If You Are a Holiday Cheese Ball
Bellevue is entertaining its crazed shoppers and downtown urbanites with daily holiday drum lines, snowflake lights and snow (yes, fake snow). We have seen it with our own eyes, and it is as if you chasséd on stage of a live performance of the Nutcracker. Snowflake Lane is a Bellevue tradition and is going on now until December 24, beginning at 7 p.m. daily. If shopping under fake snow doesn’t get you excited, you can walk one block from Bellevue Square to Downtown Park for a slippery good time. The city has turned its center pond into an outdoor ice arena. It is a small arena, but perfect for children.
Who knows where the Snowflake Lane line item falls on the City of Bellevue’s budget? A synchronized drum line dressed as Nutcracker soldiers performing daily? Fake snow? Florescent lights of purple, green, blue and red lighting a four-block shopping center? The city hopes to sway holiday shoppers to its neighborhood with images of White Christmas and gingerbread lattes, but when the city announces a $37 million budget increase, you wonder about priorities. According to Seattle Times, $200,000 of the new budget will go towards an environmental-stewardship initiative. Tell us more. We hear it includes a tree-planting program and examination of the city’s greenhouse gas emissions. We can’t wait to hear how the city “examines” the carbon footprint of Snowflake Lane traffic. This might be on the right path, but it’s too soon to tell.
