak Brook/Rosemont/Naperville
Population: Aurora
Own Identity: Joliet
Nightlife/Dining: Naperville (Although I hate that half of the restaurants in downtown Naperville are just offshoot Chicago restaurants)
Most potential going forward: 1a - Joliet, 1b - Gary
For the St. Louis metro I'm going with Clayton. It's not the biggest suburb by any means, but it is the seat of St. Louis County, and it serves as one of the metro's primary CBDs.
I would think Scottsdale, or sleepy bohemoth Mesa would be closer to second city to PHX over Tempe.
The U.S. Office of Management and Budget refers to the Phoenix metro area as the Phoenix-Mesa-Glendale MSA. I don't know if this means anything in terms of importance of suburbs.
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Scottsdale probably has more notoriety than Tempe given the retail and tourism aspect of it along with its affluence. However, have you been to Tempe lately? With the light rail line and the ASU campus, easy access to Sky Harbor Airport, they are doing more urban infill development than any other city outside of Phoenix in the Valley. There is quite a bit of building going on downtown for office space and residential. They are also going to build a streetcar line down Mill Ave. 
