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Bellingham hosted fireworks for this year's 4th of July. They lasted 13 minutes. I never seen such a quiet sky. Meanwhile at Birch Bay and Lummi Reservation individuals are putting on a real show.
Maybe that's why B'ham decided to save their money, and let their neighbors handle the show. I wish I'd seen that. Sounds wonderful.
If somewhere hosts something they should try to do an at least average job with it. Hickory is a poorly managed city. Why do you think Bellingham is constantly compared to other undesirable cities? 20 years ago both were good cities, but now they're more like places people don't brag about. Do you plan to live in Bellingham for life?
Another head scratching post. I'm not sure which is weirder- the fact that you think that competence of a city's leadership is strongly correlated with the length of their 4th of July fireworks display, or how completely contradictory and often misinformed your posts are about Bellingham. It often sounds like you're mostly upset at having been priced out of home ownership in the area (but somehow think that Seattle has a lower cost of housing). And I sympathize with that aspect- but it often doesn't sound like you dislike the area, rather that you can't afford what you want.
You're not alone on City-Data with your strange posts about Bellingham, though. In fact it seems to be a frequent but paradoxical argument from curmudgeons in this forum about how much publicity the area is getting and how crowded it's getting with people wanting to move here, while simultaneously complaining that it's undesirable and no one wants to be here. Again, it may not be what you prefer, but there's obviously still a big demand by many people to live here. And while the cost of housing has shot up nationwide in the last 5-10 years, much of the reason it's been especially acute here is due to the desirability of the city to a multitude of different groups of people, from outdoor enthusiasts to retirees to young professionals (many of whom work remotely) to WWU students wanting to remain here after graduation or return later in life.
Personally, we have no plans to leave here anytime soon. My wife and I love the city and the community here, and have a completely different perspective than you. We moved here from CO after narrowing down a list of cities with similar attributes. Eight years later, we're totally satisfied and in it for the long haul, (normal to cities) warts and all.
Another head scratching post. I'm not sure which is weirder- the fact that you think that competence of a city's leadership is strongly correlated with the length of their 4th of July fireworks display, or how completely contradictory and often misinformed your posts are about Bellingham. It often sounds like you're mostly upset at having been priced out of home ownership in the area (but somehow think that Seattle has a lower cost of housing). And I sympathize with that aspect- but it often doesn't sound like you dislike the area, rather that you can't afford what you want.
You're not alone on City-Data with your strange posts about Bellingham, though. In fact it seems to be a frequent but paradoxical argument from curmudgeons in this forum about how much publicity the area is getting and how crowded it's getting with people wanting to move here, while simultaneously complaining that it's undesirable and no one wants to be here. Again, it may not be what you prefer, but there's obviously still a big demand by many people to live here. And while the cost of housing has shot up nationwide in the last 5-10 years, much of the reason it's been especially acute here is due to the desirability of the city to a multitude of different groups of people, from outdoor enthusiasts to retirees to young professionals (many of whom work remotely) to WWU students wanting to remain here after graduation or return later in life.
Personally, we have no plans to leave here anytime soon. My wife and I love the city and the community here, and have a completely different perspective than you. We moved here from CO after narrowing down a list of cities with similar attributes. Eight years later, we're totally satisfied and in it for the long haul, (normal to cities) warts and all.
I have said good things about Bellingham and how the prices are crazy high and not worth it. I would never buy there no matter how far the prices dropped. I'm having a home built in NC to live there one day. I already own plenty of real estate.
I talk to people who live in Bellingham and regularly tell me stories, such as the latest gym on cornwall that closed because the homeless kept causing problems and drove the members away. Or how covid is about to close the city down again. Or how stores are now armed with security. Fred meyers has become a drug dealing square. There are parts of Whatcom county I like but Bellingham is the last place I would move into.
It sounds like you don't plan to stay there forever. I like to take a short drive there now and then but the problems I named would get old very fast to see daily. I went there every week until the Y closed due to covid. Now to this day the Y is just a big empty building on state st. It's another covid casualty.
Bellingham is straight up dying. The homeless are tearing it apart in so many aspects. Was recently in the hospital and then at a nursing home visiting a relative, and witnessed the nurses being attacked by homeless patients because it was 3 hours before they could have their next oxy's or morphine dose. They said it happens all the time.
Here is a good Q&A interview of Bill Elfo where he touches on the challenges we face and provides some not so rosy statistics.
"Felony assaults are up 54%; burglaries are up almost 71%; vehicle prowls are up almost 74%. Vehicle thefts are up an astounding almost 116%."
I highly recommend those considering a move here join the FB Whatcom Scanner and News, Britslist Whatcom County, and get up to date with what's going on. Daily complaints of everything from smash and grab home invasions/burglary, assaults and robbery, to shopping carts full of power tools and lego's being shoplifted out of Home Depot, Target, Walmart, and other stores. And then there is the people who moved here while the border was closed that are now asking "does Canada not have any gas stations or grocery stores? lol
Bellingham is straight up dying. The homeless are tearing it apart in so many aspects. Was recently in the hospital and then at a nursing home visiting a relative, and witnessed the nurses being attacked by homeless patients because it was 3 hours before they could have their next oxy's or morphine dose. They said it happens all the time.
Here is a good Q&A interview of Bill Elfo where he touches on the challenges we face and provides some not so rosy statistics.
"Felony assaults are up 54%; burglaries are up almost 71%; vehicle prowls are up almost 74%. Vehicle thefts are up an astounding almost 116%."
I highly recommend those considering a move here join the FB Whatcom Scanner and News, Britslist Whatcom County, and get up to date with what's going on. Daily complaints of everything from smash and grab home invasions/burglary, assaults and robbery, to shopping carts full of power tools and lego's being shoplifted out of Home Depot, Target, Walmart, and other stores. And then there is the people who moved here while the border was closed that are now asking "does Canada not have any gas stations or grocery stores? lol
Welcome back! I'm going to blow your mind again and tell you that several things can be true at the same time. It's possible for good and bad things to be happening at the same time. It's also possible to want to see certain things improved while simultaneously being pleased with other aspects of existence.
Since you're doling out recommendations, I recommend that you listen to the police scanner in other cities. I've listened to them in the towns and cities I've lived in across the country, and they all give the impression of nonstop crime..... because they're police scanners.. And Britslist Whatcom County? Seriously? LOLOL. Tough to draw many conclusions from that group, other than it's clear that 1) many rural conservatives in the county view Bellingham (and cities, for that matter) as kryptonite and 2) there are a lot of people who need to take care of their own houses first.
Crime definitely happens in little towns, too, and I'd be more concerned about some of the things that happen in Ferndale and Lynden than the absolute freakout some of them have over having to see *gasp* homeless people here. It's interesting that you conveniently left out the fact that Sheriff Elfo mentioned several times in that article that the increase in crime was countywide, not at all limited to the city of Bellingham.
In fact, many of the more violent crimes happen in the the rural parts of the county, people are just more hidden and spread out. But I guess I should be more worried about a shoplifter at Home Depot or a stolen bike in Bellingham than a murder in Ferndale or police officers getting shot in Peaceful Valley, right? So, is literally everywhere else dying, too?
I have said good things about Bellingham and how the prices are crazy high and not worth it. I would never buy there no matter how far the prices dropped. I'm having a home built in NC to live there one day. I already own plenty of real estate.
I talk to people who live in Bellingham and regularly tell me stories, such as the latest gym on cornwall that closed because the homeless kept causing problems and drove the members away. Or how covid is about to close the city down again. Or how stores are now armed with security. Fred meyers has become a drug dealing square. There are parts of Whatcom county I like but Bellingham is the last place I would move into.
It sounds like you don't plan to stay there forever. I like to take a short drive there now and then but the problems I named would get old very fast to see daily. I went there every week until the Y closed due to covid. Now to this day the Y is just a big empty building on state st. It's another covid casualty.
Just as I thought, you don't actually live in Bellingham. You constantly speak about it theoretically, but seem to either get your facts mixed up about it, or mischaracterize much of what's going on here. Is it intentional? I actually live here in the middle of the city, and much of your take is almost caricature-like, and at least extremely uninformed.
People reading this thread need to understand that much of the commentary about C-D is very jaded, usually from conservative rural folks who hate the idea of urban areas in general, especially a fairly progressive city like Bellingham.
You've talked about wanting housing in Bellingham, Whatcom County, and Seattle before, so I'm sticking to my theory that you just have sour grapes about not buying something when prices were lower. You didn't, and now you're like, "I didn't want to own a home here, anyway". LOL, okay.
Again, I actually live here, and your comments about what you think most Bellinghamsters deal with daily is ridiculous. It's a silly as me suggesting that I wouldn't want to live in the county because I don't want to wrestle mountain lions every day. You simply draw a lot of conclusions from information that isn't even correct, or isn't connected to the conspiracies you're imagining. By the way, the YMCA on State St. re-opened two years ago this Friday. Just another fact to negate your narrative. Again, how often are you actually here?
Finally, I’m not sure how you managed to turn my comment about my long-term intentions into some admission that I want to leave. That is absolutely not the case, but I'm not sure I know that many people that could predict that they'd never move from their current residence for the rest of their lives..
much of your take is almost caricature-like, and at least extremely uninformed. People reading this thread need to understand that much of the commentary about C-D is very jaded, usually from conservative rural folks who hate the idea of urban areas in general, especially a fairly progressive city like Bellingham.
You've talked about wanting housing in Bellingham, Whatcom County, and Seattle before, so I'm sticking to my theory that you just have sour grapes about not buying something when prices were lower. You didn't, and now you're like, "I didn't want to own a home here, anyway". LOL, okay.
I've seen this-critique from afar-stuff so often here on CD that I hardly ever bother reading the diatribes from the usual suspects. Those with a more expansive view of the country know that we have some very sticky problems, homelessness, drugs, high cost of living, education, etc. But some are inclined to see the problems as too big to handle, and so, they become soured and hopeless.
This overblown fear of our collective problems has given a new life to the nations moving van business, just because moving has always been the American way of dealing with things. Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, and LA, have experienced a huge wave of population increase in the past decades, only to see those who moved there become disenchanted by the problems of that growth, ironic, and somewhat humorous, but that's America.
All that relocating has only added to the problems of our cities and counties, they've undergone such huge adaptations such as driving the cost of housing to stratospheric levels, growth of crime, ruining the roads, mindless sprawl, overloading the schools, the gentrification spreads and ultimately destroys the town's unique flavor. Bellingham is only one of those little burgs that has experienced the mindless expansion of its old self, we've got tons of these once quiet places. Bellingham will survive, it will continue to grow, it will never be the old city it once was, and neither will that "new place" in whatever city these wandering complainers finally call home.
I agree that all of the towns up the I-5 corridor are suffering with homeless issues (not just Bellingham). This includes smaller towns like Mount Vernon, Arlington, even Stanwood which is off the freeway a few miles.
When summer comes, the homeless population increases and is more visible. It's not unique to Bellingham. Bellingham however, has a larger/more visible homeless population in the parks and streets of town living in tents and old RVs, panhandling etc. In rural areas they are hidden in the woods or on someone's property who lets a camp grow there.
Just as I thought, you don't actually live in Bellingham. You constantly speak about it theoretically, but seem to either get your facts mixed up about it, or mischaracterize much of what's going on here. Is it intentional? I actually live here in the middle of the city, and much of your take is almost caricature-like, and at least extremely uninformed.
People reading this thread need to understand that much of the commentary about C-D is very jaded, usually from conservative rural folks who hate the idea of urban areas in general, especially a fairly progressive city like Bellingham.
You've talked about wanting housing in Bellingham, Whatcom County, and Seattle before, so I'm sticking to my theory that you just have sour grapes about not buying something when prices were lower. You didn't, and now you're like, "I didn't want to own a home here, anyway". LOL, okay.
Again, I actually live here, and your comments about what you think most Bellinghamsters deal with daily is ridiculous. It's a silly as me suggesting that I wouldn't want to live in the county because I don't want to wrestle mountain lions every day. You simply draw a lot of conclusions from information that isn't even correct, or isn't connected to the conspiracies you're imagining. By the way, the YMCA on State St. re-opened two years ago this Friday. Just another fact to negate your narrative. Again, how often are you actually here?
Finally, I’m not sure how you managed to turn my comment about my long-term intentions into some admission that I want to leave. That is absolutely not the case, but I'm not sure I know that many people that could predict that they'd never move from their current residence for the rest of their lives..
I considered buying in Bellingham before the pandemic. I had the opportunity to but didn't and I know I dodged a bullet now. I live minutes from Bellingham and do most of my shopping there. Use to go there quite a lot and have seen the changes since 2018 when I came here.
The YMCA has reduced their hours to nothing. Which is sad being that it's the main branch and was a nice facility when staffed and open. It never really re-opened. Every time I drive by it lately the windows are dark. The people I talk to every day live there and we share things freely. I can tell more entertaining stories but don't want to beat a dead horse.
I've seen this-critique from afar-stuff so often here on CD that I hardly ever bother reading the diatribes from the usual suspects. Those with a more expansive view of the country know that we have some very sticky problems, homelessness, drugs, high cost of living, education, etc. But some are inclined to see the problems as too big to handle, and so, they become soured and hopeless.
This overblown fear of our collective problems has given a new life to the nations moving van business, just because moving has always been the American way of dealing with things. Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, and LA, have experienced a huge wave of population increase in the past decades, only to see those who moved there become disenchanted by the problems of that growth, ironic, and somewhat humorous, but that's America.
All that relocating has only added to the problems of our cities and counties, they've undergone such huge adaptations such as driving the cost of housing to stratospheric levels, growth of crime, ruining the roads, mindless sprawl, overloading the schools, the gentrification spreads and ultimately destroys the town's unique flavor. Bellingham is only one of those little burgs that has experienced the mindless expansion of its old self, we've got tons of these once quiet places. Bellingham will survive, it will continue to grow, it will never be the old city it once was, and neither will that "new place" in whatever city these wandering complainers finally call home.
So you blame society's problems on migration? Fyi California is no longer a growing state. I guess bad governing corruption and shutting things down has nothing to do with the inflation, crime, etc. Blame the migrators. Many of which come from Seattle and other liberal places.
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