Unhappy Valley
(cont'd) Rich, 33, is short and has blond hair, glasses and a tattoo of a topless alien covering his upper left arm. Enamored with Bellingham’s scenery and environmentally conscious residents, he said the city is ideal for him.
“I think the people here are real funky and the city is really cool and chill,” he said. “I moved because I can feel young here and have fun.”
Not long after moving, however, Rich suffered from a rapidly growing problem in Happy Valley. His cell phone was stolen. The thieves promptly ran up more than $1,000 in downloads to the phone, leaving Rich to pay the bill.
Dealing with theft crimes such as car prowls and burglaries has become an everyday problem for this neighborhood’s approximately 6,900 residents. In 2006, one in 18 Happy Valley residents reported a burglary or car prowl to the Bellingham Police Department. In 2000, that rate was one in every 740 residents.
Happy Valley’s spike in theft crimes has mirrored a citywide increase. As Bellingham continues its population growth, its residents must cope with the related growing pains, including increased crime, said Bellingham Police Sgt. Mark Stokes.
“Whenever you grow as a city, crime grows, too,” Stokes said. “Crime is a sign that times are changing. It’s a temperature reading for what’s going on in our town.”
THE NEIGHBORHOOD
Happy Valley is an intersection of Bellingham’s past and present. As the valley between Sehome and South hills, the area was ideal for agriculture and 60 years ago featured gently sloping pastures and family farms with barns, cows and chickens.
Today, Happy Valley’s 627 acres is filled with apartment complexes
and student housing. The neighborhood had 2,500 multi-residential housing
units in 2004, almost 1,000 more than any other Bellingham neighborhood.
It is also one of the most densely populated spaces in Bellingham, with
11 people for every acre. Only York and Sehome are denser residential
neighborhoods.
Happy Valley is a mixture of short-term student residents and middle- to lower-income families, causing some residents to call it the “ghetto of South Hill” because the neighborhood sits below the low-crime, upper-class neighborhood of South Hill.
CRIME OF OPPORTUNITY
After visiting last spring, Rich’s mind was made up. It would be Bellingham or bust. Thus, he went about securing two things needed to start a new life: a job and a home. As luck would have it, he quickly found both. He got hired at Wilder Construction and found an apartment on 24th Street adjacent Happy Valley Elementary School. After moving in mid-August, Rich’s new life was off to a good start.
Although he didn’t know it, Rich also inadvertently stumbled into the area of Happy Valley with the worst theft crime. His apartment is in one of the neighborhood’s two areas zoned to have high-population-density apartment complexes that have become so appetizing for thieves.
From 2000 to 2006, these areas contained one third of Happy Valley’s 314 burglaries. In other words, it was a matter of time before Rich became victim. In fact, Rich was just two weeks into his new life before his cell phone went missing.
These areas are susceptible to burglaries and car prowls because of their dense population and high resident turnover, Stokes said. Because the apartments change tenants frequently, residents often do not know their neighbors. This allows criminals the anonymity needed to thrive. —>
Copyright © 2005 Western Washington University