Why isn't beautiful downtown Blaine more vibrant? (Vancouver, Bellingham: 2010, condos)

[Timberwolf5578]

Downtown Blaine, WA is a very beautiful area. It has a very scenic bay, a very nice trail to walk on near the bay, some shops, some restaurants, the pier, etc. So why isn't it more vibrant? A place like that in California would probably have crowds of people, more restaurants, more shops, hotels, condos, etc. But for some reason downtown Blaine is somewhat desolate, and I don't understand why. Is it just undiscovered? Will it most likely become a very vibrant popular area during and after the 2010 Olympics in Whistler, BC?

Opinions?

[jellybluebean]

Um, its cold and wet (unlike california) and doesn't have the massive amounts of people nearby (unlike california). Also, the heads of the city have just air under them big wigs. Poor city planning, poor advertisement, and a freeway that Canadians (potential customers/tourists) can get on right after the border and just skip over Blaine. More than half of them aren't aware of how big Blaine is. I used to work in a small cafe in Blaine. During that time, the border construction started and a lot of travellers were forced to drive down a 25 ft section to get on the freeway. Lo and behold, there is Blaine!!! I got a lot of "wow, didn't know Blaine was this nice", or "so how many live here, like 300??" Yeah. A lot of misinformation and misleading from the members we so proudly vote to run our city. All in all, its the residents of Blaine's fault.

[pw72]

Originally Posted by jellybluebean

Um, its cold and wet (unlike california) and doesn't have the massive amounts of people nearby (unlike california). Also, the heads of the city have just air under them big wigs. Poor city planning, poor advertisement, and a freeway that Canadians (potential customers/tourists) can get on right after the border and just skip over Blaine. More than half of them aren't aware of how big Blaine is. I used to work in a small cafe in Blaine. During that time, the border construction started and a lot of travellers were forced to drive down a 25 ft section to get on the freeway. Lo and behold, there is Blaine!!! I got a lot of "wow, didn't know Blaine was this nice", or "so how many live here, like 300??" Yeah. A lot of misinformation and misleading from the members we so proudly vote to run our city. All in all, its the residents of Blaine's fault.

Well, it does have massive amounts of people nearby. Like the entire Vancouver British Columbia metro area.

I-5 had no choice but to be routed through Blaine, it is the most direct route to Vancouver.

I may be over-simplifying this, but to me the reason why Blaine has been overlooked is simply one word, Bellingham. Being the principle city in NW Washington, it was inevitable that it would become the retail/shopping/hotel center of that part of WA. Depending on the exchange rate, hordes of BC residents come to Bellingham to shop, buy gas, etc. I think, at the end of the day, Bellingham should work to not rely on this Canadian support, and try to build its own business/industry model. And at some point, same with Blaine.