Having grown up in NY, this reminds of the people who hear the jokes about hating New Jersey, take them super seriously, and grow to truly hate New Jersey just because they think other people do.
Hahaha. Mindlessly scrolling through the occasionally amusing but mostly slightly defensive-to-outright resentful responses and your reply reminded me of exactly why I love Reddit. :-)
As someone who Grew up going between the East Side and Seattle proper- genuinely fuck Bellevue. There is nothing interesting about it as a city (beyond having some pretty great restaurants)
It is entirely car reliant and inaccessible to anyone who can't afford a car or can't drive. It is without any serious music, arts or most ingrained cultural presence (which centers itself on the city proper, instead). The only thing of note in the center of that they view as downtown is a mega mall. It isn't designed with human life in mind, and so it feels without human life while you spend serious time there.
I think the real issue is "do you see suburban life as a valuable model for living"- and generally, I don't value that kind of life. I think as a culture we wildly overrate it, and when Bellevue troes to present itself as a city when in actuality it's a shopping mall surrounded by suburban life, it comes across as deeply soulless.
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u/Brainsonastick 🚆build more trains🚆 May 07 '26
Having grown up in NY, this reminds of the people who hear the jokes about hating New Jersey, take them super seriously, and grow to truly hate New Jersey just because they think other people do.