May 12, 2019 Dena Jensen
Community members continue to show up weekly to call on our local government agencies to engage with members of the immigrant community, of all statuses, to reduce and hopefully put an end to, the daily fear and apprehension that they endure living under the Trump administration, not to mention the profiling and mistreatment numerous individuals experience at the hands of local officials.
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March 5, 2019 Dena Jensen
In this post is the email I sent today to the Bellingham City Council and Mayor Linville, that was copied to the Whatcom County Council, County Executive Louws and Deputy Executive Schroeder regarding conflicting reports of bed availability from the Lighthouse Mission.
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It’s been two full years since the City of Bellingham abruptly pushed aside the Keep Bellingham Families Working ordinance in favor of approving their own ordinance regarding immigrant protection. In all that time there has been no amending of that ordinance or activation of civilian oversight or of a safe space to report discrimination or persecution.
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January 10, 2019 Dena Jensen
When I received a response email from Bellingham City Council Member Michael Lilliquist today, I had to think hard about whether or not I should publicly remark on it. It’s not like it was, in many ways, remarkable in comparison to the few other email responses I have received from him. In fact, some Bellingham City Council Members do not respond to me – ever – regarding my emails asking them to reach out and develop relationships with frontline and marginalized community members. Most of the time, I don’t even expect them to email me back. I just want them to take action.
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Graphics show one postcard front side (top), and multiple reverse/message sides of postcards sent to Bellingham Mayor Kelli Linville by community members in June of 2017
May 23, 2018 Dena Jensen
The following report offers information gained through a public records request I made of the City of Bellingham on January 18, 2018.
Protecting vulnerable members of our community is a shared responsibility that none of us should take lightly. As much as government agencies may strive for and purport transparency, it is generally human nature to not be able to recognize our own flaws and, if others point them out, to do our best to excuse them or deny that this flaw, which another person sees, is really there.
November 12, 2017 Irene Morgan, Founder, Restorative Community Coalition
A hardy THANK YOU to everyone who stood tall in opposition to the now defunct jail tax – Proposition 2017- 6. You did NOT “Stand Down”, it was NOT a “Done Deal”, the “Ship had NOT Sailed”, the “Train is STILL in the Station” and it was NOT “a waste of our time”! The voters said NO, with an even greater margin – again! Continue reading
Click the graphic to access the 8/14/2017 Bellingham City Council Committee of the Whole meeting. Discussion regarding the Pickett Bridge starts at about 2:02:00 on the video.
August 15, 2017 Dena Jensen
At last night’s August 14, 2017 Bellingham City Council meeting, there was a brief discussion which touched on a bit longer discussion held earlier that day at Council’s Committee of the Whole meeting regarding renaming Bellingham’s Pickett Bridge. Council Member April Barker said the issue is being raised due to constituent’s concerns that the name of the bridge “is celebrating a man who has a legacy of pro-slavery and had a strong alliance with the Confederate Army.” In the summer 2015 The Bellingham Herald ran a story saying discussion of renaming of the bridge came forward when Community to Community Development and the Racial Justice Coalition, held a protest of crime-mapping software being considered by the Bellingham Police Department. Pickett Bridge was the site of their protest.
On Monday, July 10, The Vera Institute presented its preliminary data findings on the Whatcom County justice system at a special meeting of the Incarceration Prevention and Reduction Task Force (IPRTF). It took months for the Vera Institute to obtain the necessary data on the County Jail population in 2016, but the results confirmed stunning racial disparities in the jailed population, as well as a sizable pre-trial population that could be significantly reduced with the use of evidence-based methods of incarceration prevention. Continue reading
Thu, Sep 01, 2016, 5:00 am Tip Johnson
Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) policy by all accounts is ripening. Meanwhile, other important policies seem unfortunately in decay – like opportunities for public discourse.
noisy waters northwest 
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