Bellingham, the ugly truth.... (Seattle, Burlington: crime rates, job market, median income)

[AngelaE8654]

Originally Posted by sberdrow

man almost 250 threads on UGLY TRUTH about Bellingham. Why would all you folks suffer for so long in such a place that makes you so miserable. I loved it there. I5 goes North and South if you need to escape. You can even mapquest it if you cannot figure out the way out. I think its time to close this overdone thread

Don't feel bad. People do the same sort of thing for my Western Washington area, Grays Harbor. Which is GREAT for us; the idea that the area is not desireable is what keeps it from getting too overcrowded.

[E Roy Slade]

may 3rd and its still cold- seems like maybe 42farenhiet out

its sick

i dont like how people run red lights here
aunti em i want to go home!!!

i really get sick of the stupid snickering hippie types here,but maybe thats because im somewhat conservative

but i really dont know where to go-seattle maybe if i could afford it

Bellingham Bay Cam

[E Roy Slade]

Bellingham Bay Cam - Emails from Around the World

they like bellingham

[efreedman]

Fair question as when we moved up to Bellingham, we had the same set of questions. Here is an overview from someone with two young kids who moved up from...southern California. We live in Sudden Valley and like it. That said, there are parts that do not get nearly as much sun. Sudden Valley feeds into Geneva Elementary which in my mind is one of the top top three schools in the county. It also feeds into Kulshan middle school and finally Bellingham HS which today has one of the strongest reputations anywhere in the county. If we were to do it over...we would move into Silver Beach or Geneva proper as those areas get more sun and are up to 5 degrees warmer on average. Housing is definitely more in the other areas you mentioned including Silver Beach but worth it in the end. Good luck...last piece of advice, call the Bellingham school district and speak with the deputy superintendent...lots of the best information is there.

[robandter]

I've been reading the posts about Bellingham AFTER moving to Bellingham and am wondering which Bellingham these people are talking about. My wife comes from a small town area (<15,000) and loves the small town attitude here. She finds the people incredibly friendly and helpful. Me? I've lived all over the world and think that I have finally found a decent place to find. My most recent move was from Redmond, WA. You want rude, inconsiderate people? Move to the Seattle area. I take the bus here everywhere and I was initially stunned at how friendly the people on the bus AND the bus drivers were. When I first got off the bus I heard most, if not all, of the people thanking the driver. I thought maybe this was a fluke but no, everyone here who rides transit is very friendly and the transit people in return. I recently bought a 5 brdm house (3,000 sqft) for less than 300K...try to match that in any other city!

Downside to Bellingham:
- northwest corner of the nation hence 'out of the way'
- 'small town' feelling and amenities likewise, no big shopping malls anywhere
- roads not perfect because of less traffic
- not open 24/7

Upside to Bellingham:
- northwest corner of the nation hence out of the 'rat race'
- 'small town' feeling...no big shopping malls anywhere
- a lot less traffic
- not open 24/7 like LA or Vegas

I've lived in 4 countries (45 cities) and for my wife and I Bellingham has all that we want and none that we hate. Is it perfect for everyone? By no means at all, but is it a better choice than most big cities? You bet!

Bellinghamsters and loving it.

[stingray427]

In Whatcom Co. So how is this part of Washington now? Is it still rural as I remember it in 1991 or is it all built up like a lot of places are where you can see your next door neighbor right on top of you.

[sberdrow]

Originally Posted by stingray427

In Whatcom Co. So how is this part of Washington now? Is it still rural as I remember it in 1991 or is it all built up like a lot of places are where you can see your next door neighbor right on top of you.

last I check a year ago, its still looks as good as 1991 back when I was in the Navy. Been trying to find a way to move there ever since. Sudden Valley is my destination, if I can just find a job I love. Thats the tough part for me.

[Geechie North]

Originally Posted by rkcarguy

Alot of you I noticed are searching for info about Bellingham, and being a lifetime resident of Bellingham I will fill you in. My wife is 27 and I am 31. Bellingham was a nice little town. A skilled trade worker could make $12-$15/hr maybe more and median price homes were in the $140K range. A few years ago some dumb retirement magazine named Bellingham #2 in the nation to retire in. As you can imagine they came in groves from California, Arizona, Florida, and more. Some of them not the best quality of people either. Real Estate prices went thru the roof, and are still horribly high, averaging around $470,000 currently for the homes listed for sale. Very few jobs here are capable of supporting such a mortgage, it's said that 90% of the working families here can't afford a home. There are so many availiable jobs here for that reason, alot of the workers packed up and left because there is pretty much no hope here. The anti-growth attitude of our local government caused a massive price increase of real estate and cost of living. This inflated cost of living is passed down to everyone. We pay more for gas, food, homes, and property taxes, but the worst is that the jobs don't pay anymore than 5 years ago. A co-worker of mine built his own home on the lake in the 80's, cost him about $85K and they paid it off in the 90's. In 2006 it was assessed at $680,000, making his property taxes approx $780 a month on a home he built himself and owns outright! My wife is a Biology teacher with a Master's and I am a jouneyman union structural steel worker, and together we are looking at maybe being able to afford a home if we can get a deal on the lot and build it ourselves. Most of the working people here are stuck in apartments or, like us, living with relatives waiting for this hell to end. Last week some old bag in a big BMW backed into my car in the parking lot and ran, gotta love it. The police won't even do anything and my insurance either has to cover it, or we leave our car with a big dent in it. There's nothing to do here for fun and we have a high crime rate, almost 2x the average. Our police are worthless. Your car gets stolen, too bad. House gets burglarized, too bad. Doing 5 over, you're getting a ticket. I have family here that need us to be here, so I am stuck here unfortunately. Those of you looking to relocate, look carefully. Weigh availialble jobs and average pay with cost of homes, and choose a state that HAS an income tax. Go where everyone else, isn't. Remember our economy goes by "demand and supply". Retiree's are flocking to WA to avoid income tax which is really dumb because we have a nasty 8.5%+ sales tax, almost .50 of gas tax, and some nasty and still rising property taxes. Our medical services are overrun, everyone is short on nurses and doctors, yet doctors can do much better elseware so it doesn't improve. I don't even bother to go to the doctor anymore even with full benefits, by the time I can get an appointment whatever was wrong is gone or maybe one day I'll be dead. Most anywhere in the state will be better than Bellingham. In Seattle/Tacoma/Olypia you have a little bit higher prices but alot more potential for income and certainly alot more to do. The next few years will be very interesting, with so many people moving here to retire, it's creating alot of needs and less business/workers and industry to pay for it.
Anyway sorry to be so negative but in the last 5-6 years it's really gone in the toilet here, unless you're some Millionaire real estate land maggot.

.

I'd like to give the opinion of a "semi" Bellingham resident ( we do the opposite of the crowd. We spend June-Oct. there and winter in the Upper Midwest.). What you say is spot on, for the most part. My wife and I love the area, but as we've decided, there are a lot of good $170- 220,000.00 houses in Bellingham- only they're priced between $300-600,000.00! That prices us out of anything but a trailer. So unless you're from California (and please don't get me wrong, I first visited there approximately 5 years back, and despite a lifetime of preceived negatives about the place, found the people friendly. But it is way crowded and expensive, like Tokyo was expensive back in the 80's.), the prices are simply too big of a stretch.
I also echo your thoughts about state income taxes. If you have to fund public services off of sales, or other taxes, then people in the Middle will get shafted and the rich will skate.
Where I disagree is that this is caused by "anti-growth" policy. Bellingham is popular, and that's a fact. It is also a medium-sized city located between two population giants- Seattle and Vancouver. If you didn't contain growth, then you'd just end-up a big dogpile of sprawl like they have in Florida, California, or (unexpectedly, for me) the Wasatch Front in Utah. Studies have also confirmed that for every tax dollar received by a city due to growth, $1.25-1.50 is spent on public services, so services tend to be cut and everyone loses. What I believe is responsible for the decline of the Middle Class in Bellingham (and this is not unique) is the loss of good-paying industrial jobs, like when the Georgia Pacific plant closed. Now from what I'm told the best a typical worker can hope for is to get a job maintaining a rich person's yacht. And those type of jobs will never make up for the kind that are lost. That I believe is the crux of the problem.
On a personal level, another negative that makes me think snow butt-deep from Nov-March is not such a bad thing, is the amount of "nasty neighbor" behavior that we've noticed is increasing. For example, in this neighborhood people wait until you are not watching then cram your garbage can full of their waste (in Bellingham, garbage disposal is not included in your taxes. You contract pickup schedules with the contractor, the less frequent is cheaper, which leads to the problem.) or the little old lady who's engaged in a pinecone war with her neighbor, as the tree is on their side of the fence line, but some of the cones inevitably fall on her side. I suppose you get that kind of thing happens all over, especially when people from different regions live together. But that, and housing costs, have kept us from moving- and one or two more houses on Chuckanut Drive will make us look somewhere else to spend our extended vacations (we are semi-retired.)

[stingray427]

Originally Posted by sberdrow

last I check a year ago, its still looks as good as 1991 back when I was in the Navy. Been trying to find a way to move there ever since. Sudden Valley is my destination, if I can just find a job I love. Thats the tough part for me.

Isn't work very hard to find up there anyway in Custer? When I went there it was very rural nice with little traffic and alot of trees. A slower pace of life there. How much do homes up in custer cost. A nice home in the nice area.

[Comedy]

Originally Posted by kekai

We are considering moving to B'Ham from HI...this is very concerning!!! What is being done t solve this problem.

Sep, 19, 2007
ENVIRONMENT

Lummis contest bay cleanup plans

Statement says mercury risks higher for tribe


http://www.bellinghamherald.com/102/story/184714.html (broken link)


If its cleaned up and capped we all may have an opportunity to move to B'Ham and not have to worry about mercury...YEAH!!!!!

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