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Post #314 in this thread has a link to a Q&A interview/article from the business pulse where Sheriff Bill Elfo describes how our county jail is full and how WA State legislation has kneecapped law enforcement efforts.
Bellingham is already spending millions on homeless issues, and all its doing is just increasing their #'s locally.
Here's another perspective re: the County jail and it's debate over replace or repair, in any case modern day infrastructure is becoming priced out for many counties across the US. The article mentioned a failed attempt in the past to fund new facilities:
"Building a new jail, of course, is also still something that needs addressing after failed ballot initiatives in 2015 and 2017."
Here's another string of ideas that seem to be floundering along in the city and county law enforcement space, most likely they're measures meant to pacify the locals and take some of the heat off politicians who are being pinned down on their lack of meaningul attempts to solve the long festering causes of their problems.
Thre's no shortage of reading material that addresses the Bham efforts to modernize it's police force, it's jails, and it's downtown urban planning policies. Most small cities are in the same boat, and most people feel they are taxed heavy enough now and don't think more money will be an answer. It's an obvious statement to say that money isn't the answer in itself--but money will be needed and tons of it. Millions already spent are obviously nowhere near the real cost of remediation, unfortunately, there are no simple answers to complex problems, and thinking that there are simple solutions is simply one more problem..
Post #314 in this thread has a link to a Q&A interview/article from the business pulse where Sheriff Bill Elfo describes how our county jail is full and how WA State legislation has kneecapped law enforcement efforts.
Bellingham is already spending millions on homeless issues, and all its doing is just increasing their #'s locally.
I ventured downtown today to one of the stores near the Cornwall Shelter. I was almost run down by someone blowing through the red light (glad I always look both ways despite the WALK sign.). Then, as I neared my truck, this crazy woman appeared out of a shadowy alcove and started screeching at me. I don’t think I have ever unlocked my truck and got inside as I did today.
For those of you who are newish and continue to insist Bellingham is safe or no worse than other cities, you haven’t lived here as long as we natives. You have no clue about the disparities between now and 10, 20, 30 plus years ago.
I ventured downtown today to one of the stores near the Cornwall Shelter. I was almost run down by someone blowing through the red light (glad I always look both ways despite the WALK sign.). Then, as I neared my truck, this crazy woman appeared out of a shadowy alcove and started screeching at me. I don’t think I have ever unlocked my truck and got inside as I did today.
For those of you who are newish and continue to insist Bellingham is safe or no worse than other cities, you haven’t lived here as long as we natives. You have no clue about the disparities between now and 10, 20, 30 plus years ago.
What's so difficult, for so many to understand, is that one person can be absolutely aware of the dangers of venturing out in America's cities, and still go out. Unafraid, just because they know the risk is low, and they know this from daily interaction in those cities. I know a few who do live in Bellingham, they aren't afraid of going to town, they don't expect the Bellingham of nineteen sixty, nor do they complain incessantly of the present day Bellingham.
They do know the city isn't the sleepy hollow of days gone by, they've often lived in much worse places and are happy to be in Bellingham. I live in Vancouver Wa. and see red light runners all too often, people suffering mental illness are also part of our daily landscape, crime here is on the rise and the same can be said for many cities across the country. You live in your own reality of a bucolic rural America, and town has always been a bit more lively than your serene outback, but so what, are you ready to throw in the towel simply because Wally and Beaver don't live there anymore?
I've spent time in Bham and always thought it was a bit rough around the edges compared to other cities it's size around the country. It was never a pastoral paradise, nor was it ever the Sodom and Gomorrah so many of its detractors have led us to believe. I get that you've been there awhile, but please, don't be like the oh so pure Montanans, or those from Idaho who are trying to posture their state as a Shangri La, that's just BS when considering the Meth and Opioid addiction in both states are out of control.
We've got real problems in America, and the political environment is hostile to all attempts to work together in a unified effort to ameliorate the severity of that which weighs down the collective well being, calling out your favorite enemy, then blaming them for all your ills is just juvenile and terribly unproductive. Some blame liberals for their troubles and others are convinced that conservative are behind every downer we live with, but at day's end, we're all in the same boat and the end that is sinking isn't disconnected from the end that isn't..
I also think relative newcomers and visitors to Bellingham lecturing long term residents and implying they are ignorant backwoods bumpkins who are scared of cities and have no clue about the world is just as bad as long term residents blaming newcomers for every ill. It goes both ways.
Bellingham is a city that has always been a bit rough but didn't have needles and open drug use everywhere. Residents tend to be educated with WWU and the technical college there. Jobs have never been plentiful but rents used to be low enough that creatives like musicians and artists hung around.
What's so difficult, for so many to understand, is that one person can be absolutely aware of the dangers of venturing out in America's cities, and still go out. Unafraid, just because they know the risk is low, and they know this from daily interaction in those cities. I know a few who do live in Bellingham, they aren't afraid of going to town, they don't expect the Bellingham of nineteen sixty, nor do they complain incessantly of the present day Bellingham.
They do know the city isn't the sleepy hollow of days gone by, they've often lived in much worse places and are happy to be in Bellingham. I live in Vancouver Wa. and see red light runners all too often, people suffering mental illness are also part of our daily landscape, crime here is on the rise and the same can be said for many cities across the country. You live in your own reality of a bucolic rural America, and town has always been a bit more lively than your serene outback, but so what, are you ready to throw in the towel simply because Wally and Beaver don't live there anymore?
I've spent time in Bham and always thought it was a bit rough around the edges compared to other cities it's size around the country. It was never a pastoral paradise, nor was it ever the Sodom and Gomorrah so many of its detractors have led us to believe. I get that you've been there awhile, but please, don't be like the oh so pure Montanans, or those from Idaho who are trying to posture their state as a Shangri La, that's just BS when considering the Meth and Opioid addiction in both states are out of control.
We've got real problems in America, and the political environment is hostile to all attempts to work together in a unified effort to ameliorate the severity of that which weighs down the collective well being, calling out your favorite enemy, then blaming them for all your ills is just juvenile and terribly unproductive. Some blame liberals for their troubles and others are convinced that conservative are behind every downer we live with, but at day's end, we're all in the same boat and the end that is sinking isn't disconnected from the end that isn't..
So, how long have you lived in Bellingham, if at all? I have been here my entire 74 years. My high school friends and I get together occasionally and we discuss the current state of our hometown. We all agree it has lost its charm. One friend comes up from Olympia and says it, too, has felt the brunt of growth and the progressive policies. None of them live in town: they live in Custer, rural Ferndale and Birch Bay. Many people, including myself and my friends, are going to vote for the candidates who state that they will roll back the obscene changes to our legal system which allows a criminal arsonist caught with a handgun without a CCP to bail out on $25,000 bond. You can bet you we won’t be voting for Alicia Rule and Sharon Shewmake.
Yes, it was a pastoral paradise: little to no crime except for the usual juvenile pranks, one murder that I can remember before the Hillside Strangler arrived, and a few bank robberies.
Yes, I prefer my rural Shangri-La and venture into town as little as possible. I value my safety and physical and mental well-being. I had to go into town today to get some building supplies: it stunk like burning rubber on James Street. Once, I see our wooded neighborhood, I ease up, relax and know that I don’t have to be in town for another week plus.
I also think relative newcomers and visitors to Bellingham lecturing long term residents and implying they are ignorant backwoods bumpkins who are scared of cities and have no clue about the world is just as bad as long term residents blaming newcomers for every ill. It goes both ways.
Bellingham is a city that has always been a bit rough but didn't have needles and open drug use everywhere. Residents tend to be educated with WWU and the technical college there. Jobs have never been plentiful but rents used to be low enough that creatives like musicians and artists hung around.
Are you honestly suggesting that the locals on the Bellingham threads here are providing a realistic, balanced viewpoint about what it's like to live in Bellingham right now? I've acknowledged the problems that we encounter here a thousand times and fully understand and sympathize (to a degree) what it's like to see your hometown experience changes, as I've experienced them myself, and it's happened everywhere else that I've lived, too. But I also see absolutely no concessions here made by locals or conservatives, or frankly anything other than complaining and condemning others for having a different perspective, and generally they act like the anecdotal problems they mention are somehow unique to our city. Heck, half the time, I agree with them about individual issues, but there's never any give to these conversations by the curmudgeons. Day after day, it's just Bellingham=Bad, Cities=Bad, and Newcomers=Bad, with simplistic (if any) solutions to complicated societal problems. And it's as if they admitted one positive thing about the area, it would somehow ruin their relentless narrative of negativity.
In terms of "lecturing", I challenge you to find one example where a newcomer actually initiates the lecturing of locals. Every single time I've snapped back at someone, it's been a reaction to the bitterness coming from people who are acting like their birthright gives them special powers to insult everyone else and issue silly declarations about who they deem worthy to live here- and, that no one is allowed to say anything positive about the place or claim to enjoy living here.
So, please dispense with the both sides nonsense, at least as it applies here. Sure, it goes both ways, theoretically, but the sentiment on these threads has been very one-sided. And I'm sorry, but many of the comments are just nonsensical. A burning rubber smell on an industrial area of James Street is indicative of social decline in Bellingham? People running red lights are an exclusively Bellingham-area phenomenon? Seriously?
Finally, I'm also going to say that nostalgia's a heck of a drug, and isn't always accurate- it's based on feelings, not necessarily reality. Thankfully I've also run into plenty of locals who acknowledge that the Norman Rockwell-esque memories being reminisced aren't exactly accurate, either. Yes, this was a smaller, quieter city thirty years ago. It was also a much more industrial place, much more polluted, smelled like a pulp mill, had a downtown that cratered out when Bellis Fair Mall was built in the late 1980's, and core neighborhoods that were run down and dangerous. And crime DID exist, as much as the locals don't want to admit it. Crime has gone up lately, and I'm very interested in solutions. But it should also be mentioned that places like downtown are much more lively than they were 5, 10, or even 25 years ago, and that many neighborhoods are much better places to live in than they were back then, too. So, yeah, I'm going to stick to my assertion that the changes in the last few decades have been both good AND bad, not just the false binary narrative given by several people here that everything today is terrible. Again, two things can be true at the same time.
Last edited by bartonizer; 07-28-2022 at 07:11 PM..
I agree. Bellingham has gotten a lot nicer in some ways. Boulevard Park and the boardwalk is outstanding. My disclaimer is I don't live there but know people who do and I visit there a lot, and have known the town over a few decades watching the changes from a healthy distance.
It's a different place for better or worse. There is no stopping change, only acknowledging it. And change can be painful to people's lives. Yes there are a few over the top weird anecdotes and stuff on this board but Bellingham has always been known for having a healthy population of basement and garage dwellers. I don't think that part has changed.
(Some of the posters are just conservatives with opinions about Bellingham's changes but a few sound trollish)
I also think relative newcomers and visitors to Bellingham lecturing long term residents and implying they are ignorant backwoods bumpkins who are scared of cities and have no clue about the world is just as bad as long term residents blaming newcomers for every ill. It goes both ways.
Bellingham is a city that has always been a bit rough but didn't have needles and open drug use everywhere. Residents tend to be educated with WWU and the technical college there. Jobs have never been plentiful but rents used to be low enough that creatives like musicians and artists hung around.
Methinks there's a definite political bent in much of the hoopla posted on various CD city forums. And because of that, the conversation tends to revolve around politics as the cause--and the cure. The bolded can be said of so many regions of the country, I think some here are simply trying to point that out to those who feel that their little slice of life has become so much worse than the rest of America.
On Bumpkins:
Yes, rural living people are mostly turned off by anything that happens in the city, they all too often express fear and loathing when discussing their dislike of cities. As you noted, this is not something unique to rural dwellers, a ton of city people openly denigrate those living outside the city, and, in the cases wherein one or the other is extremely biased, the rhetoric becomes an indictment of one's choices of where to live.
I won't go much further here in my attempts to allow a different view than those who are so disgusted by life in Bellingham, I also know lifelong residents in the area, my granddaughter lives in the city, I've been there recently, and in talking with those people, combined with my own observations as a visitor, I'd have to say that Bellingham will most likely continue to grow both in population and physical size, the good will grow alongside the not so good, and time will eventually change the entire demographic of Whatcom county--for better or worse.
I won't go much further here in my attempts to allow a different view than those who are so disgusted by life in Bellingham, I also know lifelong residents in the area, my granddaughter lives in the city, I've been there recently, and in talking with those people, combined with my own observations as a visitor, I'd have to say that Bellingham will most likely continue to grow both in population and physical size, the good will grow alongside the not so good, and time will eventually change the entire demographic of Whatcom county--for better or worse.
I agree, due to a beautiful natural setting and university, it will continue to grow and have growing pains. Like so many places, it will be completely changed. During this period, the city is struggling with dealing with the issues of growth and change (even if they are not unique) and those issues are causing pain for many people. Some are more insulated from that pain (college students, people with more wealth or who live in one of still better neighborhoods) and some are feeling it more acutely.
On this thread, other than the trolls with off the wall stuff, you have people pointing out the various aspects of a town with growing pains.
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