Misconceptions about city abound

Originally published Saturday, December 13, 1997

By DEBERA CARLTON HARRELL
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

The perception that Bellevue is the land of concrete, myopically inclined toward development gets a black eye from Lee Springate, the city's director of parks and community services for the past 27 years.

"From the top of Somerset (Newport Hill), you can look back at Bellevue and see how incredibly green it really is," Springate says. "We have about 56 parks and 2,000 acres of parks, trails and open space, including wetlands. Once a few more trail connectors are finished, you will be able to walk from Lake Washington to Lake Sammamish.

"But most people don't know about all this because they only see Bellevue from a freeway."

One valid perception is that Bellevue is committed to education. It is so highly valued that when a Bellevue School District bond issue failed in 1994 for the first time in memory, people went into shock -- and passed it on the second try.

When Mike Riley was hired as school superintendent in April 1996, he says, "There were concerns over achievement, dropout rates, not challenging kids at large . . . and the correlation between poverty and lower achievement. . . . There was a feeling that the district could do better."

The district is pursuing programs that address those needs and bolster academic performances of increasing numbers of low-income, bilingual and less-privileged students.

"I really believe that if we can't solve these problems in Bellevue, where the standards are already high, education is an absolute value and people are very generous with their resources, you can't do it anywhere."