Steve Robles Mad River Union ARCATA – As mobilehome owners struggle to stay afloat with rising rents, the City of Arcata is considering the landscape of the market in coming years. The role of mobilehome parks in addressing affordable housing requirements is essential in Humboldt, and an increasing amount of the owners of these sites…
Arcata declares climate emergency, citizens demand action
Kevin L. Hoover Mad River Union HUMBOLDT – As part of a youth-organized protest spanning 150 countries, citizens gathered en masse on the Arcata Plaza last Friday to demand action on climate change. Speakers decried the gulf between the magnitude of the global warming threat and decisive action by political leaders. Struggling to be heard…
Council signs off on Annie & Mary Trail design
Steve Robles Mad River Union ARCATA/BLUE LAKE – Following decades of consideration, Arcata’s City Council unanimously approved an initial design last week for the long-planned Annie and Mary Trail project, a bike and pedestrian path which will wind its way through the city and out to Blue Lake. The trailway design, which will connect existing…
Temperance League Fountain to get historical plaque
Steve Robles Mad River Union ARCATA – The Arcata City Council voted last week to form language for a plaque at the Women’s Christian Temperance Union fountain on the Plaza. Following a unanimous vote, in which only City Manager Karen Diemer briefly mentioned the history of the temperance movement, the council formed a subcommittee comprised…
Arcata scoping new revenue sources
Kevin L. Hoover Mad River Union ARCATA – With a lull in sales tax revenue and some big expenses ahead, the City of Arcata is looking at ways to pump up revenue. It’s a disparity between supply (city funds) and demands (for services and projects). According to the agenda for a July 25 City Council…
Plaza Task Force sifting through mountain of upgrade ideas
Kevin L. Hoover Mad River Union ARCATA – If every suggestion aired at last week’s Plaza Improvement Task Force (PITF) meeting was adopted, it would surely solve all the problems with loose dogs, smoking, drinking, panhandling and other misbehavior – but only because there’d be no room for anything but clambering over all the water…
A quick synopsis of last week’s Arcata City Council meeting
Kevin L. Hoover Mad River Union ARCATA – The Arcata City Council last week paused mobile home park closures, moved forward with a waste-reduction measure, recommended mediation on partial Plaza street closure during the Farmers Market and expressed support for radio station KHSU’s restoration. Mobile home moratorium The council passed an urgency ordinance suspending closure…
Council taking up Plaza street closure, considering resolution in support of KHSU
Mad River Union ARCATA – The City Council will visit its wisdom on two controversies this week – proposed partial street closures on the Plaza and the situation at radio station KHSU. The council will also consider restrictions on single-use containers such as food take-out boxes and water bottles, and it will likely adopt a…
Another Village housing project revision before the City Council
Kevin L. Hoover Mad River Union ARCATA – In what has become a recurring event, still another revised version of The Village housing project is being submitted to the Arcata City Council for consideration. The newest iteration, incorporating alterations recommended by the council during recent meetings, is to be considered during the Wednesday, April 17…
The Butthurt Files: Desperate times, desperate measures
Zoltar Hadron Mad River Union AF ARCATA, April 1 – Fed up with the intensifying trend toward whining for commenters at City Council meetings, the city has posted signs cautioning speakers to put a cork in their butthurt for once why don’tcha? In what has become an unwritten rule for oratory at the council’s meeting,…