Welcome to the York Neighborhood Association Website!
Revised 2025-09-22 1640
The York Neighborhood Association (YNA) exists to preserve and enhance the community and engage citizens in civic affairs. We work to promote a safe, comfortable, and thriving urban neighborhood bordering downtown Bellingham, Washington.
As a neighborhood, we are involved in planning for the future, historic preservation, traffic and pedestrian safety, social events, and park improvements. If you live or work in the York Neighborhood, we hope you’ll get involved!
Membership:Any resident, property owner, or business owner of the York Neighborhood who attends at least one YNA meeting per calendar year is considered a member.
Use our contact page to subscribe to the YNA List and indicate other interests. And, to help us put on community events throughout the year such as the Annual Picnic, the Christmas Caroling Party & Horse Wagon Rides, the York Yard Crawl, and more, please consider making a donation, whether by mailing a check or using our Venmo page!
Upcoming Events
YNA Board Meeting: September 24 October 8
Date/Time: Fourth Wednesday Each Month (except August & December), 6:30pm meeting
Next Meeting: Wednesday, September 24, 2025 October 8
Location - In Person: Nelson’s Market—514 Potter Street
Agenda TBD
Questions? Contact: Colin Beazley.
Recent Events
Date/Time: Thursday, September 4, 2025, 6pm
Location: 1344 Grant Street (to see Dani’s garden)
Hosted by the . We are excited to meet and to foster dreams and ruminations of tentative gardeners.
Bring:
Please: no pets. Questions? Please contact us via or on Facebook.
Date/Time: Saturday, September 6, 2025, 4pm to 7pm, at Harriet Spanel Park (corner of Whatcom and Grant streets)
Jointly hosted this year by the Sehome Neighborhood Association! All York and Sehome neighbors are invited.
Local organizations and election candidates are welcome to have a presence at the picnic, whether in the form of a table or booth or just socializing.
Also, the York Neighborhood Association will have snazzy York bill caps available for sale at the event, for $25 apiece!
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Date/Time: Saturday, July 26, 2025, 4pm–8pm
Location: all around the neighborhood (and nearby!)
Printed maps of the nearly 50 event locations will be available at Nelson’s Market (514 Potter Street) Saturday morning; toilet and garbage facilities will also be there
Play music, show art, have a dance party or a yard sale—any activity* you’d like to share with the community! Learn more and sign up to host a Yard Thing at yorkyardcrawl.fun
*Just keep it safe and legal.
DETAILS HERE
Date/Time: Saturday, June 28, 2025, 8:30am until filled (and it fills quickly!)
Location: Parking Lot of Nelson’s Market, 514 Potter Street
Sponsored by: Sanitary Services Company, Inc. (SSC), Republic Services, Nelson’s Market, and York Neighborhood Association.
DETAILS HERE
2022 Yorker Volunteers Thanking Sponsors at Dumpster
Come join us Wednesday, May 28, for our General Membership Meeting. The agenda for the meeting will be posted once our speakers have been confirmed.
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 28, 2025, 6:30pm meeting
Location - In Person: Nelson’s Market—514 Potter Street
Rock Hill Work Party volunteers of May 2022
Date/Time: Saturday, May 31, 2025, 9am to noon
Location: 1300 Iron Street
This hidden park in the York neighborhood needs some love! Join the City and your neighbors in in removing Himalayan Blackberry and sprucing up the Butterfly Garden. All ages and abilities welcome. Participants under age 16 must be accompanied by a parent/guardian. Tools, gloves, and instructions are provided. Please dress for the weather and wear sturdy shoes.
Additional information will be emailed to registered participants. If you sign up, please show up!
Register with the Parks Department early. Space is limited! (Registration is optional, but all volunteers will be asked to sign in at the event.)
Questions? Contact pkvolunteers@cob.org or 360-778-7105
This event is Parkscriptions Certified!
Date/Time: Thursday to Sunday, April 17–20, 2025, 5:30pm
Location: Nelson’s Market picnic table—514 Potter Street
Date/Time: Thursday, March 20, 2025, 5:30pm
Location: Plantas Nativa—315 East Champion Street
Date/Time: Saturday, December 14th, 2024, 5pm to 8pm
Click here for details!
Benefiting Bellingham Food Bank. Sponsored by the York Neighborhood Association, Nelson’s Market, On-Site Computer Services, Edward Jones, and Dixie Cheeks.
Thanks to YNA Board member Élan Engel for the 2022 event photos!
Got more for us to post? Please
Date/Time: Saturday, December 7, 2024 (the first weekend in December), 4pm
Location to be announced announced the day before
We could use:
Have no fear—people can help out. This will be BYOB. If you’re willing to take part, please contact us at or 360-220-5550 or ask the York Wine and Roses Garden Club on Facebook.
Date/Time: Saturday October 5, 2024, ~3:15pm
Location: Nelson’s Market—514 Potter Street
Bellingham Food Bank will set up their box truck Chili at Nelson’s for York Neighborhood gleaning (fruit/harvest) donations—no groundfalls allowed, but a great opportunity to pick those final apples or tomatoes to share with those in need.
The Food Bank is open to all; they have no eligibility requirements except that you need food. They will have volunteers and staff on hand to share info about their activities and projects.
Date/Time: Saturday, September 21, 2024, 9am to noon
Location: Whatcom & Grant Streets
We’d love for you, your friends, and neighbors to join us. Our lovely AmeriCorps Restoration Educators Sky and Allison from the Parks Department team will lead the event. We’ll likely focus on weeding, mulching, and other stewardship activities within the “Franklin Street trail island” in celebration of National Clean Up Day! Also, the Parks team will be visiting the site on Friday, September 20th, at 2pm to discuss the work-party details. Please join us if you can!
Additional information will be emailed to registered participants. If you sign up, please show up!
Register with the Parks Department early. Space is limited! (Registration is optional, but all volunteers will be asked to sign in at the event.)
Questions? Contact pkvolunteers@cob.org or 360-778-7105
This event is Parkscriptions Certified!
Date/Time: April 26–28, 2024
Location - In Person: Nelson’s Market—514 Potter Street
Hosted by the . Got plants in your yard that need to be split, pulled, or condensed? Bring them to share with your neighbors at the table in front of Nelson’s Market. Questions? Ask the York Wine and Roses Garden Club on Facebook.
Date/Time: Thursday, June 13, 2024, 5pm
Location: 1410 Ellis Street (in the backyard)
Hosted by the . We are excited to meet and to foster dreams and ruminations of tentative gardeners.
Bring:
See what others bring, and partake. Questions? Please contact us via or on Facebook.
Date/Time: Tuesday, January 23, 2024, at Noon
Location - In Person: Nelson’s Market—514 Potter Street
To discuss the development of the Interactive Walking Map.
Rock Hill Park Refresh
Did you know that Rock Hill Park is due for a refresh? It is! The City of Bellingham is partnering with the York Neighborhood Association to make sure everyone that wants to get involved has a voice.
Let us know what’s important to you when it comes to updating your neighborhood park!
Check out the 60% Stage designs presented by the City’s Planning Department at the YNA General Meeting in February 2025! (Illustrations by Great Western Recreation)
Student Tips
Welcome to incoming York student residents!
Nestled between Downtown Bellingham and the freeway, the York neighborhood is a friendly, green, fun, peaceful haven…an eclectic mix of families and students, homeowners and renters, parks and pets, and a variety of businesses ranging from grocery stores, restaurants, and breweries to healthcare practitioners, social services, and auto shops.
Every fall, a new group of students arrive who don’t really know where they have landed. Check out the flyer at right for some tips for how you can make your time among us a good one.
Moving Out? Pack It Out!—Education campaign against refuse in our greenways and alleys
YNA’s 2020 Dumpster Day and WWU’s 2020 Move Out Madness were unable to be scheduled due to COVID-19 response & concerns. The first annual “Moving Out? Pack It Out!” campaign is providing alternatives.
The campaign name/slogan is based on the time-tested Leave No Trace—Pack It In, Pack It Out campaign for our wildernesses.
Think of this as an Urban Leave No Trace (except memories).
Those interested in a yard sign or poster for your window, please send
Signs will be picked up after the campaign.
This campaign is a partnership between the City of Bellingham, Western Washington University, and the York Neighborhood Association.
Trees of York
The City of Bellingham plants thousands of trees on public property each year and is a proud Tree City USA community. Why trees? They provide a wealth of benefits for our community, including shade, cleaner air, wildlife habitat, and more. In 2024, the City began investing in efforts to encourage more tree planting on private property to help grow Bellingham’s tree canopy cover citywide, especially in neighborhoods with fewer trees. While the average canopy cover in Bellingham is 40%, York Neighborhood is much lower than that at 17.7% (learn more about this in the State of the Urban Forest Report, available on the City’s website at cob.org/wp-content/uploads/220428_Bellingham-State-of-the-Urban-Forest-Report_v2.pdf).
To help increase this number, the York Neighborhood Association applied for and received a Small & Simple Grant from the City to fund a tree giveaway. York property owners can sign up to receive a tree, free, from our local native plant nursery, Plantas Nativa, by emailing . Trees will be awarded on a first-come, first-served basis. You will have a list of eligible species to choose from and can pick up your trees in March or April 2025.
Want a tree sooner? The City will be giving away free shore pine and paper birch trees at the Bellingham Farmers Market on Saturday, November 30. Look for their blue tent next to the goat statue. Once you receive a tree, visit the City’s website for planting tips!
Don’t have your own property to plant a tree? No problem! Join a volunteer work party to plant trees in local trails and parks, including Rock Hill Park in January.
To protect Bellingham’s largest and most significant trees, the City also recently passed an emergency Landmark Tree Ordinance that prevents these trees from being removed or damaged without City approval. You can help grow the Landmark Tree Inventory by nominating a tree online at cob.org/landmark-tree-nomination, but first see if it’s already on the map at cob.org/services/environment/trees/tree-protection.
Big thanks from the YNA to Stefanie Cilinceon, Communications and Outreach Coordinator, City of Bellingham Public Works Department, for writing this for us!
Use these maps to explore the historic trees of the York neighborhood as well as the trees of Harriet Spanel Park.
Lights On, Please
Porch lights brighten up the neighborhood and deter unsavory behavior. An LED bulb will save tons of energy ($), alleviating the guilt of leaving outside lights on. And your mail carrier and delivery people will be grateful, too, for safer navigation to and from your door!
Samish Way News
October 2019—Ground Broken! — Take a few minutes to check out the former Aloha Motel site, along Samish Way between Otis, Laurel, Abbott, and Maple streets! At the end of October, the Bellingham Housing Authority hosted the groundbreaking for the new building which will be constructed over the next year and a half, with leasing to start in early 2021.
This building will house fixed-rent apartments, as well as street-level commercial tenants, and was designed to serve as part of the Samish Way Urban Village Plan (2009). The housing authority will have proprietary interest in this new building, as they will be be among the very first tenants!
The development will be just across Samish Way from the York Neighborhood’s south leg, so it will be part of our community.
Regarding the project during the COVID-19 response period:
“Governor Inslee’s Stay Home - Stay Healthy Proclamation specifically identifies construction of low-income housing as essential work. As you’ve probably noticed, Dawson Construction has prominently posted “Essential Work Site” banners on the construction fence. They have also implemented an impressively sophisticated set of social distancing/pandemic safety protocols in accordance with Centers for Disease Control guidelines.
At this point, construction continues to move forward and the City is conducting inspections as required by code. Feel free to keep your fingers crossed for us as we move forward!”
—Brien Thane, Bellingham & Whatcom County Housing Authorities, April 3, 2020
If you have a presentation you would like to give or a question to place before Yorkers and neighbors, we would love to hear from you. Please contact our or , and we will discuss opportunities. Please note meeting time can be limited, and contacting us well in advance really helps us allocate time for your topic.
Click here for the latest issue of The Yorker newsletter (September 2025)