Tag Archives: Whatcom County

The News From Bellingham

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It’s been a big week in Bellingham, Washington, my adopted hometown, out on the edge of Puget Sound…

…and it’s only Tuesday.

First of all, it’s election day for the Whatcom County Executive and City of Bellingham Mayor primaries. The race couldn’t be more important in the context of the debate over the proposal to build a coal shipping terminal just north of the city at Cherry Point, with candidate positions running the gamut, from ardent support for the project to outright rejection, as well as several shades of grey in between.

Second, after a many-years battle over plans to build a housing development on forested property alternately called the 100 Acre Wood or Chuckanut Ridge, the Bellingham City Council approved the purchase by the city of that property in order to protect it as a public access natural area. It’s a victory that could be a source of hope for those who oppose the coal terminal, a reminder that a committed citizen opposition can triumph over moneyed interests, although it should be noted that the political and financial powers pushing for the coal terminal are many, many times more mighty than the small LLC that hoped to build over 700 housing units on Chuckanut Ridge.

Finally, focusing directly on the coal terminal, two weeks ago SSA Marine, the company proposing the building of the terminal, was fined by Whatcom County for clearing some of the property for service roads without a permit, and today an attorney for the environmental group Earthjustice called on Whatcom County to enforce a county code that requires a 6-year development moratorium as a result of their illegal road work.

And while it might be tempting to celebrate, local land-use attorney Jean Melious warns:

That sounds tougher than it is – the “moratorium” in fact will only apply until the County’s hearing examiner decides that the applicant didn’t “intend” to violate the law and will meet other conditions.

Time will tell, but even if the moratorium is enforced, this is no time to go complacent. The forces behind the terminal will not take this lying down, they will protest, they will try every legal maneuver they can think of, and they have the financial resources to do so.

So, I cast my vote today with our current mayor, Dan Pike, who, as I wrote previously, courageously took an unequivocal stance against the coal terminal, and with county executive candidate David Stalheim, who has voiced opposition as well, and I’ll continue to do whatever I can to protect Bellingham and Whatcom County from Mr. Peabody’s coal train.

Sanity Update

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Well, it looks like the Rally To Restore Sanity was no match for the insanity gripping the United States of America.

The news media are reporting that the Republicans will win a majority in the House of Representatives in today’s midterm election. And, make no mistake about it, insanity is the only reasonable diagnosis for a nation willing to hand power back to the political party that created the miserable mess that the country is mired in.

Antidote: Focus locally. Support Whatcom & Skagit agriculture. Vote for progressives in city and county government. Join the vibrant local community of people committed to sustainable living. Love as much and as widely as possible.

Photo of the Day: Mt. Baker

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I found the following photo, submitted to the Bellingham Herald, to be absolutely stunning.

Herald reader BJ Toews sent this photo of the sun rising behind Mount Baker, creating a shadow in the sky, at 7:39 a.m. Monday, Oct. 18, 2010. Toews took the photo from the family’s backyard in Everson.

The art of photography fascinates me. It exists as the result of a collaboration between technology and the human element, but not just any human. Heck, all you have to do is spend a little time looking at your friends’ photos on Facebook to see that some have an observant, creative eye and some are simply archivists, documenting moments in time with no regard to aesthetics.

Conversely, it was one thing for BJ Toews to notice this spectacular sunrise, but without the technology it might have remained a memory in his mind, or, at the most, a story to tell over breakfast.

Stuff We Need: Green Building

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One of the things that I love about Bellingham, my fair city, is the very strong sustainability movement afoot here. It’s rare that a few days go by wherein I don’t catch wind of some event having to do with buying local or organic farming or rain water catchment or salmon habitat restoration or…

…and it goes on and on.

Sure, there are setbacks and disappointments. Just last week the Whatcom County Council ruled to open up growth areas for development that had been declassified for growth in order to control sprawl and protect our drinking water source: the Lake Whatcom Watershed.

And yet, I’d never come to the overall positive view of Bellingham that I have if I interpreted every setback as the beginning to the end or the continuation of everything bad I’ve read in the past. To use an apt metaphor, doing so it’s hard to see the forest for the trees, to see the many good things that happen, large and small, everyday.

So, a few days ago I read this, and thought that this is stuff we definitely need:

Faster permitting for green projects part of Bellingham’s Ten in ’10 effort
JARED PABEN / THE BELLINGHAM HERALD

BELLINGHAM – The house Grant Myers plans to build is environmentally friendly, incorporating everything from wider-spaced studs to save wood to a central air system that stays within the insulated part of a house, saving energy.

But perhaps the most amazing thing: He submitted the building permit application on Thursday, April 15, before he went on vacation, and it was ready on Tuesday, April 20.

“I never expected the permit would be ready before I got back,” he said.

The project qualified for what city officials are calling a “bin-bump-up,” meaning it scored high enough on an environmentally friendly construction rating system to qualify for expedited permit review. That’s part of the Ten in ’10 initiative, where the city will do 10 things this year to encourage green-building techniques.

See, I read this and I remember that my employer, Western Washington University, is currently constructing its third LEED Certified building, and that the Pickford Film Center got a $250,000 state grant that will help them finally move forward with the renovation of their “Dream Space”, a project that will also be LEED certified…oh, and the Pickford has pledged to be a zero waste operation…seriously…it’s a movie theater!

I love this town!


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When cynicism is coldhearted

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kateri
While I have definite spiritual tendencies; while I believe in certain transcendent truths, transcendent realities, even a transcendent power, like the force in Star Wars as silly as that might seem; and while I dabble in Buddhism; my attitude towards religion tends to range from apathy to cynicism to anger and rage.

As much as I try to breathe and let my persistent thoughts drift on by, thoughts of the horrors religion has manifested throughout human history tend to stick around, right under the surface, ready to pounce at the slightest reference.

But, sometimes this cynicism can be cruel and coldhearted.

Enter Jake Finkbonner.

Ferndale boy’s recovery could be final link to Blessed Kateri’s sainthood

Finkbonner family prayed when Jake had flesh-eating bacteria

KIE RELYEA / THE BELLINGHAM HERALD

FERNDALE – His face was scarred by the flesh-eating bacteria that had invaded his body, her face by smallpox that killed her immediate family.

They are both American Indians and both Catholics.

And if the Vatican decrees that Jake Finkbonner’s survival is a miracle that can be attributed to Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha’s help, they also will be bound by the canonization of the first American Indian saint in the Catholic Church.

Elsa Finkbonner certainly believes her 9-year-old son’s victory over necrotizing fasciitis is miraculous…

…Jake was fighting for his life after falling and bumping his mouth in the closing moments of a basketball game on Feb. 11, 2006.

Necrotizing fasciitis, or Strep A, invaded his body and bloodstream through that small cut, and the aggressive bacteria raced across his cheeks, eyelids, scalp and chest as doctors worked desperately to stop its spread.

To save him, each day they surgically removed his damaged flesh. And every day for two weeks, they put the boy, who was then in kindergarten, in a hyperbaric chamber at Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle to deliver oxygen to his body to help quell the infection’s progression.

I have a son who is only two years older than Jake. If my son, transcendent truth forbid, were to be stricken with a flesh-eating bacteria, I would be devastated. Yet, I hear the faint voice of the cynic preparing to say something like, “How can these people believe this hocus pocus mumbo jumbo?!!”

No. I won’t go there. I won’t do that to this family, just as I wouldn’t want them to do that to me. I won’t be that wet blanket. I won’t cynically mock and dismiss the faith that brings meaning to their lives and a cause to celebrate this victory over a nearly unthinkable stroke of bad fortune.

My heart goes out to the Finkbonner family.