Reviews & Comments
Bellingham, WA
Crimes and Jobs -
1/31/2009
Crime is up in Bellingham, WA and jobs are dropping like fly's.
Your Job report on Bellingham is way off how old is this report?
Since early 2008 the area has been on a steady losing skid. at least 3 major furniture retailer's closed their doors in 2007 along with two other major retailer's saying good bye to Bellingham, even the Restaurant chain that had been in Bellingham for decades, the "Black Angus Restaurant" closed it's door's late 2007 or early 2008 saying the business climate was not getting any better in Bellingham, a lot of long time employees were stunned. Let's see, oh yea, Bob says the local Burger King on the south side of town closed two years ago and the Popeyes Fried Chicken place closed... it had only been opened a year...the long tome centerally located KFC closed over a year ago..the owner Bob says gave a "B.S." reason for closing saying something that is rent was going up, the building still sits empty over a year later.
A retail business mall they started planning for 3 1/2 years ago and finished last year..a beautiful looking set of buildings my freind says...have no announced tentants to this very day and apparently none in the near future to be announced.
Ther list goes on and on over proced housing higher utilities costly food, marginalized healthcare due to lack of competiton, University students announcing they will be leaving the local school because they want the "Full University Experience" which means attending a cllege football game on a crisp fall day to cheer on their school...a truly American experience..I've ben there to cheer on my team on those fall days.
The local University which a month or so ago won a Division 1 football Bowl game and has played football for at least 100 Years hascut the discontinued the program and layed off all the staff.
The local Aluminum Plant continues to layoff it's employees and independent retailer's are falling by the wayside.
My friend Bob say's he believes that Bellingham's slow decline actually began back in the 80's when it seemed that ever highly placed elected official, i.e. mayor... who after leaving office took a job with a major developer in the region that they interfaced with while in office...sort of like all the high ranking retired generals who become consultants (for what Eisenhower called the "industrial military complex") selling over priced weapon systems to their buddies still in the armed services where the cycle just seems to repeating itself.
But back to the point, the job market in Bellingham is SHRINKING...FAST...it is not growing.
Bellingham, WA
Cost of living much HIGHER in Bellingham than you -
1/31/2009You are way off on your cost of utilities being low in Bellingham, I lived in another town in another part of Washington and for 1630KWH a month my bill there was $56.50 in Bellingham where the power company is mainly owned by foreign investors according to Puget Energy my power bill for a home in bellingham using 1230KWH A MONTH(that's 400 KWH less than where I live now.
The bill would "aprx. $120.00 a month" that using 400 KWH than I use now and I am still paying $43.50 less in the same State and believe me it's going to caost B'hamer's much more the investment Power company just a short tome ago got approval for a rate hike...so your cost of living for utilities is off the mark...also for the same level ofcable/phone service/internet service provided by the same company I use, B'hamer's pay $105.92 a month, I pay $74.95 a month...that's well over 30% more than I pay...also because of the way over inflated housing prices bellingham experienced in their greedy period od what people tell me was 1999 til 2008. rentals have gone way up...of course it being a University town the college students just bring in a extra roommate to defer costs the worker bees are the ones left having to downsize.
A long time friend of mine who leaves in B'ham says poorer choice of housing as lead to problems in the community has laed to all sorts of problems...he told me that the local housing authority has been overwhelmed with people on their waiting list the past 3 to 5 years.
Bob (my friend) said to tell you that housing in Bellingham is way over the 106 mark you gave it. I gave him your site to look up for himself so he could see I was not kidding him. Has a Home owmer inthe greater B'ham area for nearly twenty years the glory years of reasonably rent and housing "left the house years ago". Bobb says get on line with his local newspaper th "Bellingham Herald" and go through their business secton archives and front page section for the past two years if you want the real scope on the cost of living in Bellingham, WA.
Metaline Falls, WA
job outlook grim -
1/31/2009The mine in the area by far the largest employer anmounced ib late 2008 that it was shutting the mine down, for now due to depressed world demand and pricing for their mineral.
Already landlords are dropping prices on rental units...but no jobs,no pay what good is an aparment where unemployent will probably top 20%.
This sends slivers down the river valley where the next largest employers are downriver (45 miles south are a newspaper making mill ( And we know what the internet has been doing to the print biz as of late and will continue to do so!)
The mine is owned by a canadian mining giant with holdings all over the world. They have no intentions of reopening the mine anytime soon.
By the way the two towns of Metaline Falls and Metaline right down the road have a combined population of 385 people...the mine laid off somewhere between 132 and 165 workers.
The Metaline Falls mine has a history of being shutdown for extended periods of time, the owners only reopened due to the high prices due to China's hungry for that enormus building boom and the false economy that the sub-prime fiasco and the greed for huge bonuses being paid to exec's in the financial markets. NW washington and the upper part of Pend Oreille will face.