Bellingham named night-owl city

The “City of Subdued Excitement” is no longer considered that subdued from excitement--at least after-hours. In a recent study published in FindTheHome.com, a national real estate search engine, Bellingham sits 42nd out of 50 cities in the United States who stay up the latest. Most of those cities happen to be college towns or other cities known for late-night entertainment like casinos. Among some of the top cities were Eugene, Oregon, Burlington, Vermont and Atlantic City, New Jersey. The study was based on how many people start their workdays between the hours of noon and midnight, and for Bellingham, that percentage of people is 19.1 percent, according to the survey. Popular late-night spot AB Crepes is open until 2 a.m. Wednesday and Thursday and 2:30 a.m. Friday and Saturday. Many of the employees start their shifts around 9 p.m. AB Crepes co-owner Bayly Peterson said. “The way the businesses have been developing in Bellingham have been catering toward that crowd of people [who stay up late] and we definitely are one of those,” Peterson said. Chauntel White, a waitress at The Horseshoe Cafe, thinks Bellingham made it onto the list because it’s a “super college town.” “We have more colleges than most towns this size,” White said. “People around the same age probably stay up; there’s a lot more people out that are younger.” White said that she usually starts work between 6 and 7 p.m. and the Horseshoe is open till 2 a.m. during the week and 4 a.m. on weekends. The busiest times of the night are between midnight and 4 a.m. for weekends and around 1 a.m. later in the week, White said. “I think [people in Bellingham stay up late] because there’s a lot of places downtown that cater to college students that have to stay up late studying,” senior Aubrey Flintoff  said. Flintoff also said that Bellingham has a certain kind of nightlife. Even on weekdays, it isn’t unusual to see people out at the bars. Senior Taylor Ingram said that many of the businesses have a “homey” feel which makes it easier to find places to study. “If I don’t want to study at home, I know there’s places that I can still be comfortable but be in a different setting than my normal environment,” Ingram said. Junior John Perkins said students populate a big portion of Bellingham and that students simply tend to stay up late. “It’s definitely part of my lifestyle,”  Perkins said. Perkins said that he doesn’t have a job at the moment, but if he did, his preferred hours would be later.   “If I could come in around 10 or 11, that would be pretty sweet,” Perkins said.  

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