ABSTRACT
Many of the villages designated in the Seattle plan are places that have existed for quite a number of decades. Some, like Ballard, Madison Park, and Columbia City, used to be streetcar communities. Several years ago, Norm Rice, then the mayor of Seattle, introduced the idea of creating "urban villages." They were advanced as a way of accommodating additional new households, supporting public transit, and producing a concentration of amenities and services for residents. Looking for a catchy phrase to capture the idea of growth management, the mayor gave the term a fresh spin. On the edge of downtown Bellevue, along N.E. 12th Street, a number of things have been coming together that can give people some ideas about how to establish villages in areas that were skipped over in the postwar rush to expand out into the countryside. A hallmark of an urban village is a variety of housing for different house-holds and income levels.
