Some infilling on its way. Putting Bellingham's former St. Luke's Hospital Campus back into use.

The former St. Luke's and later St. Joe's South Campus hospital site has sat unused for years. It has recently been purchased by WWU with WWU Foundation money. This creates an opportunity for expansion to serve an educational need in the growing healthcare field. It may be a while before much change is made, but the wheels are starting to move in a direction at least.

Photo from WWU News publication.

It's a large area of land centrally located in Bellingham that has sat mostly empty for several years.

When I first came to Bellingham, there were two hospitals, St. Joe's and St. Luke's. During the 1980s, I remember a bit of rivalry between the hospitals that was labeled "Scar Wars" in the media. The 1980s also saw Ronald Regan's Star Wars plan.

I wasn't involved in the politics about this so my memories are only very tangential to the hospital situation.

Back in the early 1980s, Bellis Fair had not yet been built so there was a lot of debate over where expanded retailing should go in Bellingham; downtown or the outlying plans for Bellis Fair Mall. At some point, there was a plan, among many plans, to build a bigger shopping center near the current Fred Myers on Lakeway. Fred Meyers was there, but there was quite a bit of vacant land just south of it where a shopping center could "possibly" go.

In the middle, just west of I-5, was St. Luke's Hospital which, at that time, had some expansion plans, as I remember. It was trying to keep up with St. Joe's.

I wrote a letter to the editor envisioning a mall going in south of Fred Meyers as it was still somewhat close to downtown with Lakeway being just east of I-5 and downtown being west. For some reason I remember having a brain storm about St. Luke's in the middle becoming "St. Luke's University."

I was thinking that the central part of Bellingham could be a focus of growth; more compact growth than the plans to spread out along I-5 and Meridian.

As for a retail core in central Bellingham, I-5 has been like a barrier preventing this core from feeling cohesive. A strong mall, or downtown area, needs cohesiveness to offer the many choices within walking distance. This "core" is still pretty spread out and divided by I-5. Where busy Lakeway goes under I-5, there isn't much room. It's a bottleneck.

Imagine if a much wider connection crossed under I-5 in central Bellingham. Imagine if there was better bicycle and pedestrian connection. Then imagine if some of the commercial development, of the Meridian area, ended up more compact and in central Bellingham on both sides of I-5.

In reality, Bellis Fair eventually arrived much farther north at Meridian and I-5. Downtown has become a multi use area with more residential development. Downtown has evolved beyond just retail to multi use and residential. These days, retail is becoming less important in the era of online shopping anyway.

Fast forward to 2026. At least the old St. Luke's Hospital campus, that sat mostly empty, like a void in the middle of Bellingham, for several years, is now in a position for infill as Western Washington University puts that campus to use.

Underutilized parking lot.

Old hospital.

Chestnut Professional Building also part of the deal.

When my grade school teacher said my art could not be published because it would just be a blob of ink running through the ditto machine.

Ink on paper from the old mimeograph machine I had in the 1980s. I wanted to see what would happen if I turned the crank with no stencil in the machine. The results are a keepsake.

It reminds me of an experience I had in grade school where my mind was too full of ideas. The assignment was for everyone in the class to draw a picture. The teacher gathered up each drawing and made copies from the ditto machine in the office. Copies of each persons drawing were bound into a booklet of copies for all the classmates.

My drawing was not included. The teacher apologized and explained that my drawing was too complicated. It had too many lines and solid areas of black so the machine would just print a big blob of ink.

Mimeo, with black or colored ink, was often used in church bulletins while ditto, with the blue ink was used in many schools. Some folks will remember the smells of those copies. This was before the internet days.

In the 1980s, I used the my hand cranked mimeograph machine to publish a small newsletter of my own opinions; Robert's Telling Tales. That publication never got big in the media world, but it was a good experience.

In 1981, the Tacoma New Tribune did a feature about me. It was titled, Cranking Out Happiness at Robert's Think Tank. See a link in comments.

Maybe someone could do a historic photo exhibit to memorialize the graffitti rock that was recently removed from I-5 south of Bellingham.

Coming into Bellingham on I-5, there has been a famous rock painted with many layers of expression over the years. It's commemorated graduating classes and lots of other things.

There is now a local controversy as the rock has been destroyed. It basically fell victim to salmon stream restoration. Washington State has been ordered, by treaty obligation, to remove culverts under highways for improving salmon passage.

There's lots of construction for daylighting streams along I-5 and other roads and paint flakes from the rock can be poison near streams.

Some folks had wanted the Department of Transportation to move the rock to another location, but I guess that was determined too expensive. The rock was broken up instead.

The rock basically fell victim of contradicting demands from various constituencies of the public. Salmon restoration versus an affordable highway system. Keeping gasoline taxes from going through the roof while maintaining highways. I guess much of the highway budget, these days, goes to habitat restoration in this state. So much of life is about tradeoffs.

Since I don't drive, the rock hasn't been real important to me. I do remember some car and bus trips into Bellingham, during my college years, seeing a few of its graffitied presentations.

During the 1980s, soon after bicycling was allowed on rural shoulders of I-5, I stopped by the rock to hike up there. At its base were slabs of paint that had broken off. Each slab consisted of, possibly hundreds of paint layers in various colors. I took a slab home for souvenir. Eventually, I threw out that slab as it was crumbling and leaving a mess of paint flakes.

Recently, I got to thinking that good way to memorialize that rock is to collect pictures of its various paintings over the years; possibly for an art exhibit. Maybe someone has already thought of that.

A new sculpture could be placed in some public spot with the surface covered by various pictures of the original rock. Photos could be glazed into ceramic tiles covering the surface of a new boulder in some Bellingham park.

While I have none of my own photos from that famous I-5 Bellingham rock and I didn't keep that crumbing paint slab I found from the rock in the 1980s, I have found other souvenirs along roads. I still have a pile of warning signs that must have fallen off a tanker truck. Here are a few of those changeable metal signs. I wrote about the rock's demise in an earlier post.

I tend to ride less on I-5 shoulders, these days, than back in the 1980s after it was first legalized. Back then, the wide shoulder was, and probably still is, safer than many roads. The 55 mile per hour speed limit was still in effect from the 1970s, oil crisis. Today, traffic is flying by faster and there is probably twice as much traffic in this region as there was in the 1980s. More backroads have been improved since then as well.

Surviving the Reagan budget cuts. A thought for today.

Near start of the Reagan Presidency, lots of budget cuts, similar to now. Being outside professional circles (I was working as a janitor) I thought I was more immune to the cuts. My informal art could continue.

Back then, before the internet, there was a funky network of artists who sent things to one another in the mail. There were shows that usually had no jury, so it could be a free for all of free thinking.

The network was informally called The Mail Art Network.

It does still exist today and many of the participants participate in social media, as well, these days.

Here is a copy of a collage I sent out to some show, or something (I forgot) with Reagan trying to pull the plug Mail Art which was basically powered by hobbyists; so to speak.

Cornucopia of creativity dumping out mail art while Reagan asking Nancy, his wife, where the plug is to pull the plug.

I've scanned much of my vast collection of crude, political cartoon like, collages from past years. Above is one from early 1980s.

Some of the artists were behind the Iron Curtain in countries, like Poland (Back then) behind the curtain. Things were starting to loosen up behind the Iron Curtain back in those days. Homemade postcard a Mail Artist sent me, from early 1990s related to the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Another somewhat related memory.

I remember when Reagan fired the Air Controllers. Their union PATCO had endorsed Reagan for president back in 1980; talk about voting against one's self interest.

He fired them after they went on strike for better working conditions during his presidency. He was trying to keep to his budget cutting promises.

Other unions said they wondered where was PATCO, when they needed support. Most other unions endorsed Carter instead of Reagan. The air control system did survive, however, during all that turmoil.

Picture of me as exercise participant of the month, 1988 at YMCA.

Polaroid photo of me taken in 1988 when I was the exercise participant of the month at a YMCA aerobics class.

This picture and my sloppy, handwritten answers to a questionnaire were posted for a month on a bulletin by the door to the gym where the aerobics classes were. bulletin boards existed before social media.

Back then, aerobics was a big social thing. I likened it to dancing without the cigarette smoke. Dance bars, back then, were filled with cigarette smoke. That aerobics class often had over 50 people moving to the music and there were times when folks were invited to come in costume. At least 1/3 of the participants were men though aerobics was more popular among women. It was energetic, but gentle and non competitive.

Back in those days, the Y also had a sauna which was a gathering space.

Entering the ho hum work world after college.

Recent Ticktok video in the news. College graduate says hardly any time to live one's life. Long commute as living closer to the job is too expensive. 40 hour per week office job takes up too much time. Readers tend to be sympathetic and ideas about a shorter workweek circulate.

My personal story was different. Part time work. I graduated into a depressed economy; late 70s early 1980s. Rents in Bellingham were quite low, back then, but Jobs were hard to find. I was able to live within easy bicycling, or walking distance from what work I had.

Door to my spacious basement apartment in a 9 unit building with a funky backyard. $155 per month before gentrification in Bellingham.

I looked for full time work, including custodial work for the state at Western Washington University, but the competition for those jobs was fierce. All I could find was part time gardening and a part time custodial shift at a place called Pizza Haven.

I did have plenty of free time, however. Got into writing, postal art, and letters to editors as well as politicians. I had time for many community things and bicycling. I was able to survive, but on a real shoestring budget.

My upstairs neighbor said I had found the healthy balance of working part time. I had stumbled upon it. She suggested I embrace it.

My neighbor had worked in offices for many years and was burned out. She also resented the vast population of freeloaders who seemed to live off inheritances or finding their way onto disability; even back then.

She saw the contrast between overwork and not working at all; herself struggling with burnout, health problems and teatoring toward going on welfare. Her brother was a hard worker / redneck leaning into right wing politics while some of her other aquoitences were hippy artists who found ways to not work 9-5. She often thought they were spoiled.

She talked about a concept called "job sharing" where people work less hours and share the existing jobs more equitably.

When hearing about job sharing, I got to thinking that job sharing would be a good strategy if the economy has to slow down due to environmental restraints. Back then, there was and still is the "jobs versus environment" issue. For instance; the logging industry, around Bellingham, was all but being shut down due to the controversy over preserving habitat for the Northern Spotted Owl.

Logger art on Olympic Penisula hints at hunting spotted owl for food to rid the problem that its preservation rules were creating. Many T-shirts in logging country sported logos; "spotted owl tastes like chicken."

Today they talk about "work life balance," but the high cost of today's housing makes that less doable.

I worked part time for many years and eventually found a more full time custodial position that was still fairly laid back. I often didn't put in 8 hours per day, but maybe averaged 7 hours. The job had generous vacation and the ability to take leave of absence for my bicycle travel.

I worried about not having health insurance, but survived with good health. Today, many folks can now benefit from Obamacare reforms; at least in most states; except Texas and a few holdouts against the Medicaid expansion.

I was fortunate to always live quite close to my job. Not owning a car and living in small spaces helped, but that was an era when rents were lower, relative to the rest of the economy. I was living at below market rent, even for those days.

Why take on student debt for funky jobs?

This episode of 1A (new show in Diane Rehm's old time slot). It's about the burden of student debt. One of the guests was financial adviser Michelle Singletary. She suggests being modest in one's college choices to avoid racking up too much debt. She said, don't necessarily go for prestige of schools such as Harvard. Sometimes community college is sufficient.

I was fortunate to have not racked up any debt. Back in my college days, Tuition was a lot lower in state schools at least. My parents paid the bills on a normal middle class salary. I graduated with money in the bank. Not lots of money, but a bit of savings from gardening jobs and my childhood paper route.

It's just as well that I had no debt as the job market has always been pretty soft for me. With my way paid and little work experience, I started out by doing odd gardening jobs which eventually led to a part time custodial job at a pizza parlor. My parents were still proud that I was able to achieve self sufficiency at least. They had been a bit worried.

Rents were reasonable as I started my "career" and I had an upstairs neighbor who spoke about the virtues of part time work. It's a balance between quality of life and paying one's dues. I went with that advise as I couldn't find full time work anyway. Even "good" custodial positions for the state (like at Western Washington University where I graduated from) required a ton of qualifications. That was the Bellingham of the early 1980s.

I got into the pattern of working part time, going on long vacations and expressing myself in ways which usually don't pay the bills; unless one is a big celebrity; like Justin Bieber.

Now I'm working closer to full time and things are basically okay. My writing, ideas and photography are donated to Creative Commons. Donated, in part, because who would buy it?

Remembering Pizza Haven and more

I recently found a Facebook Group about remembering Pizza Haven, an old restaurant chain that used to have around 30 locations in the state of Washington.

My job was custodian at the downtown Bellingham location. That place is now Binyon optometrist. Good memories working part time with lots of free time for bicycling and thinking.

I've always opted for low pressure careers.

The Facebook Group brings back memories of some Pizza Haven culture.

Now I'm on custodial crew of downtown YMCA.

Below is ghostly image of lobby reflected in the door glass to a conference room. Outside window, one sees glare of mercury vapor lights that illuminate front facade of building. Just below is a glass owning over sidewalk. Across the street is the red signs of Key Bank.

Glad my living expenses remain low. The economy has worked for my modest needs so far, but I realize things aren't working that well for more and more people. In some cases, expectations are too high. In other cases, people are given a raw deal.

Voluntary simplicity is one strategy, in an economy where growth is difficult. A strategy to deal with lowering the carbon footprint.

Changing technology is also a way to deal with these things. Ipods most likely have a lower footprint on the environment than wood stoves.

We are living in a changing world and to some extent, upper income people are still living in a fantasy world. The world has big problems when CEOs of corporations and presidents of colleges still expect huge salaries while their businesses loose money and state supported institutions face large cuts.

Tuition at colleges is shooting way up. I'm glad my college days were cheap and I didn't have to deal with student loans.

Money is only one aspect of a job. Peace of mind is another.

When first space shuttle flew, I thought, for a moment, Columbia River had flooded

"The Columbia's up." exclaimed my boss at the restaurant I was a janitor at in 1981, when Shuttle Columbia made its first flight. For a moment, I thought the Columbia River was flooding since I'd given up on keeping track of shuttle news after all it's delays. Earlier space missions had held my attention, but the shuttle seemed like it could never get off the ground.

German stamp commemorating shuttle.

Since then, it's been 30 years of triumphs and problems. In some ways, it's a relief that this is the last mission, but the Shuttle did accomplish quite a bit.

Hopefully, future space vehicles will be even better for reliability, affordability and adventure. Spaceship 2 is one of the many promising steps toward continuing of space technology. It's being developed by private enterprise.

Here are some of the things I remember about the shuttle.

Someone on TV holding a large stack of papers saying that "each tile in the heat shield has a stack of specifications this thick."

Cheering the successful upgrades of Hubble Space Telescope.

Morning the loss of life during the two shuttle disasters.

The Radar Topography Mission of 2000 that mapped the Earth with extreme accuracy. It obtained elevation data on a near-global scale to generate the most complete high-resolution digital topographic database of Earth.

The Shuttle Tether Experiment in 1996 dragging a long tether behind the shuttle.

Launch of the Chandra X-ray Telescope in 1999 which is still bringing back X-ray pictures of the universe. That was the first shuttle mission commanded by a woman astronaut, so I remember.

Launch of the Galileo space probe that went to Jupiter. Galileo faced many delays. When it finally headed off to Jupiter, the high gain radio antenna didn't open properly so the spacecraft had to send it's pictures back at a much slower rate through the low gain antenna. Speculation said that the antenna was stuck because it had to wait on the ground too long before launch thus getting corroded, or something. Waiting for its place in the way behind shuttle schedule. Still the mission was a success since after they got to Jupiter, they had plenty of time to send back the data even at the slower baud rate.

The time they decided to go back to launching unmanned space missions on rockets, rather than the shuttle as the rockets are more efficient.

Second to last shuttle flight which put the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer onto the space station to look at cosmic rays from the vantage point of space. That instrument is preforming well.

So far, this last mission is going well. Hopefully a smooth "good by" to this piece of history. Then I can stop holding my breath for a little while.

Stamp collage, byproduct of Mail Art Network

Christmas card I made back in the 1980s from throwing a bunch of cancelled stamps onto a photocopy machine. Back in the 1970s, my mom had a jug of stamps that she kept for some project at the church. She didn't mind if I grabbed a few.

Then I did quite a bit of international correspondence with part of a loose network of artists in the mail. This type of correspondence is often called Mail Art, or in some cases "CorresponDANCING."

Click on image for larger version.

Downshifting. My life has always been there

Scroll down for funny sign.

As the pace of the corporate workplace gets faster and meaner, more and more talk of downshifting appears. Life in the slow lane is taking on a greater appeal.

Well, I have lived all my career in the slow lane. Basically, I was never qualified to be in the rat race.

The deadly rat race didn't accept my application!

First I was idling through school. Not doing great, but not doing bad either.

Nearing graduation, I realized that a BA in Geography wasn't a big deal. Many go on to graduate school, but I decided to try the work world for the first time.

Realizing that job experience is important, I decided to start out with what I could qualify for; being a janitor.

The city of Bellingham, where I graduated, has a very competitive job market for professionals. People moving here from all over USA with many years of experience and advanced degrees. They just take what they can find.

This is a place where your waiter will likely to have a masters degree in library science, or something.

I applied for a few "full time" custodial positions and only found "part time" work. It was in a restaurant named Pizza Haven. A custodial position that was actually kind of fun. The boss was sort of a clown. Pleasant to be around.

All my meager bills were paid. In all my working career, I've never even had to collect unemployment!

Around the time I found that part time job, I also found an upstairs neighbor who talked about the virtues of "job sharing."

Part time work. The great balance between being a bum and working to death.

She was a tired secretary who had been in the high pressure world and was mostly burned out.

Was looking for a healthier balance.

She convinced me that my part time schedule was okay.

I had that balance.

Didn't need much money to live on, so the bills were paid, but I also had time.

Lots of free time.

That is when I really got into bicycle touring.

Working part time, I had many free afternoons when I could ride out Mount Baker Highway. Discovered I could go all the way to Heather Meadows and back after my short morning shift.
See below.

Sign near heather meadows says "no swimming or picnicking." Duh, a frozen lake. Sign was there for the 2 or three months per year that the lake thawed. Lake is at Heather Meadows near Mount Baker. Sign no longer exists, last I knew. Picture didn't turn out that well, but a bit of editing helps.

Continued...
I worked 7 days per week, but some days were only a 2 1/2 hour shift. Other days were closer to 6 hours, but total for the week was seldom over 30 hours.

I applied for full time work a few more times, but even for custodian, the competition was fierce. People with years of experience, training and preference points for veterans got hired. The university, school district and city put you into large cues behind several hundred applicants for only a handful of openings. Other places, in town, tended to be just part time retail outlets.

Still, I was enjoying part time, so I didn't bother applying for more work after a while.

Not only did I get into cycling, I also got into the various art and correspondence projects that eventually lead to this web page.

Eventually, I did worry about not having health insurance, but I was healthy.

Some folks are made sick by the high stress job that they feel they must take, in order to have health insurance.

What a catch 22.

Anyway, that part time job lasted 11 years; just about till the restaurant went out of business. My health outlasted the health of the business.

Before the restaurant closed, I was offered the full time position I have now.

I am on the custodial crew of a YMCA just an easy walk from where I live.

Even has a health plan and a retirement fund.

Still low stress and practically no commute time. It's full time, but a good and fairly laid back environment. Also lots of vacation time. Even the ability to arrange leave of absence, which is good for bike touring.

So my life has always been down sized.

Still, except for some retirement and savings, I have no equity.

No home ownership.

Even when starter houses cost less than a quarter million, I never made enough to qualify for monthly mortgage payments.

Now there are quite a few "homeowners turned millionaires" moving to this area. It's even fueling the local economy as folks can now live off their home equity for many years. This means there is still spending, which props up local retailing even though there doesn't seem to be much local industry.

Luckily there are still affordable rental units around town. A building boom is leading to fairly high vacancy rates.

The little room I live in is much cheaper than most Bellingham units for sure.

This city is becoming a retirement haven.

Our economy equals:

"Go to school, then retire."

How's that for the "work ethic?"

I've been partially retired for years.

One room and no car. No kids, no pets. A bicycle and a computer; that's about all I have.

Who needs more?

People moving here are now seeking what I must have had all along. Still many of them are trying to live in the big homes.

Some end up having to sell and move out when they realize that their home might be their only income source.

It's down sizing and I have been there all along.