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SPORTS | Sammamish High alum and Formula 1 racer Javier Cantu-Lucero sits down with Reporter for a Q&A [14]
Entertainment | It was all glitz and glamour as Oscar event raises money for Seattle FRIDAY, MARCH 1, 2013 Children’s Hospital [9]
Community | Elementary students get a civics lesson as new citizens take oath at their school [3]
City, Sound Transit, neighbors reach OK on light rail BY CELINA KAREIVA BELLEVUE REPORTER
Ending what the City Council called a months-long saga, Bellevue unanimously approved changes to the city’s land use code Monday night. Dozens of residents showed up for the discussion and vote, which will determine setbacks, the permitting process and design guidelines for the future East Link light rail project.
“I think that this is a great outcome,” said Councilmember John Chelminiak, echoing colleague sentiment. “A week ago…we were looking at potential for very significant delays in the project…As of tonight we got to a place where the project is back on schedule and back working right, and that’s a great outcome.” Meetings regarding the overlay began in October, but the council closed the vote
Monday night feeling confidently on track after significant project delays were predicted even just a week ago. In tandem with that goal, Sound Transit CEO Joni Earl presented a letter to the council, vowing to request early acquisition of properties along the alignment, within 60 days of the City Council and Sound Transit’s approval of the final alignment. “I certainly understand property owners’
trepidations about going through such a process, and I commit that Sound Transit staff and consultants will work in earnest, fairly and expeditiously, with all property owners throughout the acquisition process,” reads the letter. That was a particularly important victory for residential neighborhoods, said SEE LIGHT RAIL, 6
Young breast cancer survivors share hope and stories National conference draws hundreds to Bellevue event BY CELINA KAREIVA BELLEVUE REPORTER
The new Bellevue Youth Theatre will be built into a hill at Bellevue’s Crossroads Park. Courtesy photo, city of Bellevue
Bellevue to break ground on youth theater BY KEEGAN PROSSER BELLEVUE REPORTER
Construction of a new Bellevue Youth Theatre is expected to begin in April, needing only the approval of the final contract by the Bellevue City Council on Monday, March 4. Designed by Becker Architects of Bellevue, the new theater will be built into a hillside in Crossroads Park near the Crossroads Com-
munity Center, which served as the home to the drama program before it relocated to the former Ivanhoe Elementary School in 2001. Since being founded in 1990, the BYT has become one of the most popular youth programs in Bellevue. The program produces 10 shows a year and casts have grown 25 to approximately 50 actors per show. “First and foremost, it’s a parks build-
ing, not just a theater,” said James McClain, administrator for the Bellevue Youth Theatre, about the new building. The innovative new space will include a 150-seat black-box theater, featuring flexible seating options. The space also will feature a stage that can open to the outdoors.
Victoria St. Martin saw a lot of things in her future: a burgeoning career as a journalist, even a possible engagement to her then boyfriend. But at 30 she never anticipated being diagnosed with breast cancer. Then one day, during a self-exam, she came across a lump on her left breast. A visit to her doctor didn’t immediately raise any flags, but Martin kept pressing. She was young, she knew, but something didn’t seem right. “At 30 you’re just coming into your own,” remembers Martin of the diagnosis and the chemotherapy that followed. “Then you lose your breasts, you lose your hair…How do you think of yourself? What happens when you don’t have those? Are you still a woman?” Martin and hundreds of others like her gathered Friday through Sunday of last week in downtown Bellevue at the annual Conference for Young Women Affected by Breast Cancer (C4YW), the convention’s first West Coast conference. Now in its
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