Medina (/məˈdaɪnə/ ⓘ) is a city in the Eastside region of King County, Washington, United States.

[5] The mostly residential city is on a peninsula in Lake Washington, on the opposite shore from Seattle, bordered by Clyde Hill and Hunts Point to the east and water on all other sides.

Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, along with a number of billionaires and executives for tech companies, have homes in Medina.

[6][7] The eastern shore of Lake Washington between Meydenbauer Bay and Evergreen Point was a sparsely-populated area that was cleared for its timber in the 1870s.

Seattle businessman Thomas Dabney established a claim on the south side of modern-day Medina in 1886, becoming the area's first permanent white settler.

After a series of debates and sign-switching incidents, Medina won and was adopted as the name of the town.

[10] The town's first mansions were built in the 1920s by wealthy Seattle businessmen, encouraged by the arrival of direct ferry service, and led to the nickname of Washington's "Gold Coast".

The area's farmers, mostly of Japanese descent, were evicted during the 1940s internment and their farms were turned over for redevelopment.

[5] In 2009, Medina, with the "wide support of residents", installed cameras at intersections along roads entering the city.

[12][13] Travelers are notified of the presence of the system with signs that read "You Are Entering a 24 Hour Video Surveillance Area"; according to Medina's police chief, all captured information is stored for 60 days even if nothing negative is found in the database, allowing police to mine data if a crime occurs later.

[12] One of the city's council members said the system was motivated by the belief that the need for crime prevention "outweighs concern over privacy".

The current code (2006 edition) protects large trees and requires significant mitigation if they are removed.

Phase II changes have been underway since then, with much work and input from the community, an ad hoc tree committee, the Planning Commission and City Council.

[18] This region experiences warm (but not hot) and dry summers, with no average monthly temperatures above 71.6 °F.

In the 2008 US Presidential Election, Barack Obama received more votes than the Republican nominee, John McCain, and carried all 4 precincts.