“Culture of Fear” at Western
A job at Western might be a cush crib for some, but it’s become something of a horror show for the University’s top watchdog, now dead. An article [...]
Tip Johnson
Tip Johnson is a longtime citizen interest advocate with a record of public achievement projects for good government and the environment. A lifelong student of government, Tip served two terms on the Bellingham City Council and has worked on many community boards and committees. He travelled with the Federal Transit Administration and Department of Commerce on mass transit trade missions in SE Asia and Africa before settling down to focus on keeping public interests at the fore of local government and the course of growth and development.
Articles by Tip Johnson
Dirty Deal at Douglas and 21st
Update Dec 8: Last night the Bellingham City Council did not give final approval to the street vacation request, but sent it back to the Hearing Examiner for further review. I [...]
Sitting on a Gold Mine?
What if public agencies were sitting on a gold mine, a mineral deposit worth potentially billions? OK, not gold, but a large quantity of a valuable element? The Department of [...]
Recent comments
"There’s a fair bit of misunderstanding, especially on Nextdoor threads of this issue. The City doesn’t own any of this property. The adjoining properties own their half [...]
Dirty Deal at Douglas and 21st"As mentioned at top, in my haste to write this article I completely missed noticing that documents actually show this was a set-up between Staff and the Applicant. As Chris [...]
Dirty Deal at Douglas and 21st"It’s worth pointing out that Daniel’s map underscores the neighborhood’s long history of interest in utilizing our rights for public ways in pedestrian design. It does [...]
The Douglas Avenue Trail"Michael, I understand the sentiment, though feel the property is now safely preserved. Your argument probably should have been the Commissioner’s lead instead of ‘pandemic tax relief’, which [...]
The 100 Acre Wood Shakedown"I agree with author’s logic. Lowering the levy rate and extending the district’s life will cost taxpayers more. But if commissioners don’t trust the [...]
The 100 Acre Wood Shakedown