In the entire Draft Gateway plan, the words “House” and “Home” — as meaning a place where people will live — do not appear a single time.  There are over 28,000 words in this document.

“Home” does appear in describing what’s there… but not in terms of what will be built.

Words missing from this document include:
House or houses, home or homes, sun, shade (or shading or solar shading), rent, and mortgage.  “Home ownership” is there once, and “historic homes” once.  “Solar” is there one time, in reference to the community benefits program. “Townhouse” is there twice and “penthouse” is there three times:  twice as “luxury penthouses” and once as “penthouse
units for high-income households.”

And, as might be imagined, “homeless” and “houseless” and “homelessness” are not mentioned.

In the Gateway area people will live in Housing or in Housing Units.  As the plan stands now, people will not live in Houses or Homes. 

They will have Opportunity, but they won’t have Sun.

In reading through the December 110-page Draft Gateway plan document, it’s clear that certain words are used lots and lots of times. Maybe that’s just the nature of a planning document. Or the nature of this planning document.

The word “Development” is there 253 times. “Housing” is there 157 times. “Amenity” and “amenities” are there 56 times. “Opportunity” and “Opportunities” are good buzz-words. They are in there 95 times. Also “Community” (196 times), “Sustainable” or “Sustainability” (27 times), “Density” (50 times). And “Vision” — we can’t have a plan without Vision — is there 96 times.

The list of major words:

What are some of the mid-frequency-use words?

• • • Business or Businesses:  28 times
    • Guiding:  22 times.
    • Affordable:  26 times
    • Jobs:  15 times
    • Racial Equity:  11 times
    • Blight:   9 times.

“Low-cost housing” is there one time as:  “Encourage new low-cost housing for students, including single room occupancy housing, group living accommodations, and micro-units.”

All other references to “cost” are about cost of construction cost (4 times), development cost (3 times), cost-effective return on investment, environmental cost (once), infrastructure upgrade costs, benefits cost, cost-effective manner, planning cost.

“Affordable housing” is listed 11 times, including one time as “Facilitate the relocation of nonconforming uses that are incompatible with the Plan Vision” by supporting those existing businesses with affordable housing.  “Deed-restricted affordable housing” is present 3 times of those 11, and “owner-occupied affordable housing” there twice.

And what is missing? 

Is the word “House” in there, as meaning a place where a person would live?

No.  Not one single time.

How about Home or Homes?  Sorry.
They are not there either.  

• • • Solar:  There once, as “rooftop solar.”  Page 1 and not mentioned after that.
    • Sun:  Not there
    • Shade or Shading or Solar Shading:  Not a breath of those.
    • Low-Cost Housing:  Sorry.  Only one mention of Low-Cost Housing.  But there are many references about how the plan wants housing to be affordable.
    • Home ownership:  It’s there one time.
      “Owner-Occupied Affordable Housing. Encourage new home ownership opportunities for lower-income households including through condominium (e.g., deed restricted owner-occupied condominium units and for-sale micro units).”  There are 5 references to encouraging condominiums, including one for “luxury condominiums for high-income households.”
    • Historic Homes:  Yes, there once.
    • Houses: Well, there’s “greenhouse gases” (7 times) and “household incomes” — 3 times mention of lower-income households and 2 of higher-income households. There’s the Arcata Playhouse, and that the Creamery building “houses” a restaurant and “houses” the Playhouse.  There are the names of the seven houses that are on the historic or potentially-designated historic list.  The word “townhouses” is in there twice, as a type of building.  Oh, and “penthouse” is there three times — twice as “luxury penthouses” and once as “penthouse units for high-income households.”But is the word “House” in there, as meaning a place where a person would live?
      No.  Not one single time.
    • Home or Homes:  Sorry, not there either.  Except as the phrase “Home to several important businesses.”  Again:  Not one single time.
    • Rent:  Nope, no mention of Rent.  Rent is not an issue in the Gateway plan.
    • Mortgage:  Not at all.

Below is a word-cloud, where all the words are displayed in a size that is proportional to the number of times the word is used.  Kind of looks like bicycles are more important than businesses, and that Streets are more important than everything.

The teeny tiny ones that are pretty hard to find are:  Racial injustice, Historic Homes, Home ownership, Racial Inequality, Walking distance of homes, and Rooftop Solar.

What’s too small to even show up as a miniscule dot are:  Sun, Solar, Shading, Rent, Mortgage, and, oddly enough, Houses and Homes.

In the Gateway area, people will live in “Housing.”  As the plan stands now, people will not live in Houses, and people will not live in Homes.