I’m writing to respond to Brian Morrissey, senior vice president of Security National (which owns the Eureka Reporter), whose guest opinion ran in the April 23 Eureka Reporter, replying to one I wrote which ran April 20.

I am curious. Why is it that people who move here from other areas, for whatever reason, want to turn our area into one like they just left? What’s that all about? Why did you all move here?

Something strikes me as very odd when someone like a David Cobb, a short-time resident of Eureka, calls for citizens to “generate a little ... heat on our City Council members.� This rhetoric, seemingly more fitting for an Iraq war debate than a local rezone project, came about after we as a council voted democratically (4-1) to allow a public participation process to proceed on the Balloon Track proposal.

I’m writing to emphasize that there is a public process in place for real estate projects such as the Marina Center. Security National Properties is exceeding those requirements for community involvement in the process.

I would like to reply to a few of the talking points that Mr. Cobb felt were so important, in his Feb. 12 My Word. First, I would like to start, well, at the beginning. Mr. Arkley does not need a “friendly� media source. Projects like the Sequoia Park Zoo and helping local nonprofit organizations do not need “friendly� press.

So Union Pacific Corp. and local billionaire developers Rob and Cherie Arkley want to change the zoning rules on the last large piece of undeveloped waterfront property in Eureka.  

It’s a pleasure to see grass-roots democracy in action. A good example was on display Tuesday at the Eureka City Council chambers. A standing-room-only crowd turned out to hear — and comment on — the first public presentation of Rob and Cherie Arkley’s proposed Balloon Tract development, which would include 400,000-square-feet of retail shops, a parking structure, restaurants and office space along with five anchor stores and a 115,000-square-foot Home Depot.

Your endorsement of competing studies neatly sidesteps one central issue: Union Pacific (as a private landowner) and Security National (as the proposed buyer) do not want it done. Consider if this was your home or business; would you want a study done on it? ]]> http://www.tsblogs.com/bigbox/2006/02/clearing_up_balloon_tract_conc.html http://www.tsblogs.com/bigbox/2006/02/clearing_up_balloon_tract_conc.html Mon, 06 Feb 2006 14:02:12 -0800 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.

The Leo Sears My Word article on Jan. 13 puts in sharp perspective his need for a lesson in history other than the one offered by the taxpayers league or the local chamber of commerce.

First off, the term ³free enterprise² has become an oxymoron. We haven¹t had free enterprise in America since the first Congress of the U.S. As for its pre-eminent position in the world, I imagine he¹s referring to the business and industrial complex, along with the chambers of commerce and taxpayers leagues, who devoted four decades to opposing Social Security, wage and hour laws, organized labor, the eight-hour day, overtime, the coffee break, minimum wage, child-labor laws and all the other employee benefits that labor fought to win against the auto, steel, mining, chemical and oil industries during the ¹30s and ¹40s. Obviously Leo never stood on a picket line, his dignity and humanity bleeding from the blows from industry¹s strike-breaking goon squads.

Close your eyes for a moment and imagine the sounds of children’s laughter as you stroll along a trail on the waterfront. Now open your eyes. Have you seen the Balloon Track in its current state? Would you take your children there to play?

I have read numerous articles and opinion pieces about the site and the potential options for future development. I realize that this issue is not without controversy for many in the community. Opinions are being formed and heels are digging in. Before you become entrenched in a decision about this issue, I would like to offer something else to consider.

Whatever happened to private enterprise?
You know, the private enterprise that built our nation to its pre-eminence
in the world.

Examples of its demise nationwide would fill volumes, but the local examples also abound.

The latest, led by Supervisor Bonnie Neely, is the county Board of Supervisors urging the city of Eureka to spend $100,000 in public money to study the Balloon Tract and suggesting that taxpayers foot the bill for the toxic cleanup.

Those in our community who continually spout the anti-big-box rhetoric have their heads buried in the sand. We already have access 24/7 to the world's largest big-box store. It's the Internet. It has all the traditional big boxes, such as WalMart.com and HomeDepot.com, plus many, many more. Need work clothes? Try Gemplers at gemplers.com. How about electronic parts and supplies? Allied Electronics at alliedelec.com has them all.

Name-brand quality at big-box quantity prices, ordered on your credit card from the convenience of your home. No sales tax, pays the shipping and UPS delivers it to your front door. No questions asked, returns picked up at your door by UPS for replacement or refund.

I want to thank my friend Cletus Isbell for furthering the discussion on big-box stores in his My Word of Dec. 23. I do, however, want to respectfully disagree with three points he makes.

First, I disagree that those consumers now comfortably buying items off the Internet (and getting them home-delivered) will switch to the big boxes.

Instead, the big box's customers will mainly be those of us who now frequent locally owned and operated brick-and-mortar stores.