Survey shows these hopes and fears of downtown Bellingham business owners
Owners of downtown Bellingham businesses are hopeful for economic recovery as the COVID-19 pandemic eases, but they remain concerned about inflation, crime and safety in the city center — and more than 20 said they plan to close or move, according to a recent report.
A survey released last week by the Downtown Bellingham Partnership drew responses from 146 member businesses, including retail stores, restaurants and professional offices, according to the organization’s website.
“The business community in downtown Bellingham continues to demonstrate determination and hope for the future despite years of economic challenge from COVID-19. While revenue metrics are improving for most, increasing public safety issues and crime, combined with rising cost of goods sold provide friction for continued recovery,” according to a summary of the survey.
Those concerns come in the wake of a March 27 City Council vote to criminalize public drug use, in the same way that open alcohol and marijuana use are prohibited.
Last week’s City Council action won’t be final unless it is approved on another vote, but the measure was proposed by Mayor Seth Fleetwood as part of a series of steps his administration has taken to address a rise in crime, drug use and homelessness over the past two years that’s been felt particularly hard in the city center.
Fleetwood’s initiatives have included a focus on keeping the streets free of trash, removing graffiti, and adding downtown ambassadors and private security to bolster the Police Department, which has been understaffed in recent years and lacking its anti-crime unit and drug task force.
He also hoped to create a “therapeutic court” allowing those who are arrested for drug use to get help with getting clean.
Rising homelessness and the skyrocketing cost of housing has been a further concern, along with an alarming rise in the number of overdoses linked to the powerful opioid fentanyl.
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‘The humane thing’
BreAnne Green, owner of the Greenhouse at Cornwall Avenue and West Holly Street, told The Bellingham Herald that she sees the move to criminalize open drug use as a way to help addicts get treatment and other social services.
“It’s the humane thing to get help for the individuals who are on the street,” Green said in a telephone interview.
Green said she sees a dozen or more people sleeping on sidewalks and doorways every morning, and hopes that the new measures can help get people off drugs and into housing.
“It’s not the answer, but it’s a step in the right direction,” she said.
“it’s not too late to make these changes that we need to see. Downtown still needs us. It needs people to visit,” Green said.
‘Downtown was getting better’
But Christine Hayward, who owns Quinn and Foster in Fairhaven, a contemporary clothing store, told The Herald that shoplifting and people camping on the street prompted her to leave downtown Bellingham in August 2022.
“My business has probably doubled since I moved,” Hayward told The Herald in a telephone interview.
“It’s sad. The downtown was getting better before COVID. Then it all fell apart. It’s going to hurt a lot of businesses if people are afraid to go downtown,” she said.
Hayward described people setting up tents under an overhang at her store when it was at the corner of Commercial and West Holly streets.
Thieves would sometimes grab an armload of merchandise and flee, she said.
“It’s not just the homeless. It’s the ones doing the drugs. I hope they can figure it out,” Hayward said.
A different approach
Just around the corner from where Quinn and Foster once stood, Jenn Mason operates her “not creepy” sex shop called WInk WInk and teaches sex education and other classes.
But Mason told The Herald that she’s not as fearful of street crime as she is wary of the conservative Christian groups and right-wing extremists — including white supremacists — who have targeted her business with protests, harassment and vandalism over the past two years.
“The people that we’re most concerned about are not the people sleeping on the street,” Mason said in a telephone interview.
A group of young white men used fist-sized rocks to shatter the windows at Wink WInk last August, causing tens of thousands of dollars in damage.
Mason, who has a master’s degree in public administration and is a member of the Bellingham school board, said that she greets the people who linger outside her store — sometimes giving them cardboard so they don’t have to sit on bare concrete and sometimes making sure they have food and water.
She gives them a broom and trash bags and asks them to clear their trash and debris.
But she doesn’t tolerate drug use.
“That’s not acceptable. But I can also confront that person as a person. We can all offer humanity and dignity It’s important to keep it in perspective. The vast majority of our interactions have been positive,” Mason said.
“I have no indication that our customers are deterred from coming downtown because of what they see. But that doesn’t impact everyone the same,” she said.
