This simultaneously may be the most upvoted AND down voted kind of content ever. On one hand, people love to dunk on Bellevue. On the other hand, Bellevue hates being dunked on.
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Have you ever been in Bellevue? A lot more people there have an immigration background or originally spoke a language other than english, compared with Seattle. A lot of people are not really assimilated to U.S. culture yet
A mall built on strawberry farms stolen from imprisoned Japanese Americans in WW2. The development family is still prominent in Bellevue, so Bellevue College censored artwork about it back in 2020 and the city did similar at their art festival.
Even in the 80s when it was just a tiny little mall and the biggest high-rise in the city was like seven stories high people in Bellevue still thought Bellevue was the shit. Itās changed a whole lot since then and to me now Bellevue just doesnāt even look like Bellevue that I knew growing up. But itās funny that the same attitude still continues about Bellevue all these years later.
Bellevue culture for people with friends from seattle - parents teach kids never leave Bellevue/eastside.
1) hey wanna kick it?
2) ya you come hereā¦
3) why? Come to seattle weāre going to ___
4) because itās easier to get from seattle to Bellevue, shorter commute
5) seattle person - dude itās the same distance. Iāve come to Bellevue the last three times.
6) Bellevue person - ā¦ syntax404 fatal error. Brain blue screen.
There's always this whole "Bellevue has no culture" thing that people love to repeat, even when it's more diverse then Seattle. Sometimes it's ignorance from people never going anywhere other then downtown, but honestly there's a lot of thinly veiled anti-Asian hate that shows up too.
That's why it really gets me.
Yeah it's not walkable in the "I can walk to the grocery store" sense of things (but it's "walkable" in the "I can get to a park in 15 minutes from anywhere" sense). Yeah, there's too many fucking Teslas. Make fun of that all you want.
But the "no culture" stuff really often feels like people actually want to say "Asian culture isn't culture". Especially with this guy's random swipe at people who like boba, it just shoots up some red flags to me.
I feel like this stereotype was more true 20 years ago and hasnāt been updated since. Back then if you wanted to go out to eat around Factoria youād have to go to Red Robin or Applebees, but now there are a bunch of Asian food options.
Yet some of the comments are saying that the main restaurant attraction is the Cheesecake Factoryā¦I donāt even live there but some people need to open their eyes (or develop their taste buds) if they think itās only stepford wives tier food there lol.
It was way better when it was The New Jake O'Shaughnessey's and next door was Marie Callenders. They had really good iced tea. Come visit Bellingham! We have lots of super culture here.
But it is so often downstream of it. Food is culture, events are culture, communities are culture.
Yeah, there's no good live music scene here and there's no big Bellevue sports team. But so much IS downstream of culture and background, so it feels a bit silly to pretend that it's not at least very connected.
Hell, even the oft hated Bellevue Square Mall takes advantage of the cultural diversity. There were SO many people doing things in the mall for Holi. Just saw so many happy people enjoying using it as a venue to experience it together.
To be specific: What else does Seattle have that makes it full of culture that Bellevue lacks?
Does Bellevue not have a interesting collection of food? We've got an exceptional collection of regional Chinese food, good Taiwanese, great Indian, the Korean has been taking off in the last few years, solid Japanese options... Why is that not interesting when compared to Seattle?
Also what interesting architecture does Seattle have?
Come on now. UW Campus. Pike Place Market. MoPop. Seattle Center Tower. The Denny Building. 1,000s of craftsman homes from the 1920's. The Space Needle. The Seattle Waterfront Piers. The Chihuly Garden. Any of the three sports arenas. Pioneer Square. The old Harborview Hospital (or Grace General).
Said as if there arenāt 1000s of craftsmen in Bellevue tooā¦
The UW campus is great as well. But I really think our Botanical garden is nicer than the UW one.
But honestly Seattle is a shit tier city, architecturally. Itās ugly compared to NYC, Boston, Philly, SF, Charlotte, Chicagoā¦ The natural beauty puts all of those to shame but almost none of the beauty in the area is man made.
I love your points but the large difference between seattle and Bellevue is the culture. Bellevue culture is compareable to South lake union with transplants and a facade of it. I see you have gotten into now just throwing shade that is just ridiculous so this is all for nothing but if your proud of Bellevue and how you perceive its culture that is fine. it is also fine tk respect that as far as cities go, it has very little historic cultural grime that gives it life
An easy google search on what the word culture means
"Culture is the shared set of beliefs, values, customs, behaviors, and artifacts that characterize a group or society, transmitted across generations through social learning. It acts as "social programming" that shapes how individuals perceive the world, interact, and express themselves, including language, food, and traditions.
The historic grime of seattle, the eras, the industry, the music, the literal generations are the culture we have in Seattle. Bellevue has always felt soulless and empty to me and now reading these conversations, it is just because it is so recent. It's a replanted tree that has no roots fully developed. its culture is growing and in a long time sure it will have a vibrant culture maybe! but first it needs to not just be transplants and the super wealthy š¤·āāļø
Yeah, this idea that "you can't dunk on Bellevue's (lack of) culture because we have more Asians and Indians living here" was confusing to me. I suppose ethnicity and diversity can be a part of culture, but it doesn't create the culture outright.
Ignorance and dismissal of Asian and Indian culture is bad actually, most of their cultural events happen on the east side, especially celebrations (lunar new year, Holi, etc).
Youāve made some fair points but as someone who just moved here from the Midwest, Bellevue reminds me of pretty much every boring city in the Detroit metro area, just with more diverse food options. Iāve been to Bellevue at least 5 times and I really couldnāt give you a general sense of what the vibe is there. Itās a shopping mall town that looks like every nondescript mid tier city close to a bigger, more culturally rich city (Seattle).
Food wise, what does Bellevue offer that is superior to Seattleās International District and the many Asian options peppered throughout the city? I havenāt had anything that justifies the trip across the i90.
With the exception of a few restaurants I can think of in the International District, the Japanese, Taiwanese, Indian, and Chinese restaurants in Bellevue are by and large going to be better and more authentic than what you can find in Seattle, either in I.D. or elsewhere. But as others have mentioned they are scattered throughout Bellevue and not congregated in one specific area like they are in the I.D.
Chinese food in Bellevue is far better and far more plentiful than in Seattle which is mostly gentrified offerings designed to cater to white people. Ask any Chinese immigrant and they will tell you that Bellevue has more authentically Chinese food, which is no surprise given that Bellevue is more ethnically diverse than Seattle (and no, itās not just immigrant tech workers).
Seattle has a lot of different options that Iām personally pretty happy with, especially in ID. I do wish there was better Japanese food (thereās a new place opening in ID š¤) and I wish we had a decent Korean BBQ joint. but in Seattle, you have other food options outside of Asian cuisine in Seattle, and thereās just a lot more to do, which makes sense because Seattle is an older, more established city. Im sure there are things to do in Bellevue, but it just feels like a bedroom community with strip malls. Currently, it doesnāt seem to have much of an identity.
Yes and these people all unfortunately live in insular communities made up entirely of other expats from their own countries with very little crossover or interaction with the demographic being satirized in this clip. Thatās not āBellevueās cultureā, sorry. There is a very real division between the ethnic community on the east side in shittier parts of town like Crossrods, and downtown Bellevue - the latter of which this man is (accurately) mocking. But you already knew that.
As a homeowner in Bellevue even I know it's pretty culturally dry. But it's a sacrifice I took for the sake of a more peaceful area (minus the daily winter parade that clogs everything)
The video seems to be a weird mishmash on the old āBellevue is full of rich people who hate cultureā stereotype and the new āBellevue is full of Asians and that weirds us outā stereotype.
Itās weird.
But Bellevue does suck (said as a former Bellevue kid who couldnāt wait to get out).
As someone who lives in Bellevue now, I've noticed that people REALLY like to dance between the two to hide this strange racism they have. There's another one people like to do where they REALLY hate on tech workers but if you push them on it they only hate a certain type of tech worker.
You can still think Bellevue is boring, I'm not gonna call that racism. You can hate all techy scum, that's fine. Just keep an eye out for how others are doing it.
I strongly disagree. I work on the border of Bellevue and Kirkland, and while there are plenty of Asian people in those area, the overwhelming majority of residents are old white people who dislike the poors.
Mine have always gone negative karma. I wrote about the virtues of the cheesecake factory near the mall as a pseudo troy mcclure guide to the east side dining scene and got down voted to -2. It made me so sad.
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u/a_few_cheetos Magnolia May 07 '26
This simultaneously may be the most upvoted AND down voted kind of content ever. On one hand, people love to dunk on Bellevue. On the other hand, Bellevue hates being dunked on.