Moving to Bellingham, WA (Seattle: crime, coop, homes)

[Tomas84]

Hi, My wife and I are planning to move to Bellingham as she chose to do her residency at the local hospital, as we have visited on several occasions at different times of the year and really fell in love with the place. I am from the UK originally and used to live in BC for a short while so know the surrounding area relatively well. I am a trained chef and plan on eventually opening up my own business and we were looking at homes just around 10 miles east of downtown Bellingham.

I just had a few questions, I have read many mixed reviews which is to be expected anywhere. I was mainly wondering is the crime as bad as some mention, and will being a small business owner become more stress than its worth if so?

Are the locals really that jaded by all the new comers that settling in will be a challenge?

and this one might make a few of you laugh, I am wanting to raise my own chickens, like i used to back in the UK and I was wondering living further out near wooded land if cougars will be a big issue to deal with because of the chickens attracting them?

Thank you

[RotseCherut]

Tomas, in America you can own guns and your average Bellingham criminal will run for the hills if he knows you are packing heat..

On another note, the crime is mostly in the downtown area at night with the drunks and drug addicts.. The crime in Bellingham is not nearly as bad as many towns in the USA and probably a lot better than most parts of Seattle. There are a few methhead/druggy corners of the town where vandalism and theft are more common, like Texas/Alabama St area.

But, really, if Bellingham is too scary for you, you may want to consider just living in the English countryside, like Dorset, where you can be sure that crime doesn't exist. Even there I am sure there is crime.

Avoid, getting involved with drugs and the drug trade and you should not be a victim of crime.. Watch the Breaking Bad television series for reference..

Raising chickens is not a big deal or even sounds funny in the Northwest. Where I lived in Idaho, there was more chickens than people and my neighbors had a ton of chickens on their property. You probably cannot own a rooster in city limits and even out of city limits if you are close to a neighbor with a rooster, you may find your rooster an ex-rooster if he is waking people up or annoying people.

[Tomas84]

I think you misunderstood me, I never said I was fearful, I have lived in far worse places than Bellingham. Try wondering around Glasgow of evening, Bellingham has to be child's play in comparison. I was merely asking for more opinions.

Nor did I say raising chickens was funny, what I said was people might find it funny that I was 'concerned' about attracting cougars if I was to raise chickens, as they most probably are so used to it that it is a mute point. Again just looking for tips and or opinions on the best way to go about it!

Thanks for the useful info you did share though!

[waviking24]

Originally Posted by Tomas84

Hi, My wife and I are planning to move to Bellingham as she chose to do her residency at the local hospital, as we have visited on several occasions at different times of the year and really fell in love with the place. I am from the UK originally and used to live in BC for a short while so know the surrounding area relatively well. I am a trained chef and plan on eventually opening up my own business and we were looking at homes just around 10 miles east of downtown Bellingham.

I just had a few questions, I have read many mixed reviews which is to be expected anywhere. I was mainly wondering is the crime as bad as some mention, and will being a small business owner become more stress than its worth if so?

Are the locals really that jaded by all the new comers that settling in will be a challenge?

and this one might make a few of you laugh, I am wanting to raise my own chickens, like i used to back in the UK and I was wondering living further out near wooded land if cougars will be a big issue to deal with because of the chickens attracting them?

Thank you

10 miles east is like what area? Mt baker highway? Out towards Sudden valley? You won't have to deal with much crime no matter where you live as long as you aren't hanging with the wrong crowd. We aren't that jaded about new comers. We get kind of ticked off at the college kids when they do stupid stuff like riot and you may notice that some people seem really stuck up, but otherwise it's pretty laid back here. Not sure about the chickens. Hope you enjoy cloudy weather though!

[RotseCherut]

People in Washington are not that friendly, especially Bellingham, but the place is beautiful and if you are married and have a family, it is a great place to live.. If you survived the crazy Trainspotting Scottish crowd, you can easily survive Bellingham.

[Loriandrandy]

Hey Tomas! I live in Bellingham and have for about ten years now. I'm not a huge fan, to be completely honest. It's beautiful - in fact the beauty of the place is tough to beat. But the weather makes it very difficult to enjoy that beauty from October-July. November through March (inclusive) are particularly dreadful. But if you're sold on moving here, let me tell you that it's a great place to raise chickens!! You won't really have to worry about cougars (they are in the more remote mountain areas like the hills of Sedro Wooley), but you will need to keep your chickens safe from raccoons, possums, hawks and eagles. We have an abundance of all of those in Whatcom County. A solid coop and a run that includes a roof should do the trick; check out backyardchickens.com.
Some neighborhoods allow a few chickens and some don't. You will probably need to live "in the county," as it's called.