By Tan Vinh
Seattle Times staff reporter
BELLINGHAM — Sandwiched between mountains and water, this college town is blessed with a heck of a front and back yard, one of the state's top cities for outdoor enthusiasts.
The city itself? Well, a lot of outsiders tend to treat it more as a rest stop after swishing down Mount Baker or riding the mountain-biking mecca Galbraith Mountain.
But Bellingham has been working to revitalize its downtown and draw more tourists, especially now that the 2010 Winter Olympics will start soon in Vancouver, B.C.
Bellingham can point to about $30 million in new downtown cultural projects: $18 million for a new art museum, $9 million to refurbish the historic Mount Baker Theatre, and $3.2 million in public and private money for a new independent art-house cinema.
Those projects, along with plans to add more public art and wider sidewalks, make up the heart of the "Cultural District" in downtown.
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