Bellevue’s Growth and Low Crime Rate are Drawing more Companies East

While Seattle has long been the commercial and cultural hub of Western Washington, Bellevue has quietly been outpacing its counterpart in recent years. Fortune 500 companies and tech giants are increasingly drawn to Bellevue’s clean streets, lower crime rates, and expanding transit access via the East Link Extension. Major names like Robinhood, TikTok, and OpenAI have all chosen Bellevue as a base for new offices and regional growth.

Since 2021, the city’s office footprint has grown by nearly 3.9 million square feet, surpassing Seattle’s 2.6 million square-foot increase during the same period. The shift reflects a broader trend. As Seattle grapples with rising business taxes, safety concerns, and a persistent homelessness crisis, many companies are looking across Lake Washington for stability.

Amazon’s 2019 decision to shift thousands of employees to Bellevue followed Seattle’s proposal for a $275-per-person head tax on large companies. Though the plan was ultimately repealed, it marked a turning point. From almost no presence a decade ago, Amazon now employs more than 14,000 workers in Bellevue, a number projected to surpass 25,000 in the coming years.

My Personal Experience With Assisted Suicide

By Margaret Dore

In another life, most likely in 1980 when I was 23 years old, I talked three young men down from suicide.

What I think happened is that a final exit network type person had given them my phone number by mistake. This was before the age of caller ID.

I was contacted by each of the three young men over a period of time, each one wanting assistance to kill himself. 

I called a suicide prevention person to ask what I should do, i.e., with regard to the first one. The person told me to ask the suicidal person why? To engage him.