Exploring Bellevue

 After a month of tortuous apartment hunting from afar in Houston, TX (side note: the world of "virtual tours" of apartments and homes has a LOT of room for improvement), I ended up securing myself a duplex unit in the neighborhood of Bellevue. Never having spent much time on the north side of the city in college, I really had no frame of reference for what the neighborhood was like, but the realtor who was helping me assured me that it was a great one, as did a college friend of mine who never got around to leaving the city after graduation. :)

And so - sight unseen, I became a resident of Bellevue. And sure enough, it has turned out to be an incredibly charming neighborhood. It is pedestrian- and cyclist-friendly (I do have a bike, but I am more of walker), the residents are friendly, and the houses are lovely. The house I'm in is approximately 100 years old, which feels like it's probably the average age of the neighborhood. 

The area that would eventually encompass Bellevue was purchased for development in the 1890s, with the intention of becoming a "streetcar suburb" of Richmond, but didn't really come into its own until the 1920s. 

And while it is a predeominantly residential neighborhood, there are a couple of blocks that include strips of small local businesses - restaurants, coffee shops, specialty stores, and the like - that are as charming and likeable as their surroundings. 

There is an active community association, which recently sponsored their annual garden walk in which about a dozen or so homes open their gardens for folks to visit. Coming up in a couple of weeks is the second annual "Porchella" - an event that grew somewhat organically out of the pandemic as neighbors took their porches with their instruments to provide each other some laidback, socially distanced entertainment. 

Neighbors here do get creative with their yards - there are lots of fairy gardens and lawn ornaments to enjoy and tons of gorgeous blooms in the spring. 

                         

Like much of Richmond these days, Bellevue is grappling with its Confederate history; a monument to A.P. Hill still stands (by my understanding, he's buried underneath it, complicating its removal), but Black Lives Matter & Love is Love yard signs are much more common sights than Civil War memoribilia these days. 

All in all, I lucked out with my neighborhood. Since the pandemic meant that I couldn't get out and do much exploring for the first couple of months of my life here, I'm so grateful to live somewhere that is easy and pleasant to walk around, where kids play safely in the street, and neighbors say hi to each other in passing. It has been a real treat. Thank you, Bellevue!