Long-time Arcata resident Andrea Tuttle has a Ph.D. in environmental planning. She is a former director of the California Dept. of Forestry and Fire Protection (CDF), a past member of the California Coastal Commission and of the California Regional Water Quality Control Board (North Coast), and is a principal consultant in the state Senate. Her letter of comments on the draft Environmental Impact Report includes severe criticism. "The document needs serious editorial scrubbing and a more honest, transparent assessment of the impacts that will really occur from the planned development."
Will Arcata Seniors move out of their homes? How this relates to the Gateway Plan in Arcata. Baby Boomer-age Arcatans may want to downsize -- but they'd want to buy a condominium, not move to a rental. And they'd want storage space, a spare bedroom, and private outdoor space. -- Reading time: 5 minutes.
"So as far as I know, at this point, the existing Class I multi-use trail will remain in its current location, in its current configuration, in perpetuity -- you know, until something else changes." -- Form the March 12, 2024 Planning Commission meeting. A statement from Arcata's Community Development Director, David Loya, in which he illustrates once again that he uses language in ways that no other English-speaking person does -- and then expects us to believe what he says.
Includes each Element, images of the Table of Contents for easy scanning, the full draft Gateway Area Plan Element. Also includes the full 2019-2027 Housing Element plus the description in the Housing Element of the Gateway Plan -- from 2019.
The fourth draft of the "Draft Gateway Area Plan" from December 2023. In chapters for easy viewing. Also includes the July 11, 2023, 3rd draft, the 2nd draft from October 2022, and the 1st draft, from December 2021.
This article looks the State of California dollar figures for what is meant by "very low income" and "low income" and "moderate income" and "above moderate income" here in in Arcata and Humboldt County. These are the 2023 figures are from the State of California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD).
Here's the 88-page document of comments on the draft Environmental Impact Report that was compiled and sent in by Fred Weis. With summary notes and a linked table of contents for easy viewing and to find what is of interest to you.
Brandolini's law, also known as the B.S. Asymmetry Principle, is an internet adage that emphasizes the effort of debunking misinformation, in comparison to the relative ease of creating it in the first place. It states that the amount of energy needed to refute B.S. is an order of magnitude larger (that is, ten times larger) than is needed to produce it. -------- The Gish Gallop is a rhetorical technique in which a person attempts to overwhelm their opponents by providing an excessive number of arguments with no regard for the accuracy or strength of those arguments.
This is Colin Fiske's suggestions as to parking policies for the General Plan update, from February 11, 2024. We can note that he has written on eliminating the MINIMUM parking requirements -- that is, to have it be that a new apartment is not required to have parking. He does not speak to the MAXIMUM parking that is allowed.
There's a notion that by making it more difficult for people to USE a car, then people won't OWN a car. And perhaps in a mythical future, this may be true. But for now and likely the next 20 or 30 years, people do own cars. And there will need to be a place to park them.
For two years we have been waiting for 3D images of what a build-out might look like for the design of the Gateway Area Plan. Finally, here in February 2024, we have some 3D images of what multiple buildings in the Gateway area might look like.
Here is an extended and annotated Table of Contents for the 1,990 page Draft Environmental Impact Report. The Contents that came with this 1,990 page report consisted of 32 lines. This annotated contents has over 600 entries, to enable the reader to scan and find items within this document.
The spice tumeric, used for curries and health benefits, is often contaminated with lead, which is used to enhance its yellow color. The FDA has no standards for the amount of lead allowed in spices. In Southeast Asia, where tumeric is grown and widely used, lead poisoning in children is a major issue. Bangladesh recently took steps to prohibit the use of lead additives. India, the world's largest producer and exporter of tumeric, should do the same, but at this time has not.
Brandolini's law, also known as the B.S. Asymmetry Principle, is an internet adage that emphasizes the effort of debunking misinformation, in comparison to the relative ease of creating it in the first place. It states that the amount of energy needed to refute B.S. is an order of magnitude larger (that is, ten times larger) than is needed to produce it. -------- The Gish Gallop is a rhetorical technique in which a person attempts to overwhelm their opponents by providing an excessive number of arguments with no regard for the accuracy or strength of those arguments.
The General Plan 2045 draft Environmental Impact Report was released to the public on January 29, 2024. The public comment period runs until March 18, 2024, 5 p.m. At 1,990 pages, this draft EIR is another example of the Gish Gallop -- lots of information, but not easy to find what is pertinent.
"You're traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land of imagination. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition. You've just crossed over into... The Twilight Zone." Or crossed over to -- The Gateway Zone.
Margaret Chase Smith served in U.S. Congress for 33 years, from 1940 to 1973, both in the House and as a Senator. She was the first woman to run for the presidential nomination of a major political party. She was a strong supporter of the space program, increased educational funding, civil rights, and Medicare. Her words on TRUST may be useful while we are looking at the Gateway Area Plan and Arcata's General Plan.
Everyone knows the Iceberg Theory. What you see is only 10% of the iceberg. The rest of it is hidden underwater. That would be 90% that's unknown. The same is true of the Gateway Area Plan. How can anyone make a decision if 90% of what's necessary to make that decision is unknown? The answer is: You can't.
The agenda packet for the December 12, 2023, Planning Commission meeting involves numerous seeming violations of the Brown Act. This is a letter to the City Attorney asking for his opinions. Estimated reading time: 9 minutes; can easily be skimmed.
Reading time: 3 to 6 minutes -- Many Arcatans today worry that our city is losing its identity. Yet the core of that identity is not based on who among us owns a home and which of us may never own a home, or our background or our ethnicity. It is the ideals we share, the good we hold in common. -- From an essay by Robert Reich.
Reading time: 6 minutes -- Arcata's attempt at inclusion with the General Plan Update produced a report based on exactly 13 non-white people. This is shameful -- and doubly shameful that it is seen as acceptable. What in the world kind of "inclusion" is this? Couldn't there be additional outreach here?
Reading time: 12-15 minutes. The Brown Act requires our public officials to tell the whole story. Not part of the story -- the whole story. They are required to include all the facts, and not just that portion of the facts that they want to be brought to the open. The David Loya "Proposed Circulation" video contains misrepresentations, omissions of fact, misstatements, and downright falsehoods. As such, it is a blatant violation of California's Brown Act.
The "Other Considerations" table supposedly consists of a list of recommendations for changes to the draft Gateway Plan that were in conflict with the draft. The first table came out four months after the 2nd Gateway draft arrived, and contains only a small fraction of the comments from the City's Committees, from the public, and even from the Planning Commissioners that "do not comport" with the official viewpoints.
The City planners consider walking distance as an "as the crow flies" distance -- NOT a real-life walking distance. This a entire “10 minute walk” map is very misleading. It is a computer-drawn map with no regard to actually walking along a street. Yes, the Gateway area is close to town, and, yes, it is walking distance to many locations. But it is not true that “the Arcata sports complex is just within a 10-minute walk.” A person has to cross Highway 101 on 7th Street to get to the Sports Complex.
What happened at the April 11, 2023, Planning Commission meeting?
The Chair first announced that there would be just a single period for public comment. Then, after a one-minute private discussion with David Loya, the Chair relented and allowed additional public comment at the conclusion of the main topic of the night. Video and transcription.
We don’t have to go far to uncover transparency issues. We can look right here at Arcata’s Gateway Plan. Crucial letters from the public about this plan have been hidden. They aren’t seen until after the meeting the letter was written for has passed. Do Arcatans want to see L Street — right next to the Creamery, where we come for festivals and fun — turned into a truck route? I don’t think so. Nor does Arcata’s Transportation Safety Committee. But that committee’s voice likewise has been ignored. --- California’s Brown Act: “The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know.”
Based on what we've seen, our Community Development Department has an aversion to providing Executive Summaries and actually presenting fact-based conclusions for Arcata's decision-makers. Staff also seems to have an aversion to completing or finalizing ANYTHING. Both the "Strategic Infill Redevelopment Program: Community Engagement Report (Draft)" -- submitted to the public on June 17, 2022 -- and the "City of Arcata Sea Level Rise Risk Assessment" report from April, 2018, are MISSING entirely their Executive Summaries -- even though those summaries are promoted as being part of the documents.
The Draft Gateway Plan pretends that there will be an increase in on-street parking in the Gateway area. In actuality, there will be 50% or so of current parking spaces. In some blocks, there will be less than 25% of what is there now.
If the Gateway Plan is not going to provide truly affordable housing for the people who need it, then what’s the point? --- If working people can’t buy a home and they can’t afford the rent, then we need to think this through more.
The joint City Council / Planning Commission study session introduced big problems when an elated City Council considered the Transportation Safety Committee's strong recommendation for an L Street Pathway and Linear Park and tossed it out the window -- well, sent it back to the TransSafetyComm for them to review. This presentation was the cause. Is it filled with misleading and possibly false information? Read it, and you decide.
A major component of the December 2021 draft Gateway Plan involves splitting the vehicle traffic on K Street and making a new L Street for the southbound traffic. Does the City have the rights-of-way to do this? Who knows?
It seems that the public is not receiving the information that is our right to receive, under the law. Why the public is not receiving this information is anyone's guess. And why a citizen feels the need to read the opening lines of the Brown Act Law indicates that much is wrong.
The "couplet" created by making K Street and L Street be one-way, one-lane streets seems unlikely to happen. And if it were to take place, the joyful humanity of the current L Street Pathway would be destroyed. Why does it seem that the City is not being forthcoming on this? Why aren't we presented with alternatives?
Sure, there's open space. But where are the parks? Gateway needs parks! How is Arcata going to supply adequate parks for 2,000 people? Parks = Community. Places to meet, talk, hang out. Children's playgrounds too. If we don't insist on this, it's not going to happen.
Arcata's Village project was stalled in public comment for almost 2 years. A year after it was eventually approved, the developers withdrew. What went wrong?