Published August 7 2020
The City Council is taking a fresh look at the city’s public safety practices – including police use of force policies – in an effort to determine how best to serve the community. The pledge affirms a core city value of equitable services for all residents, and leads the August issue of It’s Your City, mailed to Bellevue residents and businesses this week.
Mayor Lynne Robinson signed the pledge in June on behalf of the council, after George Floyd’s death in the custody of Minneapolis police sparked protests against injustice across the country, including in Bellevue.
The city’s preparation of a 2021-22 budget, anticipating a $12 to $16 million shortfall caused by the COVID-19-related economic shutdown, shares the front page of this It’s Your City edition.
The August issue also covers other key efforts by the city, including:
- a relaunch of the “Great Neighborhoods” planning effort, in the Northeast and Northwest Bellevue neighborhood areas;
- a preview of the design of the new Fire Station 10, which will directly serve downtown and BelRed;
- the neighborhood walks going virtual this summer;
- promotion of the census, which residents can still respond to through September; and
- use of traffic-cam video of near-crashes to help prevent actual ones.
It’s Your City is published three times a year – mailed to all 67,000 business and residential addresses in Bellevue and also available online. This year the city also published a special edition in May dedicated to Bellevue’s response to COVID-19.