Woot! You Go, Bellevue!

Bellevue, WA, my fair city, was ranked the 12th in a list of the 100 best places to live in the USA by.. some site that does this type of ranking.  Ha ha ha. On the CNN-Money's 2010 list we ranked 4th, What?? why did we drop to 12th?  And Salt Lake City beat us?  No way!

The number 1 city is Palo Alta, which I know is super expensive, so I am not sure how they did their ranking.  Also, Tacoma is on the list (nothing against Tacoma, but in the top 100?  Sorry if anyone from Tacoma reads this blog, I actually have a writer buddy who lives there and I thought her neighborhood was lovely).  They include Redmond, which is right next door, but not Kirkland, which I find weird, because Kirkland has a fabulous presence on Lake Washington with a really great nightlife with restaurants, bars, etc (much better than Bellevue's downtown which consists of a mall). 

Supposedly, we got docked for lack of hospitals.  We only have 1.  The hospital where my husband, Doc, works.  In my never-to-be-humble opinion, we only need one hospital.  In fact, we used to have two, but Group Health closed theirs, and now shares with OUR hospital, Overlake, because there really wasn't a need for two different hospitals...

Anyway, our schools were one reason we scored so high, and I can say that my kids got a great education in the Bellevue School District.  Also, I believe we were described as "park like."  We also got high marks for our diversity, and yes, that is very true.  About 1/3 of our residents are "foreign born."   This gives us a huge cultural diversity.  Just come to Crossroads for our Eastside Stitchers night.  You can see people from all over the world there.  It is very cool.


They give us lots of points for "outdoor activities"  by which I assume they mean hiking, though since we are bound by Lake Washington on the west and Lake Sammamish on the east, they might also mean water sports.  They don't specifically mention the great hiking trails, but regular readers of this blog will know how awesome our trail system is. 

Anyway, Congratulations to Bellevue!  (I personally think we are way better than both Boise and Salt Lake City and wait?  what?  I was rereading the list, and really?? Durham is ranked above us?  no way.

Peace
f1bercat
shaping the planet from the BEST city in the United States