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EUREKA: A “World Class Port”
Based on a short visit from one big luxury ship — which couldn’t even dock on the Eureka side of Humboldt Bay — Eureka’s port is “world class,” according to this too-long YouTube video.
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The Humboldt Herald 
With development, there is an opportunity to create a “World Class Port.” it is not only the port that will be important, but the area that is filled with opportunities untouched at this time! Creating a port for visitors and the shipping of goods should be a priority, unless you are stuck in the mud mumbling, “it can’t be done.” LOL
I can see Heraldo will never work in marketing. I don’t expect Eureka to denigrate itself in a video.
The pop cult-ure comparison that came to mind… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dZveoBfiww
… and the world cares why?
This is a fun place to visit. Why not admit it? Yes, video was too long, but we have a lot to offer here, vistas and a culture unlike many other parts of the coastline. The residents on “The World” vote to decide the itinerary, and they voted to return here. We need to encourage visitors of all types, and our bay is a resource we need to spend some money on.
They should have used a smaller ship. The World made Humboldt Bay look like a canal.
I’m not trying to be the “can’t be done” guy, but I can’t help but wonder if the bay is too small to have more than a few ships at a time in here? I’m pretty sure it’s only a one ship at a time thru the channel type bay.
Back in the old days when ships were smaller, maybe. I know years ago I listened to a Navy guy describe coming through the channel. He was a crewman on an LST that stopped in Humboldt Bay. I was on the bridge with some other National Guardsman as the sailor illustrated steering the ship in. He’d look out both sides of the ship repeatedly and said “It’s tight in here”. And an LST isn’t a big boat.
I’m all for it, though, if it will work.
Tourism is not what sustains real economies. The era of huge cruise ships is forever gone. Those luxury vacations in the 90s and early 00s was paid for by people maxing out credit cards and taking loans out on their houses. It’s a nice pipe dream… someday a bunch of rich people will just come in on their magic rich people ship and save us! But it’s just that, a pipe dream.
Recently The Herald has had a few good posts that have been willing to discuss economic matters openly. I think this needs to continue. Our nation– and far more importantly, the Humboldt Nation– is on the fiscal brink.
I would like to make the following four-part proposal as a serious proposal for Humboldt County, and its two incorporated cities (Eureka and Arcata).
1) Balance our local budgets. Through hook or crook, hell or high water. From here on out, no more local government debt. No way, no how. We must resolve to never again be debt slaves to banksters.
2) Any local politician who is okay with us being debt slaves to banksters needs to be replaced.
3) Change the official motto of the county and both cities to “All debt is slavery.”
4) Once we have a balanced budget in place, start the long hard slog to pay off all our current existing community debt early.
I’m all for port development but this video isn’t very encouraging. Why the funereal music?
It plays into the larger local environmental sentiment… oppose anything that brings more people to the area… be it commerce (wider roads or freight (rail) service), more housing (a 101 bypass at Indianola), or even a video that suggests Eureka has a good port or might be a place people want to visit. A successful business climate means more people, be they tourists or residents, and people are the number one enemy of the ecosystem.
Great music! Pretty trees, for a while. Fantastic condo complex! Really professional looking work for an amateur video!
Are they floating whole pre-built condo complexes from Eureka to China these days? That’s great that the area is able to add value to the logs, instead of just shipping logs out, Very forward thinking way to add value locally! But how do they keep the condo complex from falling off the barge in high seas?
Lots of servants below decks for ballast.
I did enjoy the pictures of Eureka of the past and the ship did manage to get in and get out. I’m calling it good.
Replace the life boats with stoops and and it looks like the worst of New Orleans.
So far, “development” has brought growth to Eureka…growth in low wage jobs, unaffordable housing, traffic, sewer spills, poverty and all the ugly statistics that accompany towns run by greedy, right-wing cliques.
Take away the lifeboats and the photo looks like the back of the Campus Apartments (formerly Mai Kai) at HSU as seen from the parking lot below. All those siding glass doors…..
Great promo for the ship, says nothing about Eureka other than the ship came here.
The last scene of people on the shore watching the ship sail away into the sunset brings to mind South Pacific islanders watching the last ship leaving after WWII. Cargo cultists, indeed.
Check the facts: the transportation sector is the highest paying job sector. Think longshoreman, freight forwarders, truckers, crane operators, forklift operators, customs inspectors, etc. The complaint is always “what whould they ship out of here?” The answer is grain, coal, cement, gypsum, and all the other break bulk cargo that container ports do not want because they take up too much space. Imports would include autos, and, oh yeah, WalMart, Home Depot, Lowes, J.C. Penny, Sears and others of that ilk. Most of those goods would have to be warehoused, so again more jobs. All of this economic activity would pay for the railroad restoration. It wouldn’t happen overnight, but light up a current Humboldt payload and think about the future.
It’s Beethoven’s fault that the video was too long; if he had written a shorter symphony then they would not have had to fill in so much time with repetitious images.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Show how any project makes economic sense and I will at least listen.
Hint: Gushing enthusiasm is not a valid economic argument. A valid economic argument includes what needs to be done, how much will it cost and what are the REASONABLE expectations for return.
Once we determine it is at least worth bothering to argue about, then we should talk environmental issues.
Way to go Casey! Set that agenda! You da boss!
“Trouble ahead, trouble behind, and you know that notion just crossed my mind.”
J. Garcia
If the project would pay for itself, then why not allow private investors to put their own money on the line (and to raise money privately) for the venture? The various governments involved should whole-heartedly support and encourage such private investment, allowing the investors to take the risk with their own money and realize the losses or gains with their own money.
The constant drumbeat of “We’ve got a great plan… for the government to pay for!” sounds a lot like that tired old bankster trick of “privatized profits and socialized losses”, where the person saying “We’ve got a great plan… for the government to pay for!” makes money no matter what happens, and everyone else pays for any mistakes they make while they retire rich.
Seriously dude, how much must you hate the next generation to propose taking out mountains of debt slavery to banksters in their name?
“Driving this train, high on cocaine, Casey Jones better watch your speed.”–J. Garcia
“Trouble ahead trouble behind, babe pass me the crack pipe, it’ll be all fine”-Jerry Garcia
Who wouldn’t want to drop a stack of dough for a vacation on a cruise ship and tour the junkyard by the sea? Screw Alaska and glaciers, dead pulp mills are all the rave in Europe!
Let’s raise property tax and force homeowners to pay for it instead of private enterprise, let the planning dept handle the entire thing and inspect the wiring on the cruise ships, too.
Eureka Rules!
Before reaching Eureka, it took days for our ship to finish navigating through the debris that floats between Hawaii and California. With those wonderful telescopes we spotted unforgettable quantities of rubber flip-flops and Styrofoam.
Pulling into a post-industrial port plagued by undeveloped brownfeilds was a relief.
What do you expect from $900 for 10 days of luxury away from the frustration of being a full-time greeter at Walmart…the world’s single-largest employer and source of garbage??
Oh, the ironies….
Seems no-one caught the tongue-in-cheek about ‘World class port’, given the name of the ship was ‘The World’.
Actually, you may want to have a look at http://www.hurtigruten.com/
This is a tour line which used to be only the coastal mail packet steamers running up the long coastline of western Norway. In those days when I rode it, you could walk on and off, pick up the next day or so, if you liked to stop in any port. It had a lot of character, and they still keep two of the older ships on the schedule for those who remember and like this.
More recently, as you can see from the materials, they’ve stepped up the offer (and prices), though not at all out of range if you care to look for bargains — I liked this. The ships they mainly use now are not unlike ‘The World’ — those come in many sizes.
Frankly, and from afar, but having grown up outside Eureka, it may really be a time where going forward, tourism via liner could become a viable part of the area economy. How large depends on what is offered to people debarking. Did I see a ‘miniature world’ connector boat, which ‘The World’ may carry to facilitate this?
Humboldt has much to offer, especially to persons from around the country and the world who have not experienced its environs any more than they had Norway’s, which has some in common. Just the seacoast village aspect has much attraction, much less the rivers and the big trees.
Anyway, nice if opened eyes can see something. How well it works probably depends on real relations with the tour line(s), and good accommodation for such visitors, in transport, aggregated experiences, courtesy and reality, etc..
I’m enjoying reading comments here, after long away. Even these grow in breadth and ‘accomodation’. For a home, good to see.
Greetings from another off-shoot place tourists like.
p.s. how do you sign up? I can’t find this anywhere, and would like to choose my icon. I don’t know if I could do as well as Jane, however ;) — well enjoyed.
Narration,
If you want to set up an icon, rather than have one automatically generated, go to wordpress.com and register. You can then set up your own icon — if you comment while signed in, your icon will be used.
Mitch, thanks. I had begun to think it was something like that.
Ok, I think I have things set. Let’s see. I couldn’t find the icon set you guys are using, very clever and possibly by Aaron Blecha, but there was a sea turtle which seemed suitable…
What were they thinking?? Could they have found an uglier ship? “The World” is an abomination. Eureka is beautiful town with a museum and culture and stunning nature. This video is joke, right?
“an uglier ship” How can you be more stupid ? What does it matter ? We need more jobs here whether they are good or low paying jobs.
These cruise ships can only help us to one degree or another. Why would anyone who cares about our county criticise them ?
Hifi, it is kind of an ugly ship, at least the look of the decks construction up close. I thought that myself. See if you get anything from what I wanted to say to jonnel, but was thwarted last night by wordpress. Hoping it works now in fact, and that I remember some of it.
jonnell, as you see, I kind of agree on the ugly part, and we’re both looking through the eyes a visual artist or architect uses. I think it’s the ‘floating hotel’ aspect which does it, and a cheap approach. My grandfather designed ships in his day, came from Norway to do this here, and perhaps in his sense it’s easy to see that even a well-used one in its later age can have its charms, as you would probably feel also, when it’s a design honest to its work. Here I’m remembering for a moment one of those preserved ones on the Hurtigruten charts, a little banged up from docks and anchors and seas, but much charm..
Eureka itself is kind of that way, I think; was when I grew up there, and was when I came back to live in the area in my 40’s for a year, just to remember some things and see how many were still there. I actually had kind of a Steinbeck existence under a gift shop in Trinidad, and made forays, indeed finding the ways of persons i’d wanted to remember.
Our eyes color things by what they seem to represent, imagine you’d agree. And in fact you had me thinking of what the opposite could be, beyond perhaps some examples from that Norwegian coastal line.
This led me to remember Ernest Callenbach’s Ecotopia, which I’ve read with understanding and pleasure more than one time, appreciating it for its times, and for certain of its better senses and ideas. In that story, the seceded Pacific Northwest built everything itself, and made it fine by their aesthetic. I’m thinking at the moment of the trains it describes for long distance travel, which were very nice.
I think we can build some future like that, in spite of the future that I think on many days has caught up with us not quite as we expected. To do it, there has to be an economics, just as the Ecotopians found. For that, better things have to start some place. I think your vision of the value and values in Humboldt, viewed through certain eyes, is indeed what can be offered as sustaining as well as sustainable value to those who would visit. Having lived in Europe for a long time until recently, it’s very clear how well this can work as a substantial part of a local and national economy — even in the view of those who have had too much free rein and nearly done us in.
That kind of thinking needs to be well reined in, as was realized in the 1930’s, I think many of us feel as necessary for a future. However, the shopkeeper, the banker, and even the investor are part of what makes things go, as long as they are well behaved. I’ve had to think an amount of the bad behaviour has been because these types really lost sight of how a future could be further built, and in their way panicked.
The better future I think has to mean individuals gain a much wider view on what can be of value – then there is work to make that possible for each. An artist really understands what this can mean, and will be some amount of the lead in making each advancing reality.
For the time being, if I am being imaginative, I think also of a cafe I used to frequent when in Glasgow for a year doing someething for the BBC. It was just the sort of place like the real old, old Lazios, down on the waterfront, and a workman’s place. Rougher by far, in fact. This was as it had to be, for Glasgow’s more than a little like Eureka, in history and in human climate, all variations.
Yet the ‘curse’, if you felt it that way, was taken off the place very well, by the paintings of local artists which hung there, right behind the waitress who would give you the sharp eye and the hard voice until she grew to know you. Very possibly she was also one of the painters, as well.
This can be done on the ships as well, maybe even organized in some fashion with the rest of the effort to build the experiences coastal visitors can have, as I’m sure you’ll visualize.
it’s late; my excuse for a bit of flight of fancy here. If need be ;) You’ll guess I found no curse in the Glasgow café, nor in anything else there; rather lots of life, all around as there was. This is Eureka and Humboldt, also, of course.
This video is a joke, right? I laughed till I cried when I saw that floating apartment building tied up to that pathetic dock. Surely scarce tax payer dollars weren’t used for this? This is parody posted by a port critic, right?
Hmm. Well, it would be a lot of work to make up such a joke. Though I wouldn’t put it past disinfo by Humboldters, a kind of famous breeding.
The question for realities seems to be whether the Humboldt Bay channel would support such ships. Turns out it more than does, according to web sources.
The Corp of Engineers apparently dredges at 35-40 feet, while the draft of the world’s largest cruise ship is 25 feet. I suspect they keep them shallow just so they can visit many ports in the larger world.
http://www.livescience.com/7922-world-largest-cruise-ship-floats.html
A prettier boat, I think, if ginormous. The remaining problem would be the width (or length in turnaround). Jane may be correct that this would fill the bay, at 217 ft x 1180 ft respectively. Or the 5000 passengers fill the downtown ;) Good thing the water displaced is averaged over the whole sea.
I don’t think such giants are the question, though – again the sizing of the Norwegians looks appropriate. The Lofoten, which I remember, is a good bit smaller than the lumber ships well remembered.
Good posts Narration.
There is a flash packet, flash packet of fame…
When I finally make my fortune, I always liked the idea of restoring a clipper to ply the west coast, just as you described in Norway.
Thanks, Bolithio. I’ve liked a number of yours also. And good idea.
If it’s still there, you could visit the lumber schooner down at the docks in San Francisco. I remember how it was to get below the rail coming up on deck, or maybe it was the view from the open hold, where you could see only sky and masts. It was a windy day, and gave some feeling of how it must have been like, out to sea. Strong impression.
I have a feeling your flash packet may be somewhere on its way, in space and time ;)