Flashback to 1991 for you locals

[mike2]

Anyone remember all of the abandoned/empty luxury homes dotting the eastside? I was in my early teens and lacking a drivers license, we'd ride our bikes around and explore the abandoned developments. Even after I was 16, the empty half built houses were a convenitent place to hang out with no parental supervision. These were nicer homes, 3500+ sq ft with 3 car garages left either half framed or finished with no residents. A few of my highschool buds lived in these neighborhoods, right next to empty homes that never seemed to be finished.

The same was true when I as 5-12 years old. The areas we'd play in had streets and foundations laid but no homes built. One spot I liked had been developed for lowrise condos. The foundations were poured, but by the time I saw them they were grassy fields filled with alder saplings sprouting out through the pavement. Some of the older kids had scavenged building materials to make skateboard ramps in the dark underground garages.

After seeing two down cycles, a third doesn't seem unlikely.

[redmondjp]

[rose-colored-coolaid]

[faster]

[perfectfire]

My wife counted (I was driving) 14 viewing from a single point just east of downtown Bellevue.

I made that I could find. Most I found listed on , but I'll have to update it with the ones on the Skyscraper page.

What's particularly insane to me is that we can have so many huge condo towers in a town of only about 120,000 people. It looks like we have just as many in development as Seattle does and we're not even a big city. Who are going to live in these things? I mean, aren't the people that usually like living in condos the ones that want to live a trendy downtown area of a hip city like Seattle? And aren't those same people the ones that absolutely disdain the Eastside?

[oddvan]

[wreckingbull]

A little off-topic, but does anyone remember 'Lollipop Park' in downtown Bellevue? It was a cheezy little amusement park which sits where Bellevue Square now sits (or perhaps the city park or the QFC, I can't quite recall.)

My folks would use it as part of a bait & switch ploy to get me to go to Sunday School down the street. That emotional scarring must be the reason I am now a bitter renter.