Matt Owen Gets Tough

Ahoy! Our very own Matt Owen has another one of his must read Matt In The Middle columns in the Lost Coast Outpost today. He looks back at the recent election with some hard hitting commentary. Among other things, he suggests the Eureka City Council get tough on various things around the city, most notably the homeless. I guess the panhandling really bothered him. He wants the city council to have all the bums arrested for one thing or another. I was under the impression they already were being arrested for everything.

He does get in a well deserved hit on Austin Allison's campaign for Eureka City Council:

"I couldn’t believe it when I read on Austin Allison’s campaign website, “Why not make building within Eureka attractive to local developers?” Does your base know you just pimped developers? Remember “developers” is a bad name with the Regressives."

I hadn't noticed that at the time but he's got point. Local lefties are always harping about government being developer friendly and unchecked development, although they've never been able to point me to an existing example. At the same time they want more housing. They can't have it both ways.

Overall, I'll have to admit I find Matt's tough on crime and enforce existing ordinances thing somewhat troubling. It reminds me of speaking with the late Tish Wilburn during her last run for Eureka City Council. She told me her campaign theme was "Enforce existing ordinances", pointing out existing examples, most of which I don't recall because they didn't bother me. She wanted the Libertarian Party of Humboldt's endorsement. I had to tell her I didn't think most libertarians, myself included, wanted the city cracking down on anything and that wasn't something I felt we could get behind.

She didn't seem to understand that. I suppose Matt might not, either.