Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Since construction accounting is a lot of what I do, most of your construction workers on commercial and public works projects come from in WA state, usually western WA with some influx from around the country due to our union halls being empty. The companies I have worked for have done several of your big projects up there such as highways and schools, and most of our labor is from locals in Seattle and Tacoma.
Most of the time the jobs are awarded to union contractors so the local that is based near the contractor is the one that supplies most of the labor. Most of the jobs go to the shops in the Seattle area as we tend to be the biggest and most experienced.
There are some private companies but they make up a small percentage of commercial and public works jobs. Unon hands generally make an excellent wage, painters are right around $32 plus bennies, and electrical around $45 plus bennies. Most unions have public schedule As that list wages so it is easy to see that it is not construction guys making a small income and not being able to afford rent lol Most of them are buying rather than renting once they get a bit of time in as an apprentice.
There is *some* hard drug use, especially in laborers and painters, but the union guys do get tested. All hands are tested if there is an accident on site. Maybe for the little private companies is what you are referring to? However, insurance and bonds are not cheap so having workers on heroin or meth is not normal.
I'm talking about our local grocery store workers, auto shops, even *some* hair stylists in the area... I was talking about how the newspaper article I read stated drug testing is affecting the eligible labor force here. I didn't mean to imply that it's construction workers coming here to work... I was trying to point out that the eligible labor pool here is apparently being reduced due to folks not being able to pass a drug screen.
I'm talking about our local grocery store workers, auto shops, even *some* hair stylists in the area... I was talking about how the newspaper article I read stated drug testing is affecting the eligible labor force here. I didn't mean to imply that it's construction workers coming here to work... I was trying to point out that the eligible labor pool here is apparently being reduced due to folks not being able to pass a drug screen.
Then I am not sure why you would include construction as most of the big projects are done by out of area workers? Further, the construction workers who are in Bellingham usually have motels rented weekly and then travel home on weekends. They do not impact housing rental rates at all.
I can't speak for small private contractors but they make up a small percentage.
I guess I can contribute with our own Bellingham experience. Excuse my writing style and grammar, but I am typing this quickly on my break. The purpose of this post is to provide some info to people who potentially want to move to Bellingham from other places, like we did. Do not get offended by this post, it’s just from our own experience. If you like living there, that’s great and good for you.
We moved out of Bellingham and couldn’t be happier. The best decision we made.
We are both in our mid-thirties, with a 4 year old. We worked hard and are lucky to have a good education, good professions and high paying jobs. We were making over 200K per year there. We also had a beautiful house in one of the nicest neighborhoods in Bellingham. Luckily, the money wasn’t an issue for us there, however we couldn’t wait to get out. We lived in Bellingham for 5 years.
Here are some reasons we didn’t like it, again from our own experience…
Bellingham is not a nice looking city/town. Yes, there are a couple of nice areas but overall it is very old, and kind of ugly looking city. I am talking about downtown and “waterfront” area. Clearly the city doesn’t have money to invest in the city itself, so everything looks old, run down and a bit dirty. A lot of homeless people too, for such a small city.
Bellingham doesn’t have a waterfront, period. Waterfront is pretty much all industrial area without pedestrian access. I mean you may be able to access it, but there is nothing there to enjoy. They keep bragging about new waterfront park they just opened it recently, it’s a joke. It is so small and surrounded by, again industrial area. They put a playground there, couple of benches and made such a big deal out of it.
Due to lack of money, the only investment the city can make is to build more trails, I guess laying down some gravel is the cheapest thing to do. Yes, it’s great, a lot of trails, but you can’t just keep building trails, try to add something new, different. Don’t get me wrong, we loved trails, but’s that seems the main city’s investment. It gets boring after a while.
Bellingham claims it is a great outdoor city, that you can do many activities throughout a year. We are very active family and this is simply not truth. The weather is nice for 4 months, but the rest of the year it’s very wet, coldish and greyish. Not enjoyable at all. Sure, go for a hike, run or a bike ride when it’s rainy most of the time… Not many people do it during fall/winter times, which are long (5-6 months).
Some people may say we couldn’t adjust to the weather and that’s not true. We used to live in another city with very similar climate and we loved it. It was very clean, nice, and beautiful even during rainy and winter season. But Bellingham is kind of boring as well, there is not much to do there. So many times we asked ourselves, during the weekend, where should we go? What should we do? No real culture there. Its’ a college town. Many people are inside, in their houses, maybe because of the weather or culture there in general. People don’t seem to be active much (majority), there are many overweight people. If you think differently, just get out of Bellingham for a bit, go on a trip and see other places.
Also, people don’t care how they dress or look when they get out. After a while it gets odd. People in stores in their pajamas, no style, like you are living in some odd place, which is kind of true. People may seem friendly but you have to be very careful. Many people there are jealous if you have a nice job, nice house…They will talk behind your back. Many people in Bellingham don’t make much, as there is no real industry there, mostly service jobs. So overall culture and mentality is at that level, no offence to anyone. People are very depressed there. We never complained about Bellingham while living there as we didn’t want to fall into that category. We knew we gonna leave, so we wanted to have a good time while still there. But you can easily see the depression in people’s eyes.
Many people there may tell you they would “never leave, it’s the best place on earth”. Well...they may never traveled outside of Whatcom county and saw other places, much nicer and they cannot leave simply because moving and settling in another, nicer place, would be expensive for them, just being realistic here.
We spend a lot of our time exploring Vancouver, BC. A beautiful city, same climate but city on another level. People are different too, you will notice a difference everywhere right away. It was nice to be close to it, but then you may want to move to Vancouver, if you want to fully enjoy. It’s still an hour away to go there and back all the time. Seattle is a bit further south.
If you take a walk in some of the neighborhoods near downtown Bellingham you will notice an ugly old houses, poor landscaping, etc. A lot of students live in those places, they are mostly rental. Nightlife in Bellingham is also not appealing either. College town, students getting wasted, homeless.. There are basically 3-4 streets/blocks and that’s all.
Food in Bellingham is not that great as some people say, it’s actually nothing special. If you like good food go to Vancouver or Seattle. There is so much variety and good, tasty food. Bellingham may have a couple of OK places and that’s it. Some of them you would go once or twice and then you wouldn’t want to come back.
Weather in Bellingham.. well I hope you already looked it up if you are considering moving there. Simply, it’s not that great at all. Summers are nice, don’t get me wrong, but that’s only for 3-4 months. The rest of the time is rainy, wet, coldish and very gloomy. I don’t mind rain, I actually enjoy it once in a while, but we are talking here of constant, drizzling rain that doesn’t stop. Sometimes you won’t be able to see blue skies for a long time. During winter it doesn’t get too cold, but it rains a lot and it’s very grey so it kind of contributes to the overall miserable place to be. This may affect you in the sense that Bellingham doesn’t have much to offer during winter. Its very boring, many people are inside (which is understandable), as there is no where to go really.
People who live there are very protective of ‘how good the place is’, sometimes narrow minded and very shallow. Sorry, it’s just my opinion. Canadians are using it for shopping only, not a tourist attraction at all because there is nothing attractive about it. They get gas, shop for a bit and get back to Vancouver as fast as they can. If there are no Canadians, Bellingham would easily go bankrupt.
Regarding jobs, well if you are lucky to get a good job (which is not easy to find there), you would be OK. I really feel for people who work lower paying jobs as I am not sure how they make it day by day. All those jobs don’t pay much at all. Good jobs would be harder to find as there is no industry there. There are a couple of “bigger” employers (bigger in Bellingham terms), but not all of them pay good salaries either. Only if you are in specific profession, like we were luckily, you will make a decent money.
I won’t talk about people there too much, their mindset and skills, as I will probably offend a lot of people. But basically that’s what you get in the place like this, not highly educated population. Yes, there is a college there but it doesn’t mean anything. And usually once they graduate, these young people go away as they don’t want to stay there. Only the ones who have to, will stay.
Anyway, that was a bit longer post than I thought it would be, but I just wanted to provide an honest point of view, from our experience. We moved out and are very happy we did. We feel sorry we didn’t do it earlier but that’s OK. We have much more fun here, making even more, having more things to do and people are great. If you like living in Bellingham I am happy for you, that’s great for you. If you are not, just get out, sometimes it’s a simple clear cut - decision. You would be better off for sure. If you say I am telling a bunch of BS about Bellingham here, that’s OK too. But then deep down you are probably depressed, bored, want to leave as well but you can’t, and I am sorry for that. If you agree to it but cannot move out because of financial or any other situation, don’t lose your hope. Something will come up and when that happens just grab your chance. Life is too short, don’t waste your time in the place you don’t want to be.
One last thing…you may or may not heard about Mercury spill there, very poisonous …they don’t ‘advertise’ about it much (I mean who would..) and it seems they are putting it under the table. They are still trying to clean it, for so many years, but again no funding, so it’s still there. Dig into a bit if you are concerned about long term effects of it on your health. We are talking about large quantities of Mercury here. Just google it and you will find some info. Also, look at Whatcom data about cancer statistics there….
Cheers.
Where did you move to? I may have missed it but didn’t find a city or area. As a native of Bellingham, you nailed a few things correctly like the shabby homes and areas of downtown. And, yes, the weather. I guess we are used to it.
You know, the city/port attracted the Alaska ferry which they thought would bring in more people to stay and spend. I have watched the cars disembark and most head straight for I5.
I personally don’t care for all the virtue signaling in this year’s election as many are calling for housing equity, mixing low income and high income. Plus, I disagree with the declaration of both city and county as sanctuaries for illegal aliens. Social engineering.
I guess I can contribute with our own Bellingham experience. Excuse my writing style and grammar, but I am typing this quickly on my break. The purpose of this post is to provide some info to people who potentially want to move to Bellingham from other places, like we did. Do not get offended by this post, it’s just from our own experience. If you like living there, that’s great and good for you.
We moved out of Bellingham and couldn’t be happier. The best decision we made.
We are both in our mid-thirties, with a 4 year old. We worked hard and are lucky to have a good education, good professions and high paying jobs. We were making over 200K per year there. We also had a beautiful house in one of the nicest neighborhoods in Bellingham. Luckily, the money wasn’t an issue for us there, however we couldn’t wait to get out. We lived in Bellingham for 5 years.
Here are some reasons we didn’t like it, again from our own experience…
Bellingham is not a nice looking city/town. Yes, there are a couple of nice areas but overall it is very old, and kind of ugly looking city. I am talking about downtown and “waterfront” area. Clearly the city doesn’t have money to invest in the city itself, so everything looks old, run down and a bit dirty. A lot of homeless people too, for such a small city.
Bellingham doesn’t have a waterfront, period. Waterfront is pretty much all industrial area without pedestrian access. I mean you may be able to access it, but there is nothing there to enjoy. They keep bragging about new waterfront park they just opened it recently, it’s a joke. It is so small and surrounded by, again industrial area. They put a playground there, couple of benches and made such a big deal out of it.
Due to lack of money, the only investment the city can make is to build more trails, I guess laying down some gravel is the cheapest thing to do. Yes, it’s great, a lot of trails, but you can’t just keep building trails, try to add something new, different. Don’t get me wrong, we loved trails, but’s that seems the main city’s investment. It gets boring after a while.
Bellingham claims it is a great outdoor city, that you can do many activities throughout a year. We are very active family and this is simply not truth. The weather is nice for 4 months, but the rest of the year it’s very wet, coldish and greyish. Not enjoyable at all. Sure, go for a hike, run or a bike ride when it’s rainy most of the time… Not many people do it during fall/winter times, which are long (5-6 months).
Some people may say we couldn’t adjust to the weather and that’s not true. We used to live in another city with very similar climate and we loved it. It was very clean, nice, and beautiful even during rainy and winter season. But Bellingham is kind of boring as well, there is not much to do there. So many times we asked ourselves, during the weekend, where should we go? What should we do? No real culture there. Its’ a college town. Many people are inside, in their houses, maybe because of the weather or culture there in general. People don’t seem to be active much (majority), there are many overweight people. If you think differently, just get out of Bellingham for a bit, go on a trip and see other places.
Also, people don’t care how they dress or look when they get out. After a while it gets odd. People in stores in their pajamas, no style, like you are living in some odd place, which is kind of true. People may seem friendly but you have to be very careful. Many people there are jealous if you have a nice job, nice house…They will talk behind your back. Many people in Bellingham don’t make much, as there is no real industry there, mostly service jobs. So overall culture and mentality is at that level, no offence to anyone. People are very depressed there. We never complained about Bellingham while living there as we didn’t want to fall into that category. We knew we gonna leave, so we wanted to have a good time while still there. But you can easily see the depression in people’s eyes.
Many people there may tell you they would “never leave, it’s the best place on earth”. Well...they may never traveled outside of Whatcom county and saw other places, much nicer and they cannot leave simply because moving and settling in another, nicer place, would be expensive for them, just being realistic here.
We spend a lot of our time exploring Vancouver, BC. A beautiful city, same climate but city on another level. People are different too, you will notice a difference everywhere right away. It was nice to be close to it, but then you may want to move to Vancouver, if you want to fully enjoy. It’s still an hour away to go there and back all the time. Seattle is a bit further south.
If you take a walk in some of the neighborhoods near downtown Bellingham you will notice an ugly old houses, poor landscaping, etc. A lot of students live in those places, they are mostly rental. Nightlife in Bellingham is also not appealing either. College town, students getting wasted, homeless.. There are basically 3-4 streets/blocks and that’s all.
Food in Bellingham is not that great as some people say, it’s actually nothing special. If you like good food go to Vancouver or Seattle. There is so much variety and good, tasty food. Bellingham may have a couple of OK places and that’s it. Some of them you would go once or twice and then you wouldn’t want to come back.
Weather in Bellingham.. well I hope you already looked it up if you are considering moving there. Simply, it’s not that great at all. Summers are nice, don’t get me wrong, but that’s only for 3-4 months. The rest of the time is rainy, wet, coldish and very gloomy. I don’t mind rain, I actually enjoy it once in a while, but we are talking here of constant, drizzling rain that doesn’t stop. Sometimes you won’t be able to see blue skies for a long time. During winter it doesn’t get too cold, but it rains a lot and it’s very grey so it kind of contributes to the overall miserable place to be. This may affect you in the sense that Bellingham doesn’t have much to offer during winter. Its very boring, many people are inside (which is understandable), as there is no where to go really.
People who live there are very protective of ‘how good the place is’, sometimes narrow minded and very shallow. Sorry, it’s just my opinion. Canadians are using it for shopping only, not a tourist attraction at all because there is nothing attractive about it. They get gas, shop for a bit and get back to Vancouver as fast as they can. If there are no Canadians, Bellingham would easily go bankrupt.
Regarding jobs, well if you are lucky to get a good job (which is not easy to find there), you would be OK. I really feel for people who work lower paying jobs as I am not sure how they make it day by day. All those jobs don’t pay much at all. Good jobs would be harder to find as there is no industry there. There are a couple of “bigger” employers (bigger in Bellingham terms), but not all of them pay good salaries either. Only if you are in specific profession, like we were luckily, you will make a decent money.
I won’t talk about people there too much, their mindset and skills, as I will probably offend a lot of people. But basically that’s what you get in the place like this, not highly educated population. Yes, there is a college there but it doesn’t mean anything. And usually once they graduate, these young people go away as they don’t want to stay there. Only the ones who have to, will stay.
Anyway, that was a bit longer post than I thought it would be, but I just wanted to provide an honest point of view, from our experience. We moved out and are very happy we did. We feel sorry we didn’t do it earlier but that’s OK. We have much more fun here, making even more, having more things to do and people are great. If you like living in Bellingham I am happy for you, that’s great for you. If you are not, just get out, sometimes it’s a simple clear cut - decision. You would be better off for sure. If you say I am telling a bunch of BS about Bellingham here, that’s OK too. But then deep down you are probably depressed, bored, want to leave as well but you can’t, and I am sorry for that. If you agree to it but cannot move out because of financial or any other situation, don’t lose your hope. Something will come up and when that happens just grab your chance. Life is too short, don’t waste your time in the place you don’t want to be.
One last thing…you may or may not heard about Mercury spill there, very poisonous …they don’t ‘advertise’ about it much (I mean who would..) and it seems they are putting it under the table. They are still trying to clean it, for so many years, but again no funding, so it’s still there. Dig into a bit if you are concerned about long term effects of it on your health. We are talking about large quantities of Mercury here. Just google it and you will find some info. Also, look at Whatcom data about cancer statistics there….
Cheers.
Hello first time poster, welcome to City-Data. I'm glad you moved on to greener pastures, but I'm a little skeptical of some of the things you've mentioned on here, and I have to say that your experience here is rather atypical- and your observations are a little bizarre. In fact, it sounds like you joined to scare people off....so I'd like to address a couple of things that you've written, some of which I agree with, and some I don't.
First, Bellingham (and many non-suburban cities in the NW) pride themselves on a little grittiness, and it's a city with a historically blue-collar, industrial past. The housing stock in the middle of town is older, modest homes, but compared to many cities this size, a large part of it is highly walkable and bikable in the middle of town, and is a downright bargain compared to other places up and down the coast. The housing you speak of is in very high demand, so clearly not that many people agree with you....
Yes, the immediate waterfront beyond downtown was once industrial and is being cleaned up and being redeveloped (slower than most people would like) but to insinuate Bellingham doesn't have water frontage is straight up BS. North of downtown is one of the biggest marinas on the West Coast, and south of downtown is the South Bay Trail-Boulevard Park-boardwalk-Taylor Dock area. Don't you think it's a little deceptive to say that Bellingham doesn't have a waterfront when literally the most popular area in town is over the water??
Regarding climate, Bellingham gets substantially less precipitation than either Vancouver or Southern Puget Sound, and the lack of light is from being this far north in latitude. So I'm not sure why you'd single out Bellingham as being particularly bad when the attributes you're complaining about occur anywhere in the NW west of the Cascades. It's actually far milder than other places I've lived, and while some people behave rather reclusively in the darker times of the year, I also see a ton of people out and about, on trails, mountain biking, and even on patios, which are often open even in winter. Again, your criticisms apply to the whole region, not just Bellingham. And a quick talk with any realtor will inform you that we are a top destination for relocation for people throughout the region.
I agree that the food here has a way to go, but things are improving, and in the last two years a lot of good things have popped up. Regarding shopping, Bellingham has long been a shopping haven for Canadians, it's not a secret, and I'm not sure why that would bother you. The interesting thing is that in the last several years, the slowdown in retail (which has occurred nationally, as well) has been supplanted by a double digit rise in tourism from our neighbors to the north. Why is that? Because they're figuring out that Bellingham has a cool downtown AND funky historical neighborhood in Fairhaven. They're helping to keep the more than dozen breweries and four cideries in business, as Bham has become much more of a place for Vancouverites to day trip.
I agree with you about jobs; it's a frequent complaint. It's also an issue in other comparable towns, like Asheville (area where I used to live), Missoula, Bend, Santa Fe, Bozeman, Eugene, Flagstaff, etc. etc.
Like it or not, there are also a good number of people who CAN afford to live here, including retirees and many people who are bringing their jobs with them remotely.
Your educational assessment is extremely off base. Are you sure you lived here? The percentage of people in the city with at least a bachelor's degree is in the mid-40% range- significantly above WA state overall in the mid-30% range, and the national average in the high 20's. In fact, many students are dying to live here after graduation from WWU, and that's why you have the "overeducated barista" effect. Again, I agree that there aren't enough high-paying jobs here, but to act like students don't want to stay here after graduation is hogwash.
Bellingham is a small, progressive, outdoorsy city with a medium-sized university, not a big city. But that should not come to anyone as a surprise. It's far from perfect, and it's not for everyone, but as someone who's lived in MD, FL, NC, and CO prior to moving here, I DO have a basis for comparison, and we love it. And again, ultimately I'm glad you found somewhere else to live- hopefully a bigger city not in the Northwest!
Where did you move to? I may have missed it but didn’t find a city or area. As a native of Bellingham, you nailed a few things correctly like the shabby homes and areas of downtown. And, yes, the weather. I guess we are used to it.
You know, the city/port attracted the Alaska ferry which they thought would bring in more people to stay and spend. I have watched the cars disembark and most head straight for I5.
I personally don’t care for all the virtue signaling in this year’s election as many are calling for housing equity, mixing low income and high income. Plus, I disagree with the declaration of both city and county as sanctuaries for illegal aliens. Social engineering.
Your post reminds me that apparently Bellingham is kryptonite to conservative curmudgeons who seem conflicted, and want everything both ways. Is it growing rapidly, as nearly everyone claims and is clearly the case as measured by things like population, businesses opening, housing starts/units being built, and one of the lowest rental vacancy rates in the country? Or is it in decay, like you and a couple other posters on here seem to intimate, despite all the evidence we have to suggest otherwise? The same people complaining about growing traffic also complain that the city is terrible and no one wants to be here. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
Your ferry comment is also strange. Bellingham is the southern terminus of the Alaska Ferry. It's the only place where people from the lower 48 can load their vehicles onto a boat and avoid the long, difficult highway routes. As a result, people come from significant distances to hop on the ferry, so while your anecdotal observation that many people head directly to and from I-5 is accurate, a) there ARE plenty of people who stay in town/spend money before or after going on the ferry, and b) to insinuate that it's somehow a failure or reflection of Bellingham's lack of desirability is downright laughable.
Again, it's not perfect, but Bellingham is doing plenty right, despite the fact that it's not your jam. The fact that the housing shortage is one of the top concerns by candidates running for mayor only proves my point that it's a place with more demand than supply. If you're bothered by addition of infill to create more density, there are plenty of places in WA and the rest of the country where you can steer clear of any "undesirables" who may walk down your street with terrible zoning laws, or lack thereof. But it's very clear that there is a high demand for walkable, bikable places here in town.
Again, it's not perfect, but Bellingham is doing plenty right, despite the fact that it's not your jam..
All I know is that the first time I went into a Bellingham branch library and saw showers for the homeless, every klaxon in my body started blaring the sequence for 'run.' Idlers and wasters should be rounded up and conscripted into some useful duty for society, such as forming the backbone of a "first-in, last-out" cannon fodder fighting force to distract entrenched enemy positions... not getting clean in libraries.
I think the "Dirty 801st Fighting Hobos" needed to be a thing, like, yesterday.
All I know is that the first time I went into a Bellingham branch library and saw showers for the homeless, every klaxon in my body started blaring the sequence for 'run.' Idlers and wasters should be rounded up and conscripted into some useful duty for society, such as forming the backbone of a "first-in, last-out" cannon fodder fighting force to distract entrenched enemy positions... not getting clean in libraries.
I think the "Dirty 801st Fighting Hobos" needed to be a thing, like, yesterday.
When's the last time you visited Bellingham? Yes, the library is a little older and more run down than what we expected when moving here, and it sometimes has a couple homeless people in and around it. But it's a very minor overall gripe overall about the city.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Bellingham experience...
