Bellingham has been called the "Tijuana of Canada."

Some people notice empty storefronts in downtown Bellingham. I remember when I came here for college, I was amazed how many stores Bellingham had compared to my hometown of Pullman.

Bellingham was not that much bigger than Pullman, but it seemed to have many times more stores. Then someone said it's supported by Canadian shoppers. Yes, at one point, during my college years I read that around half of the dollars, supporting Bellingham businesses, were Canadian. That figure varies over the years due to exchange rates and so forth. Today, many Canadians are staying home due to dislike of Trump.

During the 1980s, I remember one national TV network (maybe CBS) doing a feature on cross border shopping. It called Bellingham the "Tijuana of Canada."

It does seem like there is a lot of floorspace devoted to retail, compared to how much the local population can spend.

Property values and rents have gotten so high that they squeeze out other spending. Today, retailing is also competing with online shopping.

Years ago, when Georgia Pacific Pulp Mill and other factories closed taking away many family wage jobs, I wondered if retailing would take a hit. Those big industries brought outside money into the local area by selling products that were used all over the world.

Some of that loss was more than made up with retirement dollars. Lots of people moving to this area bringing their retirement incomes and home equity with them.

A few years ago, I jokingly said that Bellingham's economy is based on home equity loans.

Yes, it does seem like there still is lots of floorspace devoted to retail with the downtown and all the outlying districts as well as the mall. This is a problem in many American cities.

Pullman, where I grew up, has a lot more shopping now than it did during my high school years before the development of Bishop Boulevard. Bishop is to Pullman what Meridian is to Bellingham.