Focus on downtown: New actions to address drug use, crime, sanitation and behavioral health needs continue to foster safe, welcoming experiences downtown. These new actions, which build on previous initiatives, include police foot patrols, intensive street, sidewalk and alley cleaning, and other measures. “We are implementing solutions that are caring, responsive and effective, as we continue to address an array of social problems exacerbated by the pandemic as well as by the growing fentanyl and meth use crisis,” Bellingham Mayor Seth Fleetwood said. “We have many initiatives underway downtown, we are monitoring conditions closely, and we are hearing positive feedback from downtown businesses and visitors. We are moving in the right direction and making progress.”
Fentanyl and meth use crisis: An Evening with Sam Quinones, August 1: Education and discussion are essential to understanding and finding solutions for the growing drug use crisis. As a continuation of our successful Opioid Summit in June, All Hands Whatcom welcomes author Sam Quinones for a free opportunity for community members to deepen their understanding of these issues and their impacts. Quinones, a veteran journalist, is the author of The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth, an important overview of the origins and underlying dynamics of this crisis across the country. This event is an enormously helpful and timely opportunity for our community to gain greater understanding about the nature of the problem and how to address it. Your City leaders are engaged, responsive and compassionate in our efforts to attend to the realities of this crisis and the damage it is doing in our community, and we need everyone to learn more and contribute to solutions. See the recent announcement for more information and register here for the August 1 event, which is hosted by the All Hands Whatcom partnership including the City of Bellingham and the Bellingham Public Library.
Climate action public engagement: Building and vehicle electrification are the focus of working groups underway now to gain community feedback for our climate action implementation plans. Each of these areas of focus has incorporated a community working group from a wide variety of sectors representing the energy efficiency trades, realtors, non-profit organizations, low-income interests, education, non-profit, utility engineering and faith organizations. Additional focus groups planned next month will explore potential building and vehicle electrification policies and programs with BIPOC community members, youth and young adults, renters, local businesses, and housing and renovation workers. This fall, reports on this work will be presented to Bellingham City Council and similar efforts to examine renewable energy generation will be initiated. Interested in attending a focus group? Contact the Mayor’s Office of Climate at climate.action@cob.org for more information.
Seeking pro/con statement authors: The Bellingham City Council on July 10 referred to voters two citizen initiatives and the Greenways V levy (see below), all to appear on the November 7, 2023, general election ballot. The Council is seeking volunteers to serve on committees tasked with writing voters’ pamphlet pro and con statements for each of these items:
- Greenways V levy: a property tax levy to continue acquiring, developing and maintaining parks, trails and open spaces.
- Initiative No. 2023-01: establishing a City minimum wage above the state minimum wage.
- Initiative No. 2023-02: concerning the adoption of a rental relocation assistance program for tenants.
The Council will appoint up to three volunteers for each committee, which will be responsible for preparing statements. The deadline to volunteer is 10 a.m. Monday, July 24. To apply or for more information, contact the Council Office at (360) 778-8200 or ccmail@cob.org.
Speaking of ballot measures: After a public hearing on Monday, July 10, the Bellingham City Council approved for voter consideration a fifth Greenways levy proposed to raise more than $86 million over the next 10 years to continue acquiring, developing and maintaining parks, park facilities, trails and open spaces. Details of the Greenways V proposal available in the public hearing announcement, on the Greenways webpage and in the Greenways storymap. The Greenways program is one of the City’s most important legacies, with dedicated investments integral to quality of life in Bellingham. By the end of 2023, the Greenways funding program – now in place for over three decades – will have brought in more than $102 million, purchased 3,200 acres, created almost 40 miles of trails, and funded extensive park and trail development, maintenance and stewardship throughout the City.
Another Greenways success story: Also on July 10, the City Council took action to increase protection for the Hundred Acre Wood by amending the conservation easements held by the Chuckanut Community Park District. The park district will now assign its interest in the conservation easement to the Whatcom Land Trust and dissolve. These final steps represent decades of work and unprecedented community effort. The approximately 112-acre forested park, located in south Bellingham, includes a web of forested trails that connect surrounding parks and neighborhoods as well as native forest and wetlands. Extensive community collaboration over decades successfully saved this cherished forest, placed it in public ownership and ensured its protection in perpetuity as a Greenways legacy property.
Summer in full swing! A summer full of fun is fully underway, with events to choose from every day of the week. A highlight this weekend is the second annual NW Tune Up, a three-day bike, beer and music festival celebrating PNW culture held both on our downtown waterfront and on our world-class Galbraith Mountain trails (yet another Greenways-funded project!). Two great sources of information about happenings in Bellingham and beyond are the event webpages of our partners at Bellingham Whatcom County tourism and Downtown Bellingham Partnership.
