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August 28, 2023
Dear City Council Members,
I attended the zoom meeting last week and was waiting online to
weigh in. I was so happy so many were there to express their
wishes for this very unique place we live in. We want to make Arcata
even better than it is and your decision to listen to community’s
desires was refreshing. As you know, we often feel our concerns fall
on deaf ears. I have heard every call made or person who writes a
letter to a government official represents 2000 other voices who do
not. My experience has shown that hardly anybody knows what’s
going on with the Gateway Plan and when they hear it they are quite
dismayed.
I moved here from Chicago 23 years ago. Oh so happy to live in a
small, clean, beautiful town with no traffic. No problem parking. No
needed permits to park in residential areas. No parking tickets for
expired meters. What a healthy place to live! I chose it for this
reason! I have heard Sarah Schaefer express much dismay over
people having to commute to work in Arcata. I shouldn’t have to
remind you that people commute up to an hour and more in HEAVY
traffic every morning to get to and then from school and work. If we
focused on putting in a transportation system (or coming era of electric
cars) that made this commute environmentally friendly AND fast and
easy, perhaps we could keep Arcata a LIVABLE city. Increasing the
population to more than the area can sustain geographically and the
risks involved (earthquakes, tsunamis, sea level rise, atmospheric
rivers) is just going to turn this place into an overcrowded,
uncomfortable place in which to live and people in the future will be
turning to FORTUNA to live the kind of life we have here now. Why
would we do that to this unique town?
I’ll make the rest of my concerns as quickly as possible because I
understand your time is valuable!
1) About making this a “walking” town. Please think of the aging
population AND the young mothers with children. Let’s not forget
that this is a pretty miserable place when it’s 45 degrees and
raining for how many months of the year. (And as for being a
biking town…I suggest you get somebody out on Alliance and
other main roads to get a pulse for how many people actually bike
to town. I see more bikes in Chicago!) Again, biking in cold rain is
not much fun.
2) I suggest getting an incredible transportation system worked out
before allowing 1 car per unit as stated in your plan.
3) If you build, they will come. There’s a big country out there. Lots
of room. Better housing prices. If people are willing to move from
SF or LA, they can just as well move out of state like so many
others are. I’m sure you’ve read the article about CA population
going down…not up as predicted. Things change quickly these
days. One year the state mandates build housing, the next year a
report comes out that people are leaving the state and the
population is dropping.
4) If the city REALLY wanted to know how the people felt about the Gateway Plan they could have (and still could) send information to EVERY dwelling in the city to get a real pulse on how the community feels about how their town is going to change. That
would have been TRUE transparency. Not every person has the time to reads the news.
Thank you for the time it takes to read my concerns. And thank you
for the work you do. I know this isn’t an easy problem to solve. And,
again, thank you so much for listening to the community regarding L
Street!
Very Sincerely,
Lee Torrence