The Housing Games
A lack of student housing causes a countywide rental crunch, enriching landlords and often leaving tenants with nowhere to go
Cover Story
The Housing Games
Janie Hubert and Lynne Demarest are both in their 70s and neighbors in a Section 8 apartment building in Eureka’s Old Town. They rely on the elevator to get to the street from their third-floor apartments. But twice this year, it didn’t work — once for three months and then again for two weeks —…
Mysterious Light in the Sky and Smoke Trail Likely a Meteor
A mysterious light and what appeared be smoke trailing behind it blazed across the sky around 5:40 p.m. Residents of the North Coast as well as people in Reno, the Bay Area and beyond spotted the bright light followed by a curvy tail of smoke. Several sent us photos and video. Many at first thought…
Photos from the Beaver Sisters
The Beaver sisters (played by local artists Sarah McKinney, Maggie Lally and Janessa Johnsrude) transformed Eureka’s Synapsis Nova on Friday into a setting for an angst-ridden fundraiser telethon with a major problem: No one calls in to donate money. The plot’s backstory for The Beaver Sisters Present: The Beaverettes is that the toxin-laden river is threatening…
Fresh Takes at Fregoso’s
So long, Savory. Hola, Fregosos Comida Mexicana (1504 G St., Arcata). In November, Savory’s owners, who also own the Fregoso Market across from the Arcata North Coast Co-op, made the switch with a bright coat of paint, a fully Mexican menu and a new name in the same location across from Stars Hamburgers in Arcata’s…
North Coast Night Lights: Cooks Valley Bridge
In 1993, I spent a year in Chicago. Even then I loved photographing at night; I have always been drawn to it. I would use either available light or introduce light of my own, painting it into a scene much as I do now. I wasn’t comfortable photographing with models then, confining myself mostly to…
High Surf Continues, High Tides Later This Week
High surf is once again set to hit Humboldt shores with another surge expected this afternoon and overnight, according to the Eureka office of the National Weather Service. Breaking waves are looking to be in the 20- to 24-foot range and officials are asking folks to use caution near the shoreline and mariners to monitor…
Music Tonight: Wednesday, December 19
It’s yet another installment of the popular electro, deep bass-informed, and heavily modulated chiptune soundscape/dance escape at The Jam called Whomp Whomp Wednesday at 9:30 p.m. ($5). This week’s featured artists are ChopsJunkie, Tropic Tiger, Aneurhythm and Eternalized. If those names mean anything to you then I need hardly say more. If not, then rest…
Poll: Despite Surging Economy, Californians Anxious About Future and Want Change
!function(e,t,s,i){var n=”InfogramEmbeds”,o=e.getElementsByTagName(“script”)[0],d=/^http:/.test(e.location)?”http:”:”https:”;if(/^\/{2}/.test(i)&&(i=d+i),window[n]&&window[n].initialized)window[n].process&&window[n].process();else if(!e.getElementById(s)){var r=e.createElement(“script”);r.async=1,r.id=s,r.src=i,o.parentNode.insertBefore(r,o)}}(document,0,”infogram-async”,”https://e.infogram.com/js/dist/embed-loader-min.js”); Californians may have just voted overwhelmingly for more of the same — boosting Democratic majorities in both chambers of the Legislature and replacing one Democratic governor with another for the first time since the 1880’s — but many are still eager for major changes to state policy. And a majority are…
Bailando Feliz Mente – A Latin Dance Showcase
Check out spicy salsa moves from Bailando! Dance Company and Miss Julie’s SALSA KIDS at Bailando Feliz Mente – A Latin Dance Showcase at Redwood Raks World Dance Studio, Wednesday, Dec. 19 from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. ($10, $5 kids). This fundraiser for Redwood Raks features performances by Ya Habibi Dance Company, Arcata Rueda, Eva…
Music Tonight: Tuesday, December 18
The Siren’s Song hosts an evening of folky far-left aligned political music as three Seattle bands merge with a local outfit to form a more perfect union of sound. The Window Smashing Job Creators play a folk punk blend with a touch of horns for that majestic edge while Geophasia is a similarly minded collective.…
Man Killed in Eureka Hit and Run Identified
The man found dead in a green belt area near U.S. Highway 101 on Dec. 14 has been identified by the Humboldt County Coroner’s Office as Michael Kenneth Pohl. He was 29. According to a release, Pohl died of “impact injuries due to a motor vehicle.” No suspect has been identified. Earlier information from the…
Waves Upward of 30 Feet Along the Coast Today
With waves upward of 30 feet on local beaches today, the county of Humboldt has closed a portion of Centerville Road until further notice due do “dangerous coastal conditions.” The Eureka office of the National Weather Service warns that people should stay off rocks and jetties. High surf conditions, which have been hitting the local…
Man Stable After McKinleyville Stabbing
A man was taken to the hospital in stable condition after being found Sunday morning on the front porch of a McKinleyville home with stab wounds to the neck and chest. According to a release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office, the 38-year-old man told deputies he was stabbed at a campsite near the C…
Music Tonight: Monday, December 17
Local funky outfit Dan and the Americans play Blondies again tonight at 7 p.m. as a part of its ongoing odd-weeknight residency. The price is unknown to me but the show will likely pull a fun little crowd. If music doesn’t do it for you and you want a rare treat for the coming Winter…
HumBug: Rainy Day Locals
Head’s up: It’s tick season again. It seems they like damp weather. My archives show photos of them primarily in April to May and December to January. In the last week, I’ve pulled one off a dog and one off a friend who had one on her arm. Even if you haven’t been outdoors where…
HumSport: Your Week in Sports Photos
Local photographer Jose Quezada has launched a pair of new websites, HumSport and HumLook, showcasing the work of local photographers. Photographers will be uploading galleries of photos on both sites regularly, showcasing their best images of local sports, cultural events and landscapes. High-resolution downloads of the images are also available for $5 apiece. The Journal…
HumLook: Ugly Sweaters, a Brass Band and Santa!
Local photographer Jose Quezada has launched a pair of new websites, HumSport and HumLook, showcasing the work of a team of local photographers. Photographers will be uploading galleries of photos on both sites regularly, showcasing their best images of local sports, cultural events and landscapes. High-resolution downloads of the images are also available for $5 apiece.…
Music Tonight: Sunday, December 16
It’s Gaudete Sunday, aka the joyful third Sunday in Advent season, which makes it a perfect day for the religious and secular alike to enjoy a 3 p.m. matinee of the McKinleyville Community Choir’s Holiday Concert at the Arcata Playhouse. The show is free — donations are appreciated — and the show will feature a…
Music Tonight: Saturday, December 15
Portland, Oregon’s folk punk working class hero Casey Neill brings his band The Norway Rats to jam out bayside at the Eagle House this evening at 7:30 p.m. Touring on their newest album Subterrenne Mr. Neill and his large ensemble group of musical rodents will likely entertain all comers, particularly those of the ballad and…
Death of 4 Roosevelt Elk, Including a Pregnant Cow, Under Investigation
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife is asking for the public’s help in an elk poaching case that was discovered in the Maple Creek region Dec. 9. According to a release, wildlife officers responded to the scene southeast of Blue Lake to find four dead Roosevelt cow elk, one of which was pregnant. All…
UPDATED: EPD Investigating Man’s Death as ‘Possible Hit and Run’
UPDATE: The Eureka Police Department believes the apparent hit and run that left a man dead may have occurred around 7 p.m. yesterday, possibly involving a dark-colored SUV. “The vehicle most likely has passenger side front end damage,” the latest EPD release states. PREVIOUSLY: The Eureka Police Department is investigating the death of a man…
UPDATE: High Winds Taking Down Trees, Dropping Power Lines
UPDATE 1:29 p.m.: All the earlier county roads that were closed are now open. However, Bald Mountain Road at mile marker 3 is closed due to downed trees. Crews recently arrived on site and expect to have the road open soon. PREVIOUSLY: High winds are knocking down trees and power lines this morning. There are…
UPDATE: EPD Investigating After Body Found in Green Belt Off 101
UPDATE: The Eureka Police Department is investigating the death of a man found this morning at Fifth and V streets as a “possible hit and run traffic collision.” According to a release, no information on a suspect or suspect vehicle is currently available. Read more here. PREVIOUSLY: The Eureka Police Department is investigating after a…
Lady in the Lake
Change your point of view at Friday Night Noir: Lady in the Lake (1946), Friday, Dec. 14 at 7:30 p.m. at the Eureka Theater ($5). Audrey Totter stars as a “lady editor of a crime magazine” in this one-of-a-kind noir based on the Raymond Chandler novel. Robert Montgomery directs and stars in this caper where…
Tractor Beams
Ferndale at Christmastime is small-town America at its finest. Its charming shops are decorated with wreaths, ribbons and lights, and the tall, tall tree at the end of Main Street sends beautiful illumination all over town. Every year, farmers and ranchers decorate their trucks and tractors for an old-fashioned parade down Main Street to the…
Music Tonight: Friday, December 14
Psych, jazz and raga ramblers Ms. God are puttin’ on The Jam tonight 9 p.m. ($3 suggested donation). Expect cyclical riffs and saxophonic passages with drums and rhythmic vocals. Also on the bill are the excellent and suitably heavy sounds of sympatico trio Frog. Rounding out the bill is a new band in town whose…
Big Waves Set to Hit the Shore
Really big waves are about to come crashing down on local shorelines. According to the Eureka National Weather Service office, breakers some 20 feet high are expected Friday afternoon into the evening before calming down late Saturday. But the surf is expected to build back up late Sunday into Monday, with surf up to 30…
‘Tis the Ugly Sweater Season: Photos from Sunday’s Run
The third annual Ugly Holiday Sweater Run on Sunday had runners and walkers in the1-mile and 5-km races wearing examples of taste-deficient knitted nightmares. The races began and ended on the Arcata Plaza. The family-friendly event is a fundraiser for Humboldt Educare, organized by Arcata Main Street. Prizes were given out for age-bracket winners by…
North Coast’s Abalone Season Closed Until 2021
As we wrote about in the Dec. 6 edition of the Journal, the California Fish and Game Commission has extended the closure of the North Coast’s red abalone season until April of 2021. The board made the decision Wednesday after once again hearing there is no positive news to report about the prized mollusks’ situation,…
Black & White Ocean Night
Put a bow on it and celebrate with Surfrider Humboldt at the organization’s third annual Black & White Ocean Night, Friday, Dec. 14 at 6:30 p.m. at Arcata Theatre Lounge ($3 donation or $10 that includes five raffle tickets). Dance in your fancy attire, watch artist Matt Beard whip up one of his best and…
North Coast Night Lights: The Tower
The tower once stood silent sentinel in the quiet fields near the Marsh in Arcata, lonely and abandoned when I discovered it. Long disused, it rose above the tall grasses and blackberry brambles covering the broken concrete rubble of the bygone structures once surrounding it. Its floor was piled deep with broken chunks and slabs,…
Sugar Plum Dreams
A magical holiday North Coast tradition comes to life this weekend when North Coast Dance’s The Nutcracker leaps onto the stage at Arkley Center for the Performing Arts Friday, Dec. 14 at 8 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 15 at 2 and 8 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 16 at 2 p.m. and Tuesday, Dec. 18 at 7 p.m.…
Music Tonight: Thursday, December 13
The purveyors of crowd participation-honed, horn-based dance music The California Honeydrops return to Humbrews tonight for what is certain to be a dynamic live show at 9 p.m. ($25, $20 advance). Expect a night of stomping soul grooves and dance floor shenanigans presided over by the best roots music spectacle from the band’s Bay Area…
Nursing Homes Balk at New Staffing Rules
More than half of California’s nursing homes, including four in Humboldt County, are asking to be exempted from new state regulations that would require them to spend more time directly caring for their patients. The state’s new staffing requirements for nursing homes, quietly passed in last year’s budget bill, seem universally unpopular. Patient advocates say…
A Cracking Good Time
When Tchaikovsky’s ballet The Nutcracker debuted in St. Petersburg 126 years ago this week, it was generally considered to be a confusing and poor adaptation of the sourced Hoffmann and Dumas fairytale. The composer would die less than a year later, never knowing the heights of popularity that his work would enjoy in the middle…
‘Tis the Season for Tamales
Even though tamales can be found and eaten year-round, it’s the tamales at Christmas that are rooted in the Mexican holiday tradition. Food anthropologist Mario Montano, a professor at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, told me in an interview a few years back that tamales originated from the Aztecs. “When Hernan Cortes arrived in Veracruz,…
Marine Life Diversity
My imaginary friend heard me call him a wacky conspiracy theorist. But he’s a good imaginary friend so we had a long heart-to-heart. I suggested that his critical thinking could be better if he had more diversity and inclusion among his own imaginary friends. But before replacing his group of imaginary middle-aged white guys with…
Our Town
The plein-air paintings in the All Things Arcata exhibition hold up a mirror to the city of Arcata, and the city looks good in this light. There can’t have been many occasions on which the streetscapes of a town of 18,000 have been so lovingly, meticulously documented. In plein-air (“open-air”) painting, popularized by the Impressionists’…
Arts! Arcata
Arts! Arcata is Arcata Main Street’s monthly celebration of visual and performing arts, held at locations in Arcata. Visit www.arcatamainstreet.com, Arts! Arcata on Facebook, or call 707-822-4500 for more information. ALCHEMY DISTILLERY 330 S G ST. Handiwork by The Humboldt Knitters. ARCATA ARTISANS 883 H St. Annual Members Show, new works by members featuring hot…
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): In 1930, some British mystery writers formed a club to provide each other with artistic support and conviviality. They swore an oath to write their stories so that solving crimes happened solely through the wits of their fictional detectives and not through “Divine Revelation, Feminine Intuition, Mumbo Jumbo, Jiggery-Pokery or Act…
Better Together
On this week’s cover, you’ll find an expansive story that spills more than 4,500 words trying to explain Humboldt County’s housing shortage and what it means. It’s the product of months of work by dozens of people and, frankly, nothing we could have taken on ourselves. The story was put together by students in Marcy…
Walking the Marsh
An ancient redwood barn</p> Leans in all directions</p> As we begin to talk</p> Of the inexplicable:</p> Where we are,</p> How we got here,</p> When these geese</p> Found their way,</p> Why this trail is</p> So easy to follow?</p> Cattails explode in laughter,</p> As we finish, where we started…</p>
Space Force
As a Brit, I’m a sucker for a good pantomime and this year’s offering at the Arcata Playhouse is up there with the best. Robin Hood – Knight of the Stars: A Space-Capade is a space-capade of the highest comedic order. It has everything a good panto should — a ludicrously over-costumed and over-made up…
The Marlboro Man Cometh
Just about every year I’ve worked as a reporter in Humboldt County, the rumor has made its way into my newsroom: Philip Morris is buying up local properties, looking to get into the weed game. It’s never checked out — until now. Kind of. News broke last week that Altria, the umbrella company under which…
Kudos and Action
Editor: Excellent and useful article! (“Don’t Let Access Humboldt Go the Way of Net Neutrality,” Dec. 6.) It took me a full day following up, searching for and reading pertinent documents. I believe that Elaine is spot-on correct. And a great thing about Elaine’s article is that it provides simple guidance on how to comment…
Feeling Blue
Editor: Whew! This well-done story about the gang-related killing of Jesús Romero-Garcia dredeged up many feelings (“Blue on Blue,” Dec. 6)! Jesús was a Sunny Brae student of mine. Despite making some obviously self-destructive choices by eighth grade, he was indeed a sweet boy, and bright. I remember his original, funny and thoughtful insights. I…
Coming Together
Editor: If we want to be less divided, I suggest we not insult people by implying that their opinions are the result of brainwashing (Mailbox, Nov. 29). Perhaps students fear racism because they experience it long before they reach college. As for calling the police, let’s consider why people of color might be reluctant to…
