Editor,
Love the variety and breadth of articles in Cascadia Daily News. The photo essay about the research buoy (CDN, Aug. 20, 2024) by Hailey Hoffman is fascinating. I loved all the extra photos about it that were posted to the online CDN photo gallery. I had seen the buoy in the bay and wondered what it was all about. Great to see that the marine habitat is healthy enough for the buoy to be fully encrusted by mussels and barnacles.
The history article about pioneer horticulturist John Bennet (CDN, Aug. 23, 2024) by Ben Long is also fascinating. He sounds like a wonderful character. Amazing that one of the giant Sequoia trees he planted has grown to be more than 70 feet tall and is still flourishing! Now when I see beautiful gardens around Bellingham, I’ll think of him.
Michele Menzies
Bellingham
Editor,
The Port of Bellingham faces an image problem of its own making. And spending $100,000 to hire a public relations firm to, as Karen Wilson mentioned last week, put lipstick on a pig, just doesn’t make sense.
The cure is much harder than that but less expensive. Under promise and over deliver. Do that and you’ll never have another image problem.
Robin Mullins
Bellingham
Editor,
On May 7, 2016, then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump held a hastily organized rally at the Northwest Washington Fairground in Lynden. According to The Bellingham Herald’s reporting, Trump’s visit to the fairgrounds in Lynden cost more than $300,000, mostly for police overtime and other security measures.
More than two dozen police, fire and emergency services agencies based in Whatcom County — and others from as far away as Bellevue and Seattle — assisted with the rally. Records show that the 2016 Trump campaign ignored a bill for $53,000.
Trump raised $333.1 million and spent $325 million for the 2016 campaign, according to the nonprofit research group Open Secrets. Whatcom County Executive Satpal Sidhu told The Herald, “Local governments have limited resources, and when local law enforcement has to work overtime to uphold public safety at a major campaign event, it seems appropriate and honorable for such a cash-rich campaign to reimburse these expenses.”
Donald Trump, please pay us back.
Wendy Scherrer
Bellingham
Editor,
I am waiting and watching how the $1 million Downtown Business District investment (CDN, Aug. 28, 2024) plays out.
Beer sales up? Wow, that does not instill confidence that our alleged downtown shopping is healthy, nor streets are safer. In fact, what shopping? There are unending eating and spirit establishments between expensive, huge, vacant rentals, and parking hampered by COVID street shanties.
Main street small shop proprietors need affordable rentals under $1,000 a month, street parking, lighting, clean sidewalks, public restrooms, street benches, trees and flowers, and creative business signage to enhance our local culture and arts.
The answer is not more temporary popups, street blockages, drinking in the streets, or unending events that demand expensive participation or attendance fees. The answer is not property taxation to support nonprofit corporations’ events.
And, about downtown alleys? They may be cleaner and maybe drug free now, but yesterday I witnessed a drug deal while waiting in my vehicle for the green light at the Railroad and Holly light. It occurred on the center median under the trees. A group of young men in their 20s looking like they were bumping hands in a high-five greeting, as I saw the small blue packet pass, tucked from one palm to the other.
I request that property owners, developers, events coordinators, nonprofits and our local governments arrive at an affordable, owner-friendly plan for small entrepreneurs to grow fun, inviting businesses. Like in La Conner, and Snohomish, and Cannon Beach, [Oregon] and Edmonds, and Granville Island in Vancouver.
It needs a lot of independent entrepreneurs that can afford to grow their businesses to create a thriving, holistic community where we want to gather during the daytime.
Rebecca Meloy
Bellingham
Editor,
In Annie Todd’s recent article (CDN, Aug. 26, 2024), it was gratifying to see Port of Bellingham leadership express confidence in finding a solution to accommodate dry sailors’ vessels displaced by recent port real estate transactions.
Dry moorage is the modern way to stage boats near the shoreline. Old fashioned wet moorage fouls local waters and degrades salmon habitat. Together with its recent Green Marine environmental certification, efforts to enable dry moorage provide encouraging evidence the port understands its role in stewarding the water of Bellingham Bay.
Steve Walker
Bellingham
Editor,
Why should we trust the Washington [State] Department of Ecology to manage Nooksack basin adjudication when they won’t protect Blaine’s drinking water aquifer?
Washington state is not enforcing the Clean Water Act, allowing local SEPA officials to issue fraudulent designations forcing activists to go to federal court, which is a violation of our civil rights. Washington departments of ecology and health have told us they have no jurisdiction.
The Washington Attorney General’s office says it won’t act unless the governor tells it to. Meanwhile, the Critical Aquifer Recharge Area for Blaine city drinking water is being clearcut in preparation for illegally rezoned, high-density residential development after our community development services director issued a Determination of Non-Significance.
Jay Taber
Blaine
Editor,
In my opinion, Trump and Vance are playing good cop/bad cop here. Technically, former President Trump did not reverse his stance on National Compulsory Gestation … JD Vance did. If he wins reelection, he can truthfully say, “I never said that; my running mate spoke out of turn.”
That being said, supporting — voting for and donating to — a candidate during the primary process is like taking a decision to buy a certain make and model of vehicle based on the available factory options:
When you campaign in the primaries on a platform, and accept donations … and win the nomination on it, THAT’S YOUR PLATFORM. While everyone’s views naturally (and hopefully!) evolve over time, constituents, like car buyers, who write a check based on a commitment to deliver XYZ … deserve XYZ.
While we cannot recall our vote for “bait and switch” campaigning, we can require folks to state their agenda when they declare candidacy in order to qualify for federal matching campaign funds, and hold them accountable to it through the general election.
Omar Firestone
Bellingham
Letters to the Editor are published online Wednesdays; a selection is published in print Fridays. Send to letters@cascadiadaily.com by 10 a.m. Tuesdays. Rules: Maximum 250 words, be civil, have a point and make it clearly. Preference is given to letters about local subjects. CDN reserves the right to reject letters or edit for length, clarity, grammar and style, or removal of personal attacks or offensive content. Letters must include an address/phone number to verify the writer's identity (not for publication).
Millions spent to reduce solitary confinement in Washington produces few visible results