Quantcast

I Knew Brooklyn. Brooklyn Was a Friend of Mine. And Bellevue, You're No Brooklyn

gabekotter.jpgWe at Seattlest have considered the question of "What is Bellevue" before.

What we didn't consider is what the Times' Danny Westneat does today. Is Bellevue a "New Brooklyn"?

Westneat's riffing off of a new book called Boomburbs: The Rise of America's Accidental Cities. The book's author, Robert Lang, "argues that our quintessential whitebread suburb is now so packed with immigrants it actually looks more like New York's famed borough."


...He doesn't mean Bellevue feels urban like Brooklyn ... Lang says he means that Bellevue is a "cosmoburb" — a place tagged as a white suburb that is no longer either white or suburban. Bellevue now is less white than Seattle and has nearly as high a share of foreign-born residents (32 percent) as Brooklyn (38 percent).

We can speak with some authority on Brooklyn, having lived there for five years. And here's the thing. Brooklyn, once, was a metropolis unto its own. It had its own baseball team, its own transit system, its own dialect, its own culture.

Bellevue has never, and will never, have any of those things. Meet someone from Bellevue in Brooklyn, they'll tell you they are from Seattle. Meet someone from Brooklyn in Bellevue, they'll tell you they're from Brooklyn. Proudly.

There's no Bellevue pride, there's no Bellevue culture, there's nothing that makes Bellevue different than any of the other "cosmoburgs" Lang's anointing. Like their "cosmoburg" peers, Bellevue residents eat at The Keg, shop at Abercrombie and Fitch or the Gap, talk like newscasters. Bellevue may get more dense, it may get more diverse, it may get the Sonics. But it will always be, in practice and in spirit, a suburb of Seattle.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@seattlest.com with further questions, comments or tips.
By Seth in on December 14, 2006 1:57 PM

Comments [rss]

  • > neo-hipster



    If by that you mean Williamsburg + Greenpoint (and DUMBO, Fort Greene, Bushwick, even Bed Stuy) are neo-hipster, do you really mean they are bouncing back to their former uses as middle class housing stock? Add them to Park Slope and Brooklyn Heights which never lost their original function, and most of Brooklyn is quite safe from violence.



    Class conflict does exist though, so robbery does still continue for the time being.

  • Seth

    Yeah, Ballard is a lot like Williamsburg. I've lived in both places, but I was in Ballard in the late 80s, when downtown Ballard had no trendy shops or bars, and was still a shopping destination for elderly Scandinavians during the day and rather seedy at night. Which (replacing Polish with Scandinavian) is about how I imagine Williamsburg was in the late 80s.

  • I wouldn't say that Ballard feels like Brooklyn, unless you're referring to neo-hipster (Williamsburg/Greenpoint) Brooklyn. And even then, Ballard never feels menacing.



    FWIW, I grew up in Brooklyn, and I certainly agree that Bellevue is not Brooklyn, but neither is Ballard. I really haven't found anyplace here that feels anything like the Borough of Churches. Not that that's a bad thing. Seattle is a great place that should be taken on its own terms.



    FWIW, I don't mind Bellevue, but I'd rather not live there. Cosmoburb? Feh. Decent, but bland place? Sure.

  • Seth

    I'd say Ballard feels more like Brooklyn than Bellevue does, despite having less people. It's not so much about population as it is about having a personality. Brooklyn has personality. Ballard has personality. Bellevue has Applebee's.

  • Seems to me that if you want to use a flattering analogy -- and comparing Bellevue to Brooklyn definitely flatters Bellevue -- you've got to be ready to hear about where that analogy falls flat.

  • Ricky

    Trying to directly equate Bellevue and Brooklyn is pretty stupid Seth. Let's see..Brooklyn has a population of 2.5 million and Bellevue, just over 100,000. Gee that's a difference about _25X!_.



    I suggest you read up on the definition of "analogy" and read the article and the author more carefully.

  • kcip

    Minorities in Brooklyn are way tighter than minorities in Bellevue. Regardless, you are the man, Seth.

  • Maybe Bellevue is the new Brooklyn, Washington?

  • bigyaz

    Of course, that's not what either Westneat nor the author is saying. Way to set up a strawman so you can bash it and sound like a cool, Seattle hipster.

  • Andrew

    Bellevue is like San Jose and NOT like Oakland. Oakland has culture like the brooklyn you've describe but San Jose has a lot more immigrants and a lot more homogenisation.



    Immigrants doesn't equal culture, and San Jose california is proof of that.

blog comments powered by Disqus
Home

send a tip

tips@seattlest.com

about

staff / advertising / contact / archive

contribute