Last week took me on a loop around the greater Bay Area. The trip was a chance to reacquaint myself with the lives of our urban cousins, which are markedly different than our own. I hit both the bright spots (Oakland, Monterey) and the dim (Livermore, Vallejo). Travel, at its best, can give one some insight into one’s own way of existence.
Spend time anywhere else, and you see instantly that Humboldt County’s defining quality, as a culture, is stasis. Every major decision takes at least 10 years, every battle is fought for at least a dozen. Exhibit A, of course, is the county’s General Plan Update. When it is completed — if it is ever completed — it will be a comprehensive roadmap to the county’s future. But it has been in the works for nearly a dozen years, and a recent political hurry-up maneuver designed to complete the thing before a new board takes over in 2011 will probably fail. When that deadline passes, it will be back to the old schedule — that is to say, no schedule at all.
But the General Plan Update is only the most egregious example of Humboldt County’s natural tendency to do nothing, and to fight the same old wars over and over and over again. You could just as easily point to the non-revitalization of the North Coast Railroad Authority, which somehow continues to be a bitterly divisive topic over a decade since the last train rolled into Humboldt County. You could say it of the battle over Rob Arkley’s Marina Center development, which has raged pretty steadily over the last six or seven years. There are undoubtedly some souls out in the hills who are still fighting the Timber Wars, like Japanese soldiers abandoned on uninhabited tropical isles.
Why is this? Why do we persist in these things, long after any non-insane person in any other part of the world would have thrown up his arms and said Who the fuck cares anymore? Win or lose, make a decision and move on! I submit that it is a failure of our politics. Not necessarily of our electoral politics — who votes for who, and who gets elected — but of the currents on the ground, the social movement aspect of local political life. Search far and wide: It’ll take you a long time to discover anyone with a comprehensive, plausible vision for what Humboldt County could become and the will to make it happen. Instead, almost all energy is spent on simply beating down the other side and grinding its face in the dirt.
There are two broad currents in Humboldt County political life. They go by names opposite to those that classical political theorists would give them. Broadly speaking, Humboldt County left-liberals are dedicated to the proposition that nothing should ever change — no new development, no new people, new industry only with extreme restrictions. Any of these things will likely have some sort of measurable environmental impact, however tiny, and therefore can and should be opposed to the death. Meanwhile, the “conservatives” seek to tear up the entire rule book, freeing them up to construct suburban and/or industrial hellscapes anywhere they choose in the name of Mammon.
A pox on both houses. Neither would make the slightest bit of sense in the vibrant city of Oakland, where buzzing young people fill the streets and restaurants and galleries and cafes and office buildings with their schemes, their art and a heady sense of possibility. They whinge not, for they have no time to whinge; they are too busy getting it done. Sound familiar? No, it doesn’t, does it? Visiting Oakland or Portland is uncomfortably akin to visiting a foreign country.
Who among us can match that energy? They are here, no doubt, perhaps hidden amongst the stoners and slackers at our institutes of higher learning, but their voices are drowned by the county’s mopey elder statesmen: Thesis and Antithesis, those ancient relics of battles past. They’ve been driving on autopilot since the early hippie days, and sadly they always set the tone.
The Journal refuses to accept this state of affairs, and is happy to announce that it has shed itself of at least some of its own sloth. After years of dithering, we’ve finally signed a lease on an amazing old office building in Old Town Eureka — probably the least moribund place in the county. We’ll be moving house thither in a couple of weeks, and we’re throwing a bash on the Eureka Boardwalk to celebrate both the move and the Journal‘s 20th anniversary. (See ads elsewhere in the paper for details, including the precise lineup of bands that will be playing on the greatest bill in Humboldt County history.)
That’s Saturday July 3 — Arts Alive! night. Come on down!
This article appears in Thunder in the Redwoods.
It is obvious we must stop looking backwards at what used to be, and begin to diversify and move forward both socially and economically. It is for this reason I sense that people are in fact looking for leadership into the future of Humboldt.I am very excited to let this publication and soon the TS know that I have started a new kind of Cooperative, with 3 new member/owners as of this post. The Foundation for Local Organ Harvesting of the Sleeping and Positive Social Enhancement, or FLOHSPSE, will have a store front location in the coming months. Negotiations with Eureka have been a little better than trying to get the city of Arcata to understand capitalism, needless to say we would prefer Arcata, but there is ample crops in both cities. I look forward to helping this area move forward.
The two houses Hank speaks of are comprised of basically older curmudgeons who are losing sight of what new blood is asking for…and perhaps most importantly, will be demanding. They’d probably choose to call themselves wise stalwarts instead….but when speaking of “the future of Humboldt” literally…very literally…what people will be looking for and what “younger” people like myself are hoping to see happen isn’t the same financial tides controlled by the people who just want to bulldoze more into the area and continually feed the beast, so to speak. On which beaches would you rather your kids play, the ones here or anywhere south of willits? On which would you rather spend your own time?
If you think money buys power in Humboldt, Hank, you might think about what’s really behind the “get it done” attitude you perceive to be a shared motive of the bay area. I’m very VERY grateful for the wise stalwarts in local politics who are making the decision to stick to plans of attack that involve stabilizing the area we ALL love. Once you shove a bunch of massive apartment buildings and big box shopping centers into the equation, there’s no takebacks…ever.
The bay area is a nice place to visit, but Humboldt is a nicer place to live. Which local house of nobles, as you see it, wants to change the physical structure of our landscape, literally? It’s not a matter of indecision to vote that down, repeatedly, and stick to it. It’s a decision to be proud of. Why are you saying nothing’s getting done?
It never ceases to amaze me how people with lots and lots of money get away with telling everybody else what’s best for them.
Don’t let money buy local politics. Don’t sell out the area. It’s really that simple. If you’re getting tired of seeing the same stores and same empty beaches, take a trip to the city. Everybody’s speaking for everybody, but the fact is most of us locals aren’t on the edge of our seats waiting for more buildings and people to show up. We like things the way they are, we appreciate our menial jobs and we want the value of our money to stabilize.
Of course — no one wants that, except for the people who stand to profit from it. There are people who would build crappy Windsor-style developments all around the county if given the green light to do so. (At least when the economy turns around). It would be stupid policy here on any number of levels, and it would debase the county. One McKinleyville is enough — maybe more than enough.
But if building and development is what we’re talking about, I’d just make the point that it’s not all black and white. Look at what happened to Dan Johnson’s ecogroovy project that would have rehabilitated an old brownfield — round-filed because of a nonsensical freakout over the general evils of building anything. I would argue that the same dynamic is at play in the Richardson Grove fight.
This is going to get especially weird when the general plan update passes. “Infill,” as defined in even most restrictive versions of the plan, is not what it generally is in the popular imagination; it will include paving whole new swaths of forest and field in Cutten, McKinleyville and elsewhere. It will almost certainly involve large-scale building and big developers. Look at the Forster-Gill project. EPIC, the NEC, Baykeeper, Healthy Humboldt — all are advocating for Option A. But what happens when these big scary developers start applying for their permits under the new plan? Are those groups going to stand against NIMBY neighbors, or will they absent themselves from the discussion?
In any case, I hope that I was talking about more than building buildings and roads and stuff. What I was trying to get at was the general sense, among myself and many of my peers, that Humboldt County is the Place Where Ambition Goes To Die. In every sense. There are people who struggle against that, and they are heroes, but it is always a struggle.
Me, I’m curious about that. What do you think new blood is asking for?
We grew up in the worse part of Oakland and moved up here about 10 years ago and never looked back. The one question we get asked often is “Why Humboldt?” My wife and I have never heard of Eureka or Humboldt County until my brother in law (who grew up here) married my wife’s sister. He would rave about the economy, the fishing, camping, lakes and rivers. He would also rave about the home prices being low enough to purchase with 3 percent down and still be able to make a living. A city large enough to “look” like a city but still small enough to see your neighbor about 4 times a week at your local Murphy’s Market or these days, CostCo. We absolutely love it here. It has been disappointing to see the fishing and logging industry take a nose dive with nothing to take their place. I do consider myself new blood in Humboldt. I would love to see slow growth in all the right places. I would love to see the Marina Center come to fruition, maybe some sort of port activity. I have been frustrated by the very same old geezers who would stand up in the middle of a Harbor Commission meeting and proclaim “Nope!! That will never work here!!I will sue!!” Even after preliminary studies show certain projects are actually feasible! You have these long haired hippie types(Baykeeper) file lawsuits to stop construction on just about any major project that tries to get started….just to file lawsuits! Really??!! you are going to call a 5 gallon bucket of rain water that got tipped over a “man made wetland?” How about if I go ahead and piss in the corner of the lot and put cones around that too. That could also be considered a man made wetland! Don’t get me started on the Richardson Grove Project…are we really going to open up the highway to big box stores?! oh that’s right….they’re parking their rigs right at the entrance in anticipation of the widening. What a crock of *&%! We love Humboldt County and have no intention of dodging the bullets of Oakland again, nor moving to The City…so for now, I am going to continue crusading for The Marina Center and Richardson Grove Project on my morning show and any other project that will bring in tax dollars, jobs and opportunity to our beautiful county. I dare someone to stop me.
Livermore is DIM? News flash: Humboldt County isn’t exactly a happenin’ place, either. There’s a reason it’s not as populated at your “urban cousins”, and the fact that you guys don’t wear deodorant is only part of it.
Hank, once again you don’t get it, you don’t get what the Richardson Grove battle is about, you don’t get alternative A and the concept of in-fill and you sure as hell don’t get EPIC, et al. The person who said it best is “isms are a four letter word”. Isms said it all and said it so well she/he saved me the trouble.
Hank and Ford: move to Oakland so you can complain about that place. Ford, we don’t need people here who move here w/ an Oakland mentality, it’s people like yourself who will destroy this special place if you get your way. Bah.
Having seen the way environmental and political activists go about their business here in Humboldt County for some 22 years I would say that the reason so little gets done is because of a supreme lack of vision in our local Left. Without vision and really only reaction to development initiatives, of course nothing will really change. The younger generations have been cheated out of developing workable alternative social solutions by older activists whose main concern seemed to be getting famous as protestors but not as social innovators which is what we’ve needed all along. Activism here is about who can rally together the most votes for lack-luster pols without a clue or a concern for pulling the community together with compelling social change programs. It’s “ho hum” Humboldt where activism is led by reaction instead of action.
Steve: Hear, hear.
Hank says “Humboldt is the place where ambition goes to die”. In all the years I’ve lived here, I’ve heard a lot of catch phrases attributed to our county, but that’s not one of them. What the fuck is your ambition, man? I know how I want to spend my free time with my limited lot on this planet. Making shitloads of money isn’t one of them. That’s a hollow pursuit. In retrospect, your editorials read like those of a lost soul searching. Take another vacation…
What’s yours?
what’s my ambition? The perpetual flow of endorophin waterfalls down my brainstem, what else?
Now…what’s yours?
I know that’s just snark, but it’s true that it doesn’t go any higher for many.
I have several, but the main on is to make the best paper I possibly can with the resources given me, and to use the paper to help make the social life of the county more vibrant and our readers more engaged with their surroundings. Mock away, but there it is.
I’ll mock away at that statement of yours, Hank, because to me it’s completely phony. You won’t print a word in the NCJ of anything I say or do that is of interest to the community. Such as your refusal to report the second part of the Story of Paxcalibur that your predecessors at the NCJ were willing to print in 2003, them having no ego battles going with local thinkers as you seem to have. You’re abusing your position as editor of a community news resource as far as I’m concerned.
Whoops! The Steve I said “hear, hear” to was Steve Lewis, not Steve Hackett, as I’d thought!
Embarrassing!
Hank, Your statement of your ambitions is meaningless, particularly in light of what has happened to the NCJ with you at the helm. There has been an increasingly righteous and right wing tone to the Journal, it’s far from the paper it once was. BS (Before Sims) it was a fairly good reflection of Hum Cty attitudes/beliefs. Under your often pompous and pontificating thumb it is less and less so. Your rabid, disproportionate pursuit of Salzman that stretched over several issues and the coverage of Richardson Grove are only 2 examples.
It’s been sad to see how much anger the NCJ creates, to hear people putting it down, very sad. And Sims–it’s you and your style that they are putting down. The kind of person that you appeal to are the Fords that have newly come here.
“The Fords” that everyone seems to be referring to are not the same Fords who have been ranchers in this county for generations.
Sylvia, the best thing we have done is instead of complaining about Oakland all the time is move here to Humboldt. You know what’s really interesting is I actually agree with Hank Sims this time!! Once we get past all of these naysayers and wanna be environmentalists, Humboldt County will actually be able to move forward!
Sylvia’s comments further illustrates what I believe Hank’s current Town Dandy is all about.
Sylvia dismisses anything she disagrees with as being “right wing” and the conversations ends there, as she refuses to consider any of the great points raised.
She and her ilk don’t want to have dialogue, they want their way, and if they have to distort the truth (see the whole Richardson Grove kerfluffle), then so be it
Second the comment by P. Trying to turn Humboldt into some sort of ideological cocoon is the hobby of those who have no stake in the well-being of the mainstream Humboldt economy. You know who I’m talking about: independently wealthy, state-funded, grant-funded, parent-funded, and pot-funded people whose main priority is to bask in their own purity.
One can feel much more smug and pure when one keeps busy pointing an accusatory finger at other, less pure folks. “the nerve of that rich guy who wants to build something over there.. why, it’s undemocratic! We’ll put a stop to that right now.”
wow Thirdeye and Richard, those are the most empty and ignorant comments in this discussion. Good job.
Sounds like a reasonable ambition of yours, Hank. So whose ambitions were you speaking of, exactly? All the big money developers you’re not just talking about in all your examples of stagnant dreaming? What kind of physical manifestation would you like to see happening? You and thirdeye and richard should get together and do some “hippie” stuff. Squelch that bored negativity. Or move somewhere more uruban to be part of that mainstream economy that’s moving everybody forward with such glaring success.
Do you read your own paper, for chrissake? There’s stuff going on all over the place every week.
Yikes I’m just tired of bossy people that don’t see themselves in the equation. It makes me grumpy. We are all guilty as hell of whatever shortcomings we care to look at. Things would go better if we could just leave each other alone more and tolerate that which we don’t approve of but just really isn’t that harmful. As the Red Queen said to Alice “the world would spin around a lot faster than it does if people would mind their own business”.
Hank, your analogy about the Japanese soldiers still holding out on islands after WWII is kinda funny. Sadly, unlike WWII, the timber wars are not over. There is still a huge amount of work to be done. Clear-cutting and herbicide spraying is rampant, the forests are increasingly barren mono-cultures.
Newspapers were quick to declare the timber wars over as soon as Pacific Lumber became HRC. This shallow, media generated understanding of the situation, is a false narrative that basically mocks those who are still putting our lives on the line for our planet and diminishes the importance of taking a stand against the massive timber corporations that are still raping the land.
The forest “island” that we now occupy is a hotspot of biological diversity. We are the last line of defense for this place and our success in fighting for a healthy bio-region will be better judged by the future generations who will inhabit this area. As long as the forest and waters we rely on for survival are being harmed, you can bet that there will be conflict.
As long as there are yahoo point-the-finger-of-guilt at timber companies while completely ignoring the far worse eco-damage done to Humboldt streams by careless homesteaders whom enviros used as their political and financial backers, then, yes, there will be conflict. Ecology consciousness demands that we treat our human acts in a non-political way because we are all responsible for eco-damage. Hopefully, the yahoo enviros seeking fame for themselves by creating their phony Timber War will have learned something by now about ecology systems and how human beings interact with them as an undivided species, not one where these folks are doing good and those folks are a-holes, the worthless division of our community by enviros seeking to make social war pitting one segment of the community against the other when community cooperation of everybody was and still is needed.
An observation from someone who was born and raised in Arcata and lives elsewhere now. You folks still in Humboldt have been living a subsidized existence in a beautiful location, but the people writing the checks are going to stop writing them pretty soon. Then you’re screwed.
The problem is, Humboldt County doesn’t have a functional economy. It subsists on tax money coming in from outside. Maybe you haven’t noticed, but California and the nation are facing increasingly dire budget problems. The inflow of tax dollars is going to dry up, because the flow of tax dollars is going to dry up.
When that happens, you’ll have two choices. One, you can sell out to rich people from somewhere else who will come in and make Humboldt into whatever they want it to be. Or two, you can start paying your own way in the world and build a functional economy. Of course, if you wait for it to happen, choice number two won’t be available, because it takes some time to build a economy. If you want to do that, you’d better start now.
Yakima Racks used to have a plant in Arcata. Why’d that go away? The pulp mills in Samoa are closed. Yeah, I know, pulp mills are smelly and messy. Sewage treatment plants are too, but somehow Arcata managed to make a pretty nice bird sanctuary out of one. Maybe some smart folks with a little support can do the same for a pulp mill. Tourism might bring in some money, but some nicer places for the tourists to stay would help. What’s up with the Eureka Inn these days?
Hank mentions an infill housing development on the old Eel River Sawmill, and then there’s Arkley’s plan to turn the balloon track into retail space. But maybe what you ought to be thinking about isn’t how to turn old industrial land into houses and shopping centers, but instead think about how you turn it back into industrial facilities that make things you can sell to the outside world. Because if you don’t start making stuff to sell to the outside world, pretty soon you’re going to have to sell the county itself. Then someone else decides what to do with the land.
You don’t get to sponge off the rest of the world and live in a spot more beautiful than where the people you’re sponging off of live. Not forever. And you don’t have to rototill the forest and pave the Bay. You don’t have to be greedy. But you do have to be self-supporting. Sustainable, if you will. Right now, you’re not.
hear, hear.
Are you listening, Hank? Maybe you can think about what this guy’s said and how you censored our Heartlands Project and Palco Community Corporation plans from the NCJ. Perhaps if the community could read about alternative industrial development ideas we might rally together to create a sustainable Humboldt economy.
If peruse the local rags of the bay area, you’ll see the concerns and complaints are generally the same with one monumental difference: the fight to keep the waters unpolluted, the forests from being whittled down to nothing, and protection from massive sprawl have been lost a long long time ago.
If economics are a concern, and our mutual appreciation for the area is recognized, for the sake of the present and the future, the physical unequity of Humboldt County needs to be kept in mind. Our sparce density and untouched forests are our biggest “commidity”….locally and even in terms of the whole entire world. All eyes look to Humboldt for lots of reasons…conventional development isn’t one of them.
Steve… right. Green Diamond wants to clear-cut a forested refuge for endangered animals in the McKay Tract and we have put ourselves in the way of that. We are interacting in our environment on one of the most important levels, defending it from demolition.
You are living in the past, dredging up old accusations and still complaining to people about your unsuccessful project. Your arguments are not based in current reality.
Our supporters come from many different walks of life. We receive drastically less support from homesteaders than you imply. The majority of our financial contributors are people who happen by our info table. Rarely do they say what they do for a living or where they live.
I do not believe we are running a divisive campaign. Can you cite any example of our group “pitting one segment of the community against the other”?
Our group ultimately seeks an end to clear-cutting and the implementation of restoration of our forest ecosystem. That means jobs and people working together. Not division.
There are enourmous consecutive areas of clearcut recently harvested. Anybody familiar with the area could show you similar areas unreplenished for at least 20 years. Areas near me that used to be thick forests generating cool moisture and misty climates have been swelteringly hot clearings overgrown with lowlying groundcovers like poison oak since. I suspected a widespread publicity stunt was going on when Simpson recently changed their name to Green Diamon Renewable Resources, a very eco-friendly name with no change in operation to back their new moniker.
Those employed by timber “production” companies (a very improperly named industry to say the least) could just as easily be put to work with the same pay in forest protection services and truely recyclable building material production. It was heartbreaking to see the McKinleyville forest nursery get shut down, and another whose name escapes me that was formerly associated with what is now the HFAC that grew redwood saplings so hardy you could practically throw them on the ground in clumps and they’d perpetuate. Monies stricken through politics that would rather see the development of dense residential areas and shopping centers on the grounds of more money gained more quickly.
No compromise should be granted in future planning regarding these industries. Every and all examples of how environmentally unconscious businesses ultimately operate exist everywhere you want to live other than here.
Perhaps if any of you had read the Heartlands Project and Palco Community Corporation proposals you might have learned that, no, we are not advocating the same type of corporate capitalist industrial logging operations. Palco Community Corporation was to be a Worker-owned community corporation and was based on an old worker-owned industry model plan proposed back in the 1970’s by a dedicated Communist actually. It is not your corporate capitalist business model but until you actually read the Heartlands Project that was sponsored at one time by the Bear River Band of Rohnerville Rancheria and the Palco Community Plan, you are attacking my post from a standpoint of ignorance.
The point of my post and the one before it was that protesting isn’t creating workable alternatives. Protest is good in its place but it’s not the solution. Creating our own community owned and operated timber industry under strict environmental protection guidelines is the answer.
Since Heraldo censors all my comments like Hank censors any writings I submit to the NCJ, I will take this opportunity to post my comments here responding to Heraldo’s and enviros current attack on Green Diamond. Which is to say, Where were you guys when Simpson was getting away practically scott free from environmental scrutiny and criticism for all those years enviros had focused their assault on Palco. Most everyone in the timber industry and Forest Service for nearly two decades wondered why enviros never seemed to care about what Simpson was doing in the way of environmental degradation as they all knew Simpson’s record was far worse than anything Palco was doing. Instead of using any psychological sense that called for praising the most environmentally restricted timber corporation in the world, they constantly attacked Palco which of course would not inspire further environmental cooperation. Now, having sold out Palco to another outside owner, Humboldt Redwood Company which has reduced employment in Scotia down to minimal numbers never seen at Palco before, thank you enviros, for caring so much about Humboldt’s economy, now enviros are switching to Green Diamond to further their lust for making a social war in place of environmental cooperation, a strategy in which only enviros competing for media attention gain, the forest and its creatures paying the price of immensely delayed action in Simpson/Green Diamond forests.
Uh oh. Steve has discovered a new forum.
I dont know Joel, seems like a very non threatening post, the lack of slander one would see on Heraldo, its good to have an actual conversation and the ability to make ones point without censorship..
Having been censored off of Heraldo myself, nice to see free speech is possible in Humboldt County even if you disagree with it- that is what FREE means, eh?
the best point so far being that if Hank likens the timber situation to lost soldiers fighting an ancient battle, he’s REALLY out of touch. Or playing tabloid journalism tactics…trolling for response, as it is nowadays.