Redevelopment Industrial Complex Grows

Maybe I don't follow these issues close enough, but I don't get it. Why does the City of Eureka have to step in and get involved with the purchase and/ or disposition of the old Fireside Inn? I realize this has been going on for some time with certain groups in the area wanting to turn the old motel into some kind of social services center. Now the City is turning over the Inn to the Eureka Redevelopment Agency. Why couldn't whoever owned the Inn, years ago when everything started going downhill, just sell the property to a willing buyer and let the buyer do whatever he felt needed to be done with the property, assuming he or she passed through all the hurdles the City would require? I just don't get it.
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Along that line, I was glad to see the Times Standard let everyone know at least a little about who Sue Brandenberg is. Ms. Brandenberg is the one who agreed to take over the lawsuit against the Eureka Redevelopment Agency thus freeing the Humboldt Taxpayer's League from having to be tied to that action, at least legally. When I heard the name, yesterday, seemed to me I recognized it from somewhere but can't remember where. Apparently the Times Standard doesn't remember either since there was little info on the gal in the news article other than she attends City Council meetings regularly and is described as some sort of activist.

The hard copy edition of the article has a sub heading describing Brandenberg as a "Eureka Transplant". Doesn't that mean someone who moved here fairly recently? I'm not sure. Maybe it means someone that moved here after spending a lot of time somewhere else and making this a permanent home, which actually would describe me. One thing that kinda gets me is people that move somewhere and immediately start making waves. I don't know if that's the case here but I understand that was the case with local leftie gadfly, Richard Salzman. When he first showed up in the public eye, I thought I'd read he'd moved here just a year or two before. I think it's rude to just show up somewhere and start raising a stink about something.

I jokingly told a customer years ago, whose husband had just had a letter to the editor published in a local paper, that you should at least live in the area for three years or more before you're allowed to write a letter to the editor. Even though it bugs me when newbies stir things up, I guess if it wasn't them, it could just as easily be someone that had lived here for a longer period of time so I guess it doesn't matter. And, no, I'm not proposing a law or ordinance to prohibit newbies from getting involved in local issues.