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Challenging to Eugene, Spokane, Vancouver (WA) perhaps, but putting it in the same league as Portland in any category other than perhaps skyline is simply insulting. Bellevue is more a part of Seattle than it is its own standing separate city.
Please check your references on this. The combined square footage of downtown Bellevue is closing in on Portland. To compare it to Eugene, Spokane, or Vancouver, is also an insult...to Bellevue.
Please check your references on this. The combined square footage of downtown Bellevue is closing in on Portland. To compare it to Eugene, Spokane, or Vancouver, is also an insult...to Bellevue.
Like I said, Bellevue has an impressive skyline especially for a city its size, but that's pretty much where its esteem ends. As far as actual downtowns? People love downtown Portland, just look at the "top 25 downtowns in the U.S." thread. Portland is frequently in the top 10 often immediately following Seattle - all this despite having an underwhelming skyline for a metro of its size.
And don't forget, there really is no skyline competition between Belleuve and Portland. Portland has had height and development restrictions for decades. Portland's South Waterfront looks more like Bellevue than downtown does.
This is becoming a growing debate within the Sea metro area...is Bellevue a suburb or the center of a large population area on the eastside. I can totally understand where many still look at Bellevue as a suburb, but the truth is the population of the eastside is equaling that of Seattle. Bellevue looks totally different today than it did even one year ago. The new industries of the Puget Sound region generally choose to locate on the eastside. If you had asked me 5 or 10 years ago if Bellevue was a suburb of Seattle, I would have said yes. But things are changing fast, and now I'm not so convinced.
(BTW, I love the Portland south riverfront...very ambitious development, but right now it is only about a fifth of what you see in Bellevue, so the comparisons are not really valid in my mind.)
This is becoming a growing debate within the Sea metro area...is Bellevue a suburb or the center of a large population area on the eastside. I can totally understand where many still look at Bellevue as a suburb, but the truth is the population of the eastside is equaling that of Seattle. Bellevue looks totally different today than it did even one year ago. The new industries of the Puget Sound region generally choose to locate on the eastside. If you had asked me 5 or 10 years ago if Bellevue was a suburb of Seattle, I would have said yes. But things are changing fast, and now I'm not so convinced.
(BTW, I love the Portland south riverfront...very ambitious development, but right now it is only about a fifth of what you see in Bellevue, so the comparisons are not really valid in my mind.)
Perhaps it is becoming somewhat of a San Francisco - Oakland or Dallas - Ft. Worth esque metropolitan area (which I think is cool), but at least for now I think that idea is pretty much prevalent in Seattle. Even here in Portland its really considered a suburb more than a separate center, but I guess we'll give it another 10 years to see really what happens.
Perhaps it is becoming somewhat of a San Francisco - Oakland or Dallas - Ft. Worth esque metropolitan area (which I think is cool), but at least for now I think that idea is pretty much prevalent in Seattle. Even here in Portland its really considered a suburb more than a separate center, but I guess we'll give it another 10 years to see really what happens.
Yes, interesting comparisons, but SF-Oakland, and Dallas-Ft. Worth are different in one major way, they both kind of grew up during the same era. Seattle was a big city when Bellevue was just an intersection. This could add fuel to the argument that Bellevue is just a suburb, but any visit in recent months would tell you it has grown beyond that description.
I'd put Tacoma above Bellevue. Office space and skyline aside, there's honestly not much else in Bellevue that makes it feel like a "city" rather than an overgrown 'burb. Tacoma has industry, a deep-water port with a working waterfront, 2 universities, twice the population and the variety of architecture and neighborhoods that come with a city that has grown over 100+ years, rather than 30-ish.
I'm not a Bellevue-hater, I think the skyline absolutely kicks a$$. For the 5th largest city in the state, it's skyline beats 2, 3 and 4 by miles.
1. San Francisco
2. Seattle
3. Los Angeles
4. Portland
5. San Diego
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