Eyes on the Street:
Crime Trends Effecting Life in Bellingham
(cont'd) Minutes earlier, men’s fists were flying and women shouted obscenities just outside of a parking garage. As police arrived, a man dressed in black ran away from the scene. Bryon, dressed in jeans, a puffy black winter jacket and a grungy baseball cap, who had been walking near the area to panhandle some money for dinner, tried to stop the fight. Bryon won’t give his last name.
“I was walking by the garage and saw one guy knock a hotdog out of another guy’s hand, and they just started brawling,” Bryon said. “The guys’ noses and mouths were bleeding and fists were flying. I tried to talk to them, but those guys were big guys, and I didn’t want to get punched out.”
Incidents such as this fight are typical for Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights in the central business district and are just a portion of the total reported crimes for the area that include assaults, drug violations, alcohol offenses, aggressive panhandling, disorderly conduct and prostitution, said Lt. Steve Felmley of the Bellingham Police.
In 2006 the total reported calls for the central business district was 3,280, compared to the 3,569 calls so far this year. Crime per capita in Bellingham increased 209.1 percent throughout Bellingham from 2000 to 2008. This year, the crimes that have occurred in the central business district accounts for 16.4 percent of the crimes happening in the city.
Crime prevention officer Mark Young attributes the increase of crime over the past couple years to the city’s population growth, now approaching 80,000, and to the increase in downtown residences and businesses that stay open late into the night. The City of Bellingham, downtown businesses and community members have been trying to create a more vibrant central business district by redeveloping and populating the area, which they feel will decrease the total crimes. However, with more people comes more opportunity for crime, Young said.
“When you have more businesses, you’re attracting more people,” he said. “When you get more people into a small area, you are generally going to have more crime because there is going to be more activity.”
CRACTIVITY CORNER
The intersection of Holly and Railroad accounted for 25 percent of the total reported calls, which is the highest percentage for the central business district in 2008. Nighttime regulars refer to the 100 E Holly Block, or the home of Little Cheerful, as Cractivity Corner.
Parked at the corner, a maroon Buick Regal with tinted, foggy windows sits in front of Little Cheerful. It is 12:20 a.m. on a Friday night.
There is movement inside of the car from a dark figure while a man dressed in a plaid jacket, gold chain and a gray trucker hat walks around to the back of the car and opens the trunk. He pulls out a large, plastic tub of black licorice followed by a small black pouch, taking out an unseen material and stuffing it into a pipe. He looks around, then shuts the trunk and hops into the driver’s seat of the car with the tub of licorice. —>
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