Who’s Your City?
Sure, he says, some people look at him and his friends and say, “‘Ah, stupid scumbag, get a job.’ But I know what it’s like to bust my butt 18 to 20 hours a day. I don’t want to do that anymore. You’d be amazed by how many people out here are multimillionaires. They might ask you for something to eat just to see what kind of person you are.”
So, Arcata or Eureka? “I don’t have much to say about Eureka,” says Yediy. “I just don’t know of any facilities there. I mean here” — he sweeps a hand at the tidily maintained plaza — “it’s like, ‘Welcome.’ The community here obviously likes us.”
F Street Plaza, Old Town Eureka, Friday afternoon. The wind’s blowing from the south, tinged with salt, and a man crosses F Street engulfed in a stream of rainbow soap bubbles pumping from a machine by the Sea Around Us shop. “You see ’em too, right?” he asks a person crossing the other way. “You see ’em? The bubbles?” The passerby nods. “Good,” says the man.
In the cobbled plaza, kids chase pigeons and play in the decorative fountain, the woman with the jewelry stall smokes a cigarette, and a man strums a guitar atop the fountain’s circular platform. In a short alley leading to a parking lot, three grubby looking men sit on a curb between a Dumpster and the public bathrooms.
“The cops are meaner in Eureka,” says Blain Sutton.
“You can’t sell a leather coat in Arcata,” says Jim Stark. “But you can cross the street there without getting run over.” He was run over once here in Eureka, riding his bike — claims the cops interviewed everyone but him. “They just left me in the road because they thought me a ‘transient.’ I’ve been in Humboldt County for 30 years.”
“I live in Eureka,” says Sutton. “I just don’t have a roof over my head.” He lifts a hand and casts his eyes heavenward. “The sky, sis.”
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Label GMOs Signature Gathering Training
meetings / 4 p.m. Sun Yi's Academy of Tae Kwon Do, 1215 Giuntoli Lane, Arcata. Help gather valid signatures to get the 'California Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act' on the 2012 ballot. E-mail northernhumboldtlabelgmos@hotmail.com. 223-0424.
Open Celtic Music Session
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Nonviolence Action Camp
etc. / 10 a.m. Chinmaya Mission near Piercy. Weekend-long direct action orientation features workshops, role playing, seminars, ceremonies and field trips. Bring food, bedding, warm clothes, signs, banners, bikes, drums, acoustic instruments. Pre-register. saverichardsongrove.org. 932-5898.
Audubon Society Field Trip
outdoors / 9 a.m. Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge, 1020 Ranch Road, Loleta. Meet at Refuge Visitor Center off Hookton Road. Leisurely, two- to three-hour trip intended for people wanting to learn birds of Humboldt Bay area. 822-3613.
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