THE REAL BLOG

Real Briefings Civic Commentary | Real Housing Reform Initiative | realhousingreform.org Mayor Kim Lund's 2026 State of the City address is a polished nine-minute video covering Bellingham's past year and the road ahead. It's worth watching. It's also worth reading against the city's own documents — because when you do, the gap between the vision language on screen and the numbers buried in the city's housing plan is no rounding error. It is $133 million dollars a year. The T

“Now you see it — now you don’t.” In most magic shows, the illusionist hides a rabbit. In Bellingham’s Planning Department, they hide developable land. The Setup City planners love to talk about “limited buildable land.”They point to charts and maps that show a shrinking supply, then use that “evidence” to justify higher density, smaller lots, and new fees. But behind the curtain lies a trick that would make Houdini proud: they don’t just measure land — they make it vanish on