DRONES!

Three Wise Men?

The Port Commission has decreed that Bellingham’s waterfront will remain a toxic, festering sore

No Third Jail Tax

Who benefits?

Defund WHAT?

Vote for what you like. I like libraries.

Dear Vlad…

Anon letters trying to intimidate us and our writers are non starters.

Elevators, Smelevators

…Pants on Fire!

Save the Trails Referendum Falls Short

A summary of the Douglas Avenue right-of-way petition effort.

SAVE THE TRAILS! STAY SAFE. GET ONLINE. GET IT DONE!

The Save the Trails Referendum goes into Pandemic Mode

Save the Trails Referendum - Petition Signing, Pickup and Delivery Station

The Push is on!

The Scheme to Turn Green-Spaces into $Green

Neighborhoods beware: City Hall is selling our public rights. Your neighborhood could be next.

A call for citizen action

This is the Save the Trails Referendum Page

City Throws Down the Gauntlet

But ever so s_l_o_w_l_y

Our Public Property Rights For Sale - Cheap!

Preserve public property rights & save the trail

Massive Excavation in Archeological Zone Permitted by City Hall

The city granted building permits while the Planning Department knew this was a state historical Indian village site.

Save the Whales - Bellingham’s $40mm Padden Creek Joke

What does a little stream matter? Spoiler alert! It’s not a joke and, if it were, it would not be a nice one.

Will City Double-Down to Kill Public Trail?

Tip Johnson makes the case that the City’s cozy relations with developers and its neighborhoods-be-damned attitude is costing us all.

“Culture of Fear” at Western

WWU, Western Washington University has a “Culture of Fear”. No, NW Citizen is not saying that - the Seattle Times is.

Dirty Deal at Douglas and 21st

Proposed Elimination of the Douglas Avenue Trail

Sitting on a Gold Mine?

The best kept secret in the west?

Vote Like Your Life Depends On It

An easy test for candidate selection

Jail Tax: Third Time’s a Charm?

Council Rebukes Justice Advocates and Voters

The Jail - Pentagon Hammers and Brick Walls

A million here and a million there, pretty soon you are talking real money

Seth Fleetwood for Mayor

Electoral Perspective from a long-time neighborhood advocate

Whatcom Justice Reform: The Big Fib

When voting for sheriff implies structural change

Of Broken Roads and Re-invented Wheels

Re-imagining Bellingham’s Waterfront

Breaking News: City Council Changes

City Council member Roxanne Murphy resigns…on Facebook

MERCURY VICTIMS OF WHATCOM COUNTY

Toward a more comprehensive approach to human health and the environment

Pig in a Poke - Budget Heist and Land Scam?

My final shot. Before you might vote YES, explore this site for more on the jail by Juliette Daniels, myself and others. Then vote REJECTED.

Something Stinks at the Post Point Wastewater Treatment Plant

What’s the real story?

Coming for your wallet - That persistent jail thing

Wherein citizens snooze, they lose

That Big, Flat, Rural Jail or Regional Detention Center?

Wherein the serpent struggles to remain unnoticed

Let the Tyranny Commence - The Revenge Against Chiara D’Angelo Bill

Wherein history begins to repeat itself

The missing Link

Do we need more events, or more cool things to do?

Lummi Island Drawbridge

The Lummi Island ferry is a very old and decrepit vessel. The state ferry system wants to give us a newer one in great condition. Whatcom County says no. Tip tells the tale.

Dogged Pursuit of a Failed Vision?

Wherein, we correct some misassumptions but still ask the questions

Idea for Our Times: Puget Sound Repair Project

Could this address the real problem with Puget Sound?

Punishing the Wrong Guys

Wherein someone’s gotta do the right thing

Elfo: Enforcement, Litigation or Risks?

Wherein inquiring minds want to know!

Jail Reform: Music to My Ears

Wherein sanity may finally be approaching a nagging jail issue

Request for Citizen Evidence

Wherein inquiring minds just want to know!

PDC - The Missing Documents

Wherof we cannot speak, thereof we must be silent?

NAMI Whatcom Opposes Prop 2015-1

The latest addition and the issue in review

Info Slowmo

When they feel you just don’t need to know

The Mysterious State of the Whatcom County Jail

Wherein the operative information is $$$ECRET

Making a Jail: Bamboozle!

With a smarmy October Surprise

That Louwsy Jail Deal

FEMA camp or new county seat?

Second Water Main Break on Donovan in a Year

Mains a’ bursting - Avast!

Flash Mob Protests Arctic Drilling

Wherein we ponder the fate of humanity

Irish Thuggery

The difference between a threat and a promise

Little Hong Kong by the Bay

Wherein Bellingham’s billion dollar boondoggle is revisited

Dead or Alive: How do you like your herring?

Wherein the ridiculous is ridiculed

Prosecutor McEachran Calls Racism Charge “Preposterous”

Wherein Whatcom’s Klan heritage may be oozing from some cracks

Fergusonham

Or why to vote for Nyima, the dog, for County Prosecutor

Something Gristly to Chew On: The rest of the story -

It’s just how things roll in Whatcom County

The Business of Government

Wherein we see that sometimes government can do what business can’t.

Widespread Slaughter Won’t Work

Wherein the failings of a bad policy framework are revealed

‘Legislative Sausage” or “Slaughter this Ordinance”

Wherein the gyrations of the bid for widespread county slaughter are exposed.

Mobile Slaughter

Wherein there’s a crackdown on growing plants, and plans to let slaughter run free

Steal this Waterfront: Costs without Benefit

Wherein the direct, indirect, hidden and lost opportunity costs make this a waterfront boondoggle of billions

Noballmacare and Setting the False Standard

Dear Mr. President, There’s a sucker born every minute, and two to take him.

The Slaughterhouse Referendum - Citizens Opposing Widespread Slaughter (COWS)

Wherein we discover why we exert our rights - and grab some more petitions before it’s too late

As Goes Slaughter, So Goes Coal

Wherein various comments are compiled and compounded, and citizens encouraged to act

Who’s Selling Who Down What River

Wherein we see how the Ds do the work the Rs can’t get away with

The Waterfront Will Be Safe.  Trust Me!

Wherein the people who call capping a clean-up say toxics safe enough for day care.

Notice of Defect

Wherein we complain about the City and Port stealing from the public

Read All About It!  Cattlemen want slaughter.

Wherein the Cattlemen define ‘small scale’ as an unlimited number of facilities of up to 50 million live pounds per year.

Living Wage and Working Waterfront 101

Wherein the rate base gets a soaking while officials keep big-bubble toking

Legislation and Sausage

Wherein it’s even worse when the legislation is about sausage

Marine Sanctuary Standards

Wherein the ironies of life are explored and the necessities of life are contemplated

Petition to Establish a Bellingham Art Market

Wherein artists have to eat, too!

Slaughtering the County Tax Base

Wherein the Slaughterhouse Ken and Barbie show present Slaughterville, their new vision for Whatcom County

Slaughterhouses and Rendering Plants - Videographers Needed

Wherein citizens must hold their representatives’ feet to the fire

Meat Axe or Scalpel?

An letter to the County Council on opening the county to the slaughter industry

Xwe’chi’eXen: Where the Big Picture is a Very Small Fish

The Lummi Nation Declares Their Sovereign Objectives at Cherry Point

BNSF Shoreline Improvements for the Proposed Gateway Pacific Coal Port

Wherein we see the Railroad walking it’s walk while we get ready to talk our talk.

Game on!

Hereby hoping to stimulate discussion of what expanding the Port Commission is meant to achieve, what constitutes good government and how we might best achieve it.

Time for a Change

Wherein the port proves they are incompetent to do the public’s business

DRONES!

Footage overlooking the Fairhaven area

Earth Day Alert:  Rocket Donuts to throw Fairhaven trees in the Deepfry

Will donuts prove more important than street trees?

A Time for Port Reform

Wherein the shenanigans start smelling too fishy to tolerate

Commmunity Governance at its Best

We have a new mayor!

The Cole Train: Loads of BS

Wherein the sooty prospect of economic necessity rears its ugly head

Deer me!

O.K. Who’s in charge of all these ungulates?

Post Election Wish List

Daydreams of a recovering politician

Hold The Presses!

I think we’ve got a winner!

Chuckanut Ridge: Good Deal, Bad Deal?

Eeny, meeny, miny, moe

The Hills Are Alive!

Spoiler Alert: If you are enjoying your blackberries this year, read no further

Lummi Island Ferry Deal: Stockholm Syndrome

A bad deal, but good enough - for now

Lummi Island Ferry: Incompetence, confusion, terror, and disenfranchisement

Legislation and Sausage: Very hard to watch being made.

Vendovi Views

Republished from Whatcom Watch - Let’s Save Vendovi Island!

It’s finally done…except the lessons

Should we accept or dig into Chuckanut Ridge?

The Cole Train: Tell it to the Herring

Wherein something smells a bit fishy

The Cole Train: First Salvo

Wherein blackened hearts and minds are initially examined

They Exist!

Or, The Village That Once Was. Or, I Didn’t have Time to Write Something Short, Again.

Indian Band Tests Sovereignty: Orders County to Cease Ferry Operations

You’ve gotta be kidding!

Statutory Purgatory: A failure of Government

Wherein surrender may be the key to success

Lummi Island - The Price of Admission

Legal or Political Football?

Lummi Island Softball

Islanders need a new game

Cantwell Confused

Ignoring the real problem

Lummi Football

Time for hardball?

Act of War or Act of Congress?

Where, oh where, are our federal representatives?

Greed: The Shadowy So-called Non-profit Taecan

For-Profit Non-Profits - Pulling the Plug on Services

The Forsaken Constituents of Lummi Island

Taxation without representation

Never Enough? Enough is Enough!

Wherein the absurdity of the Lummi Blockade is explored in yet more excrutiating detail

The Dumbest Meeting Ever

I mean, come on!

Five Minutes

Oil Addiction: All Day Every Day

Secret Deals - Stinkier and Stinkier

More problems with secret government

Welcome to Bellingham, Arizona

In which the perils of a police state are only barely considered

Lummi Accolade: Brave, Smart and Honest

Lummi officials and Lummi Island residents meet -Village to Village

The Lummi Blockade: Block Lummi Aid?

Whatcom County lacks both authority and leverage to negotiate a Lummi Island ferry deal

The Lummi Blockade

The Lummi Nation appears prepared to implement a threatened blockade of Lummi Island commencing February 14th

Sport of Bellingham

Port of Bellingham in the news

Dear Mr. President

Tip writes a letter to President Obama about Health Care and about his concerns that Obama has sold us short.

Incredibly Carbonaceous

It looks like we’ve got a pretty watered down climate accord. It doesn’t provide accountability and won’t limit warming to within the two degree Celsius out-of-control climate tipping point.

The Elusive Truth About Chuckanut Ridge/Fairhaven Highlands

I always hate public issues that involve decades of history and require integration of multiple points. I refer to it as ‘the indignity of explanation.’ Public interest advocates gain nothing

Scintillating Sat/Sun Solicitation

We don’t make special offers like this very often, but if you act right now, you’ll not only continue getting free access to fresh views, news and opinion on Northwest Citizen, but you’ll also help se

Know your…friends?

This is probably old news to Responsible Development advocates, but just in case, here’s a little heads up on TIm Stewart. He appears to have experience with developments like Fairhaven Highla

The Port’s Foul Vapors

All to often in politics, public interest advocates find themselves feeling like they are shouting futilely into the wind. Looking ahead, at the Port’s mismanagement of the waterfront redevelo

Poop - Bellingham’s Billion Dollar Boondoggle

This week’s “Gristle”, by Cascadia Weekly Editor Tim Johnson, includes this electoral season’s first substantive issue to appear in local print media <a href=”http://www.nwcitizen.us/entry/bell

Red Herring, Red Threat and A Red Letter Opportunity

Red Herring

Shame on Obama, shame on Congress. Why punish workers while bailing out their bosses? The recent frenzy to demonize the employees of AIG is a more than a little disturbing.

Obama? Oh, bomb ya!

Welcome to a new era of diplomacy! It may not necessarily be kinder and gentler, but it sure looks like it could be more impersonal. Obama has affirmed the recent military policy of using unmanned dr

Chuckanut Ridge: What Way Forward?

Any public issue that garners nearly two decades of ardent citizen activism ought to eventually be perceived as significant. But a form of fatigue peculiar to public affairs tends to gradually margina

Obama: On Shovels, Banks and Wars

Obama hasn’t any choice but to put “revitalizing the economy” at the top of his agenda. It could be a problem. Sure, everyone wants to keep their jobs or their business. They want to meet their mor

Blagojevich: Killed or Captured

Early in the reign of “W”, following the announcement of his “War on Terra”, we soon became familiar with the now famous phrase, “kill or capture”. It seems significant that it didn’t emerge as “capt

Obamarama: Advent of trickle-up economics?

The spectacle of Obama will soon begin to unfold as unprecedented popularity comes face to face with unprecedented difficulties. Another writer on these pages has already announced the potential for

Just Don’t Want to Hear About It?

An observant NWCitizen agent noticed this morning that the Herald may have a new policy regarding controversial issues that involve their favored advertisers.

The Port and City of Bellingham ha

Stand and Deliver!

The title phrase will remind many of the 1988 film portraying the work of Jaime Escalante, a dedicated high school mathematics teacher, starring Edward James Olmos. Historians will recognize it as th

The Fundamentals are Sound?

Who plundered the economy? What happened to all the wealth? Should Americans feel shame at having recklessly squandered their children’s future with imprudent borrowing?

Not long ago, as our

Phoenix in theTarpit - The politics of deception

Big problems require big solutions, quick. If bipartisan cooperation in major policy changes is needed, then so be it. Democrats will reach across the aisle and…get sucker punched!

This cou

Pitbull with Lipstick?

Sarah Palin made her big splash to a receptive crowd last night at the Republican National Convention. We’ll see how well it plays with those not already so predisposed.

One thing is for sure:

Could What We Don’t Know Hurt Us?

BELLINGHAM BAY DOESN’T MIX

In 1957, E. N. Steele documented the effects of pulp mill pollution on native oyster stocks in “The Rise and Decline of the Olympia Oyster”.

Unaffordable Housing?

Today’s Bellingham Herald has an interesting article on a report recently released by the Countywide Housing Affordability Task force.

Crackdown

In the run-up to this fourth of July, there were articles in the local daily and a fair amount of discussion about fireworks. Word was that the local constabulary were poised for a crackdown. Judgin

The Balkanization of the Waterfront

I watched with horror the channel 10 viewing of the last Waterfront Advisory Group - or whatever they are now called. This group is reviewing the ongoing planning of the former G-P properties,

Neiner, Neiner - The private benefits of avoiding public dialog

The dialog over the proposed Fairhaven Highlands development has deteriorated into a childish “neiner-neiner” squabble. Opponents continuously propose a host of rational objections while a few propon

Windfall Non-profits?

In 1969, Scott Stodola and Kendall Frazier founded the Bellingham Cooperative School. The School was housed in a variety of locations, including Fairhaven College and the golf course club hous

A Southside Grange?

I recently met with local and state officers from the Washington State Grange. These remarkably grass-rooted, family-oriented organizations can be formed with as few as 13 members. At least f

The Predatory Universe of Non-Profits in Happy Valley

Something about Bellingham’s poverty brings out the worst, even in the best of us.

The Kulshan Land Trust ushered it’s presence into Happy Valley with the development

Kudos: The Big Kahuna’s Big Cojones

Today’s Herald features a local story entitled, “Mayor taking tougher stance with Port on waterfront”. It’s high time someone started considering the City’s interests in this fiasco!<br

Stimulating the Economy

I’m amazed at the response our Administration and Congress have taken toward news that the economy might be in trouble. Their idea is to write a bunch of checks to spur consumer spending. Tha

Correction Direction

I took a little heat from one of our new councilmembers, who took issue with yesterday’s piece, “Continuing Parlor Tricks”. Therein, I used a bad choice of words, suggesting final action might

Continuing Parlor Tricks

The Herald’s utility as an organ for community information is sometimes sorely tested - especially when things get controversial or confusing. Of course, it’s not that they don’t want citizens

When Is Less More?

When Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) are prepared, more than one development model might be evaluated. But a no-action alternative is always required as a baseline reference. Convention

Unreported Mob - The Foes of Fairhaven Highlands

Hundreds of citizens last night descended on Municipal Court in solidarity with the Hundred Acre Woods to express their opposition to Horizon Bank’s potentially disastrous development now calle

Save the Woods?

Or how to mitigate the illegitimacies of Fairhaven Highlands, AKA Chuckanut Ridge and the Hundred Acre Woods. Sorry, I didn’t have time to write something short!

Liberals all too often get in their own way

I prefer to “label” myself radical, as compared with liberal. I struck upon the notion lobbying in Washington, D.C.

There, I painfully learned that liberals don’t understand the basics of busin

Servais hasn’t endorsed Stan Snapp

V - Stan Snapp - Don’t ask me why Servais hasn’t endorsed Stan Snapp. Here’s a guy that has worked his way up and tirelessly served his community, who has broad popular support and plent

I have issues

Personalities, not issues have dominated this election cycle. It’s not that there are no issues to discuss. It’s just that our democracy has apparently developed lazy habits. The digital revolu

Joint City-County Lake Whatcom Advisory Committee

Starting in the mid-eighties, when I was on the City Council, I sat on the original Joint City-County Lake Whatcom Advisory Committee, comprised of elected officials from both City and County as well

Piecemeal Planning - Popping Poison Pills

Unpleasant material is messily whapping its way through the whirling blades in neighborhoods throughout town as the City attempts to patch together a fatally flawed beginning to their Comprehensive Pl

Northern Neighborly News

Results from the first political forum of the season are now available online. Many thanks to the Northern Neighbors for organizing the event and providing such a great public resource. Seasoned polit

Watershed in Crisis - Drink up!

The new annual report on The Lake Whatcom Reservoir confirms that the quality of the water supply for half of the county’s population is deteriorating. An article in today’s Bellingham Herald points t

The Port’s Plan to Poison

Why the Log Pond cap won’t work

An article in a recent Bellingham Business Journal detailed the debate over whether the toxic muck in the Whatcom Waterway ought to be dredged or capped.

Bee where? Beware!

I have some large, beautiful pear trees at home. Spring is a glorious time, when they are festooned with blossom and the air is sweet with their scent. I have had occasion to observe these trees for o

Crimes Against Peace, War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity

All the fuss over whether the “surge” is a credible strategy, whether or not to schedule a troop withdrawal from Iraq or continue funding the war kinda misses the main point with which Americans still

Reclusive Representative - Persecution by Proxie

Our invisible Congressman, Rick Larsen, has finally had his way with that pesky protester, Ellen Murphy. In order to ensure his privacy from prying constituents, Larsen had the local constabulary haul

Bloodbath in Iraq

According to the Washington Post, “President Bush warned Thursday that pulling out of Iraq too soon would trigger a bloodbath akin to that of the Cambodian killing fields of the 1970s, while Senate Ma

The So-called News

Independent media? Freedom of the press? Peoples friend, tyrants foe? It was a good idea while it lasted, educating the electorate and forming a mainstay of our democracy. Now, we’ve either elected Bu

Poisoning the Public - A treacherous legacy

According to the Bellingham Herald, the Washington State Department of Natural Resources has recently approved leaving tons of mercury buried in Bellingham Bay. The documents are not yet readily avail

Your Waterfront - Up for grabs

New Whatcom Redevelopment Project - The City and Port of Bellingham will hold public information a meeting. Bellingham Cruise Terminal. 355 Harris Ave., Bellingham. WA Times: 6:00 PM.

Also, th

What a bunch of hooey!

The Pentagon, after weeks of delay, finally trotted out the “irrefutable evidence” that Iran is supplying deadly weapons to Iraqi “insurgents”. Wow! They produced two tables of weaponry with Iranian m

Moving Target

One of the more momentous public hearings in Bellingham’s history appears to be ready to pass with more than the ordinary confusion. We wrote about some of the mis/disinformation earlier.

On th

Global Warming, Record Lows - Fiddling while Rome burns

<

blockquote>”When do you wreck it as a system? It’s like going up to the edge of a cliff, not really knowing where it is. Common sense says you shouldn’t discover where the edge is by passing over it,

Public Process - Lots of it (kind of),

or I lied (sort of!)

In the previous post I complained that the biggest rip-off in Whatcom County history was happening without even being discussed or making it into the news. Well, I lied. To

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

The good? We are no longer spewing forty+ pounds of mercury vapor every day into the local atmosphere. We are no longer dumping 20 to 40 tons of polluted solid waste into our bay, ravines and gravel p

Long Run

Milton Friedman died at 94 years of age last week. Friedman was the maverick economist who implemented monetarist policies beginning with the administrations of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. As

Torturous topics

While we’re being proud to be Americans, don’t forget that George Bush just pushed through legislation that makes it legal for our boys at Abu Ghraib to have tortured and makes it legal for them to ke

Welcome to America!

Protesting and dissent is no longer supervised by the police. It is actively escalated to violence, punished and prosecuted. This snippet is about a fellow rotting in jail as the result of his journal

Let them vote on it?

Zetta Bracher, President of the local Democratic Women’s Club, has an idea for getting consensus on our “new direction” in Iraq.

When it became apparent that there were no weapons of mass destr

Hot Button

The war in Iraq is widely regarded to have been the “hot button” issue of the last election. I don’t buy it. Americans seem to like a good fight. After all, we get into a lot of them. The problem with

Plenty more to flush

Bellingham’s new, old mayor, Tim Douglas, got off to a great running start at his new job by dealing quickly and firmly with an important issue that threatened to embarrass the City forever - the form

Killers or Healers?

Congratulations, Americans. That was certainly worth voting for! Voters thoroughly routing the entrenched Neo-Con administration will help restore our world image, so badly damaged since re-electing t

Electile Dysfunction

Nope. I didn’t make it up. It’s from the subtitle of a book by Steve Bhaerman, under the pen name Swami Beyondananda. I have to admire the guy. At least he can laugh about it. But Americans should do

The 16% Solution

Results from the 17th year of a poll routinely taken by the Wall Street Journal and NBC News show that only 16 percent approve of the job Congress is doing. 52 percent of those polled said they’d pref

Swirling Logo

Hopefully the City’s new swirling logo will flush itself before it ends up glued on vehicles and emblazoned on letterhead. It’s horrible, but that’s only half the story. And we will probably never get

The Truth Fairy

Heading into the last days of this election season, George Bush and his Neo-Con Republicans have been strumming a familiar tune to promote their candidates. Republicans, they say, will

1) P

My name is Tip Johnson.

Gentle readers,

My name is Tip Johnson. The usual editor of this publication has asked me to fill in for a bit while he is busy with other matters. Some of you have already written, following h