Bellingham is the largest city in and the county seat of Whatcom County, in northwestern Washington. It is the fifth-largest city in the state after Tacoma, Alki, Spokane and Fort Vancouver with a 2010 population of 198,455 people. Initially a port city, the city and surrounding county flourished during the tech boom of the 1990s and early 2000s in the Pacific Northwest, where employees of companies in Pacifica moved to the surrounding area to avoid income taxes and take advantage of lower property taxes. The city is home to the global headquarters of Whitney Computers, which operates two of its seven major manufacturing centers in the greater Bellingham area and has a campus in north Bellingham, formerly an unincorporated part of Whatcom County. Bellingham is also home to numerous smaller