Explore Bellevue's Neighborhood Trends With New Online Tools

BELLEVUE, WA — Earlier this week, the Bellevue City Council discussed this year's State of Our Neighborhoods report, which included a new online tool to help residents learn more about their evolving city. According to officials, Bellevue's population has grown by 23 percent since 2009, with gains in diversity, household income and education seen across every area of the city.

While the city has welcomed thousands of new faces over the last decade, the city said 94 percent of residents who participated in this year's survey still rated their neighborhoods as good or excellent. Officials said those surveyed also highlighted a few areas of concern, including how the city will address further growth, housing affordability, crime, homelessness, and neighborhood traffic, along with enhancing safety for pedestrians and cyclists.

The new set of interactive online tools allows residents to explore the unique ingredients that make each of the city's 16 neighborhoods great. One dashboard focused on community diversity allows users to see each neighborhood's demographics, sorted by population, age, income, place of birth and other characteristics. Other dashboards illustrate housing affordability by area, and where new developments are planned around the city. The city said Downtown Bellevue and BelRed are the two fastest-growing neighborhoods, with downtown expected to host more than half the new units planned for construction over the next two decades.

The new online portal also includes the latest metrics on Vision Zero, a goal to end traffic-related deaths and serious injuries by 2030, and progress toward meeting the city's 40 percent tree canopy target.

For crime, the city built a "heat map" showing where the most crimes are reported, and the most common types of crime. Downtown and Factoria rank high for the number of reports, and the most common crimes reported over the last five years were thefts and car prowls.

Residents can explore all the information using the State of Our Neighborhoods tool.