Crash and Burn
You know what the takeaway is? It’s how ridiculous and silly we’ve looked these many years, blaming “environmentalists” or “no-growthers” or what have you for all our supposed recent economic woes (which don’t look all that woeful now). Look at it with the perspective we have been recently inherited — the economic debates of our very recent past look like rival anthills squabbling over a crust of toast. All the while a category one hurricane was bearing down.
What was the nail in the coffin of Pacific Lumber? Not EPIC or the Sierra Club, but the wordwide slump in the softwood lumber market. What was the cause of skyrocketing Humboldt County home prices? Not Mark Lovelace or Kirk Girard, but the same bubble that skyrocketed home prices everywhere in America. What shut down the pulp mill? Not people who objected to the smell, but a global pulp glut. Amazing as it may seem, international capitalism could be more powerful than the hippies who bought the house across the street.
On the bright side: We’re a week late, here, but let it be known that the Journal‘s editorial staff is thrilled to welcome Ryan Burns aboard. Burns, a Humboldt County near-native — he went to high school here, anyway — lately manned the business desk at the Times-Standard, where he did a smash-up job, providing readers with both startling scoops (the federal seizure of Eureka’s Humboldt Merchant Services) and soulful storytelling (the decades-ago fistfight between com-symp writer Jack London and timber baron Stanwood Murphy at a Eureka nightspot). We hope to provide him with a larger canvas on which to shine.
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on the cover
Railroad!
Proposed lines ‘set rich blood a-tingling’ in early 1900s
Some Other Proposed North Coast Railroads
Choo-choo Fantasies
Exposing this east-west rail nonsense
seven-o-heaven
Undeterred Will
Will chides Andrew for lack of attention to detail and makes plans for his inevitable victory.
Recent the town dandy
Jan. 13, 2011
The Golden Boy
Dec. 23, 2010
Wish Lists
Dec. 16, 2010
The Train Geeks Return
Today
44th Annual Kinetic Grand Championship Race
STAFF PICK / events, art, outdoors, sports, for kids, free / 9 a.m.-6 p.m. A 3-day, 42-mile kinetic sculpture race over land, sand, mud and water! LeMans start at the Noon Whistle on the Arcata Plaza. Follow the race through Manila, Eureka and into Ferndale on Memorial Day for the Glorious Finish. kineticgrandchampionship.com. 889-3024.
Flow 2012 Fashion Show
STAFF PICK / events / 8 p.m. Arcata Theatre Lounge, 1036 G St. Student designed and produced clothing. Fundraiser for Arcata Arts Institute. $35/$25 students. artsinstitute.net. 822-1220.
Woodside Preschool's Rummage/Bake Sale
events / 8 a.m.-noon. Woodside Preschool, 900 Hodgson St, Eureka. www.woodsidepreschool.com. 445-9132.
Lanphere Dunes Restoration
STAFF PICK / outdoors / 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Meet at Pacific Union School. Help remove non-native invasives at the Lanphere Dunes Unit of the Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Tools and gloves provided, wear work clothes and bring water. Carpool to the protected site. 444-1397.
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