** SATIRE – THIS IS NOT THE NEWS **
Arcata Open House for the Draft Gateway Plan
On January 21st and 22nd of this year, the City of Arcata held an Open House at the Arcata Community Center to present the then-new Draft Gateway Area Plan. In the words on the Arcata website, on their Facebook page, and on the press release, “The Open House will serve as an self-guided opportunity for community members to provide feedback on topics including building scale, circulation, the upcoming environmental review process, and ask questions of City staff.”
Participants were given sticky-dots and Post-It squares for them to express their views and opinions at more than a dozen stations around the perimeter of the room, each devoted to a particular aspect of the Draft Gateway Plan or a general question that the construction of 3,500 housing units might bring. One station asked: “Too much growth could lead to…”
Overall, there were hundreds of Post-Its left by Arcata’s citizens.
Were there certain themes left by the posters?
One clear message repeated in many ways was: Eight stories is too tall. Four stories is plenty.
To compile the hundreds of comments and dot “votes” is a daunting process, one that would take considerable and resources. As of the writing of this post, it has been 4 months since the Open House and the City has not yet officially released any summary of results.
Below is what appears to be a leaked draft of the official summary of the results, compiled from hundreds of Post-Its left by citizens of Arcata at the City-hosted Open House Meeting at the Community Center on January 21st and January 22nd, 2022.
[Please remember: This is satire !]
** SATIRE – THIS IS NOT THE NEWS **