Don't let anti-Bellingham/Whatcom County threads and posts fool you. Bellingham/Whatcom County is AWESOME!! (Seattle: price, dangerous)

[mayfair]

A drawback for Anacortes is that the navy jets can be loud overhead. That's the biggest minus to an otherwise nice town. (Besides cost of course).

[rkcarguy]

So today the Ocean is here, and it wants it's waterfront back. Looks like the king tides are combining with the incoming windstorm to produce a "surge" that's looking to be new highs.

https://www.facebook.com/pg/WhatcomCountyWeather/posts/

Users are posting more pictures in the comments under each picture/video, expand to see. It's far worse than expected. Thankfully the tide has peaked and is receding so hopefully that is all. The Sheriff's office DEM (dept. of emergency management) and red cross have opened a shelter at a church in Bellingham for those affected.

[mayfair]

oops this was meant for the weather thread. Flooding in La Conner also.

[xPlorer48]

Just one of Bellingham’s homeless encampments. The owner has been sued by the city government to clean up this mess. The trouble is is that this is just 4 acres. The other encampments behind Walmart and other big box stores along the Guide are on larger parcels with out of area and country owners.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5WsczMDGfE

[rkcarguy]

Originally Posted by xPlorer48

Just one of Bellingham’s homeless encampments. The owner has been sued by the city government to clean up this mess. The trouble is is that this is just 4 acres. The other encampments behind Walmart and other big box stores along the Guide are on larger parcels with out of area and country owners.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5WsczMDGfE

The Home Depot area is very sketchy. They'll walk through the parking lot in broad daylight looking into cars for anything to steal. Also have had fights and stabbings there with a large police response and the Home Depot had to close.

Explorer, the Walmart encampment is actually on 60 acres of wetland/wildlife reserve, which would be state property wouldn't it? It's a shame, and that camp was/is huge and a total mess. I really feel like the gov't is trying to pass the blame onto the property owners for the homeless camps. I mean, it's not like the owner can do anything except maybe sit there at the property line with a shotgun 24/7?

[rkcarguy]

We've had an even worse rash of crime, vehicular homicides, and shootings than normal...WCSO has had the chopper and/or "bearcat" armored vehicle out numerous times in the last few weeks. We seem to be a destination for much of the west coasts' trash:
-A Kent man with warrants out of California was driving at a high speed "under the influence", and rammed into a vehicle on Meridian St. with such force that it pushed the vehicle almost an entire block, coming to a stop in front of the Olive Garden. The victims car burst into flames, trapping and burning alive the woman inside. The man turned down a side road and attempted to flee, but was caught when his vehicle expired shortly thereafter.
-A man in a stolen van was fleeing a traffic stop on NB I-5 at a high rate of speed, and rear ended another vehicle near the Ferndale overpass. Both vehicles rolled. The victim vehicles mother and her 11-month old child where both ejected according to witnesses and had to be life-flighted to Harborview. Just happened last night so no further updates yet.
-A man fired shots into the air and robbed a business at gunpoint, before taking off up Alabama in a chase, ending up in a crash and the suspect running on foot as SWAT/Bearcat/Chopper were all deployed in the search.

Not so good news regarding the Police Force:
https://www.cascadiadaily.com/news/2...imes-as-crime/

"Osterkamp’s statement on social media said crime victims have been frustrated by slower police response in recent months.

“I have seen calls holding for over an hour that used to be handled within 10 minutes,” Osterkamp said, referring to the lineup of calls at dispatch that await police response. “It’s now routine to see 15–30 calls holding with no officers able to respond. This call load creates a greater burden on officers and an increased frustration and anger by victims and residents.”

Osterkamp declined an interview request, saying he wrote his statement as a private citizen after consulting with interim Police Chief Flo Simon and Deputy Chief Don Almer. He directed questions to the same two officials.

Almer confirmed the staff shortage in an interview. The department has 113 full-time officer positions, not counting command staff. Only 79 officers were actively working shifts as of Jan. 18. That leaves a personnel gap of 34 positions, but Almer emphasized that only 13 of those are true vacancies. The rest are trainees not yet ready for assignment and personnel on temporary leave, Almer said.

Additionally, 10 officers left the force because they didn’t comply with the city’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, Almer said. Two resigned and eight were fired."

[rkcarguy]

Originally Posted by mayfair

A drawback for Anacortes is that the navy jets can be loud overhead. That's the biggest minus to an otherwise nice town. (Besides cost of course).

This is true. We had the misfortune of having to endure some sort of 12-4am sortie working the area after I'd worked all day, drove there and setup camp, and was planning a 5am departure in the boat to go fishing. Every 30-45 mins we'd just be getting back to sleep and get buzzed again The outing was doomed anyway. Late morning weather on the water went Small Craft Advisory with 6' seas instead of NOAA's "less than 1' sea's" forecast, so after getting our guts beat out and not being able to fish we came back and slept all afternoon instead and stayed in Camp and BBQ'd steaks. The next day it poured rain and blew, we took the ferry to Friday Harbor, had dinner there and did a bunch of wine tasting, then packed up and left. Made lemonade from the lemons at least

[rkcarguy]

I'm absolutely shocked how bad crime has gotten here in Bellingham. 2022 year end statistics are out.
Let me explain the "yardstick" first. Many online sources arrange cities of 20K + population on any per-capita(event per 1000 people) basis imaginable from income to crime to housing. So some perfect city, if it existed, would be 100 points for all = better than all other cities. Easy Enough?
At 2019's statistics, Bellingham stood at a 22 on crime. Compare to Seattle at 18. Everett at 12. So, never been too great at "better than 22% of US cities" on crime. Always lots of theft and trouble-making that goes in a college town, plus always some kind of car theft ring coming and going, whatever you want to attribute it to. For 2022, Bellingham landed with a dead cat bounce at a 4 Less crime/safer than only 4% of US cities. For comparison, we followed Seattle into the gutter with their decline to a 2. Everett declined a bit to a 10. But the ultimate comparison on how Bellingham compares....how does "1 point better than Detroit" sound? Maybe our new Motto? Detroit currently sits at a 3. Every single person has a 1 in 11 chance of being a crime victim.

[rkcarguy]

"While the new regulations allow us to be fully open, we do not have the staff to be seating at full capacity during the week.
We will be seating at 50% capacity Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday."
Any guess at which restaurant this is?
It's getting to be the new normal unfortunately.

[Transmition]

What does it matter? Unemployment is at the lowest for decades, businesses are struggling to find workers all over and aren't willing to pay enough for them.