Four score and many years ago

2004 Economic Index: “Locally the unemployment rate [...] remained below the state average.”

2009 North Coast Journal:  “For the first time in many, many years, Humboldt County’s unemployment rate had just slipped beneath the state average. For the first time in living memory, more Humboldt County people who wanted a job had a job, compared with California at large.”

While 2004 seems like a long national nightmare ago, it is indeed in living memory.

Comments due

Public comments on two controversial projects are due today (Richardson Grove) and tomorrow (Marina Center).

The photo at right from Richardson Grove shows the location of the proposed retaining wall (just beyond the sign) if the project is approved.  Notice there are no Old Growth trees in that spot, but the wall would protect such trees further up the slope, according to CalTrans.

There’s conflict at the Humboldt Herald HQ about this project.  On the one hand, there’s skepticism that it will lead to vast development of the Humboldt hinterland as stated by some opponents.

On the other hand, we question why Rob Arkley’s latest “Sunshine” group is so interested in the project.  Their recent ads on KINS promoted the road realignment, but also “misstate[d] the tree cuts” according to Jan Bramlett in today’s Times-Standard.

Some local businesses will benefit from the project, but so will some nasty, small-business-crushing big box corporations that are looking to further foul our small towns.

And then there’s the safety issue.  Many a grizzly accident has happened in the Grove…but then again, cars (and big trucks) are dangerous!

If you’ve got your mind made up about CalTrans’ plans for Richardson Grove, send your comments to Deborah_Harmon@dot.ca.gov or Kim_Floyd@dot.ca.gov.

More info and opinion:

Sophie Lagacé: Richardson Grove EIR comments
EPIC: Protect Richardson Grove
Mark Loughmiller: Supporting the realignment of 101
Cristina Bauss: Drive-Thru Redwoods

[Photo by Ann Johnson-Stromberg]

Forced vacation for local reporters

Local employees of Media News Group discovered today they will get some unexpected time off.

January 28, 2009

TO: NCN Employees

FROM: NCN Central Office

Dear Fellow Employee of the Times-Standard, Tri City Weekly, Humboldt Beacon and Redwood Times:

In a further effort to help offset the continuing decline in revenue and position the company for future financial success, I am announcing the implementation of a mandatory one (1) week furlough for all employees to be scheduled during the period beginning February 1, 2009 and running through the month of March. All executives and management of the Company will be included.  Each employee’s department head will determine the actual week an employee is furloughed.

I realize that we are all working so hard to overcome this difficult time. I know this action will create a strain on our personal budgets, and unfortunately, I cannot guarantee that a furlough will prevent any further layoffs.

Please understand that I am not trivializing the serious nature of furloughs. Implementing unpaid furloughs is indeed a very serious step. This furlough action is unprecedented for our company. But, I am confident that an unpaid furlough will go a long way toward keeping future layoffs, if any, to a minimum.

Over the next few days, your department heads will meet with you to further explain the furlough process and how people will be scheduled. A Q&A sheet is being prepared for distribution. Your human resources contact will be available to assist you and your supervisors.  Personal situations will be considered based on seniority and the operational needs of the company.  But, such considerations should only influence when a person’s furlough begins and ends, not if a person will or will not be excused from a furlough.

As always, our customers remain our highest priority.  Through your dedicated efforts, we have continued to publish quality newspapers and to produce top notch websites.  Our challenge is to assure that we remain a strong company and continue to develop innovative new products which provide value-added for our customers.

At this time it is important to understand that we, like many media and other companies, are facing significant financial challenges due to the deep recession. We are not the first and we certainly won’t be the last to implement furloughs or take similar steps in order to address these challenges and keep our financial houses in order. We take these actions on our own because we can and we should…for the long term good of our customers and ourselves.

Thank you for your understanding, your support and your dedication.

Sincerely,

Steve Smith
Vice President, Community Newspapers
Northern California

UPDATE: More from the San Francisco Chronicle

Blog stirs controversy in Trinidad

Trinidad City Councilman Mike Morgan

From the McKinleyville Press:

“A Trinidad City Councilman’s personal blog has aroused a furor of controversy, leading to accusations by other councilmembers of an invasion of their privacy and a violation of trust.

“Councilmembers Kathy Bhardwaj and Julie Fulkerson said they were disturbed to find their private correspondence about city issues posted on Councilman Mike Morgan’s personal blog.”

Morgan’s blog, A Job Worth Doing, went live late last year.

The Times-Standard noted in December that Morgan hoped to make the city’s business more accessible to the public — which is apparently the cause of the uproar.

Morgan appears unfazed.  He responds:

Councilmembers who were involved in these email discussions, between a majority of the Council, should accept that what they did was bad judgement at best, apologize to our Townspeople for breaking their trust, and commit to not do it again.

Fallacies, omissions in the Marina Center DEIR

A forum to explore the Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) for the proposed Home Depot-anchored “Marina Center” project on Eureka’s Balloon Track drew a crowd to the Wharfinger Monday night.

A panel of seven speakers focused on different aspects of the DEIR and reminded attendees that the public comment period ends Saturday, January 31st.

Former Humboldt County counsel Ralph Faust spoke as a consultant to the Northcoast Environmental Center (NEC).  Faust questioned why project proponents call the project “smart growth” when it lacks the live/work “integrated whole” aspects that characterize such development.  Faust noted emphasis on commercial space with only a smattering of residential opportunities.

“Its proposed uses are simply thrown together and are not complementary to one another,” Faust said.

Patty Clary from Californians for Alternatives to Toxics (CATS) said the DEIR failed to address several air quality issues, despite the “significant and unavoidable” impacts found in that section of the Report.  Among other things, the DEIR omits analysis of impacts to residents of the project, impacts associated with excavation and removal of contaminated soil, and analysis in light of Humboldt County’s high rate of cancer compared to state levels.

Wiyot Tribe Cultural Director Hélène Rouvier said there are two possible village sites in the footprint of the proposed project.  The sites should be clearly identified through subsurface testing before constructions begins, she said.

Other speakers included local attorney Bill Verick, Humboldt Baykeeper attorney Michelle Smith, Kevin Wright of GreenWheels, and Phil Haysmer of Many Hands Gallery in Old Town Eureka.

For more info on the topics covered at the forum download the handout.

Home Depot slashes 7,000 jobs

More cuts at Home Depot as the home improvement big box chain struggles to stay afloat.

Arkley ghosts and goths

The Humboldt Herald is often criticized for criticizing the empire of local big box fan Rob Arkley.  But lately it appears we’re slacking on the job.

The NCJ Blogthing beat us to critiquing the latest left-overs from Arkley’s now defunct Eureka Reporter, which appear twice-weekly in the Times-Standard.  Bob Doran invites you to count the mistakes in this week’s ER editorial.

But fear not, Arkley fans!  Good news awaits you, too!

Behold Goths for Arkley, a fan group that promises to torment the nay-sayers and raise Arkleyville — from the grave:

We are forming this Goth Arkley Support Band to help Rob Arkley continue the sadness. His actions facilitate our morbid fascination and the beauty of enduring pain. Many people lead unhappy lives and that is sad. Arkley and his Marina Center will continue the sadness. He knows that gentle people are excellent for spanking. His expansion policy is the best, he spanks the world and the unseen one knows it deserves it, so beautifully dirty, grimy and perverse.

Get the story from Old Glory Radio.  The Goths meet monthly on the 2nd Friday at the Bayshore Mall in front of Borders — a nod to the written word, of course.

Sac looks at homeless camp

While the City of Eureka considers placement of a homeless camp, Sacramento ponders the same:

Mayor Kevin Johnson told The Bee he is open to the concept.

“I am actually optimistic that we’re going to get something done,” said Mark Merin, who has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court against the city and county on behalf of homeless people who by choice or circumstances live outdoors rather than in shelters. Merin argues that ticketing homeless people for illegal camping violates their constitutional rights.

Read the full article at the Sac Bee.

BRYAN PLUMLEY: Stop the inbreeding

Former candidate Bryan Plumley deploys dire warnings for the county he once hoped to supervise in today’s Times-Standard.

As the theory goes, unless we make the highway through Richardson Grove “curvier” we will suffocate in a shallow genetic pool.

Plumley wrote in response to an op-ed by McKinleyville resident Dr. Ken Miller, who opposes the highway project.  Plumley scolds Miller for calling the project a “thoroughfare” (hey, it’s a highway) but then ditches the semantic high road by saying Miller only wants a “scenic preserve.”

Do preservation authorities allow commerce and industry in a scenic preserve?  Miller called for “local food production, local manufacturing…high-value specialty agricultural and timber products [and] innovative architectural solutions to our diverse housing needs.”

Not very preserve-y.

Meanwhile, Plumley makes the incredible assertion that “it was these very transportation improvements that made Humboldt County accessible and threw open the shades to expose to the world the environmental destruction that was happening behind the Redwood Curtain.”

Huh?  What road projects, and what environmental destruction is he talking about?  Would Maxxam have gotten away with such a blatant boom-and-bust rip-off of natural resources without presence of Highway 101?  Oh, wait!  They did!  Good thing Plumley eschews detail or his theory would fall apart.

Oddly, such environmental destruction will continue if all of Plumley’s desired “transportation improvements” get the go ahead — especially the railroad.  With mining interests lining up behind such *cough* improvements *cough* the tradition of foiling Humboldt’s environment will keep rollin’ down the track.

Finally, Plumley says we can boost our neck of the woods by exporting “ideas instead of natural resources.”

FYI: Ideas don’t require a railroad, container ships or STAA trucks.

NCRA cries uncle over depot

From the Press Democrat:

Bowing to critics, the North Coast Railroad Authority board on Thursday rescinded its December vote to sell the historic Ukiah depot or use it to secure a loan.

The December vote was challenged by several environmental and government groups who said the rail authority failed to adequately give notice prior to the vote at a meeting in Petaluma…

The rail authority wants to sell the depot or use it to secure a loan to help pay for the costs of a lawsuit filed to halt its work to repair the rail line in Novato, Stogner said.

The lawsuit and settlement cost the rail authority $1.7 million, Stogner said.