'I've seen a billionaire pick up trash. Not Jeff Bezos': Neighbors dish on living next to Amazon founder

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Every spring, the residents of Hunts Point, a wealthy neighborhood outside of Seattle, come together for a day of service called Cleanup Day. Hedge-fund managers, tech titans, and high-powered attorneys join together to plant trees, weed gardens, and pick up trash. There’s a continental breakfast, a barbecue lunch, and a bouncy house for the kids.

One resident, though, is notably absent: Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder and second-richest man on the planet.

“I’ve seen a billionaire pick up trash on Cleanup Day. Not Jeff Bezos,” one resident told Business Insider.

Hunts Point is an affluent enclave of fewer than 400 people east of Seattle. It’s no stranger to billionaires and the business elite, counting former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Costco cofounder James Sinegal among its residents.

In 2019, a new billionaire came to town: Bezos. Then the richest person in the world, and now the second richest, Bezos purchased a $37.5 million waterfront estate on the heels of his divorce from novelist MacKenzie Scott. Bezos also snapped up three smaller homes nearby for his staff, Business Insider previously reported.

Bezos announced earlier this year that he’s leaving the Seattle area to make Miami his primary residence. While the purchase of the Hunts Point properties had not been reported before this week, over his four years on the exclusive peninsula, the billionaire has made an impression — primarily by his absence, eight residents said in conversations with Business Insider.A spokesperson for Bezos did not respond to a request for comment.

Bezos’ $37.5 million Hunts Point mansion has sunset views over Lake Washington east of Seattle. Michael Walmsley

In the tightly-knit community, Bezos’ absence from events like Cleanup Day, the Fourth of July party, and fundraising events for a local youth charity, Bellevue Lifespring, were remarked on. (Though he didn’t attend the events, Bezos did donate to Lifespring, said two residents involved in that charity.)

Bezos’ staff, though, are neighborhood fixtures. His chef cooked meals in a more modest house to the south of the peninsula and delivered them to Bezos’ main residence in a “very cute” golf cart, one resident said.

Bezos’ security guards lived in a house overlooking the neighborhood’s only entrance and exit. They were pleasant neighbors, said the same resident, who recalled them bringing misaddressed packages to her doorstep.