Walking Radius To Whatcom Middle School

The Bellingham School District requires students to walk to school if they live within a one mile radius of the school they are supposed to be attending. This map shows the radius around Whatcom Middle School in the Lettered Streets Neighborhood.
http://www.infofinderi.com/tfi/address.aspx?SelectStop=6665
http://www.freemaptools.com/radius-around-point.htm
https://bellinghamschools.org/transportation

Architectural Styles of the Neighborhood

The Lettered Streets Neighborhood is full of historic buildings and was recently declared as a historic district in the town of Bellingham along with the South Hill and York Neighborhoods.

The neighborhood is comprised of many different architectural styles, primarily Arts and Crafts and Queen Anne houses. The newer houses being built are beginning to take on a more modern flair while still keeping the design within the regulations of the neighborhood.

Queen Anne Style houses like the one featured above is a housing design that resembles the English Baroque architectural style of housing. This style was widely popular in Washington from 1880 through 1900, although popularity has since died out. Many of the homes in the Lettered Streets Neighborhood feature this style, about one-fourth of the total styles. This style is one of the several Victorian styles that have emulated from that period in European history.

 http://architecture.about.com/cs/housestyles/a/queenanne.htm

Arts and Crafts style houses comprise 37 percent of the Lettered Streets Neighborhood, and has inspired more modern styles such as the Craftsman and bungalow styles of architecture. During the 1880s, designers became bored with Victorian styles and wanted to make a more middle class, common housing style. This style has been replicated many times and continues to be popular throughout recent years.

http://www.hgtv.com/design/home-styles/arts-and-crafts-architecture

Vernacular style architecture is commonly known as buildings created from the materials directly at hand. Houses like this log cabin are not found in the Lettered Streets Neighborhood but modern square buildings are used as 18 percent of the total housing in the neighborhood. This style is still used as a necessity based model but it is more commonly found in low resource areas or third-world countries.

http://www.archdaily.com/155224/vernacular-architecture-and-the-21st-century
https://www.cob.org/services/planning/historic/images/lettered-styles-large.JPG

Green Bike Blocks

    Bikers in Bellingham enjoy the luxury of new Green Blocks designed to make traffic flow easier and bike riding safer for the many residents who choose a bike as their mode of travel. Cornwall Ave, one of the borders of the Lettered Streets Neighborhood was the first area in Bellingham to try out these new bike boxes that have become popular throughout the country.

    Bike boxes are specialized markers in the pavement that are meant to create more space between the bikers and cars around them on busy streets. By designating a space for bikers to stop at lights and lanes for them to travel down, safety has increased because fewer bikers are struggling to get where they need to be and getting injured in the process.

    Studies throughout the world show that bike boxes have a great economic benefit for the area, and may bring more revenue to the Lettered Streets Neighborhood. More people will begin to ride bikes around and drivers feel safer when the bikers are in their own area.

    Many residents were unsure how to use the bike lanes and struggled to use them properly. With both bike lanes and these green bike boxes, drivers found the lack of specific direction to be difficult to navigate these new spaces. With more signs and directions, the overall flow and awareness that both cars and drivers are riding down roads together, and they need to be safe about where they are on the road. More instruction is coming from the city of Bellingham about how to better use the bike boxes for both drivers and bike riders. 

Links for further reading: 

http://www.peopleforbikes.org/statistics/category/protected-bike-lane-statistics

http://betterblock.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/150603_bikelanerecipe2.jpg

http://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/local/article31351700.html

http://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/local/article34120173.html

Introductions

  The Lettered Streets Neighborhood sits right outside Downtown Bellingham, and is bounded by Holly Street, Broadway, North Street, Cornwall and Whatcom Creek. As one of the beautiful historic neighborhoods in Bellingham, residents and visitors enjoy picturesque buildings of various vintage architectural designs. With a relatively low crime rate and several parks, this quiet neighborhood is a place of innovation and tenacity that has been a major additive to Bellingham for the past 95 years.
  This blog will serve as a representation of the neighborhood for the next several weeks, and will be updated periodically as information is available.

https://www.cob.org/services/planning/neighborhoods/images/lettered-streets.jpg