Bellingham at 90,000

Today in the Bellingham Herald we learned that the population of the City of Bellingham hit 90,665 people in 2018 according to US census estimates. This is the first time Bellingham has reached the 90,000 mark, having added 1,526 people in the past year (a 1.7% increase) and with a growth of 11.5% since 2010.

For me personally this is a significant milestone, meaning that Bellingham has now doubled in size during my lifetime. As a young kid growing up in Bellingham, I have a vivid memory of an odd piece of graffiti downtown on the back wall of the Mount Baker Theatre. The spray paint said simply: “45,000+”, which was the city’s population at the time (specifically 45,794 in the 1980 census). I have no idea why anyone would graffiti such a thing on a wall downtown, with no other commentary, but to me as a nerdy child with a growing fascination for maps and almanacs, it seemed like a perfectly normal thing to see written on a wall. I kind of miss it!

Here’s a photo of that spot — as far as I can recall — with a digital update of the graffiti for the 2018 population:

Flora Street in Downtown Bellingham, with the back of the Mount Baker Theatre on the left, and the Bellingham Towers on the right.

Interestingly, none of the buildings visible in this photo look much different from how they appeared in 1980. It’s true that downtown Bellingham has changed in a lot of dramatic ways since the 80's, but most of the built environment remains the same. Most of the population growth in Bellingham since 1980 has occurred in other neighborhoods, with only a very recent shift towards our urban villages like the Downtown district.

Of course, North American cities tend to do most of their growth laterally, and Bellingham is no exception. The city limits have grown significantly since 1980 as well:

Bellingham city limits in 1980 and 2018, with a dotted line showing the extent of the urban growth boundary

Certainly not all of Bellingham’s doubled population is due to the newly annexed areas to the north, but a lot of it can be found there. The dotted lines on the map show the rest of our urban growth area, regions which are likely to be annexed into the city at some point in the future.

Where will the next 90,000 people live? Can we hold the line with our current urban growth boundaries, or will we keep sprawling into our irreplaceable farmland and natural areas in order to house all our future neighbors? And how can we make sure our city will be affordable to live in?

Are you interested in working on these problems too? Then join me with groups like Bellingham Urbanists and the Housing Co-op Resource Center and let’s make sure all of Bellingham’s residents can be housed sustainably and affordably, now and in the future.