‘A Fraud’
“Light rail is, in my opinion, a fraud,” he said, arguing that such solutions make sense only in cities with big, concentrated populations, like New York and Chicago.
Proponents contend Freeman is too wedded to the automobile, putting his own business interests ahead of the wider population; most visitors to Bellevue Collection arrive by car.
“He’s on the wrong side of every important civic issue,” said venture capitalist Nick Hanauer, who supported the light-rail expansion. “If it’s good for Bellevue Square then it must be good for the world.”
In left-leaning King County, Freeman also stands out for his support of Donald Trump. Although the president-elect wasn’t his first choice among the Republican candidates, Freeman donated $100,000 to Trump’s campaign and hopes his billionaire peer’s unconventional approach might streamline the federal bureaucracy.
Despite a distrust of government bloat, Freeman and his ancestors have a history of local government involvement.
The Freeman family played a central role in the creation of modern Bellevue. Freeman’s grandfather, Miller, campaigned for the floating bridge connecting Seattle to the Eastside, which opened in 1940. He’s a controversial figure who led virulent criticism of Japanese immigrants. Many were driven from their Bellevue strawberry farms as part of the internment of Japanese Americans following Pearl Harbor, according to “Strawberry Days,” an account of the community’s destruction by David Neiwert.
Freeman said his grandfather is being portrayed unfairly and supporters of the light-rail project have delighted in stirring up the issue in recent times.
In 1946, Kemper Freeman’s father opened a 16-store development known as Bellevue Shopping Square on 10 acres of farmland. Freeman, his only son, served two terms in the state legislature in the 1970s, before stepping down to help manage expansion of the retail center. Central to its success was the free parking that attracted shoppers to a region that had a happy knack of luring some of the world’s biggest businesses.
“Boeing, Boeing and Boeing in those days,” Freeman recalls. “When Boeing was off, the whole market was off. Then along out of thin air comes Microsoft and Costco and many other incredible companies.”