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September 29, 2010 at 9:54 am
Tapperass
I did not know you were a fan of Chowder. Anyway, I am sure you will fix the link.
Good Day
September 29, 2010 at 10:38 am
Eric Kirk
Sorry about that!
September 29, 2010 at 11:01 am
Ernie's Place
There is a moral lessen, for all of us, in this mill closure. Maybe some great thinker can frame it in writing for us. Let the person that doesn’t use toilet paper start…
September 29, 2010 at 11:25 am
Eric Kirk
They’ve been writing the epitaph for years now, and it keeps finding new life. But this looks very bad.
September 29, 2010 at 11:59 am
brian
Moral lesson, American owned!
September 29, 2010 at 12:00 pm
Ernie's Place
Does anybody think that the voters will ever get smart enough to realize that our country is being run by the wealthy and the corporate lobbyists?
The Tea Party doesn’t go down well with me, but it is the only handle on “the system” that the grass roots has.
The cry “jobs” will still be on the lips of last dying American worker, as the nation slowly slips into oblivion…
September 29, 2010 at 12:10 pm
Eric Kirk
Well, hopefully the tea partiers will pressure Republicans and conservadems who filibustered a bill which would have removed the tax incentives for sending jobs overseas.
http://www.rttnews.com/Content/Policy.aspx?Id=1431401&SM=1
But I won’t hold my breath because the tea partiers are mostly Republicans rebranding themselves.
September 29, 2010 at 3:14 pm
Ernie's Place
To para-quote the eccentric pirate “Captain” Jack Sparrow. Lying??? —Politician!
September 29, 2010 at 5:41 pm
Not A Native
Well HumCo sure produces a lot more goat cheese and wine than it once did. Lots more than is consumed here. And 30% of the lumber produced in CA is logged in HumCo. And a lot of oysters, salmon, tuna, ground fish, and crabs come from water near HumCO, much more than are eaten here. And more cattle and milk are produced than people here eat. HumCo produces more agricultural products than it consumes, a characteristic that defines a rural area. Whats wrong with that?
At the same time, HumCo uses lots of electrical and mechanical devices, few of which are assembled here and none of which are fabricated here. Pretty much the same for non-wood or stone construction materials, glass, metal, cloth, paper, rubber, plastics, chemicals, and petroleum/natural gas. So what?
The last people living in HumCo who subsisted entirely from the local environment were the Native Peoples. If complete local subsistence is your personal goal, you have one proven example how it has been done. Otherwise don’t sweat the TP, automobiles, computers, medical imaging equipment, and coffee.
September 29, 2010 at 8:43 pm
Eric Kirk
That’s all very swell NAN, but people are hurting because they can’t find a way to make an income. Those other industries obviously aren’t at the point where they can provide close to full employment for a county of 130,000 people.
We could actually lose the port because of this, and that would be a disaster to every endeavor you listed.
September 29, 2010 at 9:50 pm
Anonynous
Actually most of the other industries mentioned would never exist if they started under the level of environmental scrutiny that new businesses are subject to. We have a moral imperative to be responsible stewards but an obligation to feed our children. In the end the kids win every time. The trick is to allow enough compromise to keep the pendulum centered. To provide sufficient economic opportunity at a minimum of environmental cost. That is unequivocally not where we are now. As families sink into real desperation that LNG plant will start looking really good. Look no further than Cresent City and their high security prison. Is that really the future we want for Humboldt? Better to start being a bit more reasonable and realistic now. Moderation might actually happen if a few candidates get stomped and if the new ones can stay away from the apple and remember how they enjoyed being on the bottom. A healthy dose of humility would do us all well. Probably the right will fuck it up as badly or worse than the left anyway.
September 29, 2010 at 10:01 pm
Eric Kirk
Well, the problem is that if the right does fuck it up, it’s permanent. We get a WalMart over next to the water, and it’s there for good, whether it’s economically beneficial or detrimental.
September 29, 2010 at 10:25 pm
Anonynous
Too true. Course as has been pointed out many times there are about a thousand more permits and hurdles to overcome before anything can happen. A Wallmart would have massive and vocal opposition including my own. Equally, if you make starving folks stare at a pile of garbage long enough even a (yeech) WalMart starts to look good. Maybe with a little common sense and compromise we can beat it to that point and have a reasonable but not perfect project. Same thing applies through out the county.
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is rapidly fadin’
And the first one now will later be last
For the times they are a-changin’
Times change and that change cuts both ways.
September 30, 2010 at 6:34 am
Bolithio
Sad sad sad. So much for all our restoration forestry. On a good note, we can all sleep easier now that we know that our pollution has been offset to somewhere else, somewhere where the pulp mill uses chlorine, has little environmental controls, and with any luck no labor laws. ya!
September 30, 2010 at 10:40 am
Mike Buettner
“We could actually lose the port because of this, and that would be a disaster to every endeavor you listed.”
Explain please.
September 30, 2010 at 9:09 pm
Not A Native
I’ll guess that Eric is thinking that when the pulp mill is demolished, boats won’t be able to find their way into Humboldt Bay without the smokestack to use as a landmark. The boats will lose the port.
Seriously, gasoline barges and lumber shipping along with fishing fleet and small marina is enough to ensure the bay is dredged. Increased freight barging traffic is a possibility to use existing facilities more efficiently. The Harbor Commission’s finances need to be reprioritized to restoration, recreation, and small commerical projects. Its perfectly doable if the “cargo cultists” are ousted from decisionmaking. Heck, Crescent City has a port last time I looked. But if its been lost, lets send out the Coast Guard to find it.
As to people hurting to make incomes, so what else is new? In the two years since the mill closed, many of the mill workers have retrained and moved on to other work(here or elsewhere) or taken retirement . Those who’ve subsisted on the social safety net expecting to be rehired will now need to do the same. Awhile back someone posted that Humboldt has always been a ruff(sic) place to live and will continue that way. I’d say that pretty much sums it up.
HumCo population has remained fairly stable in the county(0.7% growth rate) and the local economy has been essentially flat(ref Humboldt Economic Index). The local economy has actually improved relative to the rest of the State, the housing/financing bubble wasn’t as inflated here. My reading of that is HumCo population is aging more rapidly than the rest of the State with the implication of more retirees. IMO its a good thing on an individual level that people are able to retire rather than working until death., as previous generations had to. It a direct legacy of the progressive public policies of the 1930′s to 1960′s
But of course, though the local economic trend is flat, theres a large flux of people and business coming and going all the time, each has their story of successes and failures. Its no secret that resource extraction is a strongly declining trend in the economy, individuals’ occupations and income sources have had to reflect that.
For folks in SoHum, I’d say prop 19 has more economic effect potential than the pulp plant. For folks in NoHum, developing tourism, highway access, and educational attainment level have more economic effect potential than the pulp plant.
September 30, 2010 at 10:48 pm
Tony
This is probably what Eric is referring to,
http://samoasoftball.blogspot.com/2010/09/la-times-does-pulp-mill-port-closing.html
October 1, 2010 at 11:25 am
Mike Buettner
That article is a bit “the sky is falling.”
Even when Evergreen was operating they maybe had one ship a month at best. They trucked to the bay area more than the shipped.
October 6, 2010 at 11:32 am
Not A Native
Hey Eric, today’s TS reports that yesterday Thompson announced two Federal grants were awarded to study small port marine shipping service on the West Coast, including Humboldt Bay.
Does this mean that the port isn’t “lost” anymore and has now been “found”? Amazing Grace !!
October 6, 2010 at 12:03 pm
Eric Kirk
I don’t know NAN. If the port can pay its bills, it will stay in operation. Bottom line.
October 6, 2010 at 12:51 pm
Not A Native
Gee Eric, thats REALY profound.
But you’ve elided over the causitive factor. The Harbor district’s bills aren’t inevitable. They’re mostly a direct result of the policies and decisions made by the Commissioners. Just like most of the SHCP bills are due to choices by its board.
The harbor will stay in operation if it spends its money prudently, on things that are useful, necessary, and wanted by the public, rather than harebrained schemes or nostalgic pipedreams for the pleasure of a few favored interests. And it has a solid economic baseline. The Harbor District receives significant funding from the countywide property tax, paid even by those living in the hills above Garberville who never get near saltwater.