Bellingham Real Estate Blog

According to Federal Election Commission data, the REALTORS Political Action Committee (RPAC) contributed $3.75 million to make them the largest PAC contributor to U.S. Congressional candidates in the 2006 election. The next largest contributor at $2.95 million was The National Beer Wholesalers Association PAC, followed by The National Association of Home Builders' Build PAC with $2.90 million.

The  Realtor's RPAC's contributions were the most bi-partisan with 51 percent going to Republicans and 49 percent going to Democrats.

More Info available at:  Top 20 PAC Contributors to Federal Candidates, 2005-2006 - opensecrets.org

Residents of Fairhaven have said they don't want tall bullrings in the area, according to a recent poll of Bellingham's south-side neighborhood. What they would like is preservation of the character of the historic neighborhood, followed by preserving the neighborhood's pedestrian emphasis, natural habitats and views of Bellingham Bay, respectively.  This is basically in opposition to the 10 story building proposed near Harris and 8th Street known as Fairhaven Square, presently on the drawing board and helled up by negotiations over the permit with the city.

Any thoughts on the subject from you my readers.

Volunteers in Lynden are working to build their city's kids a new park on Depot Road.  The park is a collaboration of Lynden citizen volunteers and a New York company that helps design playgrounds with the help of input from the areas kids. The Lynden community has raise the money and pledged lots of volunteer hours to make this all happen.  If you are interested in lending a hand construction is today through May 5. For more indo check out the Million Smiles website. 

Beginning May 29,Skybus Airlines will begin low-cost once-a-day flights from Bellingham to Columbus, Ohio.Why Columbus? That's the headquarters city for the new airline that is staking its success on offering the lowest available fares. 

From Columbus, the country's 15th largest city, local travelers could connect to major East Coast destinations such as New York, Washington, D.C., and Boston.

"Beginning today, passengers can buy airline tickets for less than the cost of a tank of gas," CEO Bill Diffenderffer said Tuesday in a press release. He has pledged his new airline will offer at least 10 seats at $10 one way on every flight. Until when? Always.

"These are not promotional fares that will go away in a couple of weeks," Diffenderffer said. "These are the everyday low fares we promised when we began working to build Skybus."

Regular fares to Columbus start at $50, but the last seats on the plane can be $150. Skybus' goal is to have its maximum fare  at about half the maximum cost on other airlines.

Skybus passengers will have to rough it though. Passengers can't check a bag through to their destination even if they connect on another Skybus flight out of Columbus. They will need to retrieve their bags from the Bellingham flight, go back through security and recheck the bags onto their next flight. The airline charges $5 per bag for the first two checked bags per passenger and $50 per additional bag.

Ticket sales are all online.

Skybus also will charge for drinks and meals in flight, and passengers are not allowed to bring their own food and beverages on board.

 The airline could eventually fly from Bellingham to other destinations if demand is there.

Mark your calenders, May 1,2007

 If you are in Bellingham, please come and help celebrate the dedication of a Peace Pole in front of The Firehouse Performing Arts  Center on Harris Ave in Fairhaven. There will also be folks there who will be making prayer flags for the tree in the small park like area behind the station, that will be from 12 noon to 4 pm.  The Firehouse Cafe will also have a Grand Reopening that day. The Peace Pole has the phrase "May peace prevail on Earth" in 4 languages.

A Peace Pole acts as a silent prayer and message for peace on Earth. There are Peace Poles all around the world. The Peace Pole project was started by the World Peace Society, a non profit, member supported, non-sectarian organization dedicated to uniting people across the world through the universal saying: "May peace prevail on earth."

 The city of Bellingham is the first city in Washington to be designated a "Green Power Community" with the Columbia neighborhood leading the city with the Central Business District and the Fairhaven Neighborhoods following. The city received this designation for purchasing more than 11% of all the electicity used in the city coming from renewable resources. The EPA estimates this has the effect of taking 10,000 passanger cars off the road.

"Bellingham has set a national example as the most effective Green Power Community in the country," said Congressman Rick Larsen. "As Congress works to address these critical issues, we're looking to cities like Bellingham for lessons we need to learn. The time has come to invest the energy of our nation in the energy of our future."

Puget Sound Energy will install a 2.4 kW photovoltaic solar panel system on the roof of the Environmental Learning Center in Maritime Heritage Park, as a reward for the citys efforts,as well as an additional $20,000 for another renewable energy project.

Puget Sound Energy's Green Power Program promotes the development of renewable energy sources in the Pacific Northwest. Electric customers can sign up for the voluntary Green Power Program for as little as $4.00 a month by visiting http://www.epa.gov/greenpower. Sources qualifying as renewable include wind, solar and biomass energy.

I have noticed that Localism has pictures of different areas with no blogging currently attached to them. How does one go about posting pictures of your city in Localism. I would like to take advantage of this opportunity to show people the beauty of Bellingham with some nice photo images, but I can't figure out how to get them there. Can anyone tell me how? Thanks !

Dirty Dan Days in Fairhaven
Come and celebrate the "unscrubed" Founder of Fairhaven - Dirty Dan April 28 & 29.

Saturdays Events Include:

Old Fashion Family Fun Day on the Green from 10 am to 5 pm, with activities provided by Fairhaven merchants and friends, and Old Fashion Games from 11 am to 2.

Historical Scavenger Hunt, - 10 am to 4:30 pm.

Harris Avenue - Motorcycle Show from 11 am to 2 pm.

Village Green for the Salmon Toss - 1 pm and the Pie Eating Contest at 2 pm.

1800s Period Dress Contest, Dirty Dan Look-Alike Contest, and the Cute Costumed Canine Contest - 3 pm

Chartered Yacht Tours 1 - 4 pm at the Cruise Terminal

Sundays Events

Dan Harris Challange 8am - Boulevard Park

Village Green   Live Music 12- 4 pm

Chuckanut Chowder Cookoff 2-4 pm

Awards 4pm

Piano Race 4:05 pm

Blessings of the Small Craft 2 pm - Taylor Street Dock

Chartered Yacht Tours 1 - 4 pm at the Cruise Terminal

Come and join the fun!

Bellingham made it in the top 100 places to live as rated by the website relocate-america.com they claim to be "the only list that is determined by statistics and feedback of the people who live, work & play in these communities."

Most people in Bellingham think it is a great place to live, and I am sure more would have voted if they knew this poll exixted. Then there are those who are tired of seeing their city getting all this great publicity as they fear it is part of the reason for Bellingham's rapid growth and increase in Real Estate values which they would rather see slow down.

Any opinions always welcome to be heard here. 

What does your city rank?

Bellinghams is demonstrating it's environmental awereness by ranking #15 city in the nation for purchasing energy-efficient light bulbs. This new honor is given to us by the organizers of 18Seconds.org.  To view Bellingham's ranking, visit http://green.yahoo.com/. Back on March 1, when I first noticed this story Bellingham was #1.

The 18Seconds movement, named for the average time it takes to change a light bulb, is aimed at getting Americans to replace electricity-wasting incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs.

"What kind of difference can one CFL make? Consider this:  If every American swapped just ONE bulb for an ENERGY STAR labeled CFL, it would collectively save more than $8 billion in energy costs, prevent burning 30 billion pounds of coal, and remove 2 million cars worth of greenhouse gas emissions from our atmosphere. Just imagine the difference we could make if we replaced all of the lights we use most!"

Walgreens has CFL bulbs for just $.19 each. You can't even get an incandesent bulb for that price, so go get some and help keep Bellingham #1.

It is great to see that we in Bellingham are doing are part to save energy and combat global warming

By the way when these bulbs burn out they need to be recycled. "

All fluorescent lights contain trace amounts of mercury. But don't worry - there is far less mercury in CFLs than in thermometers or old thermostats. Plus, using these bulbs helps prevent mercury from being released into the air from coal-powered power plants.  When they burn out years down the road, recycle them.

Recycling burned-out CFLs is the best option. To find out if there are recycling options near you, call 1-800-CLEAN-UP for an automated hotline or visit earth911.org. (At the top of the earth911.org home page, enter your zip code and press "go." Click on the "Household Hazardous Waste" link, then the "fluorescent bulbs" link. This page will identify the mercury recycling or disposal facilities nearest you.)

Alternately, you can check with the store where you bought your CFLs. More and more are recycling the old bulbs right there. Or contact your local government agency in charge of household hazard waste (start with your sanitation department) to see if recycling is an
option in your area. "

Info on recycling from Environmental Defense, excerpted from the Make the Switch bulb guide.