Christopher Randels
Chris Randels is the founder and director of Complete Streets Bellevue, an advocacy organization looking to make it easier for people to get around Bellevue without a car. Chris lived in the Lake Hills neighborhood for nearly a decade and cares about reducing emissions and improving safety in the Eastside's largest city.
At their meeting last week, Bellevue's Planning Commission initiated their discussions on a land use code amendment (LUCA) to allow more micro-apartments in the city. The work is the next step from an October 10th Council direction to advance the LUCA as part of the city's Next Right Work...
Hot off the coattails of a resounding electoral victory to raise the minimum wage in Tukwila, a new coalition has formed to launch a similar ballot initiative campaign in Renton. Dubbed "Raise the Wage Renton," chief organizer Guillermo Zazueta announced the campaign's launch alongside students, workers, and elected officials...
With a unanimous vote to conclude Tuesday's meeting, Bellevue City Council initiated planning work that would allow middle housing -- such as accessory dwelling units (ADUs), backyard cottages, duplexes, triplexes, and quadplexes -- in more parts of the city. The proposal represents a next step in the Council's "Next...
At The Urbanist, we've been intentionally working to expand our coverage of issues around the Puget Sound because the principals of good urban design, abundant housing, and sustainable transportation are useful for all of our communities. 2022 marked a significant uptick in our coverage of Bellevue, so we wanted...
It's been known for a few months that East Link light rail was not going to be completed by its original planned opening in mid-2023, but a staff presentation at Thursday's Sound Transit System Expansion Committee meeting provided updated details on the scope of delays to upcoming transit projects....
Although she's only been on the job for six weeks, newly-hired Sound Transit CEO Julie Timm already has been put in the spotlight for her opinions on our region's transit system. At a Tuesday morning breakfast with local business leaders hosted by the Bellevue Downtown Association, Timm was asked...
Fall is here, and though the days getting shorter, the city council meetings are getting longer as chief executives from local jurisdictions each put forward their draft budgets. For the City of Bellevue, that means a 2023-24 biennial budget of over $2.2 billion, including a nearly $600 million general...
Two and a half weeks after the Bellevue Housing Research Coalition unveiled initial poll results showing broad dissatisfaction with the Bellevue housing market, the group has released a new batch of findings related to policies that could help initiate a course correction. The poll, conducted by Change Research, asked...