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For some reason, you just don't think anyone should be allowed to say anything positive about Bellingham. Give me a break. You've literally spent about 1/3 of your life dedicated to complaining the place you claim to have loved. You're just torturing yourself by being here, apparently.
Your observations are certainly in line with the reality of most US cities. The hair on fire crowd who are reeling from the current surge in homelessness and crime are a bit late with their concerns, we've had a long history with both poverty and crime that has been swept under the rug by the entirety of America's better off population. Not that I fault those who have been indoctrinated to the notion that these social ills are mostly the fault of the individuals who are afflicted by them, but moreover, I blame the lack of an apt response by government at all levels. And when I say "government" I mean the totality of our democracy-- which in large part includes all of us.
We lost our way years ago with regard to our own participation in all government institutions, and instead of
politically voicing our concerns, we seem to find our collective voice mostly useful at live sporting events. I was active for years in many political circles connected to labor issues, and in that period of activity I witnessed an astonishing disconnect between workers and corporations, workers and their own city government, and worse, workers and the lower socio/economic rungs of society. We incarcerate more people than any other developed nation, and still have a mentality of "lock em up," preferring antiquated notions about drug addiction, while turning a blind eye to the glaring connection of poverty to crime.
Bellingham isn't, and never was, a cocoon of respite from societal ills, it was simply a very small town that grew up and now has the problems which seem all too typical of towns suffering huge spurts of growth. In every city, county, and state we see the comments of the less travelled who see their "problems" as a local thing, and those who aren't capable of seeing these problems as a sign of societal distress are going to continue to blast those who CAN see the macro aspects of homelessness and crime.
I try to remember that we're all in this quandary together, the homeless can't seem to "fix" their plight, same with the criminal, but they live among us and they aren't going to just disappear through the fact of more police or more housing, we need to intervene in the lives of children who are at risk of eventually being in the homeless or criminal populace. Most of that demographic has little to no living skills, and because of that they live on the fringe of criminal activity or just being chronically down and out. I like Bham, it's a place I've always thought of as a typical NW town, but no place is immune from the consequences of social neglect..
On a side note: I've noted a large misconception about small towns that have a less visible presence of both criminals and the homeless, but in those rural environs those two groups are better at concealing themselves while making and ingesting all manner of drugs and alcohol and are well known to local law enforcement..Meth is still out there in every small town, and crime may not be as much of an issue but it's still there...So what to do? Clean up our own backyard---Or pack up and move to someone else's backyard..
This week Inslee toured the tiny homes in Bellingham. Seth showed him how we're addressing the homeless problem. It was a very productive tour it seems. He also toured the covid testing center. I'm so proud of the mayor and governor.
Nah, it's still a great place to live, despite the four or five regulars on here that relentlessly harp about issues that are also occurring nearly everywhere else in the country.
Methinks Americans have lost all sense of value. I expect a lot more for what is demanded in payment.
This week Inslee toured the tiny homes in Bellingham. Seth showed him how we're addressing the homeless problem. It was a very productive tour it seems. He also toured the covid testing center. I'm so proud of the mayor and governor.
You apparently haven’t seen the RVs parked at the end of Cornwall Avenue, the encampments near the Cvic Center nor those same homeless messes along the Guide. Your mayor (thankfully, I live in the county but the county executive isn’t such a bright bulb either) has instructed the police department to not issue any tickets for these RVs that exceed the parking limit.
Were you here during the SOS/Antifa occupation of the city library and city hall? They were there for months even conducting bike chops. They overcame the security for city hall and the mayor you are so proud of ran out the back door.
Tiny homes (privately funded) and the Gardenview project are but a drop in the bucket of Bellingham’s homeless epidemic. The residents cannot have drugs or alcohol and are screened carefully. These people want to improve their lives and there are people and organizations to help them. The others are addicts, mentally ill, vagabonds and bums.
You apparently haven’t seen the RVs parked at the end of Cornwall Avenue, the encampments near the Cvic Center nor those same homeless messes along the Guide. Your mayor (thankfully, I live in the county but the county executive isn’t such a bright bulb either) has instructed the police department to not issue any tickets for these RVs that exceed the parking limit.
Were you here during the SOS/Antifa occupation of the city library and city hall? They were there for months even conducting bike chops. They overcame the security for city hall and the mayor you are so proud of ran out the back door.
Tiny homes (privately funded) and the Gardenview project are but a drop in the bucket of Bellingham’s homeless epidemic. The residents cannot have drugs or alcohol and are screened carefully. These people want to improve their lives and there are people and organizations to help them. The others are addicts, mentally ill, vagabonds and bums.
So, you've stated the problem, but I'm left to wonder about your thoughts on solutions. Specifically the homeless and addicted who seem to be everywhere. For myself I'm leaning towards the idea that these "problems" have had a long history in the US but are now apparent on a fairly large scale. Most people just want the police to "clean up" the area and stow the villains in jail--for now. But the petty crimes have short duration jail time and even if they were much longer we'd be needing a ton of new police officers, more jails, more of everything, that failed miserably in the past.
I'm thinking we need a complete overhaul of our institutions to the extent that they are compelled to act on the behalf of everyone and not just the segments of society who have some political voice. The long term picture seems to include a far different approach to our societal ills, seeing that punishment and social exclusion seem to be a foundation for molding the undesirable elements among us. I personally feel that politicians are simply part of the problem and hardly ever part of the solution.
We've done the get tough laws on drugs, we've ran the bad elements out of towns--only to have them appear in some other town, we've looked the other way for decades with regard to a terribly lopsided economy, in short, we've went along silently for years thinking these problems were supposed to magically disappear, but they are here and getting much bigger. So what do we want from the politicians that many suppose have the answers?
On a side note: I've noted a large misconception about small towns that have a less visible presence of both criminals and the homeless, but in those rural environs those two groups are better at concealing themselves while making and ingesting all manner of drugs and alcohol and are well known to local law enforcement..Meth is still out there in every small town, and crime may not be as much of an issue but it's still there...So what to do? Clean up our own backyard---Or pack up and move to someone else's backyard..
I don't think there's any misconception. Anyone who has lived in a small town knows there's drug and alcohol issues. There's no implication here that people are ignorant of that fact.
Those same drug and alcohol issues also exist in the suburbs and cities and are in addition to the visible homeless in RVs and tent camps who are often vagabonds coming from out of the area to live in waterfront towns up and down I-5 along the West Coast. You just don't see the tent camps in parks and RVs along downtown public streets like that in the Upper Midwest.
The tent cities in public spaces and homeless RVs along the roads are far more of an issue on the West Coast.
I don't think there's any misconception. Anyone who has lived in a small town knows there's drug and alcohol issues. There's no implication here that people are ignorant of that fact.
Those same drug and alcohol issues also exist in the suburbs and cities and are in addition to the visible homeless in RVs and tent camps who are often vagabonds coming from out of the area to live in waterfront towns up and down I-5 along the West Coast. You just don't see the tent camps in parks and RVs along downtown public streets like that in the Upper Midwest.
The tent cities in public spaces and homeless RVs along the roads are far more of an issue on the West Coast.
It's not the same everywhere.
You may not have spent much time reading the posts on various forums wherein the posters are applauding the virtues of rural living, as opposed to their notions of the cities being under siege from the riff raff. But I've read plenty of the posts that tell of someone packing it in and moving to Idaho or rural Montana. In the last few years I've seen the growth in homelessness as an outgrowth of failed US policy with regard to a long standing failure to adequately address our poverty issues. Others see it as a west coast/liberal thing and resort to thinking that this is simply one more political football to be kicked around as an integral aspect of the ongoing partisan squabbles..
Homelessness IS everywhere, it's not at the same level everywhere but it's there in most big and small towns. Saying that anyone who who has lived in a small town knows the drill in such places isn't the same as stating that it is those who have never lived in a small town that all too often suffer the misconceptions of small town life. On a recent trip to Bismarck ND I saw plenty of camps, some were out of town enough to escape the wrath of local folks but they were visible, and more so than the smaller towns along Hwy 83. Again, people get wrapped up in the political aspects of our problems, and in doing so they seem to labor mightily on the question of where "they" came from rather than having any real desire to deal with the root causes.. On a side note: fifteen below zero in ND is not the same as forty eight degrees in Seattle, so, no, it isn't that big of a mystery why the temperate coast has become a popular destination for the homeless..
The "on the street" homeless here are rather aggressive and violent. They are the addicted and mentally ill not allowed in the shelters and "clean" tiny house homeless villages after all. I have a police scanner, and on one Friday afternoon and evening, a man was beating a woman's head against the wall behind Best Buy, a bicyclist was knocked down and beat up near Civic Field, a pedestrian was spit on and attacked downtown and a fight ensued (Btw, the record of the homeless guy that attacked this pedestrian was a mile long list including domestic violence, rape, thefts, burglaries, car prowls, home invasion, multiple counts of public indecency and possession of meth, and was lifetime trespassed from "base camp" for fighting and committing Arson), and two homeless people stole a bunch of stuff from REI and punched one of the employees as they tried to run out the door. All this before 9pm.
Bellingham is getting to be pretty sketchy anymore, census shows we've actually passed up Everett for crime per capita.
The "on the street" homeless here are rather aggressive and violent. They are the addicted and mentally ill not allowed in the shelters and "clean" tiny house homeless villages after all. I have a police scanner, and on one Friday afternoon and evening, a man was beating a woman's head against the wall behind Best Buy, a bicyclist was knocked down and beat up near Civic Field, a pedestrian was spit on and attacked downtown and a fight ensued (Btw, the record of the homeless guy that attacked this pedestrian was a mile long list including domestic violence, rape, thefts, burglaries, car prowls, home invasion, multiple counts of public indecency and possession of meth, and was lifetime trespassed from "base camp" for fighting and committing Arson), and two homeless people stole a bunch of stuff from REI and punched one of the employees as they tried to run out the door. All this before 9pm.
Bellingham is getting to be pretty sketchy anymore, census shows we've actually passed up Everett for crime per capita.
I'm curious as to your thoughts on a valid and reasonably doable solution to the problems we all know are out there. The question is no longer one of whether homelessness has increased, that crime has increased, that poverty has increased, that drug addiction is absolutely rampant--but, what to do about all that?
And I'm not speaking to what we can do this Friday or Saturday to ameliorate the problems in the immediate sense but moreover, what to do for a lasting fix to this rise in society's slow unravelling. From the fifties on, we've been in a hopeless drug war with the addicted and the dealers, we've built tons of new schools but still crank out poor readers and thinkers while saving the best instruction for those who already have the necessary chops to succeed. We have built more prisons, and incarcerated more people than most other advanced nations, and still, we have more crime than we should. So where do we go from here?
The homeless that are threats to others and themselves need to be institutionalized or jailed, it's that simple. Enforce the laws for everyone, like we used to.
There are other cities/counties that are not being lenient, they clear out the camps immediately and give them a choice of leaving or go to jail. All the homeless related expenses run in the Billions of $$$$ at the state level, so the money is there to jail, treat, and institutionalize the trouble makers.
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