The Hopper House

            Peggy Jones, 74, did not grow up in a household where it was acceptable to throw away old things simply because they were in fact that, old. Six years ago when Jones began noticing dumpsters around the York neighborhood being filled up with perfectly good household items, tossed away by college students moving houses, she began dumpster diving. Dumpster diving is the act of rummaging through trash looking for anything usable. She has always abided by the Bellingham custom of leaving out unwanted items on the curb and after she began finding things in dumpsters that had no right to be thrown away, she put out her findings on a table in her front lawn for others to scavenge through.

            The house at 1473 Franklin St. is now commonly known by Yorkers as the free exchange table. Also known as “The Hopper House.” Items are left on the table by anyone wanting to get rid of an item and are on display for anyone to come and pick up. It is a mini neighborhood “Goodwill.”

            Peggy lives with her son Leonard Hopper, 54, at the house and together they monitor the table and repair and clean some of the items. “It’s my hobby and I like doing it. I don’t like to see things go to waste,” Jones said.  Hopper works at a local mill.

            People leave a lot of different things there, ranging from old pickle jars to used bikes. Electronics and sporting gear are commonly left at the table but do not stay for long. Other popular items that are both brought to the table and get quickly snagged away include books, clothing, bicycles, dishes, tools and clothing. In the wintertime many Yorkers bring extra warm clothes to the table. “We once had a homeless man come to our door crying because it was very cold out and he was so grateful for the shoes he found in our yard,” Hopper said. The free exchange table benefits college kids who are constantly uprooting all their belongings and moving houses. “ My house brought boxes of random little things to that house when we were moving,” Harrison Mills said. “We would have probably just thrown that stuff away but I remember seeing things like it at that house, and I would rather it didn’t end up in a landfill.” Goodwill is also a place where Yorkers can get rid of old things, but due to the Hopper House’s convenient location, it is a welcome alternative to most.

Six years ago when Jones first put the table out, it was only for the summer, due to weather. But last year her son Leonard built a sturdy table complete with an electrical outlet, a plexiglass top and three walls so the table can protect its valuables all year round.

The Hopper House is warmly received by neighbors and is of constant use to many. “I check out the table every once in a while. I like it because I can always find something I can use, like jars to keep my paintbrushes in,” neighbor Jess King said.

Since everything is free trade, city officials did not make The Hopper House apply for a permit.

The Hopper House does not accept beds, large pieces of furniture, potentially hazardous material (oil, rubbing alcohol), weapons, sharp objects, trash or food. People leaving unusable garbage on the table is a problem for the Hopper House, so much so that multiple trips a month to the Recycling and Disposal Services Center in Lynden are required.

            Future plans for the table include Hopper giving it a fresh paint job and adding a plexiglass door to the front of the table, protecting it 100 percent from rain.

Local House Turns Public Art House

A house of young women artists in the York neighborhood has opened its doors to the Bellingham art community.

Jess King and her three roommates have turned their house into an art gallery/ studio space for local artists use. King and her roommates spend a lot of time in their living room doing art. “Me and my friends get more inspired when more artists are around,” King said. “We always are doing art, and we thought, let’s do something.”

The last Friday of every month, King’s house throws an art exhibit in their house. The exhibit is a mix between an art gallery showing and a low-key party. Along with their artwork, friends and local artist’s work is on display in their living room and basement. The art is for sale. “I want to help local Bellingham artists grow and connect with other creative people.” King must first see a sample of an artists work for them to potentially have a piece in the exhibit.

Twenty three-year-old King and her roommates are committed artists, each paints at least a couple hours every day. Each has their own area of expertise, but all experiment with different types of art. The young women’s lives are as different as their painting styles, an art student, a nanny, a body piercer and a waitress. Although each leads different lives in the day, the women are strongly connected through art during their free time. They all have decorated their skin with vividly colorful tattoos and each work to support their artistic endeavors. Jax Schwartz and King aspire to be traveling artists one day.

The house is dedicated to helping women around the world. Donation jars are put out at each exhibit with the proceeds going to help women in Africa get small business loans and also to local women’s shelters. They call their house “The Womb.”

            “I want our house to be a comfortable place where people can get away from their normal world and join ours,” Jax Schwartz said. Walk into “The Womb” on an average weekday night and you will find two or three people listening to loud classic rock, painting on the living room carpet. So far, word of mouth and social networking has been the houses sole way of recruiting interested artists. “ I am sort of an artist but (it’s) more like a hobby,” Cailen McDevitt Said. “ I saw Jess painting at the farmers market and she gave me an open invitation to her house to paint or do whatever I wanted.” McDevitt took King up on her offer and paints at the Womb often. The next step for King is to create a website for the house, but she is quick to admit her computer skills are not up to par.

Although King wants the house’s art community to grow, she and her roommates have learned that giving out an address to a house full of women creates unwanted attention. So while King is working on spreading the word of mouth about her house, she does not want just anybody to stop in whenever they feel like it. This means King and her roommates want to have some sort of networking connection to whoever comes to the house.

The Womb joins the ranks of similar public art houses like it in Bellingham. Downtown studios like Jinx Art Space and Bellingham Art Tank are also studios available to local artists for free. Galleries, restaurants and boutiques also feature local artwork every month during the Bellingham Art Walk.  

Among other local jobs, King puts on a gallery show at the downtown club, Glow, every last Tuesday of the month. King was offered the job after a friend of hers who is a D.J. at the club recommended her to the manager.

Future plans for the house includes transforming their basement into a spray paint studio and building a community garden. King and Schwartz also have hopes of travelling to New Orleans to soak up some culture someday soon.

New Church in York

        A new church has moved into the building on the corner of Gladstone and Cornwall in the York neighborhood.

The church “Gathering the Harvest Tabernacle” has held a service every night last month in dedication to its new home in the York neighborhood. The official grand opening of the church was last Feb. 1.

            Pastor, Anthony Westbrook, has been running the church in Bellingham for the past five years. The church has been in a constant state of uprooting and location changes. Throughout the years and many moves a congregation of roughly 40 members has grown dedicated to the Gathering the Harvest Tabernacle.

The 50-year-old Pastor prides his church on being diverse and inclusive. He has hopes that the building could be used for Alcohol Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meetings. “God has a place for everyone, and so do we. I want everyone to feel welcome here and we encourage people of any race, any faith, and people of any sexual orientation to come in.”

The new church serves hot meals every night. Attending church is not a requirement.

Some recovered drug abusers and alcoholics find refuge under the Tabernacles ceiling as well. “Some people may be dismayed from coming to a church if they see homeless people or know recovering drug addicts are in my congregation, but I would never turn any one away from this door. People come to church to feel love, respect, dignity and honor. On the other hand I do not want to upset any one in the neighborhood either,” Westbrook said.

Although the building on Gladstone and Franklin has been a location for churches for many years now, the neighborhood seems to have little to no recollection of what goes on there.

 “I don’t know the name of the church, but everyone calls it the purple church,” Jen McNew said. She said the ‘purple church’ has a reputation of being quite alternative.

Westbrook admits he has not targeted the college student demographic yet, but he is in the progress of finding the best approach.

Another college student, Andrea Pitz vaguely acknowledges their being a church in York but it does not ring many bells, “I think there is a church in York. I think it’s in a blue building or something. I don’t really know.”

According to Westbrook, the majority of people making up the congregation in the churches new location are the churches dedicated patrons. He does not think the York neighborhood is aware of his church yet, but it will be.

Westbrook wants anyone and everyone to feel comfortable attending church, he also wants to offer the building to anyone or any group to use at their will. “I want to put it (the building) to good use,” he said.

The church does not qualify for state grants. Donations are vital for the church. Many donations are made from the Lummi Nation, including all chairs and tables. Westbrook is hopeful the church will soon get a state grant.

When more people start coming to services, Westbrook plans on asking Planned Parenthood if the congregation may use its parking lot. “They are our neighbors, and their parking lot is always empty on Sundays.”

The congregation is a very close nice group. During a service the Pastor will often speak directly to an individual, addressing him or her by a first name and maybe even slip in an inside joke. The mood in the church is light and informal. There are many jokes and laughs during the sermon and there is no dress code. After last Sunday’s sermon, the congregation, including Westbrook, began socializing with one another. The topic of discussion was the type of beer to be brought to the Super Bowl party they were all attending.

Bicycle Theft in York

Locking your bike up to the porch is not going to cut it in this neighborhood anymore. The York neighborhood is seeing a rise in theft, and bicycles are the main targets.

Erin Bennett, a senior at Western Washington University, lives in a house of six in the York neighborhood. So far this year, four of them have had their bikes stolen. 
Each theft came as a surprise to Bennett, “We always lock our bikes to secure posts on our porch,” Bennett said. “But when a bike goes missing, so does the lock.” Simply locking your bike up does not make it as safe as you think in the York district.

According to the City of Bellingham police Department theft and burglary in York has gone up in the last two years

Bicycles are not the only things being taken from people’s homes in the York neighborhood. Many Mac computers and other devices like the iPod touch have been reported stolen this year from York. 

“Any lock can be broken,” Colin Pribe, an employee at Kulshan Cycles, said. “Bolt cutters, lock cutters, these things can get through the best locks,” Pribe said. The solid ‘U-lock’ is a strong bike lock compared to the cable lock, which is easiest to break. “At least one person a week comes in here looking to replace a stolen bike. This year and last summer have been really bad in terms of people coming in looking to replace a stolen bike. I have seen a drastic change from the previous years I worked here.”

            According to the Bellingham Police Department, keeping your bike inside is the best way to prevent bike theft. Keeping your bike in a garage is also a good idea, but garages are often broken into so it is a good idea to keep your bike securely locked while in the garage. 
            Alex Tilley knows the benefits of storing a bike in a garage first hand “I’ve never had my bike stolen, I usually keep it in the garage,” he said. “My roommate isn’t so lucky, he figured his bike would be safe in the backyard just because we live next door to a preschool. It wasn’t.”

            It is also common for residents to find their bikes still at home, but missing the front tire. The front tire on a bicycle is easily removed. This is considered to be an act of vandalism instead of theft, considering the uselessness of a single tire. This is an easy problem to fix. Make sure the front tire is also locked with the rest of your bike or take the tire off yourself and bring it inside with you.

Using a bike to get around is very popular in this neighborhood. Due to the distance from Western Washington University, many students bike to school. It is not unlikely to see three or four bikes locked up on front porches of many houses in this neighborhood. Just as it is effortless for students to walk out their front door in the morning and hop on their bike, it is also just as effortless for them to be stolen.

University students are not the only ones falling victim to theft. Family households in the York neighborhood are just as likely to leave a child’s bike unattended.

 Many stolen bikes go unreported due to a lack of confidence in seeing it returned. “I never told the police,” Bennett said. “Maybe I should have but it seemed like a waste of time. It’s not like they would be scouring the streets with a picture of my green bike in their hand, questioning people riding similar looking bikes.”  Bennett did however check bicycles posted on Craigslist and eBay to see if someone would put his up for sale. He has now given up hope of ever finding his stolen bike, but whenever he sees a green bike ride by, he gets suspicious.

About this News Site

This news site has the sole purpose of informing any and all interested in the happenings of the York district in Bellingham, Wa. I will post on a regular basis and will address neighborhood news, concerns of local residents, information on district meetings and future plans for the neighborhood.