Editor:
As the former owner and operator of a popular family restaurant in Old Town, Eureka, we urge voters to reject “Measure F” Nov. 5.
Voting “No on F” removes an obstacle to Eureka’s plans for replacing some parking with affordable housing, benefiting current and future businesses with a larger hiring pool and increased sales from hundreds of additional residents nearby.
Affordable, accessible housing increases household purchasing power, increasing demand for products, services and employment, augmented further by not needing a car.
With only one public parking space, our restaurant reaffirmed a fundamental lesson of “Business 101:” When providing your best high-demand product at a competitive price, customers will come.
Voting “no on F” begins reversing decades of development industry addiction to overstocking “moderate and above” priced housing and its lucrative cycle of foreclosure and resale leaving thousands of local families bankrupt and desperate in a corrupt “boom and bailout” economy.
George Clark, Eureka
This article appears in Combating the Barred Owl Invasion.