[PROCON]

Actually I grew up in Bellevue in the 1960's, went to Sammamish HS. It was a great, middle-class city back then and I have fond memories of living in Lake Hills, hanging at crossroads and the Lake Hills roller rink.

Good memories.

[zeestephen]

I arrived in Bellevue in 2004, and the town probably looked a lot like the place you remember.

There were still a half dozen private homes in the downtown “business district,” plus a 1950s vintage Dairy Queen building that was still selling ice cream cones and Blizzards.

The transformation of downtown in the last 12 years is incomprehensible.

In 2007, just before the Great Recession, we had 14 tower cranes putting up new buildings inside a one square mile area.