More Background on Tip Johnson

About Tip Johnson

Hi,

I've been active around Bellingham since 1973. I'm one of those folks that came here to go to school, fell in love, got busy and never left. I was born in Seattle and grew up in Washington, with a few years in Ann Arbor, Michigan, during Junior High and High School. I moved back to Seattle after High School and soon found my way to Bellingham.

During my first week here, I went to work salvaging a barn from Cascade Natural Gas on Iowa street. WIth two others, we hauled it up behind Fairhaven College and reassembled it for the budding Outback Farm. I eventually graduated from Fairhaven College at W.W.U., with a concentration in "Community Systems and Structures". My senior project was a proposal for a 23 acre floodplain park called "The Heart of Happy Valley". It is now known as the Connelly Creek Nature Area. That project turned into an eight year policy struggle to convince the City that buying openspace would cost less if done before the public provided streets and drainage for development.

On February 2, 1981, I went to the Port with a plan to rebuild the Taylor Street Dock and integrate the Fairhaven District into the waterfront. They weren't interested. The Port had a policy of heavy industry with the intent of attracting a container terminal to Fairhaven. In 1984, after failing to interest the Port in a community small boat facility, I started Fairhaven Boatworks at Boulevard Park. I wanted to provide public, waterborne access to south Bellingham and Chuckanut Bays, and to be a resource for small,

This early rendering of Fairhaven Boatworks, by the late Russian Impressionist Betsy Raab depicts the colorful, friendly atmosphere it engendered on the waterfront.

traditional and recreational watercraft. The Port got a new director and several staff that year and I convinced them to let me move to Fairhaven. I operated the business until 1998. My sister Charlotte and her son Forrest now own and operate this now legendary business.

During those years, I also served two four year terms on the Bellingham City Council, representing the Southside. This job came with a number of appointments to various boards and committees, like the Port's Marina Advisory Committee, the Library and Museum Boards, the Health Board, etc. I was pleased to serve on the board of the Whatcom County Opportunity Council for the entire eight years of my council tenure.

After the Council and the Boatworks, I worked on a congressional campaign before doing consulting work for a transportation company that was interested in innovative service delivery programs for transit systems. I worked alongside folks from the Department of Commerce, the Federal Transit Administration and international companies on trade missions to Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Nigeria. I did work related to other programs in Chad and Cameroon and had the opportunity to do additional research in London and Mexico.

My employer's ethics turned out to be somewhat questionable. After a harrowing escapade in Nigeria, I decided that a docile downtown job was better suited to raising a passle of young daughters. I went to work for River Oak Properties, a property management company. I still work there. It is phasing out of downtown property and into innovative environmental technology.

Along the way, I have stayed involved in the community, standing up for public property rights at Hoag's Pond and fighting for equitable water rates with the Water Rate Referendum, editing www.FriendsofWhatcom.com and, first of all, being a family.

Tip (left), his partner Reis (right) and daughters (left to right) April,
Rowan, Eden and Kari. Miya was gone boating. (Photo: Irene Hinkle)

I'll be adding to this website over the coming days to give you a better sense of me and my candidacy, and to keep you informed about the race. I hope you will see me as I see myself - a long-time public interest advocate with a will to make things better. If you do, I hope you will support me in this effort to win a seat at the Port of Bellingham Commission.

Your vote does count. I'd like to count it among mine! Together we can make a difference.

Thank you !