More than 60 members of our community came to City Hall on Wednesday, June 7th, for the Arcata City Council meeting. Many people, including Centro del Pueblo Executive Director Brenda Perez, spoke to the Council.
Over the past three years, the Sanctuary Gardens has been vandalized one dozen times. The people of Arcata are asking the City Council to do something.
Below is a transcription of what was said by Carlos, one of the many impassioned speakers.
Hello, my name is Carlos. I’ve lived in Arcata since 2019. I moved 600 miles to be here, and went from LA to a place where I could not see people like me. Centro del Pueblo was an opportunity to find a home away from home. And to see that home attacked, to see that home consistently brought into a place of fear has been hard.
We often times, when at the garden, are told by people passing by not to take it personally. But it is personal. It always has been personal. As much as we would like to pretend that Arcata is a safe place, sometimes it isn’t. And that’s especially true for people like me, people like my friends here.
My question, I guess — because I know that the legislative body cannot adopt this, their procedures, this cannot be put on the agenda today — but my question is: How much longer do we have to wait? What else has to happen before this is addressed? Does one of us have to get hurt before this is taken more seriously?
I live just two blocks, not even two blocks away from the garden. I walk past there every day. What happens if me or Brenda or her husband or her child, God forbid, is outside when that man arrives? What happens if we are at the garden and he decides to do more? What if the vandalism is not the stop of that place where it ends but the place where it begins?
I am begging you please to do something. I do not want to live in fear in a community where I found so much love. And I hope that you can see that. Thank you.