Reverse Commute
11Feb2004 Filed under: JournalishThis writing gig I’m doing for a couple weeks is in the Overlake neighborhood of Bellevue, which is basically Redmond, which is basically the Microsoft company town.
This is what used to be considered a reverse commute: I drive from the high density city neighborhood of Capitol Hill into the sub-rural forests-n-stripmalls of Seattle’s Eastside region.
It’s not really reverse commuting any more because thousands upon thousands of Microsoftees and other tech folks live in Seattle and commute out to the Eastside. But it’s still weird: I wake up in the morning surrounded by hustle and bustle, and then I drive out to the office…which features picture windows looking out into a forest. I park under cedar trees, next to tangles of blackberries and salal. How weird is that? I drive from the city out into the boonies for a tech job — and I’m one of thousands of Seattleites on the roads. I think that’s weird.
Still: it’s nice to go for a little walk in the woods on my lunch break.
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3 Responses to “Reverse Commute”
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Hey there. I'm Ariel Meadow Stallings, a native Seattleite who's written my way up and down the Left Coast. Electrolicious is where I post daily randomata, but I also write for a living. My first book, Offbeat Bride, was published last year.
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heidi janet
February 11th, 2004 at 4:48 pm
you know, i do the exact same thing. i commute from the hubbub of the westside of los angeles, to sleepy, suburban thousand oaks.
it’s a little weird.
Philos
February 11th, 2004 at 9:40 pm
Isn’t Bellevue actually the fourth-largest city in Washington? (…looks for Bellevue website…) Ah, fifth largest - resident population 117K. That’s not to deny the “sub-rural forests-n-stripmalls” description of the Eastside, but, yeah. I think that makes it more weird.
Bronx -exBurg native NewYorker
February 13th, 2004 at 6:21 am
Ya know.. I do the same thing too! I revcom from the Big Apple to a suburban wonderland along the Hudson in Westchester County, NY for a tech job as well. I lived in Seattle too (late 90’s in Fremont was crazy!) and used to do the msoft thing too!(blech). Moved back the NYC right when Adobe rolled in. I miss the good beer, the Lighthouse Cafe on Fremont Ave and all the smart women like yourself