More Maintained Dog-Bag Posts Needed in Whatcom Falls

By: Brenna Greely

Whatcom Falls Park is a popular destination when the sun starts to show itself in Bellingham. It is the home to the infamous waterfalls, and 5.5 miles of trails. There is also an off-leash dog park.

                “I often bring my dog, Charlee, here,” said Kendall Ring, a Western Washington University Student. “She loves all the other dogs, and I can let her run around.”

                There is one post in Whatcom Falls Park maintained by Bellingham Public Works that contains bags for dog waste.

“There is one post in Whatcom Falls Park maintained by the Public Works Department,” said Emily Johnson, the Environmental Educator at the Bellingham Public Works Department. “

Recently, they have not been refilled, said Maneval.

                “I’ve taken a couple walks around the park to see if they are refilled, and they haven’t been lately,” said Richard Maneval, a previous board member and still an active member in the Alabama Hill Neighborhood Association.

                Two years ago, the Alabama Hill Neighborhood Association purchased five new “dog bag posts” to put up in Whatcom Falls Park.

                “It was part of a larger project to put up signs on the trails,” said Maneval. “People were getting lost in the park and we wanted to put up signs to make the trails easier to follow.”

                 They had planned to put them up, but they never were and are not sitting in Maneval’s possession.

                “Another board member (of Alabama Hill Neighborhood Association) plans on coming to grab one or two and put them up.”

                Currently, Bellingham’s Public Works Department takes care of the existing post.

                “The post in Whatcom Falls Park is located by Derby Pond,” said Johnson. “There is also one up by Scutter Pond.” Scutter Pond is in the Northeast area of the park, closer to Bloedel Donovan Park.

                Ring says that she thinks it’s a good idea for more posts to be put in.

                “I usually bring my own bags, but there are times I forget,” said Ring. “It would be nice to see a few more posts so I wouldn’t have to go searching for one with bags in it.”

Housing Prices at Record Low

    Although the United States Economy has been suffering for a few years, there are some benefits that have come from it. Housing prices have gone down since the beginning of the recession, meaning that it’s an excellent time to invest in real estate.

                “Prices have been in a decline for the past few years and have probably gone down about 20 percent over that time period,” said local Bellingham realtor Dean Haskins in an email interview. “Homes are at record low prices.”

                Haskins says that this is true all across the country. In the Alabama Hill Neighborhood, this is also true.

                “The Alabama Hill area house prices are still in a decline and have been so for the past few years,” Haskins said. “However, the neighborhood is popular and is one of the top two or three neighborhoods in the city, so prices have stayed a bit higher than many of the other neighborhoods.”

                Since August of 2010, the average price a home has sold for in the Alabama Hill neighborhood is $229,480.  The average price for houses that are currently on the market in Alabama Hill is $229,533.

                “Alabama is an established neighborhood with a lot of park and trail options for walkers, and also some of the best properties in the city,” said Haskins.

                Alabama Hill’s inhabitants agree with Haskins in that the park options make this neighborhood a great choice. John Lehni, an Alabama Hill resident, was a teacher at Roosevelt Elementary school, and moved into the neighborhood to be closer to his work.

                “I moved here because it was convenient for me,” Lehni said. “I could just walk down the trail that leads to the school for work. I love the neighborhood; there are lots of trails and great views that add value to the homes here.”

“I taught a lot of children who live in the homes around me. They have grown up, but their parents still live in the same houses,” Lehni said.

                Lehni says that he thinks because not many people are moving out, there isn’t room for people to move in.

                As of Tuesday, May 3, there were six houses actively on the market for the entire neighborhood.

                So does this low economy and low housing prices mean it is a good time to invest in real estate?

                “Absolutely,” Haskins said. “Not only are the home prices at record low prices, but interest rates are still historically low, just under 6 percent.”

Need for Sidewalks in Alabama Hill

By Brenna Greely 

                Children walking to school has always been an issue in the Alabama Hill and Roosevelt neighborhoods, and it still is. Most parents are not able to walk their kids to school in the morning because they have already left for work.

                “There was a trail made about 25 years ago for kids walking to school,” said Roosevelt resident Kathi Ing. “The kids would have had to walk down and across Alabama. We also implemented safe routes at the same time. Certain houses were considered ‘safe houses,’ and had signs in the windows to let the kids know that they could go there if they needed anything.”

                Some of those signs are still up today, said Richard Maneval. “Kids are encouraged to walk together to school, which is often called a ‘walking school bus,’” says Maneval. Maneval is a previous chair of the Alabama Hill Neighborhood Association, and was also a previous president of the Roosevelt Neighborhood Association.

                “The problem of pedestrian safety in the Roosevelt neighborhood has recently been brought to the city council’s attention,” Maneval said. “Roosevelt has been asked to be put on the list of pedestrian accessibility in the Six-Year Street Plan.”

                The Six-Year Street Plan is required of every city and town in Washington State. Transportation departments, according to the Revised Code of Washington, are to make plans for the next six years for street changes and additions. Currently, the six-year plan lasts from 2011-2016. There are no changes to be made to any sidewalks in the Alabama Hill or Roosevelt neighborhoods. 

Vehicle Prowls Rising in Alabama Hill

     In the last five years, reports of vehicle prowling in the Alabama Hill neighborhood has been steadily increasing.

     In March of 2011, there were seven reported vehicle prowls (compared to the normal one or two), according to Bellingham Police Department records.

     “Our van was broken into twice in 2009, about two months apart. My iPod was stolen,” said Alabama Hill resident Laura Moore in an email interview. “My husband says that two kids were caught breaking into cars on Alabama Hill a few weeks later and apparently they had been doing it all over the neighborhood.”

     Some believe that the kind of people Alabama Hill attracts facilitates this kind of criminal activity.

     “Alabama Hill used to be mostly families, but recently [different kinds of people] have been moving in,” said Alabama Hill resident Amber Mulder. “I’ve been hearing more and more instances of people getting their cars broken into.”

     In 2007, there were a total of 24 vehicle prowls reported in the Alabama Hill area, according to Bellingham Police Department records. The count was the same in 2008.  In 2009, the reported number of vehicle prowls rose to 27. In 2010, the number of reported vehicle prowls was 30.

     These numbers do not represent every car prowl that happened in the neighborhood. People do not always report these things, in which they are not counted in this data. The upward trend in car prowls could also be a result of more people beginning to report them.

     “The first time our van was broken into we didn’t report it,” said Moore. “Actually, come to think of it, we didn’t report it the second time either! So there are probably even more people that have been affected.”

     There are many trails and parks in the neighborhood. “There’s a lot of people walking around on trails and on the streets to and from parks and trails,” Mulder said. “People can see into cars and get ideas, seeing things they might want to steal out of the cars.”

     In Alabama Hill, Whatcom Falls Park is a popular destination. Right next to this is St. Clair Park.

     “During the summertime, this parking lot is full of cars bumping loud music and littering the street with their fast food trash,” Moore said. “Instead of little kids on the swing sets, you'll see teenagers having a ride. Because I live one house away from the park, we hear their music and hysterical laughter up into the wee hours of the morning. It is for this reason I wonder whether it is those same kids prowling the streets at night looking for some kind of trouble to get into.”

     So what can you do to make the number of car prowls stop rising and start decreasing?

     “People should probably put more effort into protecting their cars, adding car alarms or parking in their garages if they have them,” said Moore. “But ultimately, our little nook is much safer that many in the world.”

According to the Seattle Police Department’s website, there are a number of things you can do to try to prevent vehicle prowls. -Make a habit of locking your car doors. -Store your car in a garage or carport if possible. -If your car is stored in a carport or outside, leave your outside lights on all night. -If you park on the street, choose a well-lit, open space. Add yard/street lighting and cut back trees/bushes to make this possible. -Consider replacing the light fixture closest to your car with a motion detector unit. Motion detectors are psychological deterrents because the light coming on makes people think that they have been seen. The light also makes the prowler more visible.