Citizen Journalist and Editor • Member since Jan 11, 2008
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.
Background: A previous article detailed the absurdity of Bellingham City Hall’s development regulations that are working against a $40 million salmon enhancement effort upstream. A city permit is allowing [...]
Orca are an iconic species in the Pacific Northwest. Everyone wants to save them. The key to their survival is salmon. This truth applies equally to our indigenous [...]
Somehow an application to abandon the public’s right to a 26-year old trail in Happy Valley got through the Technical Review Committee (TRC), made it to Hearing Examiner Sharon [...]
"The silence is deafening. Seems to be a thing these days.
"Aaron, not that I don’t appreciate your critical review. I think it’s important and a skill more should develop. However, the reliability of the google data is reinforced [...]
"Perhaps the most egregious aspect is the failure to recognize the former channel within about 50 feet and to consider the obvious channel migration zone. This means they knew that eventually [...]
"I would like to hear more about, “Twenty years ago, the city went down this stupid path of abolishing the muni court and it cost city taxpayers dearly.” I vaguely [...]
"There’s some great research out there on how plants communicate through a fungal internet. The more we look, the less nature appears “dog eat dog” and [...]
It is time for Bellingham City Hall to take control by dumping YouTube for having taken down a video of a City Council meeting.
2 comments, most recent 3 hours agoThe Whatcom County Council is afraid to make an appointment of a temporary District Court judge before the Primary Election. Is the “fix” in?
1 comment, most recent 1 day agoYet another eyesore bunker-like building for bunking students at market rental rates.
3 comments, most recent 6 days agoThe city granted building permits while the Planning Department knew this was a state historical Indian village site.
Bellingham website goes dead with one person taking a few days off. So much for an administration and a system. Third world government.
4 comments, most recent 1 week agoEffective, efficient and low cost, high speed broadband service continues to elude Bellingham and Whatcom County
5 comments, most recent 2 days agoBellingham continues to have its mail dropoff options changed willy-nilly.
3 comments, most recent 6 days agoTime to put the kibosh on the CityView private dormitory project for the good of the neighborhood and the good of the city.
Riley and Bryna Sweeney write about the petition to ban the teaching of Critical Race Theory in the Meridian School District.
How Mayor Fleetwood and his city attorneys are violating the basic laws that our nation was founded and built upon.
5 comments, most recent 3 weeks agoCity attorney James Erb removed from legal case against Judge Lev for conflict of interest by Superior Court judge.
6 comments, most recent 2 weeks agoMail collection boxes seem to be a thing of the past. Why have one postal vehicle collect from the boxes when hundreds of people can drive to the post office to mail a letter?
3 comments, most recent 2 weeks agoA new and local county wide technology group of Internet and broadband experts has been formed. Jon explains why and lists the members.
2 comments, most recent 3 weeks agoMary Kay Becker writes about the Bellingham Municipal Court Controversy
Tonight the Bellingham City Council - with no agenda notice - authorized the mayor to begin process to abolish the Bellingham Municipal Court
4 comments, most recent 1 month agoWhat does a little stream matter? Spoiler alert! It’s not a joke and, if it were, it would not be a nice one.
5 comments, most recent 1 week agoThe presiding judge of Whatcom County District Court has suddenly resigned effective July first.
5 comments, most recent 1 month agoA day to remember the US service men and women who have passed away.
6 comments, most recent 1 month agoDebra Lev, Bellingham’s municipal court judge, is suing Mayor Seth Fleetwood and the city
7 comments, most recent 1 month agoCity staff report outlines “issues” with megalithic CityView complex. You have a chance to comment.
1 comment, most recent 1 month agoDouglas Gustafson guest writes. Our two tiny home villages, and the possibility of a third, are in jeopardy. Do we need them?
3 comments, most recent 1 month agoDespite willing property sellers, and Fleetwood’s campaign promises, and the unanimous Greenways Committee vote …. sigh.
6 comments, most recent 3 weeks ago“Differential Privacy:” A statistical adjustment system that may render 2020 census population data unusable.
1 comment, most recent 1 month agoAn essay on climate change, millennials’ concerns, and large corporations and governments complacently stealing our kids futures.
5 comments, most recent 3 weeks agoBAG - the Bellingham city hall Broadband Advisory Group is stacked in favor of mega corporations and against local public Internet service.
12 comments, most recent 1 month agoNew state legislation will cause cascade of changes to Bellingham’s codes
2 comments, most recent 2 months agoCityView, the project that will not die, will soon be subject to scrutiny during an extraordinary meeting of the Planning Commission.
2 comments, most recent 1 month agoThe more contagious and possibly more deadly B.1.1.7 and P.1 coronavirus strains appear to be leaking down into Whatcom County from British Columbia.
10 comments, most recent 2 months agoDaniel Kirkpatrick writes Mayor Fleetwood requesting he veto the council vacation of a street with a walking trail.
9 comments, most recent 1 month agoUgly and expensive. That is what we have brought to the Waterfront.
10 comments, most recent 2 months agoSB 5188 to establish a Washington state Financial Cooperative is in an uncertain state in the legislature
Broken promises, bad administration, and still NO access to our publicly-owned resources
4 comments, most recent 3 months agoWashington moves ever closer to public banking for the good of its citizens and the fiscal health of the state.
8 comments, most recent 3 months agoThe advantage of an “advisory” group, (as in Broadband Advisory Group,) is that you don’t have to listen to them.
3 comments, most recent 3 months agoDoug Gustafson offers a point/counterpoint account of opposing strategies for tiny homes
27 comments, most recent 2 months agoFourteen February cases of the B.1.1.7 variant coronavirus strain suggest that it is beginning to surge in the county.
10 comments, most recent 4 months agoAfter clearing the Senate, Washington’s bill to create a public banking cooperative advances to the Democratically controlled House.
4 comments, most recent 4 months agoRiley shares some thoughts, concerns, and observations on the uncommon phenomenon of mask-wearing during this pandemic.
7 comments, most recent 4 months agoAtul Deshmane guest writes and provides us with a resume of the internet infrastructure issues now being discussed in Bellingham
7 comments, most recent 3 months agoPart of a series of articles on the progress of a public banking cooperative in Washington.
1 comment, most recent 4 months agoWith a recent dispute between the newspaper’s reporters and management over, the real work can begin.
3 comments, most recent 4 months agoGarrett O’Brien guest writes about how Bellingham can learn from successful programs for the homeless elsewhere and would do well to abandon ineffectual approaches.
5 comments, most recent 4 months agoCity council and planning commission meetings were poor arrangements to begin with, and with Zoom it is very much worse.
4 comments, most recent 2 months agoIrene Morgan writes a public letter to Governor Inslee about a new director of prisons
A substitute bill for the original SB 5188 was accepted and moved to the Ways and Means Committee for further consideration.
2 comments, most recent 5 months agoCurrent legislation, moving forward in Olympia, would permit localities to adopt ranked-choice voting as an upgrade to their currently mandated top-two system.
1 comment, most recent 5 months agoThe monumental, pre-COVID levels of cruise ships and world tourism were not sustainable.
4 comments, most recent 5 months agoRay Kamada guest writes on how to have your cake and eat it too.
5 comments, most recent 5 months agoThe city has instituted unnecessary restrictions on the Broadband Advisory Group’s discussion and outside input.
3 comments, most recent 5 months agoBrian Martel on the issue of Internet broadband service to our homes and pending bills in Olympia.
