Editor,
As citizen-observer of Bellingham’s residential growth over the last 30 years, I humbly offer:
1. Our local Growth Machine (a conglomerate of builders, developers, realtors, mortgage bankers, etc.) owns this town. Explosive growth happens here because the Growth Machine greases the wheels in the form of significant contributions to political candidates who heed its clarion call for endless development. A group called Washington Realtors donated over $74,000 to Mayor Lund’s successful campaign. This amount was in addition to many other significant donations to Lund from the local building and real estate industries. The latest handwringing cry for massive growth coming from City Hall is, in part, political payback to the Growth Machine.
2. Priority is given to new housing at the expense of current housing. This is apparent in the ongoing dismantling of our historic single-family neighborhoods through zoning changes whereby a developer can buy contiguous lots, bulldoze the homes and build apartments. Result: a death knell for neighborhood character and a slap in the face to long-term residents, many of whom have given much to this community.
3. There will never be enough housing to meet our needs, and the cost of housing will continue to significantly increase, no matter what we do. Meanwhile, the dramatic growth that we have already suffered has turned our once lovely town into an endless parade of ugly, impersonal buildings.
Among the fastest-growing towns in the state, we’ve taken more than our fair share of population growth. When a hotel is full, it lights up a “No Vacancy” sign. It’s time we did the same.
Warren Sheay
Bellingham
Editor,
I appreciate your recent look at indoor recreation opportunities in Bellingham and what is offered nearby in Canada. Permit me to put on the table a dire need for an indoor, heated, saltwater or other non-chlorinated, non-brominated pool facility for the public. The waters of the Bay and lakes are too cold for what is needed. There is one such small pool that is only available for use by the residents of a specific apartment complex. A significant number of us would love to swim and do water exercise but have adverse reactions to chlorine, which is used to kill germs in pools. Using saltwater also kills germs, but without harming people. State-of-the-art saltwater pools are very popular and successful in other parts of the country. Would any of the private gyms or quasi-governmental exercise venues consider building such a facility or converting their chlorinated pools? A city the size of Bellingham should have a salt-water indoor pool in order to serve so many more people!
Jeanie Bein
Bellingham
Editor,
The 2024 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Nihon Hidankyo.
Nihon Hidankyo is a Japanese grassroots movement initiated in 1956. It is dedicated to eliminating nuclear weapons. Japanese citizens known as hibakusha, or “bomb-affected people” have been speaking out for 75 years to tell us to not forget. Delegations attend international conferences and events to promote nuclear disarmament. They share firsthand accounts of the destruction and horror.
Nuclear weapons are certainly a topic our current world leaders speak to in their use of threats and violence. We hear of it with the news of the Russia-Ukraine War; North Korea/South Korea conflicts; the concern of Iran’s nuclear program; and Israel utilizing its arsenal in the Israel-Hamas War.
However, the people of Japan know what the consequences of using these weapons bring: Little Boy dropped on Hiroshima in 1945 and killed 70,000 people instantly; then a total of 140,000 died due to radiation poisoning. Three days later, Fat Man struck Nagasaki killing 40,000 instantly and by year’s end, a total of 70,000.
Not easy work they have: telling the truth about the consequences of nuclear weapon use.
Thank you, Nihon Hidankyo, for your efforts. We must never stop demanding our leaders to bring the needed changes for a nuclear-weapon-free world.
Barbara Sardarov
Bellingham
Editor,
I sincerely appreciate CDN’s local news and boots-on-the-ground approach, which is why I was a bit taken aback at the header image for Dec. 8’s article on Skagit County school funding. AI image generation, whether it’s incorporated with Adobe Suite like Firefly or totally off the rails like X’s Grok, is a slippery slope that portends further generative slop. Y’all are creative and skilled; in this instance work with a graphic designer to create the image or buy some pennies and drop them in front of a model. Can we just not with the “AI” in the local paper?
Drew Whatley
Lynden
Editor,
Your recent article on how much Washington state is underfunding public education was alarming to say the least. I know our family spends a lot of money annually on property taxes. What percentage of Washington state property taxes go toward public education? I read recently that state funding for schools has decreased significantly over the last few years.
With all the property value increases everyone is experiencing how can there be such a shortage of funds for education? Please dig deeper, CDN, and educate the public.
Bob Worley
Bellingham
Editor,
During the Committee of the Whole Meeting on Dec. 9, [Bellingham City] Council discussed the mayor’s executive order and the proposed removal of parking minimums citywide. I applaud council members Anderson and Lilliquist for acknowledging that removing parking minimums without tying in affordability requirements is a missed opportunity.
Reducing parking minimums could lower development costs and increase housing density, but without tying it to affordability requirements, there’s no guarantee that this change will benefit those who need it most. Developers prioritize profit, not public good, and the supply-side argument that increased housing alone will solve the affordability crisis ignores the realities of our market. We must take intentional action to fill the gap in housing for households earning 0–80% of Area Median Income (AMI).
Other cities have successfully paired parking reforms with affordability measures. Bellingham can follow their lead. Why not require developers using reduced parking minimums to include a percentage of affordable units? Or, at the very least, require them to contribute to Bellingham’s affordable housing fund?
This ordinance is an opportunity to act on the council’s recognition of the housing crisis as a public health and safety emergency. If affordability measures are added and don’t work as intended, they can be adjusted or removed later. But inaction is not a solution. We cannot continue to ignore opportunities to address the growing need for affordable housing in our city.
Bellingham deserves policies that reflect the urgency of our housing crisis. Let’s ensure this policy helps solve the problem, not perpetuate it.
Kerri Burnside
Bellingham
Editor,
I have a number of Canadian friends and neighbors who own property here and pump a lot of money into the local economy. Every single one of them are constantly asking me how in the name of all that is holy could the election of Trump have happened in a country once seen as a beacon of hope, leadership and intellectual prowess in a troubled world.
Many have described their impressions that a lot of other nations feel the same, which is why they have taken to wearing their maple leaf flag on clothing when they travel abroad to avoid being mistaken for Americans. I feel their pain.
Trump was not elected in anything like a landslide. He won by the lowest margins of any presidential election in recent history. But it will take decades to heal the scars left by the New Republican party.
Trump’s choices to lead the government would be laughable if we were part of a grade B, made-for-TV political spoof on how far a country can tumble. Sadly for America, this is our new through-the-looking-glass reality.
It is horrifying that a large number of fellow citizens feed on his verbiage as if it were anything more than the rantings of an old, damaged man.
It will be a long four years and there is a dire need to make America great again; but that can’t happen until Trumpism and a lot of other wrongheaded-isms are trampled into the dust of time.
Michael Waite
Sedro-Woolley
Editor,
RE: The Mourning After … on Dec. 7, 2024
A Rhetorical Pop Quiz on American History:
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” — George Santayana
Echoes of History:
What do the following events in American history have in common?
April 12, 1861
Dec. 7, 1941 — Attack on Pearl Harbor
Nov. 4, 1980 — Ronald Reagan, The Rise of Neo-liberalism and Christian Nationalism
Sept. 11, 2001
Nov. 8, 2016 — Trump 1.0
Jan. 6, 2021
Nov. 5, 2024 — Trump 2.0
Just as Dec. 7 is an infamously symbolic date in American history, so it is now with Nov. 5, 2024, where the dire consequences of another term as POTUS by Donald Trump are no longer some overly-alarmist abstraction, but that the unthinkable … has become the sobering reality.
“All the armies of the world could not crush us, but the death of democracy will come from within by suicide.” — President Lincoln
Essentially an internal, self-inflicted “slow-motion Pearl Harbor,” the culmination of incremental and cumulative damage done over four decades of a calculated radical right, neo-liberal assault on American liberal democratic ideals.
And now in 2024, embodied in the radical right, Christian Nationalist screed, Project 2025.
Now, that the shock … and period of grieving is over, it is time for the peaceful, non-violent and sustained resistance to the impending autocracy. Time to take it to the streets.
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” — Margaret Mead
Michael A. Kominsky
Bellingham
Letters to the Editor are published online Wednesdays; a selection is published in print Fridays. Send to letters@cascadiadaily.com by 10 a.m. Tuesdays. Rules: Maximum 250 words, be civil, have a point and make it clearly. Preference is given to letters about local subjects. CDN reserves the right to reject letters or edit for length, clarity, grammar and style, or removal of personal attacks or offensive content. Letters must include an address/phone number to verify the writer's identity (not for publication).
Nooksack irrigators, McMansion owners should face water-use-efficiency scrutiny