Clamoring for Calmer, Cheaper, Greener Pastures, Fed-Up Seattleites Are Moving to Bellingham

On a brilliant, sun-dazzled morning, Fairhaven, a compact and charmingly quirky Bellingham neighborhood, is coming to life. Everything looks fresh and clean, as if newly painted: the air, the buttery light, and the deep blue bay waters just a few sloping blocks away, where a ferry is being readied to haul backpack-toting travelers to Alaska. It is an early June day, and a few old hippies are poring over the paper at Tony’s Coffee House, a magnet for the town’s bohemians, and marveling at the saga of the two murderers who escaped from a concrete fortress in New York’s Adirondack Mountains.