A few Questions about Bellingham (Seattle: apartments, crime rate, how much)

[savannah91]

I am student from Tennessee, looking at atttending Western Washington University, and just had a few questions, and was rather curious to see if I could find a few answers.

1. Are there any churches in the area? I currently attend a church of christ, but I'm good with just about any denomination.

2. How rainy is it? Is it cloudy everyday, as I've heard? And if so, what is the average temperature? I love the look of the area, because of all the outdoor activities, but if its cold and rainy all year. . . its not going to be worth it.

3. How bad is the cost of living? I'm from TN, and its not too bad. How much of an adjustment would it be?

4. I hear the crime rate is pretty bad, how much truth is in that?

5. How hard would it be for a full time college student to get a decent part/full- time job? And could I afford an apartment on it?

Any additional information would be absolutely fantastic.

Thank you so much!

[allforcats]

Hi. I think your questions are all answered in the many, many, many threads about Bellingham in the Washington forum.

The stats (the page is very long, has all the climate, population, church, crime, income, etc. info you could want):
http://www.city-data.com/city/Bellin...ashington.html

Google Bellingham WA church of christ, or any othr church, to find specific churches. All of western Washington is pretty safe to very safe. Any crime is generally property crime (auto break-in, for example) rather than personal crime (mugging). Read the crime stats on the City-Data stats page; you can also Google any question you can think of.

Here are many City-Data threads that answer your questions:
BELLINGHAM WASHINGTON? and Western Washington University?
Bellingham Area?
Relocating to Bellingham - question
Bellingham Jobs
opinion of Bellingham?
pros and cons of Bellingham
bellingham ... seems wonderful ... for me?
Moving to Bellingham, what's the lo down there

[agnostic soldier]

There are quite a few churches in Bellingham, one of which is a church of christ. The weather tends to be mild and there are alot of rainy and cloudy days, although there are many days with sun even if it rains, the rain may go away. The average rainfall for the area is around thirty two inches. If you're getting an apartment that is off campus then you can find apartments that are anywhere between three hundred and fifty up to three thousand, depending on what area you find one in. You could work a part time job and live in an apartment that is cheaper than some of the more expensive ones(there are students that do so.) There is quite a bit of crime for the size of the city that it is, although a lot of the crime is more property crime. Some of the areas that you would want to be careful in are lower Alabama hill(around the Alabama and Texas street area) and downtown during the night time, especially Railroad and the areas like Campion street which have a lot more homeless people. It would be easier to find a part time/full time job that doesn't require any specialized skill since most of the jobs are working class. Bellingham also has more pros than it does cons, one of the main cons being the crime. For one, it is like a mini Seattle in its political/social views since it is mainly very liberal and there are several colleges in the town which probably contributes to its liberalism. The city also has alot of culture and diversity in it. The neighborhoods have alot of differences in them. For example, Old town has a lot of antique shops and restuarents while the newer neighborhoods(the Meridian neighborhood especially has a lot of retail). Depending on what you like to do for fun there are many things that you could find to do. Some of which are the Bellingham Farmers Market(april through December), which is on Railroad Avenue, Bellingham Bay or Squalicum Bay, the Mount Baker Theater and Village Books in Fairhaven. Bellisfair Mall also has alot to do if you like shopping. Some of the restaurants would be places like BoundaryBay, the Horseshoe Cafe, Bob's Burgers, the Pita Pit etc. If you're interested in bars taverns then some of which would be Cabin tavern, Downtown Johnny's(which also has a club and dance floor) and BoundaryBay has its own brewery. Here are some links that might help:

http://www.cob.org/PIRCrimeStatistics/CallsForm.aspx

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Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitors sites is not allowed
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellingham%2C_Washington

http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/traffic/bellingham/

http://www.apartmentratings.com/rate/WA-Bellingham.html

http://www.bellinghamherald.com/careerbuilder/

http://www.bellinghaminformation.com/things-to-do.php