The Seattle Times: Bellevue Blog

New Bellevue transit group wants to be heard on light rail

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 14:38:59 PDT

The Bellevue City Council has voted on where it wants light rail to run in South Bellevue, but a new transportation group wants Sound Transit to know that not all the city's residents agree with the latest recommendation.

The group, Citizens for Responsible Transit, includes residents of neighborhoods including Mercer Slough, Enatai, Somerset and Factoria. The members back a light-rail route along Bellevue Way Southeast and 112th Avenue Southeast that includes a station at the South Bellevue Park & Ride. The station will serve more neighborhoods and riders, said one of the organizers, Michael Marchand.

"We're just hoping to let Sound Transit know there's a large contingent of the community that feels the first selection was the correct one," said Marchand, who made an unsuccessful bid in November to unseat now-Mayor Don Davidson on the council.

The City Council and the Sound Transit board both supported a Bellevue Way route last year, but after two new councilmembers who supported an I-90 route known as B7 were elected in November, the council switched its recommendation. The council recently approved a letter to tell Sound Transit it preferred a route that would run east along I-90, swing north on the BNSF Railway, zooming past zoom condo buildings in the Mercer Slough neighborhood before slanting toward downtown.

The Sound Transit board makes the ultimate decision on light-rail routes, and has not indicated whether it will change its South Bellevue preference based on the Council's new position. The board is expected to consider Bellevue's downtown alignment, including a tunnel, in April and endorse a preliminary preferred alternative.

The new group, which includes Jannine McDonald, president of the Mercer Slough Neighborhood Association, formed because residents opposed to the I-90 route felt the Council didn't hear them during its South Bellevue discussion, Marchand said. They also were concerned that the Council was using up its political capital with Sound Transit by focusing on South Bellevue even though other problems, such as funding a tunnel downtown, still haven't been resolved.

Light-rail discussions also were getting divisive and pitting neighborhoods against one another, Marchand said. The new group plans to sit down with Surrey Downs representatives soon to talk about concerns like noise that affect all residents, he said. The residents of Surrey Downs, located just south of downtown, have been vocal in their opposition to the Bellevue Way route.

"There will be hard choices to be made, and there will be people who may be happy with the outcome or people who may not be," Marchand said. "It's got to be something that serves our commuters, our shoppers, our businesses and all residents alike."

Bellevue competes for super fast Google Internet service

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 13:38:14 PDT

In the fiber-optic broadband world Bellevue envisions for its residents, a movie will be downloaded in as little as eight seconds. Yes, seconds.

The city is competing for a spot as a Google community test site, a project known as Google Fiber for Communities. If Bellevue is picked, Google will offer competitive prices to the city for a super-fast fiber optic broadband service that is up to 100 times faster than standard Internet service. The new network would move information at a rate of 1 gigabit per second, the city said, and would be available for up to 500,000 residents.

In addition to fast movie downloads, the network, which would be an "open access" network, also would increase competition for Internet service, make telecommuting easier, spur economic development and also connect the city's traffic signals to make managing signals more efficient, the city said.

Community support is one of the criteria for selection, and city officials are asking residents to go to the project Web site at http://www.google.com/appserve/fiberrfi/public/options to fill out a survey. Residents also can comment on the city's Facebook page or upload a video to YouTube to show support.

Other organizations like Bellevue College, Overlake Hospital, Puget Sound Energy and other technology companies in Bellevue could use the new broadband system, city officials said.

Bellevue School District seeks ways to cut budget

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 07:31:15 PDT

It's becoming an annual exercise. Like other districts in our area, the Bellevue School District has started working on ways to cut the 2010-11 general fund budget. But this year, the district is asking residents to weigh in with ideas about where to save school dollars.

The district expects to need to make cuts of $4 million to $6 million. (This year's budget total is $173 million.)

In the previous two years, Bellevue has had to cut a total of $10 million from its general fund budget, said district spokeswoman Ann Oxrieder. The impact of last year's cuts were dampened somewhat by federal stimulus money, but that money is starting to go away.

Cutting the budget is becoming increasingly difficult without trimming jobs because 80 percent of the district's budget goes to salaries.

Last year, Bellevue eliminated a number of noncontinuing contracts, and also got rid of its secondary-school librarian positions. One school, Tillicum Middle, received a grant from the PTSA to hire their librarian to teach library research skills for three days to all 6th graders. But the rest of the librarian positions were lost; two librarians returned to the classroom, two went on leave for a year, one librarian retired, and one librarian's contract was not renewed.

Eliminating library positions was a particularly contentious issue. This year, the district is borrowing a public procedure that the neighboring Lake Washington School District used to try to identify cuts. An interactive worksheet is being used to ask residents to identify programs to trim, or ways to raise more money.

There are two remaining public information sessions on the budget: March 18 in the Sammamish High School Cafeteria at 5 p.m., and March 24, Interlake High School PAC, starting at 6 p.m. You don't need to go to the public sessions to fill out the feedback worksheet, but it will help. There's also a short PowerPoint presentation online that provides an overview of the budget situation.

Ready to send Bellevue your advice? There are directions on how to fill out the form on the district's Web site. Here's a link to the interactive worksheet you can use to register your decision about what to cut. To fill out the worksheet, you'll need this reference guide.

The worksheet is available through March 25.

Kemper Development helistop proposal may receive further study

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 09:15:11 PDT

In a potential setback for developer Kemper Freeman, a Bellevue hearing examiner has recommended that the city staff take a closer look at permitting a helistop in downtown Bellevue.

Bellevue hearing examiner Christopher Mathews said recommending that the helistop permit be denied "does not appear to be appropriate," but that the existence of two different copies of a Federal Aviation Administration form raises questions about whether the federal agency made an "appropriate" review of the proposed helistop.

The helistop permit is being requested by Freeman's Kemper Development Company. It would be located atop the 19-story Bank of America building on Eighth Avenue Northeast Eighth Street.

Mathews wrote that he did not have authority to ask the staff to study the issue further. So he's recommending that the city council ask the staff to prepare a new report, which might include new or modified conditions for allowing helicopter landings in downtown Bellevue.

In July 2009, hearing examiner Mathews first approved a conditional use permit allowing Kemper Development to put a helistop on the building. Later that year, Su Development -- a company that develops downtown condominiums -- appealed the decision. The appeal cited noise and safety concerns.

In November, the City Council looked at the appeal and decided that the hearing examiner needed to review a letter from the Federal Aviaton Administration about any possible safety issues, and consider if there are new conditions that should be added to the permit.

Hearing examiners are private attorneys with expertise in land-use and code issues. The city contracts with them to serve as impartial third parties to review land-use applications.

Making Bellevue's downtown light-rail tunnel work

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:51:52 PDT

The Bellevue City Council was united Monday night in its support for a light-rail tunnel downtown underneath 110th Avenue Northeast, but also debated some of the details about how that line will head into downtown.

Sound Transit has proposed two ways to approach the downtown tunnel, but the Council discussion focused mainly on an elevated line that would jog east of the Bellevue Hilton and then veer toward downtown via the Red Lion Hotel.

From there, the downtown route would follow Main Street west and remain elevated over 112th before plunging into a cut-and-cover tunnel just south of Main at 110th. The train would emerge from the tunnel at Northeast Sixth Street and cross I-405.

During the discussion, Mayor Don Davidson said he and council member Claudia Balducci discussed the possibility of the line turning off 112th at Northeast Second Avenue instead of Main. The city already has plans to expand Second, and he wondered if that route would save money.

City Manager Steve Sarkozy said that route had been rejected before because of high property costs and a sharp turn off 112th. Property values have changed since it was last considered, he said, but there could still be design problems.

Bellevue's Twisted Cork and Stir shut down

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 16:45:11 PDT

Bellevue's restaurant scene just suffered a double whammy: both 0/8 Seafood Grill and Twisted Cork, and Stir Martini + Raw Bar closed over the weekend. Our colleague and food writer Nancy Leson was all over the closure in her blog, All You Can Eat. To read more about the how and why, see her blog post about the dual closures.

Exploring ethnic eateries around Bellevue

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 15:39:27 PST

In a departure from our recent stream of light-rail and math-heavy news out of Bellevue, let us talk about a lighter topic: food. I'm part of the team at The Seattle Times that scours the region for great cheap eats for our Dining Deals reviews every Friday in Ticket, and Bellevue has become my favorite place to go food-spotting.

Bellevue boasts a bevy of new high-end hotspots, like Artisanal, John Howie Steak and Monsoon East. But I find just as much joy hunting down the ethnic gems that are tucked all over the city. I chalk up the amazing diversity of restaurants to the amazing diversity of Bellevue's population, at more than 30 percent foreign-born, according to the American Community Survey.

My explorations have included a stop at the little Korean restaurant inside Pal-Do World grocery story in the Lake Hills neighborhood. The restaurant resembles a cafeteria, but dishes up delightful, crispy bibimbap and a nice array of the small dishes known as banchan. I would rather eat the ramen at Ginza off of Main Street, specifically the shio ramen, than anywhere else. I fell for the Szechuan beef and tendon noodle soup at Toy's Cafe, and I can't get enough of the authentic Taiwanese eats at Facing East. I also recently tried Little Hot Pot in Crossroads (seen in a quick cell-phone picture to the right), which is next door to the delicious Palace Korean.

But that doesn't even begin to cover what's out there, and I want to know more. What are your favorite restaurants in Bellevue? What dish brings you back over and over again? Let us know in comments!