It had been awhile since I had visited the Arcata branch of the North Coat Coop. This afternoon I stopped in to grab some items. That development across the street – I think it’s senior housing of some sort – has changed the feel of the neighborhood. The Coop parking lot almost feels claustrophobic.
That’s not to say that I oppose the development. It’s a perfect location and the building looks like it’ll have a nice appearance. But the change is quite profound. If you kind of zone out for a moment while gazing on it from across the street, it almost feels like you’re in Sonoma County somewhere.
I think it’s most noticeable in the late afternoon as it blocks the sun to the west.
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December 13, 2011 at 11:04 pm
Ben Schill
Next time, check out all the new housing at Humboldt State. Rather bizarre… I hear it took eleven years to get our local Senior Housing project completed… I am a solid Democrat but the layers of regulation and red tape we allow in our society are disgusting.
December 13, 2011 at 11:09 pm
Eric Kirk
I’ve seen the new housing at Humboldt State. It doesn’t look too bad for dorms, although I’d personally rather be closer to the woods if I came to a place like HSU.
December 14, 2011 at 6:20 am
Anonymous
Ben, maybe you ought think about changing teams?
Sad but true, California is the worst for regulations and red tape.
December 14, 2011 at 9:35 am
Thorstein Veblen
Funny, I suspect when most of us think about ‘red tape’ and ‘regulations’, we are thinking of the petty obstructionists at the planning or building departments or the like, to the point of having to get approval for the color of paint you want to put on your house, in some cases.
When national republicans mention ‘red tape’ and ‘regulations’, they mean to do away with the EPA and other environmental safeguards altogether.
We get riled up over the local stuff, and clamor for less regulation. But we really ought to be careful that our anger doesn’t translate into a broad national roll back of environmental protections.
December 14, 2011 at 9:48 am
Anonymous
imagine the nausea in the stomachs of the park neighbors with the development you are planning in the corporate park,e. talk about changing “the feel of the neighborhood”. the “change is quite profound”. if the park neighbors “zone out for a moment”, they too will get that awful sonoma county feeling.
December 14, 2011 at 12:50 pm
Eric Kirk
imagine the nausea in the stomachs of the park neighbors with the development you are planning in the corporate park,e. talk about changing “the feel of the neighborhood”. the “change is quite profound”. if the park neighbors “zone out for a moment”, they too will get that awful sonoma county feeling.
Only if they’re completely irrational as to equate the development of a park with Sonoma County architecture.
Notice, I did not say that the senior housing development was a bad thing. I only stated my subjective response to it. I would not presume to tell the community that they can’t have senior housing because I don’t like the feel of the coop parking lot.
December 14, 2011 at 12:53 pm
Eric Kirk
Funny, I suspect when most of us think about ‘red tape’ and ‘regulations’, we are thinking of the petty obstructionists at the planning or building departments or the like, to the point of having to get approval for the color of paint you want to put on your house, in some cases.
That originated in Venice a couple of decades ago when a homeowner painted his house a very bright fluorescent purple. I’m not aware of zoning laws which enforce color codes, though there may very well be. There are some community developments which have placed such restrictions into recording as covenants. In either case, a buyer should be aware of the restrictions prior to close of escrow.
December 14, 2011 at 5:34 pm
Anonymous
“Only if they’re completely irrational as to equate the development of a park with Sonoma County architecture.”
But you are adding housing, a concert tourism venue, ball fields,parking lots, etc. That is not a park. And you are changing the feel of the neighborhood.
December 14, 2011 at 6:31 pm
Eric Kirk
For the better.
December 15, 2011 at 9:40 am
Anonymous
NOT!
December 15, 2011 at 4:43 pm
Not A Native
WOW, Eric’s parking lot view is obstructed by homes and it evokes urban desolation in his mind. Has he considered the effect HIS parking lot had on the creatures who lived there when it was a forest?
His paved parking lot is a wasteland sacrifice zone but all he cares for is his person esthetic experience, ignoring what he’s contributing to right under his own feet(tires). He desn’t need a cello to be a smug self-satisfied social conservative and political moderate.
December 15, 2011 at 5:19 pm
Anonymous
Urban desolation? Wasn’t that in a Dylan song?
December 15, 2011 at 6:16 pm
Eric Kirk
I have a parking lot?
December 16, 2011 at 8:55 am
Anonymous
parking lots in the park, a planned concert tourism venue, planned housing with a parking lot, cars, cars, cars, people, people, people, displacing what already lives/exists there for your/corporate park board’s arrogant, smug, elite idea of a “park”.
December 16, 2011 at 3:31 pm
Not A Native
Duh Eric, as usual you free associate your posts and promptly forget what you’ve written. After all its all about the subtleties isn’t it? Thats why your presumed references to your own posts are worthless. What does it matter what the actual words were as long as its what seems popular at this moment.
Quoting Eric: “The Coop parking lot almost feels claustrophobic.” Eric’s personal parking lot experience is the center of the universe.
December 16, 2011 at 3:42 pm
Eric Kirk
NAN – oh, now it’s my parking lot experience. I could swear you said it was my parking lot.
Anonymous – Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. Central Park in NYC. Sequoia Park in Eureka. Halverson Park in Eureka? Benbow Park?
Can you actually name a park bigger than a city block which doesn’t have a parking lot? I’m hard pressed to think of one.
Do I really have to name parks with sports fields to prove they exist?
People in parks?? Noooo!!
December 16, 2011 at 5:00 pm
Anonymous
doesn’t matter if those parks exist, you are taking forested wild land and developing it, and changing the neighborhood for the worse, all the creatures that live there, human and otherwise, will be negatively impacted with your version of a “park”.
December 17, 2011 at 9:38 am
Eric Kirk
I disagree.