Fishermen are optimistic by nature, but spending $5,000 on new crab gear this year is still a risky proposition for commercial crabbers like Curt Wilson. The equipment is expensive, prone to being lost and there has been no certainty in recent years that the commercial Dungeness crab season will start on time, if at all. […]
economy
Posted inNews
Awash in Debt, Loleta Cheese Factory is Shuttered After 38 Years
The Loleta Cheese Factory has closed amid a foreclosure on its property and a bankruptcy case that has stretched five years. The local attraction, which drew nearly 65,000 tourists annually to Loleta and once employed dozens of people, is now referring customers to grocery stores for what is left of its cheese inventory. The foreclosure […]
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Pasta Luego Says Ciao
At the end of this month, sandwich and fresh pasta purveyor Pasta Luego is shutting its doors in Arcata’s Jacoby Storehouse. Owner Nicole Maki started working at the shop in 2013, a few months after it opened, and bought it from restaurateur Bill Chino in 2016. Three years later, after struggling with the combination of […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Cannabis Raids and Our Economy
Speakers at the Sept. 10 Humboldt County Board of Supervisors meeting expressed concerns about recent sheriff’s office cannabis raids and the extreme costs and long timelines needed to get grows permitted. Humboldt County’s economy has taken a big hit with the onset of cannabis regulation, as evidenced by a 10-percent reduction in sales tax receipts […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
More on Galleries, Art and Money
Yes, local art sales have slumped and local galleries are closing. From the perspective of a working artist though, I have been amazed that this area has hung on so well so long. The national scene has been in a slow but continual 20-year decline. Of the 12 most substantial galleries I once exhibited in […]
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‘We Were Blindsided:’ Crab Fishing Closure Could Mean Millions in Losses
At the April 9 Humboldt County Board of Supervisors meeting, the security check-in station resembled a metropolitan airport with a long line of people stretched out the courthouse doors and halfway down the stairs to Fifth Street. All seats in the chamber were filled, the space between the chairs and the wall was filled with […]
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Artists without Galleries
Frowny-face graffiti sprouted all over Eureka and Arcata last month. The message was a buzzkill, but anyone could admire the economy of the streamlined bummer emoticon: two vertical slashes of spray paint over a judgmental upside-down banana curve. The effect was striking — suddenly the city thronged with this silent chorus of bad attitude, so […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Cannabis Collaboration Can Set Us Apart
It’s no longer a secret that Humboldt County’s economy is contracting. Countywide, sales tax receipts in the 2017-2018 fiscal year plunged 15 percent from the year before and it’s obvious, especially in Old Town Eureka, that businesses are feeling the pinch. Vacant storefronts abound. Anecdotally, anyway, the economic decline seems directly attributable to changes in […]
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Huffman Visits Cannabis Farm, Hears About Concerns
Editor’s note: This story first appeared on www.kymkemp.com and is reposted here with permission. With pot prices plummeting, it can sometimes feel as if Humboldt’s economic sky is falling. But on a federal level, the interest in easing restrictions on ganja is growing. North Coast Congressman Jared Huffman visited a smaller-sized cannabis farm Friday in what […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Hold My Oreo, There’s Weed to Smoke
With little fanfare, the state of California released its revised cannabis industry regulations last week. The updated regs are largely seen as a baby step between the initial rules released late last year and what will become the final regulations later this year. The latter are largely considered shrug-worthy. “The first step that Neil Armstrong […]
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Supes Get Divergent Input on Cannabis Ordinance
In packed chamber, the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors began discussing its commercial cannabis land use ordinance today and — after a two-hour staff report and hours of public comment — Fifth District Supervisor and Board Chair Ryan Sundberg indicated he’s hopeful the board will adopt the new ordinance when it comes back before the […]
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As Cannabis Markets Lurch, Some Humboldt Towns Are Rising, Others Falling
First quarter sales at The Garden of Beadin’ are bad. The small beading supply store, which has been operating in Garberville for 33 years, is used to seeing a slower stretch at the beginning of the year but owner Charlotte Silverstein attributes unusually poor sales in 2018 to the impact of cannabis legalization. “In this […]