May 29, 2024
Our Long Campus Lawn Nightmare is Over: A palpable wave of … something swept over The Hammer on Thursday with word of a settlement between Palestine-supporting lawn campers and the administration of Western Washington University, ending a two-week-long Calm-pocalypse.
We Can’t Be Sure: About the details, as WWU chose to make the agreement secret until all the language is rendered indecipherable, listless and condescending by a committee of self-important academics. But unless they negotiated an end to the actual conflict in Gaza over kombuchas on a card table in the basement of Old Main, Hammer is not likely to join in the chorus of Western folks calling the pact “historic.”
Not to Be Dismissive, But: “Noteworthy,” perhaps.
Speaking of Camping: Hammer will not be disabused of the notion that the following news-release headline did not frighten the student protesters into submission: “State Asks Campers Not to Move Firewood.”
Now This Is Historic: Congrats to the Western Washington University women’s softball squad, drivers of a truly historic playoff train all the way to the national title series in Florida. Another crowning achievement for WWU women’s athletics.
Small Stumps Trump Big Stumps: Really surprised an army of wee-tree huggers has not descended on City Hall after the recent outrageous action to protect city trees from the chainsaw — but only if they’re 36 inches or more in diameter. This raises all sorts of interesting questions, including: Doesn’t the blatant favoritism shown here toward big trees qualify as heightist and girthist? Both? Neither? Hammer wants to know. Needs to know.
Also, An Only-in-The-Ham Element: According to the new City of Bellingham ordinance, city staff will create a “Landmark Tree Inventory,” presumably stored under the front porch at Seth Fleetwood’s place. Entire groves can be nominated. Punchline: Trees of greater than 36 inches deemed “hazardous” may be submitted to a special group, the Bellingham Landmark Tree (BLT) Committee, for possible eventual removal. Rest assured, Hammer literally cannot make this up.
May 17, 2024
Important Holly Street Update: Hammer would like to thank the folks at COB who have applied further lipstick on the pig that is the Holly Bike Lane Fiasco … sorry experiment by placing signs (seen below), in the newly minted bike lane, an apparent attempt to prevent death and carnage at intersections with downtown’s main drag.
Yet He Is Motivated to Ask: Have you folks actually driven or ridden on Holly Street in its current state of confusion?
Seriously: The problem here is not so much attentive drivers (big picture/small window problem, for sure). Even those uber-polite, habitual yielders who are highly aware, and mortally afraid, of running over a cyclist by sideswiping them while turning right from Holly LITERALLY CANNOT SEE THEM COMING DOWN THE ROAD, by head/mirror check or any other means, because they are in a bike lane hidden behind a row of parked cars — likely creating cyclist’s own sense of soon-to-be-dashed invincibility.
Harumph: You can’t accomplish design this ill-considered without investing in months of blinder time at considerable public expense.
And Yes: We realize the chance of these collisions are largely theoretical because one rarely ever sees a bicyclist trying to negotiate this ‘Hamster Cage Web of Death (riders are on the sidewalks instead; sometimes the survival instinct simply overpowers).
To Repeat: Hammer was agnostic about this project, but both cyclists (most) and drivers (all) seem to hate it. Among those being former city council member Terry Bornemann, who railed against the logic of the entire scheme on social media this past week.
Bigger Picture: Congratulations, on the other hand, are due to the COB Congestion Enhancement Team headed by Traffic Emperor Chris “Dont’ Call Me the Traffic Emperor” Comeau, who famously told CDN long ago that gridlock is a sign of big-city success.
By That Measure: You’re living the dream, vehicular ‘Hamsters! The city’s current innovative Vehicular Congestion Proliferation and Preservation program — cracked and pitted asphalt not repaired since the Spanish Inquisition, coupled with ever-changing road-diet accommodations for a mythical large cycle-commuting population on busy thoroughfares — has allowed commute-time gridlock in places previously unimagined, such as major cross streets to Holly (see: State Street), which are now routinely backing up through intersections at certain times of the day. Mission accomplished! Bonuses all around.
And Let’s Not Forget: Small-bridge replacement projects, stretching a year or more, to protect mythical anadromous fish. We have pointed out that most of these are lasting longer than the entire construction time for the Deception Pass Bridge. (People thought Hammer was joking. When has that ever been the case?)
Meanwhile: Hammer couldn’t help notice that the Port of Bellingham, in its ongoing infinite wisdom, is retaining a Find-Us-Marginal/Sketchy-Tourist-Airlines consultant to stir up new business for Bellingham Intergalactic Airport (RIP, Dick Beardsley) in the wake of the untimely departure of Southwest Airlines.
Hammer Has to Ask: Were all the Find-Us-a-Legit-Major-Airline-for-Traveling-Business-Folks consultants already booked up by other port districts? Alas, probably so.
May 10, 2024
It’s Getting Pretty Hot: Not only outside, but down at Whatcom County HQ, where some singe marks are still visible on the front yard totem pole from the political firestorm after the recent sexual harassment settlement brouhaha.
Upshot: County council is steamed. Democratic Party leaders are indignant. County Exec Satpal Sidhu is chastened — but also steamed by those immediate calls for his head by intra-party public critics, not to mention any names, like party exec committee chair Andrew Reding, the sort of guy who will go to a roads hearing and brag about having never owned a car.
How Steamed Is He? Sidhu in an email last week accused his accusers of “character assassination,” while he sat “a phone call away” waiting to answer questions.
On the Other Hand: This is the same exec who, along with deputy Tyler Schroeder, signed a letter of recommendation, apparently penned by the alleged harasser, Jon Hutchings, that included an unfortunate typo, referencing Hutchings’ skills related to “… maintaining roads, bridges, dykes (sic) and levees….” We’ll just leave that right there.
And Now: It’s gone beyond one wayward administration or even one party and become more a story about Whatcom County government, writ large, thanks to Schroeder’s confession and the revelation of former council member Kathy Kershner’s additional letter of recommendation for Hutchings, also on county letterhead. If people in Whatcom County HR are not nervous, now would be a good time to get there.
Billable Hours Bonanza Looms: The upshot is that a broadscale investigation looms, endorsed by Sidhu and insisted upon by council, concerned about, among MANY OTHER THINGS, what appears to the public to be a substantial payout slush fund, aka Risk Pool, administered by the county prosecutor’s office, to pay off various complainants about county-staff misdeeds. Apparently with no requirement to, like, tell anyone for checks below oh-lordy threshholds.
Speaking of Hot: With one of the county’s primary swimming holes, Lake Samish Park, closed for two summers as a staging area for the nearby bridge replacement (note: was this really the only available space?) and now Birch Bay Waterslides announcing closure at least for the summer, where is a suddenly overheated Bellingham area kid supposed to go cool off? In the (apparently overcrowded) deep end of the Whatcom Risk Pool?
Meanwhile, Down on Holly Street: Surprise! Exactly as some observers predicted, the city’s bike lane “experiment” on the main thoroughfare from central Bellingham to downtown has raised hackles of lab rats dressed as both motorists and cyclists.
You Know You Have Failed in this Town If: Many of those deriding the new bike lane installation are cyclists. But, we’ll see. As is evident elsewhere around town, traffic patterns, like sludgy pond water, tend to learn to flow around obstacles even as dense as bad planning.
And Then This Development: We are watching with interest the story about clinicians organizing for a union shop in what could be a precedent-setting move to counteract the shell game paid by PeaceHealth and other “not-for-profits” to milk additional money out of the health care system.
Which Once Again Raises the Question: How would the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace feel about hiring union-busting legal counsel?
The Hammer publishes online monthly and is updated somewhat regularly; ronjudd@cascadiadaily.com; @roncjudd.
Lund’s responsive, innovative Bellingham housing plan deserves full approval