Bellingham waterfront development condos (Seattle, Everett: sales, crime, house)

[kavm]

Thank you for sharing that. Seems like it has $500,000 / year exemption per couple and might not be a factor in our specific circumstances.

[freepelican]

Originally Posted by xPlorer48

Holly and Roeder Streets were built on fill along with waterfront development. There are also toxic wastes from the former pulp and paper mills. Also, lots of trains carrying coal and oil pass by but maybe soundproofing will mitigate that.

I've posted this elsewhere but please know that the number of coal trains in particular but also oil trains are rising rapidly and will continue to do so unless there is some sort of legal/political intervention.... so this problem (and it's a big one) is likely to increase significantly in the near future.... I've been researching this issue in depth.

[freepelican]

Originally Posted by kavm

Aside from earthquakes and tsunamis, any other insights / takes on this new development?

A couple of other things to consider.


1. Change in day length. Although not as dramatic as say Alaska, the winter days are noticeably shorter and the summer days are considerably longer. On grey days, and it can be really grey, the short day time can look like dusk all day and then you have a long night. In the summer, there's not even a full 8 hour sleeping period with complete darkness. Some people develop seasonal affective disorder (or the reverse in the summer) and some people do find it more difficult to sleep in the summer.



2. Health care may not be as good as you'd like. This is something I'd like to know more about. I've read on older posts and I've been told that health care in Bellingham is sub optimal... difficult to get accepted by a doctor, not enough doctors for the population, etc. Can anyone comment on whether or not this has improved and on the general state of health care in Bellingham?

[kavm]

Originally Posted by freepelican

A couple of other things to consider.


1. Change in day length. Although not as dramatic as say Alaska, the winter days are noticeably shorter and the summer days are considerably longer. On grey days, and it can be really grey, the short day time can look like dusk all day and then you have a long night. In the summer, there's not even a full 8 hour sleeping period with complete darkness. Some people develop seasonal affective disorder (or the reverse in the summer) and some people do find it more difficult to sleep in the summer.



2. Health care may not be as good as you'd like. This is something I'd like to know more about. I've read on older posts and I've been told that health care in Bellingham is sub optimal... difficult to get accepted by a doctor, not enough doctors for the population, etc. Can anyone comment on whether or not this has improved and on the general state of health care in Bellingham?

Thank you so much! We are aware of the length of day. Your point about healthcare would concern us. I have tried to do internet search on that topic. Did not come away with a warm and fuzzy, just adequate as my impression.

Do you or anyone else has any thoughts / links about healthcare in and around Bellingham area? I would have thought it would be on an improvement trajectory given the growth trends.

[mayfair]

Originally Posted by freepelican

I've posted this elsewhere but please know that the number of coal trains in particular but also oil trains are rising rapidly and will continue to do so unless there is some sort of legal/political intervention.... so this problem (and it's a big one) is likely to increase significantly in the near future.... I've been researching this issue in depth.

Absolutely true. This is a relatively recent issue in NW Washington and the coal cars don't need to be covered, so who knows what damage the dust is doing. The trains used to be less frequent and just minor annoyance. From what I understand, the coal is being exported to Asia, so it heads north by rail along the Washington coast.

[rkcarguy]

The coal and oil train count varies largely with what the USD is doing. When it's weak, commodity exports boom and the mainline through the Bellingham area was seeing 28 trains a day. The coal trains go through uncovered but there are watering towers that wet it down and keep the dust from blowing off. Also, they come from the mid-west so I'm not sure how much dust would actually be left by the time they roll through here anyway. They run up across the border into BC and have their cargo offloaded to be barged overseas. To my chagrin, much of our areas prime berries, fish, and grains also go away via this same route. My neighbor worked at a place that processed and loaded up lots of this stuff onto the trains, and it was a bummer to hear when I asked him which stores I could go to for the good local stuff and he said I couldn't, it was all headed to BC.

Healthcare access had been really bad, but actually got better during Covid-19 because many people stopped going out of fear of getting Covid-19 from going to the doctor or hospital.
Prior to that, I had been getting 4-6 week waits, and either whatever was bothering me would go away on its own or with something OTC, or I ended up going to a walk in clinic instead. If I was older and in a "high maintenance" health situation there is no way I would ever move here. Our hospital is small and we only have like half the beds per capita of New York, so we got really lucky that Covid-19 did not get more out of control than it did.
As of the last posted data, May 28th, the hospital was at 93% capacity of the 246 beds for inpatients and 51% for the ICU....note however that the ICU is only 44 beds. "All of this" for a county of over 250K people. See link below.
The hospital lost over $250 million the last time I had a look at their posted yearly financials, due to having to treat the areas illegal, uninsured, and homeless/junkies, so I don't expect any expansion even though we could really use more beds.

https://data.thespectrum.com/covid-1...spital/500030/

[freepelican]

Originally Posted by kavm

Thank you so much! We are aware of the length of day. Your point about healthcare would concern us. I have tried to do internet search on that topic. Did not come away with a warm and fuzzy, just adequate as my impression.

Do you or anyone else has any thoughts / links about healthcare in and around Bellingham area? I would have thought it would be on an improvement trajectory given the growth trends.

I suggest doing a keyword search on this forum for Bellingham and reading some of the older threads where people were considering a Bellingham move. There are discussions about health care but they are a few to several years old. You could also search for Whatcom County.


Regarding day length, I just want to say it can "sneak up" on you.... you may not think it's a big deal but it may turn out to be more significant than you currently think.

[kavm]

Originally Posted by rkcarguy

The coal and oil train count varies largely with what the USD is doing. When it's weak, commodity exports boom and the mainline through the Bellingham area was seeing 28 trains a day. The coal trains go through uncovered but there are watering towers that wet it down and keep the dust from blowing off. Also, they come from the mid-west so I'm not sure how much dust would actually be left by the time they roll through here anyway. They run up across the border into BC and have their cargo offloaded to be barged overseas. To my chagrin, much of our areas prime berries, fish, and grains also go away via this same route. My neighbor worked at a place that processed and loaded up lots of this stuff onto the trains, and it was a bummer to hear when I asked him which stores I could go to for the good local stuff and he said I couldn't, it was all headed to BC.

Healthcare access had been really bad, but actually got better during Covid-19 because many people stopped going out of fear of getting Covid-19 from going to the doctor or hospital.
Prior to that, I had been getting 4-6 week waits, and either whatever was bothering me would go away on its own or with something OTC, or I ended up going to a walk in clinic instead. If I was older and in a "high maintenance" health situation there is no way I would ever move here. Our hospital is small and we only have like half the beds per capita of New York, so we got really lucky that Covid-19 did not get more out of control than it did.
As of the last posted data, May 28th, the hospital was at 93% capacity of the 246 beds for inpatients and 51% for the ICU....note however that the ICU is only 44 beds. "All of this" for a county of over 250K people. See link below.
The hospital lost over $250 million the last time I had a look at their posted yearly financials, due to having to treat the areas illegal, uninsured, and homeless/junkies, so I don't expect any expansion even though we could really use more beds.

https://data.thespectrum.com/covid-1...spital/500030/

Thank you very much! That’s a very useful feedback.

We had our conversation. While our interest remains alive, nothing is imminent. What they have to sell right now is not of interest to us. Your data about healthcare is very helpful and gives us something to consider seriously…

[kavm]

Originally Posted by freepelican

I suggest doing a keyword search on this forum for Bellingham and reading some of the older threads where people were considering a Bellingham move. There are discussions about health care but they are a few to several years old. You could also search for Whatcom County.


Regarding day length, I just want to say it can "sneak up" on you.... you may not think it's a big deal but it may turn out to be more significant than you currently think.

Thanks again! I don’t think it is not a big deal. My wife grew up in Northern Germany and is quite familiar with the phenomenon. I have some experience with the Northern living…

For us, the health care is an important consideration. Not because we have any serious needs right now, but they are a likely part of the aging process…

[freepelican]

Originally Posted by kavm

Thanks again! I don’t think it is not a big deal. My wife grew up in Northern Germany and is quite familiar with the phenomenon. I have some experience with the Northern living…

For us, the health care is an important consideration. Not because we have any serious needs right now, but they are a likely part of the aging process…

I used to not worry about healthcare... but then I was an idiot in this regard :-) I now consider it a very high priority. If would be nice to understand these things earlier in life :-)