What Makes Eureka Unique?
Ok. So here's Tom Peter's commentary I was referring to. A dangerous fellow he is, being one more to bring light on The Conspiracy.
But seriously; he starts out bringing up points both Eric and I referred to about the timing of the Balloon Tract purchase, although he seems convinced it's some part of conspiracy against the masses.
He also says, there are a number of good alternatives that would be eagerly accepted. Sure, all of them government projects, at least those are the only alternatives I've heard. What got me thinking, though, was his suggestion that bringing a big- box (note he doesn't specify Home Depot) to Eureka will end up taking away from the uniqueness of both Eureka and the county.
I just don't see it. Sure, one could argue that many other places have so- called big boxes. So does Eureka and we've had some of them for quite a while. I just can't imagine Joe and Jill Sixpack driving through Humboldt and saying, "Isn't this great? So unique- No big- boxes here...", because we don't have a Home Depot.
I'll have to admit that Eureka, as well as Arcata, Fortuna and Mckinleyville, seem fairly similar to me, physical locations aside. Houses look pretty much the same. Stores look the same. Streets are the same. What is it that makes a place unique? How is a big- box going to change the uniqueness of a city or county?
If the way buildings are constructed have something to do with it, and I suppose that does matter to some extent, then why are the same people who oppose big- boxes in support of affordable housing, which has really brought the Southern CA look to Humboldt.
I'm assuming here that, by affordable housing, we're referring to the type of stuff the Eureka Housing Authority runs: Apartments and condos that look pretty much the same and are painted generally the few basic colors. If anything has made me feel like Southern CA is creeping up on us up here, it's the affordable housing. Heck, even the newly built unaffordable housing seems to look pretty much the same nowadays.
Seems to me the things that make Eureka and Humboldt unique is more the location and it's related weather and landscapes. I don't see how putting in Marina Center would detract from that, especially given the current state of the Balloon Tract. Sure, we are getting to look more and more like other places with all the new construction, but that's been going on for some time and, in fact, it's pretty much inevitable.
Would anyone like to opine on what they think makes a place unique or how a big- box would detract from uniqueness?
posted by Fred Mangels @ 12:16 PM
32 comments
32 Comments:
"...definition of culture: 'the moral, social, and behavioral norms of an organization based on the beliefs, attitudes, and priorities of its members.'"
from Corporate Culture
What makes this area unique is the character of the people who live here. Perhaps this place may look like So Cal, but we don't behave like they do. If our economy shifts from local small business to "big box" will we lose our local culture?
My blog shows how I feel about it.
What Makes Eureka Unique? -- The REEK!
Brian M. told me yesterday the timing was based on the closing of the fiscal quarter at the end of Sept. I think the timing will cause problems for the Marina Project supporting candidates, so I have no reason to disbelieve him. Plus, I have every reason to believe he's an honorable man and a straight shooter, regardless of the politics involved.
That said, I am also concerned about the loss of unique character of Eureka with the increasing presence of big boxes and other standard corporate logos all over town. You drive down I-5 and every town looks the same now. I don't want that here.
But there are other factors to consider as well, such as local unemployment and decent wages.
"If you're me, do you really care what the city thinks? I don't want to have an alternate plan out there because it might not be what I want."
Jerry Droz as mayor would make Eureka unique.
dont', you mean ,DROZ would make , Eureka unique?
I thin,k DrOz, fits right, in in, Eureka... espceially Old tOwn.
"If you're me, do you really care what the city thinks? I don't want to have an alternate plan out there because it might not be what I want."
Hey, Rob's posting openly anonymously now! Cool, Rob! Go ahead and even use your name if you want. Fred will be your bodyguard.
What makes Eureka unique?
Could it be all the homeless folks that camp out in the nooks and crannies and come out about 1030 for the daily migration down to the free lunch facility.
Could it be all the tweekers that walk, or ride bicycles and shopping carts, the length of Broadway doing what meth freaks do?
Could it be all the heroin addicts that hang around the mini mart at 4th and "R" to score their herion?
Could it be the hundreds of unemployed, the drug dealers, the bums ?
Could it be the rude clerks in many of the local stores ?
Or could it be the smell of the bay mixed with the smell of trash, urine, and human/dog feces ?
There are just so many things!
Seems to me most of that could also be said about just about any other town, 10:12.
Maybe but in Eureka it just seems to be more open, more obvious, just more of it.
Maybe because it's a smaller city? Also, it's the county seat where all the welfare services are based which certainly could act as a magnet for all the riff- raff.
Right on point Fred. Being the county seat where the courts, the welfare services, and the free lunch program is does act as a magnet for riff-faff.
Lets put the county seat in McKinleyville then!
Anybody watch the rerun of the Supe meeting?
I've long thought that Safeway, Pay Less/Riteaide, Longs and Sears detracted from the quaintness of our village and that we looked like every other town because of those Big Boxes.
We don't need anymore big boxes we need big fences to cover them up.
oh that'd be attractive.
and what would you do with all the people who like to shop there?
ship them to siberia?
Its the pulp mill stupid.
Fred said:
I just can't imagine Joe and Jill Sixpack driving through Humboldt and saying, "Isn't this great? So unique- No big- boxes here...", because we don't have a Home Depot.
For what it's worth that exactly what we did. In 1978 we moved to Eureka from the bay area. We CHOSE Eureka... because there was a nearby university, because of the character of the town (all the old Victorians that people valued and hadn't torn down like so many other cities), because of the bay, because of the slower pace of life, because there was less traffic and traffic jams, because of all the mom and pop stores, and BECAUSE THERE WAS NO WAL-MART. They built one shortly after we settled in. Then came the Bayshore Maul.
Sigh. Progress?
Orange Elmo
Amen brother.
Elmo wrote, "In 1978 we moved to Eureka from the bay area. We CHOSE Eureka... /snipped/ BECAUSE THERE WAS NO WAL-MART. They built one shortly after we settled in. Then came the Bayshore Maul.".
I moved up here in '73 for much the same reason. I didn't like the hustle and bustle of Orange County and wanted to be around more trees and attend the College of the Redwoods.
One difference is I didn't care about WalMart. In fact, I don't believe I'd ever even heard of WalMart until, perhaps, decades later. There's never been a WalMart in Eureka, at least as far as I know. I don't know that it would have made a difference to me if there was a WalMart up here, as far as moving up here.
As far as the Bayshore Mall, we heard the same horror stories about that when it was proposed as we've heard about Marina Center.
Life goes on in Eureka.
1012 your such a douche bag...meth is a lot different than herion...i hope you prick yourself on a dirty needle....best of luck
Oh you don't gotta worry about pricking yourself with a needle 'cause Neely is giving all you junkies free needles with our tax money so you won't hurt yourself .
are youtalking about pricking your finger or fingering your prick?
3:33 "oh that'd be attractive.
and what would you do with all the people who like to shop there?
ship them to siberia? "
What in the devil are doing building so many goddam mini storage facilities? Its because peopl have nothing to do here but shop people! And they have so much crap they have to get a mini storage to pile it up somplace because the houses which are already too big-are FULL! Its ridiculous to add more fucking stores so we can buy more fucking stuff because we have so much stuff we can't find anything and have to buy a new one.
How about something to do around here instead.
And everytime we get something to do like the Apple Harvest festival which was really nice down at Clendenons-How come we have to polute a great idea with more crap booths to buy more crap we don't need?? This is SICK Stuff!
Somebody needs to get a grip. We don't even have any good shopping. We all buy cookie cutter clothes at Big Boxes and have cookie cutter BBQs and BBQ tools-if we can find them when we need them and I have 3 sets! Can't find any tho.
And its the same old shit every election-these Local Solutions endorsements should be a signal to voters to pick somebody else just my opinion.
Time to throw the bums out and keep the good ones doing what there doing. Bums=Ballon Track Bums and RCAA bringing more Bums into Humboldt County for the underground economy of social services and druggies that need needle exchange and more handouts. I want my taxes to go to the schools not the bums and fuck you bum posters on the bogs too.
So where shall the bums go. Do you have the ovens warmed up or would a firing squad be preferable? Argentina during the dirty war simply flew them out on planes and dropped them over the ocean.
Would be nice to give them bus tickets to San Francisco but comedy aside how about shutting down the cottage industry of bringing them here from all over the country??
Not so novel an idea.
It isn't just RCAA folks. Anybody with a house and a few extra rooms can sign up-we even have people serving time in private homes. These ARE NOT parolees!
I'm talking about guys living in Eureka homes-at least 5 homes with several rooms full of prisoners without ankle bracelets mind you...living here. The city doesn't know where they are and the police dept doesn't know where they are. The city would lose FEDERAL GRANT money if they kept track!!
What are the property owners getting out of this? How did they sign up for this program? Do the property owners even live here or is this managed property with absentee landowners?
Give a shit and ask the hard questions and quit with the patting yourselves on the back that by posting on blogs you are accomplishing anything at all!
Wake up and smell the coffee!
I wonder if Tom Peters is the same Tom that I shared a house with in King Salmon in 1972. A fisherman. The most consistantly pleasant housemate that I've ever had.
"As far as the Bayshore Mall, we heard the same horror stories about that when it was proposed as we've heard about Marina Center."
Believe it or not, this is the same cry we heard when Bill Pierson's father Ernie Pierson proposed the building of the Eureka Mall in the late '60's
So I guess you could blame the entire idea of centralized shopping in Eureka on the Pierson family. In those days it was refered to as "The Sears Mall" and was thought to destroy the shopping culture of downtown Eureka. There was as much uproar then as there is now. Kind of interesting that Bill Pierson is fighting the very thing his father built nearly 50 years ago. Is it really about the Balloon Track or the competition. As for the downtown merchants, they are all gone due to many factors, the changing tastes in consumerism, the age of their shoppers and yes, the Bayshore Mall. Harry Bistrin saw the writing on the wall, shut down the Bistrins chain of clothing stores and headed for Palm Springs. Bill Pierson will do fine. Shafer's and Hensels on the other hand may not. As much as I like the idea of the Marina Center, I am not as fond of the Home Depot as an anchor. But, I do understand an anchor of that size to make the project go. You can't always get what you want. Me, I'll shop at Piersons. Joe Sixpak? Not so sure.
I can't imagine Shafers taking a hit from a Home Depot. Sure, maybe a few lost sales. But Shafers really seems to me to be a neighborhood hardware store, at least the one up the street from my house.
They've not only been in the Henderson Center area for decades, they've even expanded a bit with the nursery, wood stoves and furniture. I think they're here to stay, but no, I won't bet any money on it.
The bums & white trash that the RCAA is bringing here can go anywhere but , here is what we say . ( In case you wanna know where they should go ) DO NOT VOTE FOR ANYONE WITH TIES TO THE RCAA ! DUMP 'EM ALL !!!!!!
Post a Comment
<< Home