When local blog The Humboldt Herald last week broke the news that Bank of America was suing Eureka businessman/political lightning rod Rob Arkley and his wife Cherie for $50 million, it was tempting to shrug off the item. After all, hounding Arkley is more or less the raison d’etre for Heraldo, the Herald’s fictitious author(s). But at least two aspects of this story make it newsworthy: First, Arkley’s holdings, if not the man himself, are inextricably linked to Humboldt County — from the 400-odd people employed by his Eureka-based company Security National, to his oft-cited civic philanthropy, to his ownership of Eureka’s Balloon Track property, the controversial would-be home of the Home Depot-anchored Marina Center development. And second, the defendant in the case is not some easily severed corporate tentacle; it’s the Arkleys themselves.
The suit, which was filed in U.S. District Court’s Northern California District in March, reads like a cautionary retelling of the housing bubble collapse. The Arkleys’ alleged debt to Bank of America, which ballooned to more than $124 million in 2007, was generated by the bubble’s deflation.
It began with what’s called a “warehouse facility agreement” between Bank of America and an Arkley company called Sequoia Funding Trust (with a third company — Kitty Hawk Funding Corp. — acting as go-between). “Warehousing” deals work like this: A financial institution (B of A, in this case) extends a short-term, revolving line of credit to a mortgage banker (like Sequoia). This credit line is secured by something tangible, usually real estate. In this case, a large pool of mortgage loans was secured primarily by single- and multi-family residential properties in 44 states.
When all goes well in such deals, the mortgage banker services the loans for a while (sending bills, collecting payments and interest, etc.) before selling them off to a permanent investor, making a tidy sum in the process. (The Arkleys used another of their many companies — SN Servicing Corp. — to service the loans.) Unfortunately for the Arkleys, the timing for this particular transaction couldn’t have been worse.
When the deal originated — “on or about May 27, 2005,” according to the lawsuit — U.S. housing prices were soaring, with scant indication that a collapse was just months away. In retrospect, it was perhaps the worst time in American history to invest in real estate, yet credit had never been more available. Bank of America granted Sequoia Funding Trust a revolving loan with an upper credit limit of $255 million. It’s unclear from the suit just how much of that credit Sequoia used. What is clear, at least judging by the complaint, is that the company borrowed more than it could repay.
The original loan, which was scheduled to end on Aug. 19, 2006, was amended four times in the first 18 months, each time delaying the due date. Then, on July 25, 2007, with $124.4 million overdue, according to the complaint, the deal got personal. As an inducement for Bank of America to sign yet another forbearance agreement, Arkley offered an “absolute and unconditional” personal guarantee of repayment, according to the lawsuit. In other words, the debt no longer belonged to Sequoia Funding Trust; it belonged to Robin P. Arkley, II. He further promised to pay any attorneys’ fees arising from enforcement of the deal, and to maintain a personal net worth of at least $50 million until the debt was paid in full, the suit states.
By fall of 2007, the nation’s housing market was in virtual free-fall, and secondary mortgage deals — like warehousing agreements — were spiraling into complete chaos. Starting in late September 2007, the suit alleges, Arkley began defaulting on the loan, in part because the properties that were serving as collateral on the debt were now worth less than 80 percent of the amount due.
Such declines in real estate values were virtually unprecedented, and banks had their hands full dealing with the epidemic of loan defaults. Following “The Arkley Guarantee,” the complaint alleges, Bank of America granted 12 more forbearance agreements on the debt, which by 2009 had been whittled down to $89.3 million. The bank’s final grace period expired on July 22, 2009. A month later, B of A sold the mortgage loans at public auction. The winning bid (the bank’s own, as it turned out) represented less than half the outstanding principal balance.
B of A then subtracted the purchase price from Arkley’s debt, leaving $49,928,351, “plus accrued interest, fees, costs of collection, and enforcement,” the suit claims. Which is where things currently stand. Bank of America is suing the Arkleys for breach of contract and seeking “not less than” the $50 million allegedly due, plus an untold amount in interest, fees and attorney bills. Arkley’s Security National Corp. issued a press release that said virtually nothing about the case beyond professing an expectation for a speedy resolution.
Of what significance is this suit beyond fodder for gossip? Perhaps none, though taken in conjunction with the FDIC’s closure and subsequent investigation of the Arkley-owned Statewide Bank in Louisiana in March, the incident raises questions about the overall health of Arkley’s portfolio and the security of his local holdings. According to the county tax collector’s office, Arkley has not paid last year’s property taxes on the Balloon Track property, which total $29,715, or the current year’s, which amount to $24,777. He owes roughly $15,000 to the City of Eureka for consulting work on the Marina Center’s Environmental Impact Report, according to Eureka City Manager David Tyson, though Tyson added that in February, Arkley made a lump payment of $162,000 to the city. “I’m confident they’ll pay the balance,” he said.
Next month, Bank of America will ask a District Court judge for a “writ of attachment,” which would render Arkley’s local holdings (excluding the Balloon Track, which is owned by CUE VI, one of his corporate tentacles) into the custody of the U.S. Marshal Service pending a resolution to the case. A case management conference is scheduled for July 29.
This article appears in Three for Fourth.
It was tempting to shrug off a major story just because HH scooped you? Ya’ll have issues, no pun intended.
If poetic justice has its way, they’ll have no choice but to move into an overpriced one-bedroom apartment without rent control, right across the street from the same sprawling Home Depot where they have to work for minimum wage indefinitely to help pay their debt.
I may not be Arkley’s biggest fan (or even a fan for that matter) BUT the previous comment is just sad. If the Arkleys were to stop supporting community projects it would be a bummer to loose the zoo, the Arkley center and so much more!
I may not be Arkley’s biggest fan (or even a fan for that matter) BUT the previous comment is just sad. If the Arkleys were to stop supporting community projects it would be a bummer to loose the zoo, the Arkley center and so much more!
I beg to differ, kit. A philanthropic real estate investor is a contradiction in terms. They openly profit on everybody else’s cost of living going up. Tidy sums at that, as the article states. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer.
So where has everyone else been when it comes to philanthropy? I would argue there are quite a few people in town who could afford it–or who could pool their resources with others to afford it–and they COULD do the same kind of philanthropic works that the Arkleys have done.
So why haven’t they?
Instead we have a town with no real DRAW. Why the heck would tourists even want to come here any more? Yeah, we’re getting the Eureka Inn back, but that’s just one thing. Without the Arkley Center, or the Zoo…you have the Samoa Cookhouse and that’s about it.
Oh and Old Town, but how many shops have we lost there lately?
Do we really want our hard-earned dollars going to Home Depot in Redding–along with the taxes? Because trust me, I know a lot of people who go to Lowes and Home Depot over there, even though it’s 3 hours away. And oh surprise, surprise, they stay in the hotels, eat at the restaurants, and even shop at the local stores while they are at it. And Eureka loses ALL of that income.
Why aren’t the City Fathers doing anything about THAT?
Have you ever heard of the concept of buying local so that the money STAYS local? Yeah I know, Home Depot is a national chain. Oooh, soooo evil.
However, so are Sears, J.C. Penney’s, KMart, Marie Callender’s, Red Lion, Chevron, Costco, Michael’s, Safeway, CVS, Starbucks, KFC, McD’s, Burger King, Subway, The Dollar Store, Victoria’s Secret…but hey, they all exist quite well in this town. Why are those national retailers accepted, and the Home Depot shunned?
Please. It’s not WalMart. Although even that would provide what we need: JOBS!
You need some kind of tax base, and they provide it. Surprise, surprise, these evil nasty national big box stores provide EMPLOYMENT.
Good luck finding any employment when the shops all close down one by one because certain members of this community don’t like “big retailers”.
I would take a hundred new jobs in this town, plus the revenue from the taxes, the salaries, the medical plans, etc. from a Home Depot, over a nothing eyesore patch of ground that provides no income and no benefit to the community.
And a hundred new jobs means more buying power on the part of those employees. And lo and behold! More people would come HERE to shop for their building supplies, instead of going to Redding and giving them the revenue.
And Pierson’s doesn’t need to freak out, they could provide specialty items that Home Depot didn’t provide; they could target their business a different way. It means CHANGE, which means GROWTH. But nobody wants to change a darn thing, or grow.
I’m tired of anti-growth attitudes, it’s destroying the town. As my brother likes to say, “Welcome to Eureka: The Home of the Newly Wed and Nearly Dead.”
And when it comes right down to it, at least the Arkleys have done something to better the town. It’s so nice how people take what they can grab with one hand while lashing out with the other.
Quite frankly, KC, it is painfully obvious you are talking out your ass. That’s a polite way of saying you’re lying. You do not know lots of people who drive a minimum of 6 hours to shop at home depot. I’m 35 years old and have worked for independent contractors most of my life…I defy anybody who claims they do so to list what they buy and comparative expenses. It’s an outright lie that humboldt is losing money by it.
There’s more than enough proof of home depot’s bad business practices on the internet, I encourage anybody who wants to take sides in the matter to look into them. Please attempt to categorically dismiss them as well. First and foremost is their interal employee relations. The same goes for the national chains you’ve mentioned. They are bad businesses that spend hundreds of millions of dollars on PR and marketing to tell you what you want to hear, to make you feel good about spending your money at their stores.
The arkleys don’t want to live next door to the hideous eyesore that is home depot. They would never invite the traffic, noise and garbage it will create into their neighborhood, and they certainly wouldn’t want to work there. They want to make money on the deal, period. Lots and lots of it.
Humboldt’s economy is basically following the national curve. We need to concentrate on growing from the inside out, rather than invite more of the same in.
Zeek, the refuge of the idiot is in profanity. I could name you names, with addresses and phone numbers, of the people who go to Redding to shop. And San Francisco. And Crescent City. In fact over the weekend, my own in-laws were in Redding at Lowe’s, buying blinds and everything they need for their cabin in Willow Creek. And the new sink? Lowe’s. It’s not a joke.
I am not talking about commercial construction. As a contractor, I have NO idea where you get your materials. I doubt it’s a Pierson’s, though.
So how many people live near this so-called Balloon Track right now? Isn’t it a wasteland of environmentally-hazardous waste?
You’d rather see NO jobs and a chemical nightmare than to get this thing cleaned up and get something in there?
I don’t know what your problem is with the Arkleys and this project…unless your last name is Pierson, of course.
Last time I heard, opening new stores–and reopening the Eureka Inn–was GOOD for the economy. New stores–new jobs–more money–more disposable income–more opportunities for growth.
Contract or expand…I know where I want Eureka to go. It’s either sink or swim, change or die. And right now, Eureka is dying. Compare it to what it was…how many elementary schools have closed? How many junior highs do we have now? We used to have three! How many teachers alone have lost their jobs? How many people have fled the town for better prospects elsewhere?
Yeah, let’s leave the balloon tract as a toxic wasteland. There’s a good plan.
to quote you: “You’d rather see NO jobs and a chemical nightmare than to get this thing cleaned up and get something in there?”
Please tell me it’s not from the depths of your contemplation that you wrote this, as there are plenty of people with ideas for that space who aren’t being taken seriously because of supporters like yourself constantly regurgitating that mantra.
You are talking out your ass…there’s no simpler way to say it.
I would be happy to know a portion of my hourly dollar trickles up to people who live on their private acreage in the hills if they would in turn demonstrate an understanding of and, more importantly, take action in favor of the way us home-renting in-towners live. Fortunately, many if not most do. But obviously, some don’t. I have little choice but to concede the vast wealth and prosperity a million-dollar job would bring, but I would be just as content if the value of my fewer dollars became stronger through less corporate dilution and more local circulation.
It’s time to stop letting political players who capitalize on the quick grabs of franchise thinking run the local show. Humboldt is a prime location, stateside and nationally, to become a very unique locally sustainable infrastructure. Open your mind a little, we’re constantly being blasted with commercial ideas on the subject.
It’s not always that simple, KC. Some studies have found that opening big box stores actually reduces county-level retail jobs, lowers average retail wages and damages local businesses.
This one, for example, concludes that opening a new big-box building materials store like Home Depot amounts to a zero-sum game since “the sales gains enjoyed by the big-box stores are offset by similar losses by smaller existing building materials firms in the surrounding area.”
Granted, there are studies that show the opposite, as well. I’ll refrain from declaring one group superior to the other here. Just sayin’: It’s hardly as simple as you suggest.
Ryan, granted. However, what has Costco done for the community? At the very least, the gas prices have gone down–that alone is worth cheering for, since when I recall vividly being on the East Coast and seeing Eureka make CNN as “highest gas prices in the nation”.
So perhaps instead of screaming bloody murder and absolutely opposing something like a Home Depot just because the Arkleys are involved, or whatever other reason that the whole concept is twisting their giblets, perhaps someone could look honestly at the pros and cons.
Sit down and honestly list all the hotels, motels, restaurants, stores, and schools we’ve lost in just the past fifteen years. Go back 25 and it’s even scarier. I don’t see an end to it.
People freaked over Costco, but you know, that didn’t turn out so badly. I sure am glad that Eureka isn’t at the top of CNN’s gas price list any longer.
Zeek, I’d rather be “talking out of my ass” and at least create a dialogue, rather than be a complete ass such as yourself and stifle it in the name of your own political agenda.
Didn’t your Momma ever teach you–if you can’t say anything nice, etcetera?
Take a lesson from Ryan, and grow up. Your particular brand of rudenss is neither required nor accepted.
to quote KC again: “or whatever other reason that the whole concept is twisting their giblets, perhaps someone could look honestly at the pros and cons.”
My giblets are twisted because of long, honest looks at the pros and cons of the concept. It appears you haven’t swallowed your own pride long enough to do the same.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I hafta go to work. Incidentally, I drive my truck about 30,000 miles per year. I care very much about the life of the engine and refuse to run inferior quality gasoline through it soley for the sake of saving a whopping 50 cents per tank. In other words, I’d never fill up on costco gas by choice, and recommend you do the same. It will save you lots of money in the long run.
Play your own devil’s advocate for a change, lest you become a stick in the mud. I can’t say I feel a particular need to be polite about it on the internet…perhaps you should be glad somebody’s saying what they think honestly and without reserve. If you’re affected by how somebody says something rather than what they’re saying, you’re doing yourself an injustice.
Ryan, I had time to read the second study you linked. I’ve read plenty similar as well. It should be noted that in addition to the sales offsets, the actual dollars that stay local decrease as well due to the fact that the money is funneled home depot central, and ultimately diluted even more as they use every means of manufacture outsourcing allowed by law. They are big time proponents of sending manufacturing jobs to places like china and mexico, but the US’s use of other nations as their sweatshops is another debate altogether.
KC, I humbly suggest to keep in mind when people are yelling and scraeming about something, they always feel they have something very important to say. It does everybody harm to write them off altogether. Humboldt is OUR backyard.
Sigh.
I drive to Cresent city to the home depot, I spend my money up there.. I know a circle of friends that do the same thing. I wouldnt discount what KC is saying entirely.
I dont want to spend 75 dollars on a wheelbarrel when I can get one for 49 after a beautiful drive north.
I moved back to Eureka recently (born and raised here originally), and I’ve lived in areas such as Phoenix, Houston and Sacramento. I enjoy the places like Wal-Mart, a Chipolte, Togo’s, Lowe’s and other chain stores. Not to mention the amenities, taxes and jobs that come with it to help stabilize and grow the local economy. That’s what this area desperately needs.
There’s a reason why the younger generations are moving out of small towns and going to metro areas. Opportunity. This is one of the reasons why Eureka and Humboldt has become so poor (since I was in high school years ago), changed for the worst and has a high unemployment rate. Well that and the good old boys not wanting to change with the rest of the world and the liberals and hippies constantly suing over the environment.
I was surprised a Target, Kohl’s and Blockbuster is even here (which are all great). This area can’t survive on tourism alone. That’s basically all it’s got since logging and fishing can barely be done anymore. Be more open to economic opportunities that are out there, no matter the size of the town.
I plan on driving to Redding or Crescent City for Wal-Mart and other things because of the convenience and I get good gas mileage so I’m not worried about the traveling.
I had even heard years ago Volkswagon and Hershey’s even wanted to establish a plant here and also the bypass, but as usual, the locals turned it down. And since moving back, I now see PALCO is no longer around.
People need to wake up and remove the “Redwood Curtain” sooner or later.
“At the very least, the gas prices have gone down—that alone is worth cheering for”
Yes, if you cheer for increased consumption. I’ve never understood why people drive out of their way to save six cents per gallon. How big is your gas tank?
Re: “perhaps you should be glad somebody’s saying what they think honestly and without reserve.”
ZEEK: My point is, profanity doesn’t get your point across. You do more to push people apart than pull them together.
You’re right. It’s OUR backyard. That includes all of us who disagree with you. I’m entitled to my opinion, even if you think freedom of speech is only for those who agree with you.
If the Arkley plan is wrong, tell us yours. How will you buy the Balloon Track? Where will you get the money to clean it up? How will you develop it and bring in business?
It’s been in “cleanup” mode since 1988. Maybe it’ll be done by 2032 (the cleanup only).
If there’s a better plan than a Home Depot ANCHOR store, (including 11-acre wetland preserve), why wasn’t it done already?
It’s been +30 years since there was anything there. Why weren’t you arguing when it was Union Pacific land?
If you wouldn’t put in a Home Depot, what WOULD you do? Do you agree that business is needed (retail & others, nonprofits, etc.)?
My last question is one you never answered:
There are others in Eureka who could, alone or with others, afford to be philanthropic. My question is why don’t they help like the Arkleys:
Yes, Arkley’s evil: he tried to clean up an eyesore that nobody was interested in until he suggested Home Depot.
Now he’s going to roast in hell for it, while the self-obsessed holier-than-thou wingnuts dance in glee.
There are people in this world (and state!) with way more money who’ve done way less. I don’t care if you think “It’s his DUTY” or “He should’ve done MORE”. Most people DON’T.
After you answer my questions, you can go back to enjoying your steady income. Driving trucks is a good living. My cousin in Hydesville drove for many years.
The rest of us—the pink-slipped and unemployed teachers, those who can’t find professional-level jobs, those who drive to Redding/Crescent City for supplies (Jonathan, Jesse, & many others), those who despair of any improvement here—well, we’re sick at heart. It’s not the same town we grew up in.
I challenge you to prove that Eureka is the same as or better than it was 20 or 30 years ago. Do you remember it then? Were you even HERE then?
If you have better answers, it’s your duty to help. So I expect to see “Zeek for City Council” signs in town very soon. You have an obligation to help, if you know how.
Joel,
I don’t drive out of my way for a savings of a few cents per gallon. Sheesh. Why waste gas to save a few pennies?
My point was that BEFORE Costco, another hotly contested national retailer, came to this town, our gas prices were the worst in the nation.
Unfortunately, I have to stand corrected on one point: Eureka no longer has the highest gas prices in the nation. We have the SECOND worst gas prices in the nation.
http://www.northcoastjournal.com/blogthing/2010/05/12/were-highest/
Bravo, Wailuku, for taking our title.
Guess that proves Costco is a massive failure, huh? It’s an economic disaster for this town, just like Home Depot would be.
Let’s just plow it under!
You notice whenever you ask somebody who wants a trader joe’s in the area why they’re so adamant about it, the first thing they say is because they love the chocolate covered cherries? The supporters of home depot above remind me of that. And, like most internet “dialog” on matters that matter, it appears everybody’s already made up their mind anyway so what’s the point.
In the very least I HOPE HOPE HOPE casual readers with discerning interest really look into what it means to stick a multi-national conglomerate in the heart of our community. Please notice the magic logic used above that it will create jobs and stabilize the economy coupled with a frightening lack of interest in addressing the mountains of evidence that it would not.
Home Depot makes money for Home Depot and their associates, and the people responsible for sticking it in the parking lot, period. It simultaneously, and relatively quickly, lowers the standard of living for the blue collar workforce around it. Over more time,that affects everybody.
Jesse, I would say your comment about the good ol’ boys resisting change is delicious irony if it wasn’t part of a reality that affects my friends and family. If you look at the bigger picture…on a national level (aka the OTHER crappy economy)…opting for a Home Depot is the mode of the norm. It’s not change at all. It’s part of the problem that created the mess we’re in, and continues to smear it around. A very temporary fix, overall digging a deeper hole for everybody. The proof is there, the studies have been going on for a long time. There won’t be a breaking point, but the same gradual whimpering decline that’s been going on for a long time, as these companies have the money and resources to keep themselves comfortable, and the people complacent all the while.
Philanthropy would be to turn the area into a park, not fill a bank account with quick real estate gains. Change would be to give people with alternate ideas a chance to implement long term solutions for long term stability.
KC, the local economy is, in no uncertain terms, worse than it was before Target and Costco came to town.
Are you going to answer my myriad of other questions?
Zeek…it’s now hours later, and I’m still waiting for those answers…
At least you answered what you would do with the Balloon Track. But that leads to a new question for you to ignore: How will a park help improve the economy?
Show me your spreadsheets on the answer about the economy and Target/Costco’s role. I know it’s worse, but it’s worse for everyone, right? Unemployment is awful everywhere; everyone’s got budget woes, and far worse than ours. So can you direct me to where I can see the numbers that explain how Costco and Target are the main source of financial woe in Eureka?
(Yes, I know–yet ANOTHER question for you to ignore)
I guess if you keep ignoring the questions, you don’t have to prove your point. Which leaves us wondering. Aren’t you trying to convince us you’re right?
If so–ante up! Show me. I want to see the stats, the studies, the spreadsheets, the details. You want me to believe you, but how can you change my mind if you won’t give me something I can hang my hat on?
zeek i’m giving away “no Glass Town” stickers if you want one. You’re an idiot please move.
It’s interesting, isn’t it, how guys like Zeek claim to have all the answers, yet stop responding the very minute you start asking them the hard questions!
Thank you so very much, Zeek, for proving my point so eloquently and so thoroughly through your silence.
I agree with KC: A Home Depot would bring business to Eureka. And not all the money would go to the “Corporate Headquarters. How about all the TAX INCOME they would provide??? Anyone in Eureka or Arcata hears the word “Corporate”, and immediately goes into “defensive mode.”
My brother remodeled his entire house, and he did it mostly with material from H.D. What he could get for a decent price, yes, he stayed and got it at Piersons. However, for the more expensive things, He either drove to Redding or Crescent City, depending on what he needed, and even with the cost of gas, STILL did the whole remodel cheaper than if he were to buy ALL his material at Pierson’s. I wonder if it is the Pierson family who is really behind this “Anti H.D.” mindset…..
In your words…… ” The local economy may be worse than before these businesses came to town,” but face it……. the economy is down EVERYWHERE!! It would even be worse than it is now, if they DIDN’T come to town. And as for these businesses not helping the economy….. Well, as for stores like Costco, Target, Kohl’s, etc…. They DO bring business to town….. How many people from Willow Creek, Garberville, and all the other small towns come to EUREKA to shop and “stock up” instead of driving to Redding, Crescent City, Ukiah, etc… They’re spending their shopping money in Eureka, and also, quite often stopping to have a meal at Applebee’s, Marie Calendar’s, or maybe even one of the smaller restaurants that they like. The point is, they are spending money in EUREKA instead of some other town.
One last question….. Where do most people in town and the surrounding area, especially the low income folks, get their groceries, if they don’t go to evil, corporate, greedy COSTCO??? Well, they go to….. GASP WINCO!!! No, that’s not a local store either. That’s a corporation. WINCO stands for the states in which they do business. Washington, Idaho, Nevada, California, and Oregon. What would grocery prices be like in town if Eureka didn’t have Winco?? How about all the people they employ?? And those people get to invest for their retirement in a company stock plan…. (Oh that’s right…. WINCO is corporate, so they must sell inferior groceries….)
Uncle Al, smells like it’s been a long time since your feet have been stuck in the trenches of the blue collar grind. Yes, there’s already a winco and a costco and a kohls…no duh. Good work, Sherlock. We don’t need even more of the same. I’m not anti-corporate, I’m anti-bad-business. I bet you are too. Home Depot is bad business. Please read up on it; it’s clear you haven’t.
Just what we don’t need, another place to spend the money we don’t have. Heaven forbid a real estate tycoon with a huge personal stake in the matter would want us to think otherwise.
I am very blue collar. I haven’t held a white collar job in my life. And I am very impressed what Home Depot does when they come to town. First of all, they’ll clean out all the toxics out of the balloon tract, and they’ll put in a wetlands to go along with the store. (Just like Target did when they came to town. Secondly, once again, they will provide TAX INCOME to the city, not only from locals, but outsiders who will come HERE to shop, instead of going to Redding, Crescent City, Ukiah, etc… And those people will spend their money at other businesses as well. This tax income will provide revenue to fix our parks, our infrastructure, etc so Eureka won’t be as run down as it is now.
As for Home Depot being a bad neighbor, how come they sponsor athetes all the way up to the OLYMPIC level so they’ll have the money to compete? Not only that, but a friend of mine who lives in downtown Sacramento, has a kid, who now has a brand spanking new playground to play in. Who was a big part of the building of the playground? Home Depot. Doesn’t sound like a bad neighbor to me. Don’t believe me? Check this out…. Home Depot takes part in the communities in which they are located.
http://www.kcra.com/video/23627485/index.html
As for “needing another place to spend our money”, that argument is just specious. If Eureka didn’t have Winco, we’d have to pay “Safeway Prices”, and Safeway doesn’t NEARLY have the selection that Winco Does. Secondly, try to do a major renovation strictly with material from Pierson’s. You’ll pay a lot more of “YOUR” money. I say again, that my brother remodeled his WHOLE house. He shopped at Person’s for what he could reasonably locally…. The rest? Home Depot in Crescent City or Redding, and including gas costs, STILL paid less than if he would have done the whole remodel from Pierson’s.
ZEEK! I mean Small Town Living!
Let’s for the sake of argument pretend that you aren’t really a ZEEK in sheep’s clothing.
Go back up and read my questions, then answer ANY one, then BACK IT UP. Show us the stats!
You want us to read up on how Home Depot is bad business in Eureka? Great! Link please! You argue Uncle Al should read up, but don’t have the courtesy to prove your argument!
Let’s trade links! If Home Depot is bad, so is Piersons..I mean, PICO. They own the Eureka Mall, the McKinleyville Shopping center, and the Bayfront—you know, on the same BOARDWALK the Arkleys help fund??
What cracks me up is that the Arkleys gave $2 million to create the very boardwalk that Pierson’s Bayfront One executive rentals benefits from.
Oh but the Arkleys the evil ones, aren’t they? http://www.piersoncompany.com/available_spaces.html
At least the Arkleys would have provided low-income housing options that are sorely needed in this town, unlike those that the Piersons group provides.
Where is the PIERSON low-income housing at the Bayfront?
ZEEK said Target and Costco have made Eureka worse. Then he disappeared. More smoke and mirrors. Lob a stink bomb then run like hell before anyone can ask you to stop and answer some questions.
Remember, Home Depot’s evil Corporate Profiteering would benefit the local economy in the form of:
https://careers.homedepot.com/cg/content.do?p=benefits
Their presence would increase foot traffic to stores in the complex, which would be good for the small local businesses alongside, who could then hire more local employees, pay out more salaries, taxes, benefits…
Let’s consider: some of the land would be set aside and left undeveloped. Oh, it has to be CLEANED UP first, which hasn’t been done yet and won’t be unless someone ponies up the $$.
It’s been argued that it “isn’t that simple” and that my ideas about employment = good are misguided.
So SHOW ME A SOLUTION THAT IS BETTER. Something that will put people to work, clean up the site, and provide taxes. Because those are three things we can all agree we need, right?
FInally someone, anyone, answer my very first question: Who in Eureka is going to pony up the kinds of $$ the Arkley’s have? I do what I can, and will gladly match charitable receipts any day—YES, RECEIPTS, not just your memory.
If the Piersons are all that and a bag of chips, why haven’t they ponied up the amounts of $$ the Arkleys have?
Oh yeah! They were too busy taking advantage of the Arkley charity and using the newly cleaned up Boardwalk to create their wonderful Executive Living spaces…and padding their own bottom line in the process.
“…whether your tenants are LARGE NATIONAL CORPORATIONS or or smaller local business, we can provide you with comprehensive services…” – Pierson Company, DEVELOPMENT page:
http://www.piersoncompany.com/development.html
LOL!!!!!!!!! How completely hysterical!!!! Yeah Home Depot is evil, but butter won’t melt in the mouths of the PICO corporation!
It just keeps getting better and better:
Staples…Starbucks…Michaels…Safeway…Blockbuster… Yep! Pierson’s projects, one and all!
http://www.piersoncompany.com/projects/Commercial
Wow….Thanks. I didn’t now all that about the Pierson’s. I’m beginning to wonder if all these “Anti HD people are just either employees, or “shills” for the Pierson family. Why not the outcry against THEM?
Those Piersons do love to wheel and deal:
1) 10/20/2003: PICO, on behalf of Louise Pierson asks the Eureka Zoning Commission to approve rezoning a one-family dwelling to multi-family units. (http://bit.ly/ce1kXQ – Section IV public hearings, item #2).
2) Commissioner Ron Kuhnel says “he saw nothing wrong with the applicant’s proposal.” He further moved, voted for, and passed the proposal, over the vocal objections of neighbor Maurice Nelson of 3030 Ocean Ave. (http://bit.ly/cwJ50D- page 5) Don’t you hate it when people try to impede PROGRESS? Man!!!
3) A few years later, and Commissioner Kuhnel is now running for City Council…and who donates $6,000? William Pierson (hmm, isn’t he part of PICOs ownership?)–oh, and his wife–at $3K apiece. Nice to know you can count on your friends! http://www.thereporta.com/?p=1195
4) Yes, before you ask, the Piersons I mentioned are all related: hhttp://bit.ly/b87SHb
Finally, whatever happened to Maurice, the guy who opposed the rezoning? He sold and moved out: http://bit.ly/bz6nLB
Maybe this wasn’t tit-for-tat or backscratching… but it sure doesn’t smell very good, does it. Walks like a duck, quacks like a duck…hmmm.
And for all the screaming about “keep it small-town”, and protect people like the Piersons from big corporations and development and political strong-arming…well, guess we know a little more about that now huh.
Especially when you consider that when the Piersons put in the Eureka mall (aka the “Sears Mall”) in the 1960s, there was the same kind of backlash about it as there now is about Home Depot–they said it would destroy downtown Eureka. Wow.
The best part was I just stumbled on it when searching for Pierson’s charitable contributions–and instead found their political ones.
Bet there’s even more out there, and heck, I’m not even a reporter. Wow. Fun stuff.
God I love this town!
So, your minds are already made up…no more homework necessary. Why are you against building humboldt from the inside out? Why do you want the area to become more urban? Are we crumbling in despair right now? You should be ashamed to support home depot for their ridiculously high employee turnover rate alone. YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED TO SUPPORT HOME DEPOT FOR THEIR RIDICULOUSLY HIGH EMPLOYEE TURNOVER RATE ALONE. If you want to make more than minimum wage working for them, you will have to work 50+ hours per week and sign a confidentiality clause forbidding you to speak negatively of the company.
They are a corporate money funnel. Home Depot isn’t just the walls of the building but the products they carry on their shelves. They outsource as much as allowed by law. Do you support that? “It’s already here” is a moot point. Again, do you support it? They’re the McDonalds of hardware stores, cheap in every sense of the word and they treat their own employees like expendable blips. Quality of living diminishes around them, the statistics KC and Uncle Al continue to ignore. There’s plenty of places already to buy lumber and building supplies! Additionally, the building is a huge disgusting eyesore…you’d be lying through your teeth to say you’d rather live right nextdoor to a home depot than…peirsons? Ace? Even a quiet field no matter how dilapidated.
We haven’t needed and still don’t need that crap here, period. I’m not anti-arkley, but you are aware he’s in it for the money, right? You DO read anti-small-town.
Build from the inside out! Let’s allow Humboldt to be an example rather than follow another that’s failing. People are not as stupid as you’re making them out to be. I refuse to think YOU’RE that stupid. You read like there’s no alternative…there are people who’d be happy to tell you their ideas. Look into it??? I never said I was a city planner, but I’ve done my homework and know a bullet to the stomach when I see one. Home Depot is shitty city garbage.
We don’t need more shopping centers.
I am anit-home depot, for the reason that I’m pro-Humboldt. I’m not anti-arkley at all, but reading the above again, KC and Uncle Al’s comments sure read like they’re anti-piersons. Vehemently so. Hasn’t peirsons been here since…longer than I’ve been alive, that’s for sure. And whenever I go there, the employees genuinely seem to appreciate their job. Mean anything to you? Are you anti-pierson or something? How does it relate to not wanting a home depot scarring our landscape? Brace yourself, I’m about to be impolite…you’re kinda dumb. Does writing that make you want to counter what I say even more?
Are you serious?
“Additionally, the building is a huge disgusting eyesore…you’d be lying through your teeth to say you’d rather live right nextdoor to a home depot than…peirsons?…Even a quiet field no matter how dilapidated.”
I’d love to live next door to the Piersons, except I CAN’T AFFORD IT! Who can afford Bayfront? Even dinky little thin-doored, thin-roofed, thin-walled and frameless-windowed Pierson 1960s housing developments (which by the way, I grew up in) are beyond most people’s ability to afford. And if you don’t have a job, forget it
Living next to a quiet field? Have you BEEN to the Balloon Track? Do you want YOUR children playing that nice quiet toxic sludge nightmare field?
As for “Arkleys are in it for the money”, no kidding. That goes for Piersons too! What business isn’t in it for the money? Otherwise, why would you BE in business?
You clearly have NO idea how business works, or you wouldn’t say something so inane!
Build from the inside out—meaning WHAT exactly? What is the plan? What will you put in there? You are like every other fool who comes along—most of them are in Washington and in the White House—and proclaims “Change” and “progress” and “build from the inside out” and then don’t detail HOW TO DO IT.
You say other people are happy to tell you their ideas—I am ASKING YOU AND THEM. What are your ideas?
Where is your homework? SHOW ME. What does “building from the inside out” mean for Eureka, and how will that be accomplished?
You throw your supposed statements of fact about Home Depot at us all:
“They are a corporate money funnel.”
“They outsource as much as allowed by law.”
“They’re the McDonalds of hardware stores, cheap in every sense of the word and they treat their own employees like expendable blips.” “Quality of living diminishes around them.”
Look at Redding across the way. Without the hundreds of jobs that Home Depot provides (and yes it supports TWO of these stores quite handily, HD and Lowe’s), their unemployment would be worse than it already is. And how much money does Redding get when our Eurekans go there to buy?
So Home Depot is so evil. Great. SHOW ME your stats. Show me how Home Depot has destroyed the very way of life in Redding, or Crescent City, or Sacramento, or wherever else you want to show me.
Then TELL me specifically about your ideas, instead of whining about mine!
Once again, you back yourself up like Obama does—NOT AT ALL. “Oh let’s let BP clean it up. We’ll put our boots on their necks” “Change!”
Well we got change: double-digit national unemployment and an oil spill that will devastate this country. Even Louisiana has said the hell with Obama and are starting to do take care of themselves:
http://bit.ly/aJdzZg
You’re all smoke and mirrors, just like this administration. Tell ’em how it needs to be, then walk away when someone asks you HOW it is going to be done—the very definition of Modern Leadership in the Obama Age.
You like to talk about Home Depot and Pierson’s and business and what’s good for Eureka.
Well let’s see what Piersons think about what’s good for Eureka. Let’s look at campaign contributions! It all just gets more and more interesting!
So the Piersons have been supporting Representative Mike Thompson (D-CA), himself a big-time “Change is good’ Obama supporter.
Of course, unless Obama’s version of “change” is in the form of double-digit unemployment and leaderless whining about national ecological disasters.
Let’s look at the money trail. The Piersons, who own PICO, and Mr. Mike go waaay back, as you will see.
Here are all the Pierson’s campaign contributions I found after a two minute search. I am of course thinking Elizabeth is the same as Betty, William’s wife…please ignore her contributions if they are not one and the same:
http://www.city-data.com/elec/elec-EUREKA-CA.html
William Pierson, $500 on 10/8/2003
William Pierson, $580 on 4/17/2004
http://www.city-data.com/elec2/06/elec-EUREKA-CA-06.html
Contributions (just up until 2008, I can’t find after that)…
William Pierson $1000 on 10/13/2006
Elizabeth A. Pierson $1000 on 03/14/2008
http://www.city-data.com/elec2/elec-EUREKA-CA.html
More contributions:
Elizabeth Pierson $1000 on 3/14/2008
Elizabeth $400 on 10/6/2007
William $500 on 6/30/2007
William Pierson $1000 on 4/12/2007
William $200 on 10/22/2002
William $200 on 07/06/2002
William $200 on 8/1/2001
William $375 on 10/23/1998
William donated just under $5000 in all, and Elizabeth donated $2400. Not bad for 2 minutes of searching.
But this is where it gets really interesting:
Mr. Big-Time Obama supporter, representative Mike Thompson (D-CA) has his campaign contributors online, too! And who is one of his biggest contributors? Why, Home Depot! How odd! One of Mike’s TOP THREE contributors for 2009-2010 is HOME DEPOT!
http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/summary.php?cid=N00007419&cycle=2010
Home Depot: $10,000
NICE!
But…I wonder if the Piersons are aware that Mike is in bed with Big Bad Business–the very ones that are supposed to run them out of town?
Isn’t Home Depot the devil, evil incarnate?
What is Bill Pierson doing supporting a guy who is in turn supported by Home Depot?
What does that mean for Eureka?
What’s going on here?
Zeek, it is you! Oh I’m SO happy to see you haven’t given it up!
Still waiting on your answers to any of my questions, darlin’–with proof of course. “Brace yourself, you’re kinda dumb” lol well it’s better than the old “Talking out of your ass” comment. Guess you learned some manners.
Wanna trade charitable giving receipts, resumes, volunteer efforts, and support for Eureka?
How old are you? Did you grow up here? What elementary school did you go to? Junior High? Assuming EHS but probably not. Did you go to Humboldt? Do you remember the ugly chicken leg sculpture on 101? Do you remember how the Eureka Mall looked on the day Santa came to town? How often do you shop at Pierson’s, Home Depot, the lovely little tea shop next door to the side entrance to the old JC Penneys downtown? Do you remember the Old Town Emporium? Do you have an account on file at Booklegger?
I am not anti-Piersons, but I’m sick to death of people like you holding them up as the standard-bearers for small town. They are big business, same as anyone else. If they’re not Home Depot in scale, I bet they wish they were. Check their website sometime. They have aspirations–which is WONDERFUL. But they have enough fingers in the pies around here that the Home Depot wouldn’t kill them. That’s always been my point–look at my very first post.
You can buy a hammer at KMart. And at Target. And Sears. Why is Home Depot such a threat?
If the “employees genuinely seem to appreciate their job” at Piersons, did you ask them what they get for benefits? Do they get stock options, do they get full medical/dental/vision, do they get tuition reimbursement and adoption assistance, or a 401(k)?
I have shopped at Home Depots on both the East Coast and the West. I have shopped at the one in Redding, and while I prefer Ace Hardware (forgot about them didn’t you) or even LOWE’S in Redding, i don’t begrudge them the right to have store there–as you obviously do!
I’m gonna turn it around. When it comes to business, you’re kinda dumb. 🙂 Lovingly said, of course. I just am sick of more of the same.
Bash big business. Oh my God. I’m still surprised Starbucks ever made it into this town.
Oh yeah! I remember why! It’s because the Piersons are behind it! But oh my gosh, if it was the Arkleys? NOT A CHANCE.
Your biases are showing, dear heart!
Oh I got so excited I forgot ot make my point!
I have shopped at Home Depot (though I prefer the others) and gee…the employees seem to be genuinely happy they have a job there too!
Guess that would be the case in a county where unemployment is…what was it, 16%?
lol. Next time I’ll re-read before I fire it off, and make sure I make the point where I intended instead of getting sidetracked.
Love you! Your turn! Remember–links, please!
Wow KC, you don’t and won’t get it. Smoke some more medicine, why doncha. Have you thought about moving to where there’s already plenty of big box shopping centers happy to take your money? I really like that this area isn’t like that, don’t you?
LOL! God I love you so much. Smoke some medicine…lol!!!!
You crack me up! This is the best free entertainment I have had in months!
Move someplace else…and leave Eureka to the likes of you? God it’d be a wasteland in no time flat!
But I do wonder, why you just won’t answer any of my questions? Pick one! Any one! Include of course:
Details
Stats
Plans
Explanations
Links
You are SO good at dodging. Blows my mind! Obama has met his match, he needs to hire you! LOL!
Can’t answer a question? Attack!
Lost your point? Insult!
Can’t offer proof? Tell them to move away!
BTW I don’t smoke, never have–but I bet we both know what you smoke! 😉
By the way, I did some Googling while I was waiting for your pithy reply. Here’s what I got:
Googled: “Home Depot statistics”
http://bit.ly/dfyN9D
Googled: “Home Depot Destroyed”
Found:
http://kaboom.org/blog/home_depot_announces_57_million_investment_support_gulf_coast_rebuilding_efforts
Googled: “Home Depot Small Town 2010”
Found:
http://www.homedepotfoundation.org/blog/2010/05/
Support for CNU (http://www.cnu.org), huh? Oh it sounds awful. Truly awful.
Enduring neighborhoods, shared spaces, anti-sprawl, reclamation of blighted areas, green design… oh yeah, but Home Depot is supporting it? Wow. That’s really a bitch.
God I hope they don’t spend millions doing that HERE. You know, kinda like the Arkleys did with the waterfront (did you ever spend any time down there? I did–remember Globe Imports? One of my faves!).
Oh but I did find one thing I thought you’d like to see. Look at the comments here. It’s always interesting to get another community’s view of ours:
http://www.topix.com/forum/city/fortuna-ca/T5F6JB1N3N7FMV7SI
I love how they say bring it on!
By the way, haven’t you ever wondered why Eureka City buses (how I miss the ETS!) advertise for REDDING water parks? It’s like the town is telling us to go away! Sorta like you did!
Wait…do you even live in Eureka? Or do you actually live in Arcata??
Where do YOU shop? Eureka Natural Foods? Co-Op? Do you remember where the Co-Op used to be? Remember where it was before that? Do you remember the layout of their first store? I sure do. I used to go there on my lunch break for Hansens Natural Cola, which you can’t get anymore.
Don’t tell me you know Eureka better than me.
Still waiting for your proof, because when I tried to find something that said Home Depot devastated a local economy, I couldn’t find anything–other than a few anti-big-business OpEd pieces.
Before you blow–remember: PICO is big business. As are Sears, Starbucks, Michaels, CVS (that one is a top 100 big business according to Forbes) and on and on.
Let’s run ’em all out of town and see what we have left!
Let the riots begin! I’m ready with my silly string! Woo hoo!
By the way… Eureka Natural Foods has awesome grass-fed local Humboldt County ground beef for about $2 a pound. I hate to say it because it’s one of the best kept secrets in town. Shhh. Good stuff.
And hey–no CAFOs involved! No big business! No corporations! Friendly staff! Local business! Yay!
That ought to appeal to you. Hope you support them by shopping there instead of the Big Corporation WinCo…
You do, right?
KC: I don’t mean to put a damper on your fun, but you gotta disambiguate your Piersons and their political affiliations.
Bill ? Greg, as they’d be the first to tell you.
Bill may not equal Greg, but at the same time, it is rather intriguing to see the political connections, isn’t it? Does make you wonder.
Also, to go back, that is but a small piece of the pie. And strictly for fun (like I said, it took 2 minutes to find and about five to write up).
But the rest of it–the big business connections, the fact that the Arkleys are held up to ridicule yet their philanthropy was used by the Piersons for their own ends, and the fact that all the anti-HD crowd likes to hold up the Piersons as the antithesis of big business, when they in fact are of the same mindset–well, that all still holds true.
These people want to hold up Home Depot as the Big Ugly Guy who cares naught for the average Eurekan. But ask Maurice Nelson how he feels about Piersons and their support of the average Eurekan when it came time to ask to rezone.
Again–if Piersons want to have big ambitions, then BRAVO. They should! That’s what this country is all about. You don’t think that if they had the chance to go National, like Home Depot is, or Restoration Hardware did, they wouldn’t leap at it, even if it means ditching Eureka–just like Restoration Hardware did?
But to hold them up as the epitome of small town little business, Mom-and-Pop when their aspirations and goals and practices are way different is quite hypocritical.
To make it a little more explicit for you: Greg Pierson — he of Bayfront One and the Eureka Mall and etc. — is an Arkley ally. His relative, Bill — the one with the hardware store — is not.
The “connection” you’ve figured out is one of blood only, not money or politics.
http://www.piersoncompany.com/about.html – So Greg Pierson and Bill do not have ANY business dealings together?
Pico does not equal Pierson’s Hardware? I.E. Pierson’s is its own little tiny hardware company and has nothing to do with PICO?
http://www.piersoncompany.com/available_spaces.html –The Piersons who run the Hardware store have completely and totally divested themselves of any and all of these business dealings, and have no financial interest in any of them whatsoever?
If that is the case, then Pierson’s, as a tiny hardware store with NO interest or dealings with PICO whatsoever, might have a legitimate gripe about Home Depot. But then, they would have it with Sears, Ace, HD and Lowe’s in Eureka and/or Crescent City, etc. as well.
Progress = change. Change, according to Obama and his cronies = good.
Yet why is Eureka so anti-change?
Change is inevitable. Ask anyone who was here when the Eureka Mall first went in.
ZEEK, along with those plans you refuse to share with me, you need to find some followers. Remember, still waiting to see your ZEEK FOR CITY COUNCIL signs. Perhaps then you will get your park–and all Eureka’s ills will be cured.
Enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW8amMCVAJQ&feature=player_embedded
BTW, Hank Sims, I meant to say “thank you” in my earlier post, but neglected to. I appreciate your explanation, especially as, until confronted with the “Piersons is the epitome, Home Depot is the spawn of the Devil” argument, I never gave them a heck of a lot of thought.
I have actually shopped at Piersons…although I wasn’t too impressed with the guy who told me to use a wire bristle brush on the legs of the antique I was stripping. But hey, one employee out of many.
First of all, how do you know what the Home Depot will look like? When Target when in, it was a requirement that it “blend in” with it’s surrounings. That’s the nicest Target Store I have ever seen. Hope Depot can do the exact same thing. As for employees…. Here’s a review I found……
Since I moved into my new place, Home Depot has been one of my stops to get energy saving bulbs and hardware for hanging pictures and curtains.
I am kinda in love with this location, because of the employees. They are always friendly and approach me before I ask for help to see if they can be of assistance. And they always take you to what you’re looking for, not just point to some part of the store. That’s pretty awesome. The store is clean and they always have what I need in stock.
I have always had the same experience when I have gone to HD. They go out of your way tomake sure you are getting what you need.
As for the salaries…….
Cashier – hourly Average, $9.24.
Sales Associate Average: $12.05, but can go as high as $18 an hour.
Department Supervisor Average: $15.71, but can go up to $22 an hour.
Assistant Manager: Over $55,000 a year.
Sure, you start at the bottom, but if you’re not afraid to bust your a$$ and learn the busiless, just like anywhere else, you will advance. You can also move to certain departments, where you will also make more money. It’s not given to you, you have to GASP WORK for it.
And as for Home Depot not giving back to the community, have you heard of the Home Depot Foundation??
Recently….They gave $115,000 toward the Nashville flood clean up.
In 2009, they gave over 74 MILLION to over 5000 non profit agencies.
Over a period o 10 years, they want to give 400 million, help build 100,000 AFFORDABLE homes, and plant 3 MILLION trees. I’m sure you could find one of those trees to hug, Zeek!!!
I don’t see why everyone is so afraid of them. Plus, as I mentioned before, they will bring more business to town, which means more TAX revenue. Eureka is dying, people. Why cant you see that?? We need something to revitalize it, and it’s more than just PARKS.
Plus, no one has answered my question yet. What was my brother supposed to do when he remodeled his home? He shopped at Piersons for what he could get at a fair price locally, but for the rest, he had to go out of town, and even paying for gas, paid less for his remodel than if he would have gotten everything locally.
Everyone is afraid of the “evil corporation”, yet over the long run, they do so much good for the communities in which they are located!
I’ll gladly answer your question…if you can’t afford to remodel your home…drumroll….don’t until you can. Please read the following carefully…
“evil corporation” is right…watch the documentary The Corporation, and please do so with an open mind. Home Depot is a flag waving corporation. Profits are their bottom line, outsourcing is their mode and PR is one of their specialties. You are wrong about their wages in that you’re talking average, not mode. The list goes on and on…please watch the documentary and really think about the areas already with big box shopping centers. Arcata is featured in the movie. Arcata is proud to be anti-corporation, and is nationally held in higher regard than eureka largely because of actually practicing that mindset.
I’m tired of people like yourself saying eureka and it’s suburbs are the pits. Like we’re a bunch of mindless drones moping around going “woes me”. It’s regurgitated rhetoric, plain and simple. It’s how politicos push their own agendas. The overwhelming majority of us have jobs and are making ends meet. We love Humboldt and the forests around us. I’m certain the unemployement rate, in addition to being tied directly to the national scheme of things, is largely related to bad drugs. If you don’t know the difference between good and bad drugs, you haven’t done enough of either 😛
Ask yourself, Uncle Al, what you LOVE most about Humboldt County. Home Depot is the antithesis of all that. They would never build a big box shopping center in the heart of napa, beverley hills, piedmont, pebble beach, occidental, etc….you know, “nice” places. Again, stop thinking eureka is some kind of wasteland. We need to be different and stick to it.
One doesn’t travel to Italy to eat at McDonalds. It would be heartbreaking to get off the plane and see exaclty what you see everywhere in the united states. It would be bad enough to arrive in Humboldt County and the first thing you see is the last thing you saw leaving santa rosa.
Strengthen what we have, build from the inside out. Tourism is the way to go as far as promoting the area itself. That means making our area…KEEPING our area…unique. We’ve got a HUGE head start with our geography alone. Hank’s idea about the Eureka Inn is spot-on. It needs to be the first and foremost place people think to stay when they pass through or visit. It’s always been good to locality and unlike other chains is unique in location and architecture. Clean up the bad drugs. I believe it’s well within the power of the police to curb circulation.
Etc. etc….if Home Depot is no big deal as you say, then it’s no big deal that the idea of shoving one down our throats gets buried. Why even think of planting the seeds of urban sprawl…here…among the nationally renowned woodlands and small town pride of Humboldt.
To put a twist on the movie quote: If we DON’T build it, they will come.
I’ll be glad to answer your question. My brother had NO CHOICE but to do the remodel. When he got the home, it had been a former rental, and the tenants TRASHED it and took off. So, he had to do the remodel.
You mentioned that at HD, “Profits are their bottom line.” Well DUH…… If you don’t make money, you’re not going to stay in business very long. And as I mentioned about the wages, it’s just like the minimum wage. It’s not meant to be a PERMANENT wage, if you do a good job, you will advance. And HD advances from within. You’ll get out of “cashiering”, and move to one of the other departments. That’s when you start making more money…..
I am all for tourism. I’m glad they saved the Headwaters Forest and built a trail to it. I am glad the Eureka Inn is open again. That’s a nice daw. Eureka has so many nice things, but if we don’t have the money to keep them up, what are we going to do??? Sequoia Park Zoo is in danger of closing….. Sequoia Park itself, a gem of a redwood park right in town needs work….. And do you remember when the storm blew down all the trees so that the road to the duck pond was closed for the longest of times? They didn’t have the money to clear the road. How are we going to have tourism, if we don’t have the tax base to keep the tourist spots up to par???
Finally, let’s talk about tourism….. Redding has Wal Mart, HD, Lowes, etc…. Yet, they do wonderful with tourism. They have wonderful recreation in Shasta and Whiskeytown lakes, and let’s not forget the “Sundial Bridge”, which people come from all over to see. Gee….. I wonder where they got the money to build that bridge???
And let’s also talk about Crescent City. It too has an HD, it has a Wal Mart, and it has a prison, where the absolutely worst of the worst are kept. Not a nice place to visit?? I don’t know…. MSNBC recently had little Crescent City, California, on their list as one of the 10 best small towns in America. Even whith those “negatives” as you call them that I mentioned, Crescent City is still able to keep it’s charm. I love that little town.
Eureka will be the same way. The Balloon Tract is in a corner of town….. Not exactly in the middle of the tourist area…… People aren’t going to go…. “EWWWW…. LOOK AT THAT!” and just leave town. It’ll be a good neighbor, be unobtrusive, and will bring jobs, tax revenue, and business to town. THEY will also pay to clean up the Balloon Tract, (we don’t have the tax money to do it….) and they’ll put in a wetlands area which will help the environment ,just as Target did. They will be a good neighbor.
Sure, Arcata can do without the corporate businesses, but how long do you think that town would last if it didn’t have the UNIVERSITY, with all the STUDENTS to support it?????
Uncle Al, you’re completely neglecting the fact that Home Depot is an “evil corporation”. Believe you me, if it were a good thing I’d be all for it. It is not. You’re neither addressing the facts of that matter or looking into it. In that regard, your “that’s just how it is” attitude toward low-wage labor positions is ignorant and insulting.
Your mind appears made up. So is mine? Well…if I may be so bold as to point out…and take this with a grain of salt…how easily above you were led to believe the false Pierson’s conspiracy posted by rantor above. That’s because it was more of what you already wanted to hear. You’re definitely not alone in that way of thinking. Will you disagree because you think I’m a rude asshole? I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life, but pissing in the well isn’t one of them. Like I already implied, I’m not really posting this to change anybody’s mind, but you seem bright enough to maybe think outside the big box, pun intended. Is my smug inuendo affecting your train of thought? Should it? It’s not really no big deal. It the type of thing that will affect everybody forever.
Please re-read my last post and think about how unique this area is and why.
We’re going round and round here…… I’ve read the stories of Home Depot…. If they are so evil, then how come so many cities would be HAPPY to have one? If we didn’t get one in Eureka, then I’m sure Fortuna or McKinleyville would be thrilled to get one instead. Your early posts make it sound like all corporations are evil. Look at what Target did….. Even to get them took a fight….. Yet they took the old “Montgomery Ward” building which had been a vacant eyesore for years, put in a new store, put in wetlands, and we have another CHOICE of where to do business. And, the store is asthitically pleasing. I’ve sen some Target stores, and yes, they are eyesores. Yet, I don’t mind seeing the one in Eureka when I drive into town. It blends in very well. Plus, they’re providing jobs, and REVENUE!!!
I agree with you about Humboldt being a special place. I love Hulboldt just as much as you do.I want the area to succeed. I’m not talking about putting in the Home Depot at the old “Downtowner Motel” site next to the Eureka Inn, (That’s an eyesore in itself…. What do you think visitors think when they see THAT?) I’m not talking about putting in a Home Depot in the middle of Old Town. The Balloon Tract is off in an unobtrusive corner of town. You don’t think that was an ugly part of town when Union Pacific used the land????
I say again….. if HD is so evil, then why are they offering to clean up the Balloon Tract?? There will be new wetlands. There will be jobs. And believe me,with better benefits than a small business can offer. They always give back to the communities in which they have stores…. And people complain about what HD pays their employees??? That’s just starting wages. They promote from within, and when they promote a person, an old job is left to be filled….. They will provide REVENUE!! (There’s that evil word again…) And just because an HD is in town, doesn’t mean you have to shop there. I have friends who live in the Sacramento area. (Where a LOT of Eurekans have migrated to…..) One friend told me that he lives equally far from an HD, and a small “True Value” hardware store. Yet, the “True Value” is competing with HD just fine. Why? Because True Value, while they can’t compete financially with HD, they ARE a great place to go down to and pick up things if you are doing a project on a smaller scale. They provide a choice. Pierson’s and HD can live side by side just fine….. There will be people that don’t want to go to HD, and they will go to Piersons…. yet, again…..HD will also bring in people from the surrounding areas who will come HERE instead of Redding, Ukiah, etc… You can’t do anything for the city without the REVENUE to do it.
How was Redding able to build the Sundial bridge which has gotten glowing mentions in national publications?? REVENUE!! That revenue has helped a lot of smaller business in Redding open and thrive as well. Redding was once just a city of “Big Box Stores”, but they reinvented themselves… They have even gotten a mention in the tourism section of the New York Times.
http://travel2.nytimes.com/2006/07/07/travel/escapes/07hours.html
Yet Eureka, because of our lack of REVENUE, we can barely keep Sequoia Park maintained, and keep the zoo open.
One more question of mine that you didn’t answer….. If “Evil Corporations” detract from a city, then I say again…. How come with an HD, a Wal Mart, AND a prison where they send the nastiest of the nasty, Crescent City still made the list of one of the ten best small towns in the country? Del Norte is just as beautiful as Humboldt, despite the “Evil Corporations.” We can live side by side with the “evil corporations”, and still have the Humboldt that we love.
Crescent City made the list of one of the ten best small towns in the country? That just tells me what a pathetic state small town America has fallen into. God help us.
Uncle Al, you ignorant slut. There won’t be new wetlands at all. That’s a very contemporary green-sounding way of saying they’re not going to spend the money to build on top of the swampy marsh that’s already there. Most of the oil and chemical refineries in the bay area have “wetland preserves”. They throw some gravel down on a turnout, put up a plackard with pictures of birds, and presto…big PR points scored among naive people who see what they want to see in it. Almost all coastal developers are using that ploy right now.
There’s plenty more I could say, but your mind is made up and so is mine. I’ve got the deed to the eiffel tower in my briefcase somewhere…I’ll sell it to you real cheap if you can pay in cash.
Hang in there Uncle Al because when they shift to insults using words such as “ignorant slut”, you are making your point and they are getting weak in the knees.
If Home Depot comes in and people don’t want it, don’t shop there. Its like watching a bad tv show, if you keep watching it you aren’t using stellar judgment!
If HD comes in and they fail then it will teach them a lesson but on the other hand, maybe the line at EDD will be a little shorter as a result.
dabro, you ignorant slut.
“You ignorant slut,” you ignorant slut, is an SNL reference. Observe: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7S_XWuKpHc
“…when they shift to insults using words such as ‘ignorant slut’, you are making your point and they are getting weak in the knees.”
These sorts of inane encouragements to comrades are not convincing. They’re like chicken soup for the beleaguered.
Told ya Uncle Al, you can read those folks like a novel.
Name calling on a forum is very unprofessional so feel free to bring on the names if you fit that category. It does nothing for your image and those with honest debate see who is professional and those who are something far less and cannot be taken seriously.
Uncle Al, KC, dabro and like minded idiots…answer your own audience this:
Do you think if Mr. Arkley were given octuple the amount of money he stood to gain from placing a home depot on said property, he would sell it? Do you think if the head honcho of his PR firm were given octuple his salary and pension to lead a group opposed to international corporate development in humboldt county, he would take the job? Do you think if Home Depot’s corporate heads were given sixty trillion dollars in cash to not build in humboldt county, they wouldn’t? Would you, as individuals, not post your opinions on this forum forever if given nine hundred trillion dollars in tax-free cash? Your honest reply is required…
Some people, you can read them like junk mail.
Looks to me as though you proved their point, all you can do is insult instead of having a good debate so I don’t take you serious at all.
CJ
Fortuna
CJ, you wouldn’t take a doctor’s prognosis of your lung cancer seriously if he repeatedly called you a fuckin idiot for smoking three packs a day either. I’ve written a lot more than insults, but your mind is clearly made up as well…so what’s the point if not to read between the lines? That is, if you really care about the issue…you son of a motherless goat.