'Unrealistic'

Editor:

It’s a real shame that there are people in our community who are so fearful and/or hateful of others that they feel compelled to vandalize a community garden repeatedly “After Nearly a Year of Vandalism, Centro Del Pueblo Calls for City Council to Protect Arcata Sanctuary Garden,” June 13, 2023). However, I am perplexed by the garden community’s expectations of the city of Arcata in response to these acts. APD has offered increased police surveillance of the garden and to park a marked patrol car there overnight, despite a severe departmental staffing shortage, but these offers have been declined because they “might make some community members uncomfortable.” Instead, the garden’s organizers have suggested that individual council members show their solidarity by volunteering their time to help clean up the damage.

The garden’s organizers seem to want the city council to transform Arcata into a hate-free community through symbolic gestures. A city council’s job is to govern, which includes allocating law enforcement resources, not to try to alter the mindset of its inhabitants. We don’t even know that the vandals ARE Arcata residents. Arcata can be as friendly and welcoming as anyone could wish, but it doesn’t exist in a vacuum.

One of the volunteers said, “As much as we would like to pretend Arcata is a safe place, sometimes it isn’t.” Exactly, and wishing it were otherwise isn’t going to make it so. Centro del Pueblo’s executive director wonders, “What if the vandalism is not the place where it ends, but the place where it begins?” Following that line of thought, her organization’s refusal of APD’s offer could make some of its community members dead instead of just uncomfortable.

In short, I think Centro del Pueblo’s demands of the city are unrealistic and unreasonable and I urge it to accept the city’s offer of increased police presence while simultaneously working with the larger community to obviate the need for it.

Ken Burton, McKinleyville