Harvesting Humboldt’s quality of life?
My Word by George Clark
Our Founding Fathers might have protested “another clever tyranny,” after corporations received the constitutional rights that the Founders intended for living citizens, (Santa Clara vs. Southern Pacific, U.S. Supreme Court, 1886).
Predictably, corporate “freedom of speech” became a political bullhorn unleashing the greatest massed force the world has ever known, turning American’s quaint notion of private enterprise into a tyranny by immortal kings that shape our communities to serve their whimsical interests. Moats of corporate legalese protect their identities, repelling common law, prisons, taxes and growing hoards of peasants demanding accountability. This ancient conspiracy was renamed “privatization” to soften its barbaric history of transferring vast public resources into few royal hands.
In Humboldt’s first historic harvest, rivers and fisheries were devastated, leaving native populations homeless and unemployed — in return for a lovely Carnegie library and Rockefeller Forest. Humboldt’s second historic harvest promises to extract our remaining quality of life, a harvest already experienced by countless American cities plagued by unbridled development, lower wages, job losses, unaffordable housing and epidemics of cancer and childhood asthma unheard of just decades ago.
Despite complaints about “over-regulation,” developers and financiers have been wildly successful in harvesting citizens’ home equity and quality of life through interest-only mortgages; in exploiting public subsidies to build on cheaply acquired wetlands, floodplains, sandbars and brownfields, unaccountable for human and environmental disasters that follow; in irresponsibly building subdivisions miles from downtown, oblivious to America’s inevitable fuel shortages, continuing job exportations and chronically inadequate infrastructures.
According to the National Association of Realtors, one quarter of new homes are purchased by investors, thus artificially inflating home prices, described by UCLA economist Christopher Thornberg as pyramid schemes costing home owners $150 billion during the 1980s market crash. According to the USDA, 96 million Americans live in unaffordable, inadequate or dilapidated” housing. Perfectly legal conspiracies, thinly veiled behind the myth of free enterprise, are diminishing citizen access to shelter, clean environments, health care, jobs, education, pensions and bankruptcy. And each time, America’s forgotten majority loses access to the “pursuit of happiness.”
Compounding these losses is a negligent educational system that manufactures “civic voids” by failing to teach (or model) the fundamental responsibility of voting, thus enabling profiteers to maintain their dominance upon every governmental level. Civic apathy and greed severely weaken America, while developers in other nations profit from government-mandated housing innovations that utilize alternative energy, transportation and conservation. Government’s purpose to improve the quality and security of life would include communities of 700-square-foot homes, requiring all downtown commercial developments to include affordable upper-level condominiums, creating critical sources of equity for millions of returning veterans, graduating students and working-class citizens.
Expecting to meet citizen needs by repeating America’s failed development legacy here in Humboldt County literally defines insanity.
It has been inspirational to witness a majority of voters saying “no” to corporate leviathans Wal-Mart, Calpine and Pacific Lumber. However, today’s “corporatocracy” enjoys unrelenting force and unparalleled anonymity, flooding communities with a well-funded newspaper called the Eureka Reporter, coinciding with the appearance of mysterious front-groups: One, called “HELP,” threatens lawsuits demanding 400 percent growth increases in our communities. Another, called “Eureka Coalition for Jobs,” spent 30 times Chris Kerrigan’s annual Eureka City Council salary to unseat him! Still another, called “R.A.P.I.T.,” warned, “those who think your quality of life is most important are elitist,” (North Coast Journal, Dec. 2, 2004). That’s a quality of life that's made Eureka “one of the top 100 places to live in the U.S.,” without Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Calpine or high growth rates, (T-S, Sept. 12, 2004)!
Ask our increasing number of refugees from Southern California about developers’ promises of “prosperity,” typically followed by employment, wage and benefit losses, then by crime, traffic and diminishing public services.
Yet, developers and their political shills would line our bay with cheap hotels and big boxes, undeterred by repeated voter opposition or public-use zoning restrictions.
Contact Catherine Kuhlman of the California Regional Water Quality Control Board to demand enforcement of cease and desist orders under section 13301 of the California Water Code to stop all developments within our numerous communities that are increasingly threatened by silted streams and wastewater violations.
Also, join Eureka’s Democracy Unlimited and the Healthy Humboldt Coalition and begin electing desperately needed candidates who will represent Eureka’s voting majority, instead of the petulant plutocrats determined to harvest our quality of life.
George Clark, a 30-year resident of Humboldt County, is a self-employed refugee from Southern California. He lives in Eureka.
The opinions expressed in this My Word piece do not necessarily reflect the editorial viewpoint of the Times-Standard.
Comments
I travel the world, on business, from Eureka. I don't visit foreign resorts or vacation spots (like many traveling Americans), instead I visit small towns, villages and cities where my typical client is a manufacturer. I talk with those 'average' citizens.
In spite of the doom and gloom message in your opinion, there are millions of foreigners that would love to come to America, yes, even Humboldt County, so that they can live in, contribute to and enjoy the standard of living we all take for granted on a day to day basis.
I've been to those 70 square meter homes you recommend and I can tell you the residents I visit there envy the the fact that I live in a (small by American standards) 140 square meter home on 700 square meters of land. My modest life style is their dream and contributes to their ambition.
You are advocating more government control, mandating certain situations (desireable from your perspective)yet as we've seen from history, time and time again, controlling governments, whether leaning left or right, have failed to provide improvement in their citizens' welfare.
Posted by: John Yolton | January 24, 2006 06:32 PM
Well said, John.
Posted by: Fred Mangels | January 25, 2006 07:04 AM
Come on George...I know
you did not write this
by yourself....lets all
that Richard for this
message...Just think George
all this HYPE just protect
you little business
Posted by: Chet Albin | January 25, 2006 04:36 PM
Sorry for the typo on the
last message...that should
have said "thank Richard"
Posted by: Chet Albin | January 25, 2006 04:39 PM
Perhaps Chet could have used some help writing his reply.
George loves his community. Obviously Chet either doesn't know him or has some issue with the opinion.
For me it is hard to find falt with anything Mr. Clark said.
Posted by: Mike Buettner | January 25, 2006 08:21 PM
The Balloon Tract (Track) is an industrial lot in the midst of the (admittedly rotting) industrial part of town.
Meanwhile, there are many places around town developed specifically for commercial development.
So why have some persons become fixated with this kind of development at this kind of location? Why not build Home Depot at the Bayshore Mall... the Eureka Mall.... the old Halvorsen project… the Promenade (or whatever the waterfront walkway project is called) where everyone wants commercial development to take place?
But whoever does get the site inherits a pack of contamination and ecological problems. Why bother? Make a park or railroad museum or something out of the Balloon Tract and everyone just get on with their lives.
But the real issue is Big Box Development, not where it occurs. Keep in mind there are "X" number of dollars circulating in the Northcoast... no more and no less. Home Depot does not print money, just collects it. What really needs to be decided is who shall collect this money.... local merchants or large non-local corporations. And which city gets the tax money.
Comments?
Posted by: Dan Lamoreaux | January 28, 2006 11:25 AM
I agree totally with your last paragraph Dan. I have heard it repeated so much in the recent weeks when it comes to this proposal: "it (Home Depot) will bring much needed jobs and tax revenue to our city!" This has got to be the mother of all myths that surrounds big box development. Nothing could be further from the truth. I don't care whether your talking about big box auto, groceries, or hardware, it's all basically the same. Once again as Dan said, there are only so many retail dollars to be spent in a given market inside a given community. Retailers share portions of those dollars , and the big box outfits end up with the lions share once they set up shop. There are plenty of studies that have proven this to be true time and time again all over the country. Do an internet search, the information is out there. The jobs that they claim to create, don't take into account for the ones that are lost by the employee's of the smaller outfits that they compete against. Even though Home Depot pays better than somebody like Walmart, they still provide little in the way of a living wage. These are not my statistics, rather they come from testimonials of people that have worked there in the recent past, or are currently working there now. I agree that good paying jobs are needed for our local economy to grow. The big box stores simply do not provide these type of jobs. Most local small merchants tend to spend more of their money within the community in which they do business. The large corporate stores typically do not. Corporate dollars end up finding their way back to corporate headquarters. The last time I checked, Home Depot calls Atlanta it's home, not Eureka.
Long before I moved to Eureka from the bay area, I owned a small business myself. I know first hand about the phrase: " friendly competition is good for business". This is something that I do not disagree with. If only Home Depot, and the alike, beleived the same thing. To the contrary, their very marketing strategy for years has been rooted in the slogan: "we crush the competition". And crush it they have. Once they have stifled their competetors in a given area, they usually end up being the ONLY game in town. So much for consumer choice! This is exactly what has already happened in community after community throughout the country. And when they end up being the only game in town, just how long do you think that they continue to offer all of those low low prices?
All in all, I am not one that believes that the Balloon Track should stay as it is. Actually, I doubt most Eureka residents want to see the property sit in a state of further neglect indefinately. Development on this site would be a good thing. I like some of the proposals that I have seen for "Marina Center". I just don't think that Home Depot really has to be part of it. I have already read the posts that claim that nobody has the right to to tell the Arkleys what to do with their money. And while I agree with that statement on some levels, I do think that the public has the right to weigh in on this proposal. This type of project affects ALL of us one way or another.
Lastly, before I get replies telling me that I don't know what Eureka really needs because I'm just a "transplant", let me give you a little insight on my small town experiences. I too, lived my whole life in the same small town that I was born in until moving here just 5 years ago. It was unique in it's own way, just like here. It too had become "long in the tooth", kinda like this place is now. People complained about the same things that I hear coming from Eureka residents. No jobs, homeless people, no growth, ect. Then it happened. Big expansion. Strip malls, big corporate stores, and LOTS of housing developments. And guess what? Unbelievable amounts of traffic, over burdened city infrastructures, increased crime, massive amounts of people for the given area, and on and on. What didn't arrive? All the jobs that had been promised, lower cost housing, and community development. So, when I found that my hometown had outgrown me, I decided to move to a place that had a seemingly different idea on "growth". I chose Eureka. Now, 5 years later, a strangely familiar dialog is reminding me of my not so long ago past. With all due respect to the long time (native if you will) local folk who are "full speed ahead" on this type of proposed development, I'll leave you with this thought for now:
Be careful what you wish for. Once it's done there is no turning back.
Posted by: Matt Groszmann | February 25, 2006 03:12 PM
Often times I read a great post, but have nothing to add. Maybe we need to add a button for I read your post.
Posted by: Janna | April 7, 2006 06:23 AM
Real good work!Good job guys! Very nice site!
Posted by: Ahmed | April 7, 2006 10:51 AM
I think you have done such a nice with your blog. Best of luck to ya TajaC
Posted by: TajaC | April 26, 2006 06:59 PM
In what way will the developement of that trashy eyesore be "THE HARVEST OF OUR LIFESTYLE"?
I say thanks to the Arkleys and their desire to turn that s___hole around.
Posted by: Scott | August 6, 2006 01:10 PM
ionolsen21 HI! I love this place!
Posted by: karel | October 18, 2006 10:37 AM
ionolsen23 Best site I see. Thanks.
Posted by: nervotrepka | October 20, 2006 12:57 PM