May retire in small towns between Bellingham and the Border

[soarswitheagles]

Birch Bay is nice. It did feel a bit touristy to me.

[NW Crow]

Birch Bay is only half the size of Lynden. Lynden probably has some edge on heath care, other services and retail and that is a quality of life factor of varying importance to people, perhaps more than many newcomers to a small town consider and realize in advance.

If you go to any small town you have to decide how small a town is workable for you all the way around and your family and how far / how often you are willing to drive for certain services and how much you will pass on.

More people can handle being in or real near a town of 12,000 than 6,000, though this gap is not be as big as it would be if the choice was between towns of 3-5,000 and 15-20,000. Some services can be supported and survive locally in a bigger town that might not make it in a smaller town. Or in a small town you might have less choice or only one choice. Town size matters some, but how much depends on personal needs & preferences. If you don't mind much running into Bellingham or even across the border fairly often then it is less of an issue. If you think it will be a fairly annoying hassle after 6-12 months or several years of making those trips or waiting to make those trips for multiple items and services then you might want to pick a somewhat bigger town to eliminate some of those trips (but of course not all) or be closer to a city.

Birch Bay has seen growth and probably will see more eventually so it should get more services with time. How fast, I don't know. Live in-between the two towns, you could get some of what you want from both and maybe go lighter on what some of what you don't want.

[Virginia54]

Thank you all for your thoughts - it sounds as though I should plan on having a reliable car for perhaps every other day trips into Bellingham and maybe once a week to Vancouver. I can think of it as a post-retirement activity. There will always be convervative, non-worldly people who have no concept of a mutil-cultural anything. Just have to learn to live with it. Qualified rednecks are the only thing that really concerns me. Virginia54

[Ostara_Ishtari]

Well, this is a good thread to read. I'm moving away from the two most conservative coastal counties in California. My entire family is non-believing and liberal and my husband and children are Japanese. So, Birch Bay isn't all that safe? Sounded kinda nice to me. Worth visiting while I'm up in Bellingham in a few weeks?

[NW Crow]

The stats on one site say Birch Bay is at about the national average on violent and property crime.

Lynden is just listed as much safer than Birch Bay and the national average on violent crime. It is average on property crime and thus equal to Birch Bay on that.

Bellingham is listed at national average on violent crime but much higher than average on property crime. Blaine is listed at much safer than average on violent crime, though much higher than average on property crime. Ferndale is pretty close to national average on both violent and property crime.

Problems can spill over and move around, but that is what this set of stats say.