Hippies make better capitalists

An extremely informative response by Hank Sims to “The Mouse” in the second half of this week’s Town Dandy. In terms of manufacturing, Arcata is in fact by far the most productive in the county. And not by geographic accident either. The local economy has, contrary to the rhetoric, received major boosts from the “scrungiest group of hippies.” The above link takes you to Anon-R-Mouse’s entertaining if off-base rant about the underbelly of the Peoples’ Republic of Arcata (formerly named Union Town), but Hank sets him straight.

Well, here you go, Mouse, courtesy of the U.S. Census Bureau’s North American Industry Classification System Zip Code Business Patterns Survey of 2004. In 2004, the Arcata zip code (95521) was home to 53 manufacturing firms, over one-third of the county’s total. Of those 53 firms, 26 had more than 10 employees, and six had over 50 employees. Among the types of manufacturers represented: fabricated metal, rubber products, glassware, construction machinery, furniture, clothing, appliances, electrical fixtures, musical instruments and many others.

Now, how many manufacturing firms were in the Eureka (95501) zip code? Twenty-seven — just about exactly half, in a city twice Arcata’s size. Most of them were mom `n’ pop places — only nine had more than 10 employees, and only two had more than 50. What sorts of firms were they? The two big ones were Schmidbauer Lumber and Pacific Choice Seafoods. Moving down, we have: candy companies, a slaughterhouse, bakeries, a tortilla shop and some commercial printers. That’s pretty much it.

And don’t even talk to me about Fortuna (nine firms total, about a sixth of Arcata’s) or McKinleyville (eight). Chump change for two Arcata-sized towns, both of them also-rans in this particular game. (At the time, Pacific Lumber was the county’s largest single manufacturer by far, and it probably still is.)

I don’t blame Mouse actually. I wouldn’t have thunk it. Guess we’re all victims of even the stereotypes we ought to resist.

I thought about it as it applies to SoHum and several manufacturing businesses come to mind. Alternative Energy Engineering, Signature Coffee, and various textile creators like Luminarts come to mind – all hippie owned. Carlson Wireless Technologies brings in jobs and revenues as well. I don’t know if Carlson is a “hippie,” per se, but he’s certainly progressive having generously lent his business to the Local Solutions phone banking for the last election. Most of our current locally owned retail businesses are also owned by hippies or at least progressives; and contrary to convenient and oversimple assumption they are not laundering operations, or if they are their purposes are defeated by sales.

I look forward to the responses. Should be interesting.

Sunnybrae Forest 18 grand away

With one month to raise the money – actually 3 weeks now. I forgot to read the Eye last week and so missed this article. Sorry.

The six-year effort to save the Sunny Brae Forest is set to come to a close at the end of October, leaving the community just one month to raise about $18,000. The Sunny Brae/Arcata Neighborhood Alliance (SANA) has so far raised $82,000 towards its goal of $100,000 to help the City of Arcata purchase this forest.SANA has been working since 2000 to protect the 175-acre Sunny Brae Forest. In 2002, property-owner Sierra Pacific Industries responded to the community’s concerns by offering to sell this property to the City of Arcata, who would add it to the City’s existing Community Forest.

The Sunny Brae community originally set out to raise $70,000, but later bumped its goal to $100,000. These community donations have helped the City to leverage nearly $2.6 million of the $2.7 million needed. The City is still a little short in other areas, making the total gap at this point closer to $40,000. Both the City and SANA have been looking for other funding partners who can help to fill this gap before the deal has to close.

Now if somebody has an address I’ll be happy to post it.

The City has set a date for a community celebration and dedication ceremony onThursday, Nov. 16.

The Sunny Brae Forest will provide an open-space buffer against sprawl, and will be managed for recreation, watershed and habitat protection, and sustainable forestry. There are over two-and-a-half miles of watercourses on the property, including the headwaters of both Beith Creek and Grotzman Creek, and four-and-a-half miles of roads and trails which would be converted for hiking, mountain biking, and equestrian use.

Update: The address to send donations: c/o Humboldt Area Foundation, 373 Indianola Road, Bayside, CA 95524. There’s more information in the comments section, including a party this Saturday.

Minor disagreements in Arcata

About half way down one of my previous posts I noted letters to the Arcata Eye in which certain residents up there expressed their dissatisfaction with the new advertising policy at the Minor Theater. Well, the new corporate ownership is getting an eyefull this week as well – this time complaining about newly imposed corporate uniforms on the staff as well as the new ownership’s refusal to honor previously purchased movie cards. I was depressed until I got to the part where the new Arcata Theater will be contractually barred from playing current release U.S. films, and will be playing instead foreign films and revive older independent films.

Repertoire theaters used to flourish in the Bay Area, but one by one – the Strand, the Vogue, The UC – all but a few such as the Red Vic and the Roxie have met their demise over the past couple of decades of home entertainment. It would be nice to see a community like Arcata and beyond support the revival of such a venture.

Meanwhile, Coming Attractions, Inc. is running headfirst into what the old timers are calling Humboldt County’s new “anti-business atmosphere.” And the company’s response this time was almost identical to the last complainers – attempting to quiet them down with free movies. The response was likewise very similar this time around. Seems like great material for a bad sit-com.

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Meanwhile, this week’s “scrutinizers” column consists of a discussion of the fluoridation measure on the ballot in Arcata for November. We’ve already had a bit of a discussion on this forum. Offline I was scolded by a friend for making light of the issue by invoking General Jack Ripper of Dr. Strangelove. But I think this is one more issue where wackiness on the right joins fuzzy thinking on the left. We have now several generations of kids who have benefitted from fluoride in their drinking water, or at least a very tight correlation between the use of fluoride and dental health. Unless these same voters are prepared to pay special taxes to subsidize dental care for lower income children, I’d say suck it up, or suck up an alternative on your own dime.

Here are some answers to frequent questions about fluoride and the Fluoride Information Networks top 10 facts. And more. I’d vote against the measure. But I don’t live there. It’s up to the voters there to educate themselves and not fall prey to the same strain of irrationalities that once led us to burn witches and punish newcomers for bad fortune.

Alenda lux ubi orta libertas.

Arcata may acquire the ability to sell the right to pollute

That’s if I’m understanding this Arcata Eye article correctly. The Arcata Community Forest may qualify to serve as a nest egg of “carbon credits.” I think this is part of a rather bizarre new program by which companies have the right to release a certain amount of greenhouse gasses, and may sell some of their rights to other companies. Apparently you can also increase your right to pollute by pulling some carbon out of the air so that you can subtract from your balance. The Eye elaborates with regard to Arcata’s asset.

Arcata’s forest, known widely for its management practices, grows twice in biomass than it harvests, allowing the forest to hold more carbon every year. The net increase of carbon storage in the trees over the forest’s initial baseline would be considered carbon credits that the City could sell in the future if stable markets emerge. “It’s the stock-market of the future,” said committee member Danny Hagans.Not all forests in California can register its carbon sequestering. To be eligible, the forest has to be managed above and beyond the state’s Forest Practices Rules. Since the Community Forest already does, registering it should be simple. The City could not register the forest without registering its own carbon emissions that it generates from things such as its vehicle fleet, so the City, as Tuttle said, is “not just reporting the good stuff.”

I was first introduced to the concept in law school, where the professor handed out a comic strip that provided an analogy in a right to kill. Basically, if I woke up one night in my home and found a prowler, and I reasonably feared for my family’s safety, I would have the legal right to use lethal force. However, being the enterprising sort that I am I could let him go and call up some sort of agency to sell my right to Don Corlione so he can deal with somebody who refused what couldn’t be refused. A good, sound, free market solution.

I’ve got some trees in my yard, including a big bay tree. How much money could I make selling my polluting rights to PG&E? My yard is certainly managed above state standards.

Tuesday notes 6/20/06

The Arcata City Council will be meeting tomorrow to discuss among other things the initiative to prevent-the-corruption-of-our-precious-bodily-fluids set for vote this November. Arguing for the pro-side about 4 decades ago was General Jack Ripper.

General Jack D. Ripper: Mandrake, do you realize that in addition to fluoridating water, why, there are studies underway to fluoridate salt, flour, fruit juices, soup, sugar, milk… ice cream. Ice cream, Mandrake, children’s ice cream.
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: Lord, Jack.
General Jack D. Ripper: You know when fluoridation first began?
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: I… no, no. I don’t, Jack.
General Jack D. Ripper: Nineteen hundred and forty-six. Nineteen forty-six, Mandrake. How does that coincide with your post-war Commie conspiracy, huh? It’s incredibly obvious, isn’t it? A foreign substance is introduced into our precious bodily fluids without the knowledge of the individual. Certainly without any choice. That’s the way your hard-core Commie works.

And also this group.

Arguing against – this group.

I report – you decide.

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Humboldt Herald reports on the toxicsforum held by Citizens for Real Economic Growth (CREG) . The Eureka Reporter also reported on it, as well as the Times Standard.

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Save Ancient Forests updates with more details on the proposed Bear Creek logging. Check out the congruence between the areas of proposed logging and the Marbled Murrelet habitat.

I mean, is PALCO gunning for the Murrelet specifically? Sure looks that way from the maps.

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Arnold was blogging live, taking questions. Give him, or at least his campaign manager, credit for guts. The dumb questions can be surprisingly tricky.

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The questions about the 2004 election won’t die.

There is certainly no question that the GOP managed to steal a senate election in 2002. A few of them are already spending time in the pokie for it.

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This weekend, from the HCDCC site: 18th annual Chicken-by-the-Sea – HCDCC’s affordable, family-friendly Democratic get-together at the Beach House on beautiful Moonstone Beach, south of Trinidad. $15 advance, $20 at the door, children under 5 free. For reservations, send check to HCDCC, P.O. Box 1392, Eureka, CA 95502. (Please write “CBTS” on your check.).

For Democrats to see and be seen. Last year both Worth Dikeman and Paul Gallegos showed up. Dikeman positioned himself at the front of the hall very close to prominent local figures for photo-ops. Gallegos mostly played with his kids on the beach.

Will Bonnie Neely be there this year?

Food was good last year, but it gets crowded so show up early.

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Don’t let your blue state elitism make you miss the new UPN series Veronica Mars. According to Christopher Hayes of In These Times it’s “subversive, laced with a cutting critique of capitalism.”

Similar compliments were made for Buffy.

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More whining about Dikeman’s loss over at the Eureka Reporter. In a guest opinion from one Bob Williams, he first laments at the harsh culture war politics aimed at “mainstream traditionalists” and the fact that “nothing is nonpartisan.” A good start, but then he trails off into a string of ad hominem attacks on progressives, with juicy catch phrases like “baneful Bolsheviks” and “long-haired emaciated-looking creep” to describe those on his political opposite. It has to be satire!

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Thanx to the efforts of FAIR, the NY Times has corrected itself on a published claim that anti-war protestors have been protesting at military hospitals and soldier funerals. Apparently leftists have been blamed for the actions of Fred Phelps & Family.