Click on the image to enlarge the map.
This is an interesting plot of the addresses of WWU students throughout Bellingham based on 2005 data. Although the title at the top of the map indicates that these are student addresses, it is unclear if there are multiple students attributable to some addresses. There are about 4,000 "students" accounted for by the map according to the text boxes for each neighborhood. Since there are about 3,000 to 3,500 students housed at the campus, there seems to be a discrepancy of 5,000 or more students for whom there is no accounting. Perhaps all of those live in the county, be it Whatcom or, perhaps, Skagit. Maybe all 5000 or so use PO Boxes or home addresses in other cities throughout the Pacific Northwest. The figures suggest to me that there are are thousands more grouping at the same addresses plotted, a situation we have come to know as illegal rooming houses. In any event, the map demonstrates the "infill" produced by the university which took place with little planning and which continues in the same way. Could the university publish a map with the true, physical addresses of all its students so that the city managers and the city council become aware of the extent of the problem which is all too apparent to the citizens?
1 comment:
It would be very interesting to compare this to a map of housing affordability? I bet student density would match up pretty closely.
Also interestingly, at least they are going to school! That increases their odds of not needing affordable housing in the future. Meanwhile, tuition has become so expensive that they don't really have a choice.
Clearly the University should build more on-campus housing.
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