Redmond Then and Now

Fifteen years ago, when we landed in the beautiful state of Washington, Redmond looked quite different. Redmond was a small town, with a funky, and quite frankly not very inviting downtown characterized by unkempt buildings, one way streets and small shops with windows filled with dated merchandise, covered in dust, bleached by the unforgiving light of sunshine. It really wasn’t very inviting, and as it was divided by Redmond Way taking me to Kirkland, Cleveland Street going the other direction and SR202 leading to Woodinville I never stopped. I just glimpsed at those store fronts through my car window whilst standing in the traffic lights.

On one side of downtown we had Bella Bottega. A strip mall with a fancy name and a couple of restaurants, a grocery store and most importantly a movie theatre. There were no medical buildings, just the strip with the movie theater.

The other end of Redmond – at that point, it really was pretty much the other end – was the newly built mall Redmond Town Center in its glory. But the mall was tiny, way smaller than it is today, and as cute as it was you still had to drive somewhere else most times, due to the lack of department stores. The mall was split in two by a street that is no longer there. There were no kids running around in the fountain or playing in the sunshine. There was a shaded play area under the escalator.

As newcomers, we could have ended almost anywhere, after all we had no means to tell Redmond apart from Tacoma, or Kirkland from Everett. It was all just a map, and we could have – just as well – ended up some place else. But we ended up in Redmond. Not the fancy, beautiful Redmond, but a small side street of Avondale Road, with low income rentals on one side, a huge apartment complex at the end, and our tiny townhomes shaded by huge firs. The morning traffic on Avondale woke us up in the mornings and if it didn’t do the work, the speed bumps in front of our condo did, as the shovels, rakes and lawn mowers on the truck beds jumped in the air when the work trucks passed by us at dawn.

Not many remember the fuss around town when they started building our first higher building. Most seemed to hate the idea of The Cleveland, and even the best of us were unable to see the big picture. Why would anyone want to live in that building? The lonely warrior standing in isolation, in the middle of car, and home appliance repair shops. I don’t think many could envision Redmond the way it is now, at least I couldn’t.

The all new Redmond Downtown Park will open next summer!

So, when I look at Redmond today, my heart is proud. We have done good with our little town. Suddenly it has found its glory. People drive here for our cute little coffee shops, bakeries and all those restaurants. Redmond has become viable and lively. It invites young professionals to live and stay, it has become beautiful and fresh. There is no longer a need to drive somewhere else for that coffee and chat, or a night out with your friends. Go Redmond!

There are still a few spots where you can see what it used to look like.