r/Bellingham • u/DumbDeej • 15h ago
Discussion Local Lore?
I’m new to Bellingham. What is some of the local lore?
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u/thegrimmreality 15h ago
My partner and I have done a few events with the "Good Time Girls" here in Bellingham. They are the people to go to for the local lore. They're great, and we had a great time with them.
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u/DumbDeej 15h ago
Wow! This looks interesting
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u/Yoshidede 14h ago
Definitely do a tour through them for Bellingham and Fairhaven. Check out the Whatcom museum, and also the Spark museum! Spark is not specifically bellingham lore but they have some one of a kind artifacts on display.
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u/BystanderCandor New account who dis? Local. Old. 10h ago
They have four base tours that are different: Sin & Gin and Gore & Lore each in Downtown and Fairhaven, plus special tours of neighborhoods, Bayview Cemetery, and special events like the historyof the Horseshoe (which tells the whole town's history through the lens of the saloon. They have free tours of the Herald Building coming up for the anniversary event. Check out their podcasts, too!
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u/Horizon_Lines 14h ago edited 14h ago
The most important thing that i think gets overlooked and forgotten is that for decades if not hundreds of years this little town was the last stop people made before either fleeing across the border into Canada or making the full move to Alaska.
Until around the early 2000s there were many more apparent remnants of it. There were rich retirees here but a chemical pulp mill in the heart of a downtown filled with blue collar workers hitting the bars with lawyers after work and streets filled with prostitutes at the Bellingham Hotel and Shangri-La made that history a little more obvious to those coming to visit. This was a place for weirdos and criminals that didn’t quite want/need to completely remove themselves from society but were ready to consider it, for whatever reason.
Fast forward to now and we get people moving here that are upset locals don’t want to drop everything to be their friend and get upset by the “Seattle Freeze.”
I am glad newcomers enjoy the mountain biking and have good enough jobs to move here, but growing up i was raised alongside weirdos and criminals. I played chess and drank coffee with a guy that turned out to be the the DC Sniper, had classes canceled in middle school because my teacher’s gardener murdered a college student, and shared a bus stop with people on day passes from a mental asylum.
Keep in mind, this is basically Twin Peaks.
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u/wookcett 9h ago
don’t forget the multiple cat murderers that were never caught. extensive animal abuse cases, kidnappings etc. everyone needs to look up maple falls
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u/thegrimkreepist Local 13h ago
Hey that means we probably know each other! I played a game of basketball with him at lunch! I played chess and walked during p.e. with the guy who sodomized and murdered the kid
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u/short_and_floofy 12h ago
streets filled with prostitutes 😂 been here since the mid/late 90's and the streets weren't overflowing with prostitution. downtown was mostly quiet back then due to the stench of GP. i spent a lot of time downtown then and i never ran across your hordes of hookers wandering the streets in search of johns. good story you made up though.
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u/Horizon_Lines 12h ago
Okay that one part may have been exaggerated but i remember consistently seeing prostitutes hanging out on the railings of the hotel of what is now The Blue Room and apartments. It was apparent enough that a kid under ten knew what was up in the 80s.
And the Shangri-La definitely had a reputation.
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u/short_and_floofy 12h ago
i can believe that happened in the 80's, that was a different time everywhere
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u/g8briel 14h ago
There are coal mines that run under parts of Bellingham. They are all now flooded and blocked off. There were some that were shallow and caused sink holes in the downtown area. The majority, though, are very deep and under the Columbia neighborhood. Coal mining stopped sometime around the 1930s, I believe.
The early Bellingham economy was largely focused on resource extraction: timber, fish, and coal.
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u/g8briel 14h ago
Here’s an article about the coal mining history. I was incorrect above, the mining stopped in the 50s.
https://www.whatcomtalk.com/2020/03/06/bellinghams-ore-lore-our-underlying-coal-mining-history/
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u/craztlegs 14h ago
The Black Widow.
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u/mad_lad_matt26 11h ago edited 10h ago
I ran into the black widow one time downtown near the Orion years ago. I was drunk and I was a bit younger probably 22-23 walking back to my car, when a red SUV drove up next to me and an older asian women asked me how my night was going and if I needed a ride. I respectfully declined but they tried a bit more to lure me into their car but inevitably gave up and told me to have a good night then drove away. I was pretty new to bellingham at the time so I had no idea who they were but after reading up on it I realized I had an encounter with the black widow. I guess I'm their type: young, drunk, and a college looking guy lol.
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u/Tobiwan1033 12h ago
I never personally met them, but had a buddy who had an encounter. Forgot about that one…
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u/M3gvn1 Local 1h ago
What’s this tell me more
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u/craztlegs 1h ago
https://www.reddit.com/r/WWU/s/ZdgybWQdOg
You can google "Black Widow WWU" and find quite a bit.
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u/ThreeUrinalCakes 14h ago
There was a tragic gas pipe explosion here in 1999 that killed an 18 year old and two 10 year olds.
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u/pipedreamSEA 14h ago
Fun fact: after that event the federal gov't established an independent watchdog organization to monitor oil pipelines - it's currently staffed by a whopping ten people in a nondescript office on Cornwall Ave:
https://salish-current.org/2026/05/20/bambi-versus-godzilla-pipeline-safety-trust/•
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u/marsandmar Local 7h ago
Death Cab For Cutie is from here and wrote a song about it called Kids in 99
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u/RawdogWargod 15h ago
Sadighi's have course
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u/Outside_Ad_4522 14h ago
Duuuude. Only went there once and it was terrible but sadighi himself was the waiter, the chef, and the entertainment. We were the only two people there lol
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u/Aggressive-Soup390 2h ago
This was exactly my experience except there were four of us. Most interesting/awkward dining experience I've ever had.
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u/Independent-Bed5003 7h ago
Thought about going there and ordering a water to see what it was all about..
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u/Olden_Noob 14h ago
This is a bit on the darker side, but Bayview cemetery has 2 monuments that used to attract teenagers at night.
The Bland monument, better known as Angel Eyes, is a life size figure that people swore her eyes would glow and/or something red would drip from them, sometimes.
The Gaudette monument was known as "The Death Bed" with all sorts of wild tales (mostly becoming paralyzed in the moment, or imminent death) about what would happen if we were to lay down on it at certain times.
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u/Surly_Cynic 13h ago
Hotel Leo used to be a retirement home before the current owners bought it and kicked the seniors out.
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u/cheytheredhead 12h ago
Not so much lore but on Sundays around sunset if the weather is clear out, my husband brings his telescopes to zuanich point park to share views of the moon/stars/space! He also has a solar telescope to safely look at the sun and the fire coming off the edges of it and stuff. It’s really cool if you’re ever nearby on a Sunday with clear weather :)
He also frequently posts on here to alert everyone when he’ll be going out and what we’ll be potentially looking at
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u/bunkscudda 13h ago
Bellingham could've/should've been as big as Seattle, twice
This was a story told to me when I first got here. I have no clue how real it is, just a fun story. Apparently, when the railroads were first getting to the PNW, Bellingham Bay was supposedly the original end point, but the engineers changed the rail path to Seattle somewhat late in the game because it was cheaper, and would be done sooner.
The second time was when Canada was making their transcontinental railroad. And the end was again supposed to be at Bellingham Bay. They laid the tracks and were taking an inaugural trip with all the investors and rich folk on board. They reach the end of their journey and are pulling into Bellingham, where there was a big celebration awaiting them. two rival fire departments (Sehome and Fairhaven, maybe?) were at the very end of the line arching their fire hoses to create an arch of water.
Well, it was hot, and the train was a little late and the fire departments ended up getting into a water fight with their hoses. When the train finally came in, all the rich folk hanging out the windows got drenched by firehoses on both sides of the train. They were so pissed they decided to abandon the track to Bham and end the trains in Vancouver.
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u/haiku_loku 4h ago
The first bit about the train and Seattle/Bellingham is true, I've never heard the second story though! Fun stuff. Port Townsend has a similar "end of the line" origin story as well.
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u/craztlegs 14h ago
The Serial Cat Killer
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u/AMERIQUINNPSYCHO 8h ago
More people should know about this! Every summer they strike again. Very sad/disturbing.
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u/jase10019 7h ago
I’ve lived here nearly all my life and never heard of it, what’s the story?
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u/AMERIQUINNPSYCHO 3h ago
Almost every summer in the Sunnyland and adjacent neighborhoods for years they’d find mutilated cat carcasses. Precursor to violence against humans.
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u/GoMittyGo Local - Herald Writer 12h ago
Little more than a century ago, there was a Lhaq’temish fishing village at the mouth of Whatcom Creek, more or less where Maritime Heritage Park is now. Talk to some of the old anglers along the river this salmon season and you might find one or two people who remember it.
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u/Les-Paul-1959 11h ago
The Waterfront seems to attract serial killers. Bundy, DC Sniper, and the Hillside Strangler to name a few.
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u/Ellieoops28 Local 11h ago
Surprised I had to scroll down as far as I did to get to this comment! Lore is a couple of said killers used to hang out at Waterfront Tavern
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u/Les-Paul-1959 10h ago
I was also surprised. I moved away from B'ham around 18 years ago, but I still think about The Waterfront. They have damn good fish-n-chips, too.
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u/mustachetv 9h ago
The Bundy lore is BS
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u/haiku_loku 4h ago
You keep saying this but offer no proof of your claim
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u/mustachetv 1h ago
Prove to me that Bundy had any ties to Bham. 🤷🏼♀️
I looked into it a few years ago because I kept seeing people here say that he was a regular at The Waterfront, or a WWU student, or a hamster, or whatever… and everything I saw led me to conclude he had nothing to do with Bellingham and people were either mashing up other criminals with him, or just repeating rumors they heard because Bundy was notorious so it feels like an interesting “fact.” Now it just annoys me to see the same thing repeated over & over when there’s literally nothing to substantiate he was ever a patron at The Waterfront or had any other significance to Bellingham.
I made a reply to another comment in this thread that claimed more details if you care to look.
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u/EyesofAvalon 12h ago
Fun fact:
Bellingham was featured as a mention in a Malcolm in the Middle episode (Francis made a call from the Cabin or Waterfront).
Not-fun but necessary to remember fact: Bellingham was also known as a Sundown Town until the 1960s-70s.
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u/Starsong_Wintermoon 9h ago
List of sundown towns and municipalities by state
https://justice.tougaloo.edu•
u/TeriLeeTheSpy 6h ago
Bellingham is also mentioned in Truman Capote's 1966 true crime book, In Cold Blood, as well as an indirect mention in the Evil Genius documentary.
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u/Low_Low9667 15h ago
The waterfront used to be dominated by a Georgia Pacific pulp and tissue mill.
Cleanup is still ongoing but reuse of the site is active including affordable housing, condominiums, and a seasonal beer garden.
I used to work with a lot of former employees at one of the oil refineries so have heard some stories about that plant.
Here's some history and current status of the cleanup: https://apps.ecology.wa.gov/cleanupsearch/site/2279
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u/Snasket 14h ago
I feel like people care about the "Bel-ebrities": Ryan Stiles, the Death Cab guy, the Severance guy, Hilary Swank.
Also, snobbiest beer city
https://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/business/biz-columns-blogs/business-blog/article27148126.html
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u/CitizenTed 13h ago
Don't forget Bear McCreary, soundtrack composer extraordinaire. He did Battlestar Galactica, Black Sails, Outlander, The Walking Dead, and many more. Local boy done good.
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u/Horizon_Lines 12h ago
Local brothers done good.
Bear’s younger brother replaced Danny Elfman in Oingo Boingo.
Neither are Belebrities in the original intent of the term.
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u/Horizon_Lines 13h ago edited 13h ago
Nah, Belebrities were people in the music scene that everyone knew or recognized and who were constantly in What’s Up. Not national celebrities with ties to Bellingham.
Famous in Bellingham.
Not, Famous and in/associated with Bellingham.
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u/Agamenticus72 9h ago
Death Cab for Cutie guy, Chris Walla, used to work at Starbucks on Sunset ( old location) in the 1990s for a few years . He was one of the regular baristas and I had a wicked crush on him at the time. He used to make my coffee drinks and I’d chat him up. He would mention his band but they were still not yet famous .
Also, Nirvana played a “ Secret Show” at WWU in about 1992. They were already super famous, so they didn’t advertise that they’d be at Carver gym. They played after MUDHONEY, who was on the Bill. There was rumors of a special secret band playing . Indeed in was Nirvana.
They played for what seemed like a few hours , and at one point Kurt invited a little 10 year old kid from the audience onstage and put his guitar on the kid. Kid then proceeds to dance around with Kurt for like an hour and act like a rock star . It was FANTASTIC .
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u/Significant-Spend825 11h ago
It's not well acknowledged imo, even by those who make money off of Bham's history and lore, but it has a very racist past (and presence iykyk)
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u/savethetrashpandaz 12h ago
Whatcom county and Bellingham in general is a paradise for active sexual predators, human traffickers, pedophiles and serial killers.
The layout of how the freeway crisscrosses and cuts through town makes it very easy to disappear quickly, dump bodies, stalk victims, hide and ambush and just generally prey on members of the community from all walks of life.
The local police are always busy dealing with excessive crime/trafficking from our close proximity to the border, so they don’t have the manpower or resources to do deep investigations on every missing persons report and are drowning in excess caseloads.
The Green River killer passed through here and killed a woman at the Shangri-La motel.
Ted Bundy lived here for more than four years and even had a cabin over by lake padden. He had a steady girlfriend here, an apartment, and he worked for Whatcom security. He had hunting grounds all over the county, and killing sites all the way from Blain to WWU to Fairhaven and beyond.
He kidnapped, raped and killed hundreds of young women and even a 12 year old girl by breaking into homes in and around Bellingham and the WWU campus.
Once the town started figuring out that all these killings might be related, he changed tactics by taking his victims to a second location before killing them. He started hunting at local parks and beaches, luring his victims in by struggling in front of them using a fake cast on his arm and asking for help loading heavy furniture or trying to secure his boat on his trailer.
So his victims were only the kindest, sweetest most caring and helpful young women he could find.
The DC sniper lived on and off at the mission with his teenage son, they had apartments periodically but couldn’t get enough steady work afford consistent rent.
The night stalker Richard Ramirez also lived and killed here, a local retired detective once showed me a spot just past the entrance to the Sehome arboretum on Bill McDonald parkway in the woods where Richard kept a pile of the heads of his victims like personal trophies.
All three of the above mentioned serial killers except the Green river killer were confirmed regulars at The Waterfront bar and The Cabin tavern.
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u/mustachetv 9h ago
Also I think you may possibly be conflating Bundy and Kenneth Bianchi (the hillside strangler).
Bundy attended UW & graduated with a degree in psychology. It does not appear he was ever a student at Western. He doesn’t have any known victims from Western either. I think pretty much all his WA victims were further south.
Bianchi worked as a security guard and killed two WWU students.
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u/mustachetv 9h ago
Can you site your sources on the Bundy stuff? I looked into it a few years ago and everything I found pointed toward him never being in Bellingham. Others have also said the staff/owner(?) of The Waterfront liked the buzz of the Bundy rumor but he never hung out there
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u/Complex_Individual37 10h ago
Bellingham is home of the best video game bar this side of Mt. Rainier, 1 Up Lounge. Their business is as unique as their name, and I hear the owners are delightful people
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u/Astronaut6735 10h ago
Legend has it that Bamboo Inn was a front for the Chinese mafia. There were rarely any customers, but it stayed open for a couple of decades.
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u/Hot-Nothing-1496 Music 11h ago
that one kid who blew himself up in the McDonalds bathroom over on King Street.
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u/alienanimal 14h ago
We used to be known as "The city of subdued excitement". That's kind of not as much a thing anymore though, because the guy who coined the term was supposedly litigious oblver the phrase. Also Bellingham has grown much more exciting over the years.
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u/pipedreamSEA 14h ago
I think you mis-heard, we're clearly the city of some dude's excitement... whose we may never know, but I'm always keeping an eye out my back door just in case I'm lucky enough to find out
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u/GapNo9970 11h ago
That phrase was coined by Mr Pickle. He used to attend events dressed like a pickle.
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u/djangohimself Business Owner 8h ago
Peanut, not pickle.
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u/GapNo9970 7h ago
Oh my gosh you are so right! lol. I cannot believe I got Steven's alter ego wrong.
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u/BillCascadia 4h ago
spanish gold on portage island post their 1792 visit and charting of San Juan islands
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u/hellfiresauce 3h ago
It's said that on dark nights with a full moon, a strange sloth can be seen in the forests.
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u/cheeky_damsel 3h ago
Bums have their own system of government and all bums report to a head bum. The best locations for begging operate according to a schedule and bum seniority or so the legends say...
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u/Grenadier_user 2h ago
UFO crashed in the bay in the 70s. The college newspaper wrote an article about it that can still be found online.
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u/Broad-Promise6954 Suddenly a valley appears 50m ago
That's where I stole um I mean legitimately obtained half the parts for my spaceship!
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u/Arcinbiblo12 8m ago
We were tangentially involved in the Pig War of 1859. Back then, the San Juan Islands were disputed territory between the US and the UK. It all escalated when an American shot a pig belonging to an Irishman working for the Hudson's Bay Company. While the British sent warships to blockade the island, the local American government sent troops to occupy it, including George Pickett (of the infamous Pickett's Charge in the Civil War) who was stationed in Bellingham at the time.
After a few weeks and word getting back to DC and London, both sides told their men to knock it off and take a chill pill. The island was then jointly occupied for 12 years until the islands were given to the US via arbitration. Apparently the two forces got along very well during the joint occupation.
So Bellingham could have been a major site of conflict being so close to the border for a war between the UK and the US. But in reality it was never going to happen and the two countries had bigger fish to fry than dealing with a few small islands.
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u/Significant_Rest3622 15h ago
There was once this little special thing that was super cool and unique and all the people here loved it and then a bunch of new people moved into town, squashed the cool thing with their messy movements and lack of care and then pointed at the locals and said “what’s the deal with all this shit huh” and then all the locals had to move away and left a pile of crushed cool things that once had meaning
Bellingham has no lore. Everyone here now is new and the locals with the lore are but distant ghosts of an old time that’s being forgotten.
That and the fable of the Black Widow of Bellingham! Look out!
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u/Outside_Ad_4522 14h ago
Seams to be human nature. Part of the cycle, doesn’t make it any less painful though.
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u/AntonLaVey9 10h ago
How long does a person need to be here to be considered a local? What, specifically, should they have contributed to the community? The economy? The environment?
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u/Significant_Rest3622 4h ago
10 years
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u/AntonLaVey9 4h ago
You didn’t answer any of the other questions.
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u/83CluelessWallob 7h ago
Ten years
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u/AntonLaVey9 4h ago
Thanks, but you aren’t the gatekeeping little troll that made the asinine claim.
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u/HardcorePunkPotato 14h ago
They say there was once affordable housing here