West Redmond Real Estate Buzz

Derby Days?  Do you know where this annual Redmond, Washington festival got its name?  Do you know how many years the festival has been going on? Here’s a bit of the history of the 68 year Derby Days Festival in Redmond.  The festival got its start in the Depression, in the 1930’s and was a civic attempt to raise some money for Christmas decorations.  A Bicycle Derby was born.  The route has changed many times over the years and is now a Bicycle Criterium.  Redmond Washington, the bicycle capital has had the longest running bicycle race in the country.

Now Derby Days has a Kids Parade, a General Parade, and an amusement park and a sound stage.  Come on down and dance to music from the 50’s, the 70’s or the 90’s.  Fun will happen all day long and finish with a fireworks show.

Redmond Washington shines with concerts and movies throughout the summer.  From July 10th to August 28th, there are tons of great outdoor activities.

The following is a list of activities from Paint the Town Redmond website:

Summer Nights in Redmond 2008

Dates:

• Starts: 07/10/2008
• Ends:  08/28/2008

Time:

• Time Varies: 7pm-9pm

Price:

• Free

WEDNESDAYS
King County Parks’ Movies@Marymoor
Marymoor Park Concert Venue
Seating opens at 7 pm, movies begin at dusk
$5 per person/$15 per family suggested donation to support the parks
July 16: Anchorman
July 23: Juno
July 30: Monsoon Wedding
Aug 6:   Singing in the Rain
Aug 13: Hairspray
Aug 20: Muppet Movie
Aug 27: Viewer’s Choice

THURSDAYS
Redmond Town Center’s Summer Concert Series
Center Street Plaza
7-9 pm
July 10: Mango Son
July 17: The Nowhere Men
July 24: How’s Bayou
July 31: Becki Sue & Her Big Rockin’ Daddies
Aug 7:   Michael Powers
Aug 14: Raucous
Aug 21: The Daily Flash
Aug 28: Eduardo Mendonça & Show Brazil

FRIDAYS
Redmond Arts Commission’s Arts in the Parks
Redmond City Hall
7-9 pm
July 18: Carrie Clark & The Lonesome Lovers
July 25: GreenStage - Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night
Aug 1: Wooden O Theatre - Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet
Aug 8: Los Flacos
Aug 15: Redmond Teen Night
Aug 22: Arts Jam III

Redmond, Washington was listed as one of the top neighborhood spots in the Seattle area in the July issue of Seattle magazine. The magazine did a pretty thorough study of what each city or neighborhood has that sets it apart from the other areas.  Redmond showed up on both of the magazine’s top ten lists.  One list included all neighborhoods and cities in the Seattle area, and one list was just suburban cities. Of the 110 top Seattle neighborhoods and suburban cities, Redmond came in at #6.  When compared to other suburban cities, Redmond came in at #4. 

The magazine found people who live in Redmond:

• Ride Horses
• Play soccer
• Rollerblade
• Play tennis
• Rock climb
• Race bicycles
• Walk
• and are often Techies.

Redmondites are a very smart, athletic bunch!

 Check the magazine’s July issue out. Every area of Seattle is measured for affordability, crime, WASL scores, minutes to downtown Seattle, and % of home appreciation. 

These are important things, but what’s important to you?  What are your favorite reasons for living in Redmond, Washington?  There are a lot of great reasons why people have chosen to live here rather than in other parts of the country and other Seattle area neighborhoods.  What’s your fave reason for living in Redmond?

Redmond’s portion of the Sammamish River Trail, the  Riverwalk, is just gorgeous.  My interest was piqued by an article in this weekend’s Seattle Times regarding the $10 million dollars worth of improvements and ten years of work done to the trail.  I hadn’t realized how long it’s been since I’ve been over on the Redmond part of the trail, and it is really different and wonderful.  It’s a  peaceful, beautiful, and relaxing walk.  We saw ducks and a blue heron parked on a rock on the river. People were biking on all sorts of bikes, inline skating, using ski poles, walking, walking with baby strollers, wheelchairs.  For me, it was a great way to multi-task: spend time with my husband, my Dad, my dog, get exercise, be outside, enjoy Redmond, and do a blog post!

Check it out, it’s a real asset to the City of Redmond.

It’s almost ready.  I stopped by Grasslawn Park in Redmond, Washington the other day and it’s looking pretty great.  The new basketball court is ready and the park is almost done, just in time for summer.

This just in from Timothy Cox of the City of Redmond:

Work in Redmond, WA at Microsoft?    “Come on and Take a Free Ride” ( Edgar Winters Group).   Every time I turned a corner last week there was a Microsoft Connector vehicle whizzing by.  I’ve been over by  Microsoft’s Redwest and main campus off 156th Ave NE in Redmond meeting with some buyers and sellers from the neighborhoods around the Redmond campuses a lot lately.  There seems to be a Connector vehicle on every corner. 

  The Connector Service has vehicles of all sizes, from eco-friendly Priuses

 to shuttle buses

 to standard sized buses.  The system was started last fall, in September to be exact, and Microsoft announced just last month that the Connector service is expanding. 

 As someone who doesn’t work at Microsoft, but who works in the neighborhoods all around Microsoft, I personally am thrilled to see the service.  For years, I’ve had to schedule appointments in Redmond around the major “Microsoft commuting” times.  I knew to steer clear of the campuses around 9:30 to 9:45 every morning.  Traffic was brutal. 

When I first moved to Redmond in 1986, Microsoft had just moved over to what is their main campus, with 10 buildings,  and had just gone public.    There was no overpass at NE 40th, something many of you probably still remember, since it has not been there all that long.  But I doubt many of you remember the time before an overpass existed at NE 51st.  Seems like there’s been an overpass at NE 51st forever, but not so.  When I first moved to Redmond, NE 51st crossed highway 520, at a traffic light!  I moved into my first house in the area in August of 1986 and shortly thereafter, the NE 51st overpass was constructed.   By the way, how many of you remember when there was a stop light at Redmond Way and 520?

Kudos to Microsoft for cutting down on traffic and the carbon foot-print of its employees and the company.

From Microsoft Environment’s web page:

“Private Bus System (”Connector”). To improve commuting opportunities and to reduce environmental impact of commuting, Microsoft has created and manages its own transportation bus system. For campus commuters who found public transportation wasn’t satisfying their needs, Microsoft invested in the creation of one of the world’s largest private bus systems. Employees can use the Connector, a free express bus service during morning and evening commute times between residential neighborhoods and the Redmond campus. With this system, Microsoft aims to reduce car traffic in the area by over 250,000 miles per week.”

“A survey of riders on the Microsoft bus service, Connector, in November 2007 showed that 61 percent of passengers previously used a single occupancy vehicle for their commuting needs, which suggests that the Connector program results in a reduction of about 800 vehicle trips and 32,200 miles of travel each day.”

Located just a stone’s throw from Microsoft’s Redwest campus and the main Microsoft campus on 156th Ave NE, Grasslawn Park is undergoing a change.  New buildings are being added to the already fabulous facilities available at the park.

For a more complete list of all the changes happening in the park, check out my previous post on Grasslawn Park.

Movie tickets for $35?  Reserved seats, drinks, appetizers, call buttons, valet parking, made to order meals, and only 40 seats per theater, will you pay $35?  Interesting, given all the economic news lately.  However, I keep hearing from different sectors of the economy, when things aren’t going well, merchants and services go upscale.  I’ve heard this from the boat sales industry and art gallery personnel. 

 Now the local movie theater in Redmond Town Center is going upscale. The new owners hope to capitalize on the strong economy in the Microsoft area.

 The Village Roadshow, LTD has partnered with some other companies and  started a company called Gold Class Cinemas.  If you live in Redmond, Gold Class Cinemas will be coming to the theater near you.

Cineplex Odeon is gone:

 This fall there will be a new movie experience.  Would you pay $35.00 for this kind of theater experience?

The Seattle Times reported on this story and took an online survey of whether people would pay for this service. The results:

  24% said they would try it

  41% said no

  35% said think DVD and big screen TV’s.

Do your grocery shopping and support a great cause!  Shop at Whole Foods in downtown Redmond today.  The store is donating 5% of the proceeds from grocery sales to The Susan B. Komen 3 Day Walk for Breast Cancer.

There are a number of events happening this summer all over Washington and on both sides of the lake.

A bit of the wild, wild west and the gold fever hit both Redmond and Kirkland during the Alaskan Gold Rush.  Find out all about it on Saturday, March 8th.  Ruth Kerr, from Seattle’s Klondike Gold Rush Museum will be speaking from 10:30 AM to 12 noon at The Redmond Library, 15990 NE 85th St.

You can find out more about the latest society news and the upcoming Gold Rush talk by reading the Redmond Historical Society newsletter.  Dedicated to preserving the history of Redmond, the Redmond Historical Society, founded in 1999, has newsletters and a book about the history of Redmond, in addition to walking tours to see the city’s history. 

I attended a walking tour last fall in downtown Redmond and was excited to learn about the history of many of the buildings on Leary Way. Here is a post about one of the buildings on Leary Way that had its origin as a hotel. The historic brown building, now the Matador restaurant, has had a colorful past.

 The society’s book explains the chronology of all the past names for the present day city of Redmond.  It’s an interesting read and gives another side to Redmond most of us never think about.

 Yes, Virginia, there was life in Redmond before Microsoft!