Editor’s Note: Portions of this story originally appeared in The Enterprise‘s June 16, 2022 edition. The Enterprise is owned by the North Coast Journal, Inc. Ferndale on a Sunday morning is quiet but not sleepy. Middle-aged couples put in their daily miles walking loops down Main Street, turning on Van Ness to pass the fairgrounds. […]
Linda Stansberry
Linda Stansberry was a staff writer of the North Coast Journal from 2015 to 2018. She is a frequent contributor the the Journal and our other publications.
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Bad Women Like Me
When I was 24 years old, I worked the graveyard shift at a youth hostel in San Francisco’s Tenderloin. It was fine, sometimes even fun. I rarely felt unsafe in that neighborhood, but I often felt unsafe while doing my job. There was the long-term resident, a student, who would call me at the front […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Dead Blonde
“You found me!” He did not look happy to have found me, which I thought was strange. He was looking for me, wasn’t he? Isn’t that why he was here, in the brushy highway median, with a shovel in one hand and a USB microphone in the other? Wasn’t searching for my body the point […]
Posted inEat + Drink
Pigs and Whiskey
It is, perhaps, a failure of our collective education that when we think of whiskey, we don’t immediately think of rippling fields of wheat, rye, corn or barley. Those basic grains are the building blocks of most whiskeys. Alchemy Distillery, a young whiskey company based in Arcata, uses local wheat grown at the Hindley Ranch […]
Posted inNews
Saturday Morning Shots
The vaccine clinic starts at 9 a.m. By 8:45 a.m. the lines stretch from the breezeway of Pacific Union School’s main building in Arcata all the way through the parking lot, then the adjacent parking lot, to Janes Road. A young woman with blonde hair stands just inside the school’s fence, her arms crossed against […]
Posted inNews
Third Street Refuge
It’s 42 degrees and a bitter, spitty rain is tapping the sidewalks. Trees bend in the wind next to the Humboldt County Library, where a couple sits under a blue tarp draped over two shopping carts. A storm front is moving in, bringing days of cold weather and winds up to 30 miles per hour. […]
Posted inNews
Point of Contention
Is the Humboldt Area Center for Harm Reduction responsible for problem behavior near its headquarters at 1522 Third St. in Eureka? This was the central question the city of Eureka sought to answer and address when it initiated an undercover investigation into the nonprofit in January of 2020. Neighbors had complained of noise violations, needle […]
Posted inNews
Eureka Council Suspends Needle Exchange with Split Vote
A marathon Dec. 10 special meeting of the Eureka City Council, stretching from 7 until 11:30 p.m., resulted in the council voting 3-2 to pass a resolution temporarily prohibiting all syringe exchange services within city limits, with Councilmembers Natalie Arroyo and Leslie Castellano dissenting. The wording of the resolution is tangled, stating that the city […]
Posted inNews
Eureka City Council Votes 3-2 to Suspend Syringe Exchange Services
A marathon special meeting of the Eureka City Council, stretching from 7 until 11:30 p.m., resulted in the council voting 3 to 2 in favor of a resolution temporarily prohibiting all syringe exchange services within city limits, with councilmembers Natalie Arroyo and Leslie Castellano dissenting. The wording of the resolution is tangled, stating that the […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Please Don’t Cry in the Big Girl’s Store
When I was around 10 years old, my mother decided we should have swimming lessons. It was a good decision; in 1992, the Mattole River was still deep and swift in many places, and that’s where we spent most of our summers, dogpaddling and diving for submerged soda cans with our cousins. I wasn’t scared […]
Posted inNews
Changing Territory
On Nov. 17, the Eureka City Council voted to repeal and replace its existing camping ordinance, approving new language that prohibits camping in the city’s business districts and trails, anywhere in the city during daylight hours and anywhere on public property where said camping would be considered “obstructive conduct.” Discussion stretched nearly two hours, with […]
Posted inNews
Eureka Council Passes New Camping Ordinance
After nearly two hours of discussion, the Eureka City Council voted Tuesday to pass an ordinance repealing and replacing the city’s camping ordinance, with Councilmember Leslie Castellano dissenting. The ordinance was altered to reflect public concern over perceived criminalization of homelessness, changing the recommended criminal charges for involuntary camping from a misdemeanor to an infraction. […]