After 12 years of more talk than action, work on Bellingham’s central waterfront is finally underway

he early buzz was all lucky-duck pluckiness: We can make the entire thing a signature green space! The public will own all the land! Think not of tall buildings, but tall trees and higher purposes. Nearby Western Washington University can be connected — by a cloud-skirting gondola! Etc.

But the blank canvas presented by the mill’s demise revealed an instructive lesson about a town where passion sometimes overwhelms practicality, and folks are not always on the same page: Market realities often dampen enthusiasm and can even nurture paralysis.