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I assume the anti-Bellingham/Whatcom County threads and responses made on this forum, are made by people who hope it will prevent people from moving to Bellingham/Whatcom County. There are a lot of tree-hugger environmentalist types here who don't like the population increasing. However, for the most part, people in Bellingham/Whatcom County are very welcoming to newcomers.
Bellingham and the entire Whatcom County is a FANTASTIC place to live!! Maybe the best place in the entire USA!! Don't let anyone fool you into thinking otherwise.
Rich implants love it, and realtors have $650k -$1Million+ homes they'd like to net commissions on that hardly any of our working class -even upper class-can afford.
I'm on my way out, so I really don't care personally. Keep calling in the lemmings. What sucks is when people push misinformation here on the forums, and others make a costly life change moving here and end up not liking it.
Rich implants love it, and realtors have $650k -$1Million+ homes they'd like to net commissions on that hardly any of our working class -even upper class-can afford.
I'm on my way out, so I really don't care personally. Keep calling in the lemmings. What sucks is when people push misinformation here on the forums, and others make a costly life change moving here and end up not liking it.
As you said on another thread, you offer the truth, and nothing more. I agree, but it's the "nothing more" part that I have an issue with. It would be helpful to provide context or comparative analysis, which a lot of people are looking for. Instead you seem to just try to scare people off. When people new to the WA forum ask honest questions and the local pessimists start chiming in, I feel somewhat obligated to provide a little balance because I think it's a disservice to others in the forum to suggest that we exist in some awful vacuum. Especially because it seems that you-and several others on this website simply dislike Bellingham because of its leftward political leanings-and because it's a city-and you don't seem to care for cities.
I actually agree with you on some of your posts and have repped you numerous times. I've also told you repeatedly that I actually sympathize with experiencing growing pains in your hometown. Like the entire West Coast and much of the country- it's become an expensive place to buy a home. And like other growing cities, it has increasing traffic, petty crime, and some homelessness. I've never claimed otherwise. It's got a changing economy, and many people are bringing their jobs with them. I'd never, ever suggest to someone to move to here or any costly location without having money in the bank or a solid, well-paying job or successful business. Nor have I seen anyone else try to hide the fact that it's expensive, so I don't know who you're referring to there.
Anyway, you have a helpful knowledge of the area, and I am quite willing to give you credit and acknowledge many of your points, despite the fact that you’ll never, ever do the same for me. All I’m saying is that it would be nice if you at least admitted that commonplace urban issues that are really concerning to you are in no way limited to Bellingham, Washington. Ironically many of the people who've moved to or are moving to your hometown actually love it here, while you do nothing but insult their intentions and talk negatively about this place. Is it that hard to understand that different people have different perspectives or are in different situations when looking to relocate?
All I’m saying is that it would be nice if you at least admitted that commonplace urban issues that are really concerning to you are in no way limited to Bellingham, Washington. Ironically many of the people who've moved to or are moving to your hometown actually love it here, while you do nothing but insult their intentions and talk negatively about this place. Is it that hard to understand that different people have different perspectives or are in different situations when looking to relocate?
This is a very common societal dilemma and human experience that is in no way unique to any single location. Thomas Wolfe Was Right: You Can't Go Home Again. I've experienced this very same thing with my own hometown of Hermosa Beach, CA. Schools were torn down and replaced with multi-million $ homes. Locals were priced out of the market by wealthy outsiders, etc... It will never be the same to me as I once experienced and enjoyed it as a child and young man growing up in the 'once' sleepy little, mostly middle class, beach town. Those days are gone forever and yet will always be remembered with great fondness. Although I know I will never live there again. Were fellow locals bitter about it and possibly some still to this day? Yes, of course. But do I blame those Outsiders for jacking up the prices of real estate whether they be wealthy foreign or domestic investors? No, not really. We live in a supply and demand economy like much of the modern world. So who am to say someone can't or shouldn't buy property in my hometown? Even if that means prices and associated taxes going up to insane levels? For some its simply worth it and for good reason. It really is a beautiful (Hermosa) little beach town.
"You can't go back home to your family, back home to your childhood, . . . back home to a young man's dreams of glory and of fame . . . back home to places in the country, back home to the old forms and systems of things which once seemed everlasting but which are changing all the time... back home to the escapes of Time and Memory."
"The idea that it is impossible to return home and to the past is commonplace today and a hallmark of modern consciousness. Yet generations of Americans have longed to go home, either to their actual childhood homes or to metaphorical homes located somewhere in the past." -- You Can't Go Home Again: Homesickness and Nostalgia in U.S. History
I will say I ended up finding a place to live and raise my children that reminded me of my hometown in many ways. That was Monterey, CA. That is now my kids' hometown. We almost bought there and I still work remotely from there. But the timing just wasn't right and then the same cycle repeated with crazy prices for old beach shacks that were once owned by middle class fisherman. But no one ever denies the beauty of that stretch of coast in the Monterey Bay including Big Sur to the south. It is, IMO, the most beautiful coastline in the entire state. We knew that going in the second time. But it was still so worth living there even if for that chapter of our lives while raising our kids. Here's a view from our window where we watched the sunset over the ocean every night.
Derek
Last edited by MtnSurfer; 12-03-2020 at 10:54 PM..
Great post, Derek. I like the philosophy. One thing that is good is for people moving into these gentrifying areas to know they will face a small but die hard contingent of people that don't like outsiders moving in and "ruining the place." It's good to be prepared! Not everyone is going to be welcoming, and their voice (the old timers) is also a perspective that shouldn't be dissed because it's real experience and has validity. It's as valid as the newcomers who discovered and love the place. Both sides are going to have to coexist. Different perspectives.
I get the sentiment after watching the farmland of my home area converted into subdivsions. It's been a constant theme since the 1970s.
"All I’m saying is that it would be nice if you at least admitted that commonplace urban issues that are really concerning to you are in no way limited to Bellingham, Washington. Ironically many of the people who've moved to or are moving to your hometown actually love it here, while you do nothing but insult their intentions and talk negatively about this place. Is it that hard to understand that different people have different perspectives or are in different situations when looking to relocate?"
Of course the issues aren't limited to Bellingham. What is unique to Bellingham is the resistance to growth among planning and development all the while we are gaining population at a rapid rate. The sharp rises in housing and property taxes are driven by demand [B[AND a starved housing market due to new construction only accommodating a small fraction of the population growth.[/b] This gives what's left of our working class, even upper middle class, 3 choices.
A: Run on a financial treadmill barely able to afford the mortgage/taxes/insurance, which are all on the rise due to housing being on the rise.
B: Downsize into one of the many apartment complexes.
C: Pack up and leave the area.
Some of the posters that replied here get it, thank you for understanding. Others expect us to like it and welcome it, which is hard to do when your costs have gone up drastically, the activities you used to enjoy are now packed full of people or gone, and our friends and family keep moving away.
Then there is other pet peeves that just add up aside from that. For example, I'm not a Starbucks fan, but many are obviously. The line for Starbucks is often backed up around the place and out into the street. Same thing with most fast food places during lunchbreak. It's pretty common to see people with California plates get frustrated and bail out of the line to go...somewhere else? Freeway offramps back up onto the freeway, and this is pretty typical from Bellingham clear to the Canadian border. It's downright dangerous to have to sit there wondering if a tractor trailer or cube van is going to "uncover" your stopped car on the freeway when it moves into the fast lane and get you rear ended by someone doing 75mph that has nowhere to go. Go to the park, oops sorry its full. Go to take the boat out, oops sorry it's full and so are the two overflow lots and all the roadside parking for a mile in each direction. Go to mountain bike at Galbrath, oops you'll have to park on the side of the road half a mile away and hope your car hasn't been prowled or stolen when you return. We're 3rd place in the nation for the least sunny days, the longer I live here the more miserable I find the cold wet dark weather. If you work an 8-5pm like I do, inside, you won't see any daylight in winter time except on your lunchbreak. I may sound negative but these things are all very real and part of every day life here. I'm in the process of getting out of Bellingham, and my next step will be to retire out of state to somewhere warmer with more sun and lower costs of living. Sure I get it, when your lines were twice as long and everything was twice as bad wherever those moving here came from, then it's great. Others are mislead though, and move here only to be disappointed with this area and move back out. Several of my friends and coworkers have been through this "cycle" and lost $1,000's of $$$ and years of their lives moving in and out. Most made $80K-$100K a year, and simply couldn't get into the housing market and didn't want to be forced to stay in an apartment forever. I wouldn't wish that on anyone, which is why I inject reality into a lot of these posts.
"All I’m saying is that it would be nice if you at least admitted that commonplace urban issues that are really concerning to you are in no way limited to Bellingham, Washington. Ironically many of the people who've moved to or are moving to your hometown actually love it here, while you do nothing but insult their intentions and talk negatively about this place. Is it that hard to understand that different people have different perspectives or are in different situations when looking to relocate?"
Of course the issues aren't limited to Bellingham. What is unique to Bellingham is the resistance to growth among planning and development all the while we are gaining population at a rapid rate. The sharp rises in housing and property taxes are driven by demand [B[AND a starved housing market due to new construction only accommodating a small fraction of the population growth.[/b] This gives what's left of our working class, even upper middle class, 3 choices.
A: Run on a financial treadmill barely able to afford the mortgage/taxes/insurance, which are all on the rise due to housing being on the rise.
B: Downsize into one of the many apartment complexes.
C: Pack up and leave the area.
Some of the posters that replied here get it, thank you for understanding. Others expect us to like it and welcome it, which is hard to do when your costs have gone up drastically, the activities you used to enjoy are now packed full of people or gone, and our friends and family keep moving away.
Then there is other pet peeves that just add up aside from that. For example, I'm not a Starbucks fan, but many are obviously. The line for Starbucks is often backed up around the place and out into the street. Same thing with most fast food places during lunchbreak. It's pretty common to see people with California plates get frustrated and bail out of the line to go...somewhere else? Freeway offramps back up onto the freeway, and this is pretty typical from Bellingham clear to the Canadian border. It's downright dangerous to have to sit there wondering if a tractor trailer or cube van is going to "uncover" your stopped car on the freeway when it moves into the fast lane and get you rear ended by someone doing 75mph that has nowhere to go. Go to the park, oops sorry its full. Go to take the boat out, oops sorry it's full and so are the two overflow lots and all the roadside parking for a mile in each direction. Go to mountain bike at Galbrath, oops you'll have to park on the side of the road half a mile away and hope your car hasn't been prowled or stolen when you return. We're 3rd place in the nation for the least sunny days, the longer I live here the more miserable I find the cold wet dark weather. If you work an 8-5pm like I do, inside, you won't see any daylight in winter time except on your lunchbreak. I may sound negative but these things are all very real and part of every day life here. I'm in the process of getting out of Bellingham, and my next step will be to retire out of state to somewhere warmer with more sun and lower costs of living. Sure I get it, when your lines were twice as long and everything was twice as bad wherever those moving here came from, then it's great. Others are mislead though, and move here only to be disappointed with this area and move back out. Several of my friends and coworkers have been through this "cycle" and lost $1,000's of $$$ and years of their lives moving in and out. Most made $80K-$100K a year, and simply couldn't get into the housing market and didn't want to be forced to stay in an apartment forever. I wouldn't wish that on anyone, which is why I inject reality into a lot of these posts.
Well, I get everything you're saying since I've lived through the same thing with my hometown. The overcrowding and nowhere else to build was also very similar. It's important to see both sides of the coin so folks moving in can do so with eyes wide open, the good, the bad - all of it. And so, IMO, both posts are equally valid. Yours from a true locals perspective. I certainly wouldn't discount that.
When I visit my hometown its with very mixed emotions realizing I'll never live there again. It's home and yet its not. Then, when I walk along the beach and see many smiling faces, I realize what's not for me is actually working for some, many of these folks now. It's there time now to enjoy its beauty. Maybe they have more money, some definitely do. Others might just be scraping by. But if you ask the majority who choose to call it home, they love it. So, hey, at least some do even with all the changes I grew to really dislike. It's only a shadow of what it once was to me now. So, it was good/healthy that I moved on to experience other places.
If all of those overcrowding problems are there, then its good people know about them before moving. I'm really glad the folks in Seattle forums warned me about the traffic and then my visits confirmed that it was just too impacted for me. And there will be others like bartonizer who love it regardless. I have a friend who just moved to Seattle from the SW and he loves it. So, who knows? More will probably flood in and think its a wonderful place without ever knowing how good it once was. There's a time for everything under the sun including the closing of one chapter of life along with the beginning of a new one.
Then there is other pet peeves that just add up aside from that. For example, I'm not a Starbucks fan, but many are obviously. The line for Starbucks is often backed up around the place and out into the street. Same thing with most fast food places during lunchbreak. It's pretty common to see people with California plates get frustrated and bail out of the line to go...somewhere else? Freeway offramps back up onto the freeway, and this is pretty typical from Bellingham clear to the Canadian border. It's downright dangerous to have to sit there wondering if a tractor trailer or cube van is going to "uncover" your stopped car on the freeway when it moves into the fast lane and get you rear ended by someone doing 75mph that has nowhere to go. Go to the park, oops sorry its full. Go to take the boat out, oops sorry it's full and so are the two overflow lots and all the roadside parking for a mile in each direction. Go to mountain bike at Galbrath, oops you'll have to park on the side of the road half a mile away and hope your car hasn't been prowled or stolen when you return. We're 3rd place in the nation for the least sunny days, the longer I live here the more miserable I find the cold wet dark weather. If you work an 8-5pm like I do, inside, you won't see any daylight in winter time except on your lunchbreak. I may sound negative but these things are all very real and part of every day life here. I'm in the process of getting out of Bellingham, and my next step will be to retire out of state to somewhere warmer with more sun and lower costs of living. Sure I get it, when your lines were twice as long and everything was twice as bad wherever those moving here came from, then it's great. Others are mislead though, and move here only to be disappointed with this area and move back out. Several of my friends and coworkers have been through this "cycle" and lost $1,000's of $$$ and years of their lives moving in and out. Most made $80K-$100K a year, and simply couldn't get into the housing market and didn't want to be forced to stay in an apartment forever. I wouldn't wish that on anyone, which is why I inject reality into a lot of these posts.
Is there only one Starbucks in the whole town? Or they're all backed up? Are there no other coffee shops? I don't understand. I think some research should be done on why people are so hooked on S'bux, that they'll put up with this. Maybe it's about "being seen" waiting to buy Starbucks? A status symbol?
Who eats fast food for lunch on a regular basis? Whatever happened to bringing your lunch from home? That's what City and university employees in Seattle have always done.
What cities are in 1st & 2nd place, for least sunny days? I seriously doubt B'ham is 3rd. There are lots of places with less sun.
Warmer and sunnier retirement location? AND w/lower COL? You realize, you're talking the SW, right? Unless you mean the Deep South, haha. Remember, "warmer and sunnier" tends to mean---water shortages. They're going to get worse in the future. Don't curse the rain; it's a great blessing.
This is a very common societal dilemma and human experience that is in no way unique to any single location. Thomas Wolfe Was Right: You Can't Go Home Again. I've experienced this very same thing with my own hometown of Hermosa Beach, CA. Schools were torn down and replaced with multi-million $ homes. Locals were priced out of the market by wealthy outsiders, etc... It will never be the same to me as I once experienced and enjoyed it as a child and young man growing up in the 'once' sleepy little, mostly middle class, beach town. Those days are gone forever and yet will always be remembered with great fondness. Although I know I will never live there again. Were fellow locals bitter about it and possibly some still to this day? Yes, of course. But do I blame those Outsiders for jacking up the prices of real estate whether they be wealthy foreign or domestic investors? No, not really. We live in a supply and demand economy like much of the modern world. So who am to say someone can't or shouldn't buy property in my hometown? Even if that means prices and associated taxes going up to insane levels? For some its simply worth it and for good reason. It really is a beautiful (Hermosa) little beach town.
"You can't go back home to your family, back home to your childhood, . . . back home to a young man's dreams of glory and of fame . . . back home to places in the country, back home to the old forms and systems of things which once seemed everlasting but which are changing all the time... back home to the escapes of Time and Memory."
"The idea that it is impossible to return home and to the past is commonplace today and a hallmark of modern consciousness. Yet generations of Americans have longed to go home, either to their actual childhood homes or to metaphorical homes located somewhere in the past." -- You Can't Go Home Again: Homesickness and Nostalgia in U.S. History
I will say I ended up finding a place to live and raise my children that reminded me of my hometown in many ways. That was Monterey, CA. That is now my kids' hometown. We almost bought there and I still work remotely from there. But the timing just wasn't right and then the same cycle repeated with crazy prices for old beach shacks that were once owned by middle class fisherman. But no one ever denies the beauty of that stretch of coast in the Monterey Bay including Big Sur to the south. It is, IMO, the most beautiful coastline in the entire state. We knew that going in the second time. But it was still so worth living there even if for that chapter of our lives while raising our kids. Here's a view from our window where we watched the sunset over the ocean every night.
Derek
Very well written post. In many cases, growth is inevitable. I fully understand the irritation and frustration of seeing the area you love go in a different direction, I really do. But in most cases, there's not much we can do about it. After all, it's the other edge of the sword of living in a society where you're free to move around. As Mayfair said, we have to coexist, there's really no other option.
I think that it's the assault on the intentions of "outsiders" that irks me. Everyone comes from somewhere. On that note- is someone who doesn't feel a connection to where they grew up bound to stay there forever? Things change, places change, people change. Personally, at this point in my life I don't really have strong ties to other places that I've lived or where I grew up, but Bellingham is home and I love it. I don't feel guilty about saying that, and I fully acknowledge that it's not for everyone. I'm also fully aware that others may not feel that way- or not feel that way anymore.
So many variables go into everyone's own situation and where they are at this point in their journey.
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Whatever happened to bringing your lunch from home? That's what City and university employees in Seattle have always done.
