Remarks by Vishal Bhargava
33 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 2
- Play at 10:57
“Go ahead, please. Thanks, Mayor. Whereas diaper need, the condition of not having a sufficient supply of clean diapers to keep babies and toddlers clean, dry and healthy, can adversely affect the health and well-being of children and their families. And whereas nearly one in two U.S. families with young children experience diaper need, forcing many parents and caregivers to make difficult choices about meeting their children's basic needs, and whereas A consistent supply of diapers is often necessary for babies and toddlers to participate in childcare and early learning programs, allowing…”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 2:35:12
“Great, thank you. What an incredible evening. to hear so much input from such a diverse set of stakeholders who are so vested in the outcomes that we want through this budget process. I want to start by just saying thank you to City Manager Carlson, to our fearless leader for finance and for the budget process, all of the directors and the teams who have contributed to the process, as well as the community who has provided input in different ways to the process. It's really been a really incredible effort so far, and hopefully we can do take it to a good point over the next five weeks here. I…”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 2:40:47
“Okay, no, I do appreciate that. It's a fine balance you have to find. Being overly conservative is just as risky as being not. So, and when you think about this in maybe next week's discussion, I would love to see if structural risks, and I'm specifically thinking about dips potentially in our most significant revenue sources, sales tax, BNO, for example. What happens? What are those scenarios, and how would we cover that with specificity would be very helpful. Next question for me is, what have you chosen not to do? This is a ruthless prioritization exercise. I would love to know what have…”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 2:43:20
“Yeah, no, I... I appreciate that, and I also appreciate the self-prioritization and ways to allocate funds. I would, however, still ask for specific things left unfunded that you think were the most critical based on the one city approach. It'll be helpful for me and likely my peers to see what's left, but it'll also be very helpful for the community at large to understand that.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 2:44:09
“Okay. I want to keep moving quickly just in the interest of time. I know there was themes from the community identified here. Beyond the allocation of funds to those themes and the STAs, would love to see specific projects most critical, large, meaningful projects that align themselves with the community input that you've received and how you have sort of addressed all this meaningful feedback you've got from the community and from the city and from the businesses into your process. So themes translated to more specific projects and outcomes that we expect to see happen And then staying with…”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:29:28
“Yeah, no, I just want to say thank you and pile on the appreciation for on behalf of the whole community really Both my kids grew up in Bellevue, and I think we have just a tremendous amount of appreciation for the value and the kinds of services that the library system provides here. It's really remarkable. Some of these things I didn't even know, having lived and gone to the library with my kids so often that you have Tech tutors, which is quite amazing. Civics 101 sounds amazing. Mobile services, that's great. Community court, of course, is a great addition to the community. So thank you…”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:50:29
“Yeah, thank you Deputy Mayor and thank you Nick and Chair Liu and also the full Planning Commission for all the robust work the Commission does as well as all the work the staff does. Really appreciate this. This is an important piece of what makes housing and development possible and also makes sure that we're balancing the needs of the community for this sort of complex problem. Thank you also for the clarifications, Nick, for the percentage of the mix of bay sizes and the floor height. That's very helpful. I'm not going to go there. I think I have clarity there. Broadly, I'm supportive of…”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:55:07
“If I may just nudge you on one more area to consider is I think shift in changes, mode shift, transit use, like the expectation for reduced parking is an uptick in transit utilization, maybe higher percentage of walk trips and bike trips. things like that and we need to monitor those mode shifts and changes in actual user behavior in addition to just housing cost production etc I don't I mean I'm not saying the ones you called out are not important I think they're important but I would just nudge you to think about those as well from mode shift standpoint and monitor those last thing for me…”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:58:28
“Yeah, no, I appreciate that. I just think it's still a little bit risky and maybe the incentive on allowing, you know, more development rights in some other way could have been, can be an approach to consider. So just I'll leave it at that. Thank you.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 2:21:41
“Yeah, I would be supportive of the additional information on some of the areas that I have already expressed some of my concerns on. So that input actually will be helpful, broadly supportive of the planning commission work. But I think just a couple of areas where additional information will help so that we're making a really, really sort of high confidence decision.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 2:21:59
“Council Member Sumida, where are you at?”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 2:27:27
“Yeah, I mean, I just wanted to add a couple things from my perspective beyond what's been said, and I'm sure others will have additional thoughts as well. Double click on the half mile, quarter mile for Pass Rapid, which I think is included in your list. Really would love to understand if there's an opportunity there for lower parking requirements. There seems to be support for some of that study. I'm hearing my colleagues. I continue to have some reservations about the incentive for the nine-foot stall and a 10% and 15% reduction there. So are there any alternatives that we could? This is in…”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:09:43
“Thank you. Really great presentation. A lot of optimism. Great work across the board as well. Small business support or permitting improvements, the data is telling. So really appreciate that. Let me start with just a couple things on the small business piece, which I think is really great. I love the idea of a concierge program. I like the idea of proactively also doing work. One question I have on that is, one of the biggest challenges that folks talk about when they think about a small business is understanding, is it feasible? Can we do something? If I do something, I can do many things.…”
City Council · Jul 28, 2026
- Play at 1:11:03
“Yeah, I think that's great because if folks come in, like economic development will bring in likely successful small businesses to come and flourish, which I think is really great. But then organically growing small business opportunities within the city will be a really big win. So I applaud you for doing that and encourage you to grow that further. On the permitting side, one question and one sort of thought that I wanted to share. Question is, it's really great to see the data. So when we think about the parameters, it's cost, quality, customer experience. But in the public sector, in the…”
City Council · Jul 28, 2026
- Play at 1:12:46
“And how do we make sure that our rate of improvements are accounting for that change as well? So we're... confident that the rate is as good as it gets?”
City Council · Jul 28, 2026
- Play at 1:13:45
“Got it. Last comment, really. As you think about your next agent beyond the readiness check and the other things, you go into your research for staff, I think one of the things you could consider looking into is something that I've seen Seattle do really well, is that they have a, I'm trying to remember the name, I think it's called Bluebeam, which they use, which essentially creates a centralized repository of comment collection across teams that really simplifies this process for them and has improved productivity significantly. I don't have to say that's the vendor, but I'm just saying…”
City Council · Jul 28, 2026
- Play at 1:41:38
“Yeah, thank you, Mayor. So let me just first start by appreciating the work that community development does. You know, one of my favorite sayings is, you know, planning is a triumph of logic and engagement over dumb luck. And you make that happen. So, you know, it's really tremendous. I also really am excited for Lake Hills and West Lake Sammamish's neighborhoods to go through this process and all of the great outcomes this will drive for those neighborhoods in the future and the opportunities and alignment with the comprehensive plan. So just gratitude to you and the full team and also the…”
City Council · Jul 28, 2026
- Play at 1:45:41
“Yeah, no, I really appreciate that being in the picnic was actually a great, great idea and saw a lot of engagement as well there. So I appreciate that. And actually, I'd made some notes on ideas to share with you, but you are ahead of the game as students. And the idea of using community partners and organizations that actually work within the community seems like you've sort of laid out. So I have no better suggestions, but I'm looking forward to it. Thank you, Councillor Bargello.”
City Council · Jul 28, 2026
- Play at 2:21:53
“Yeah, thank you, Mayor. So I would say first thing, plus one to the mayor's comments, and I would extend that to the larger team. I think it's really remarkable and strong team and does a very, very good job. And I've seen that in difficult planning commission meetings with a lot of feedback coming from many different directions to react in real time and sometimes react with a lot of poise and consideration. So definitely plus one to that. Overall, let me just start by saying that I'm really supportive of this LUCA and the components of the LUCA. I think they're thoughtful. I think they're…”
City Council · Jul 28, 2026
- Play at 2:25:57
“Yeah, I really appreciate the context for the for. Sort of everyone, but the heart of my question is still the issue of. the trade off on making affordability outcomes happen versus a fee in lieu and how we would think about this going forward and measure those outcomes and what is our chance to make sure we're doing this right. The second consideration for me on that is equity across different parts of the city. in terms of the landowners and development opportunities, those would be the two lenses with which I would suggest we think about this, at least from my perspective. And if you have…”
City Council · Jul 28, 2026
- Play at 57:16
“Thank you, Mayor, and really appreciate the presentation and all the work that's gone in. It's definitely a win-win in every way that we can think of. So great work. Congratulations on what you continue to do for Bellevue and Redmond. Two really quick things. One, you mentioned something about cruise connections, which I think was really a great idea. This also came up during the pre-FIFA presentation that we had seen. And I was curious if you had any serious uptake on those cruise connections during FIFA and if that's been sort of an encouraging signal. Any data that we have on that?”
City Council · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 59:19
“I totally agree. I think this is a really great idea and we are the launching pad for many of those cruises. around the nation. So, you know, we have a captive audience that's coming here and leveraging that to come to bring them to Bellevue or our region is definitely a great opportunity. The only other comment quickly I'll make here is, you know, I spent 10 years almost in the, or seven years in the Midwest. And one of the things that, you know, I used to go to and I found was a very big national draw is the Jazz Festival in Chicago. We have a really great location here in downtown…”
City Council · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 1:17:45
“Yeah, I just have to say thank you for all the great work. I love the idea of the park. I love all the things the park has come to represent. And I'm fully supportive of the recommendation. Thank you for the work to the commission. So no more comments from me. Just gratitude.”
City Council · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 2:07:51
“Thank you, Mayor. And thank you, Andrew, Mark, Laura, and John for the presentation and for the ongoing work. I really appreciate the work to move us towards a more strategic outcome-focused approach to transportation investments. One of the lessons from Bellevue's past growth is that infrastructure needs to be delivered concurrently with growth, not after the fact. And as we look ahead in the next 20 years, there's a few priorities that I would like to highlight. First, safety needs to be and needs to remain the foundation of our investments. Whether someone is walking, biking, driving,…”
City Council · Jul 21, 2026
- Play at 2:11:04
“Yeah, where I'm going with that, maybe I can just explain a little bit more clearly, is imagine if you're looking at pedestrian or bike or any mode you want to choose. Can we see that with the investments in our CIP and then extended beyond that, 10, 15 years, if you have a 10-year window and maybe beyond, When complete, what our infrastructure network will look like by mode, that's the model overlay so that we can see where our biggest gaps are to make sure that the desire lines that we have in the community are being addressed and prioritized in our investments.”
City Council · Jul 21, 2026