On The Waterfront Now A national symposium provides a fresh view for Humboldt’s oceanfront future By Ryan Burns
T
hey came from Portland, Maine, and Portland, Ore., from the Chesapeake Bay and the Florida Keys. They came from all walks of water-dependent life: commercial fishermen from San Diego, nonprofit conservationists from the Puget Sound, urban planners from Maryland and many more. From up and down the eastern and western seaboards came government engineers, policy makers and scientists along with private consultants, ship builders and entrepreneurs. All were among the several hundred people who gathered in Tacoma, Wash., late last month to talk about ways to protect and improve working waterfronts and waterways. Over the four days of the Third National Working Waterfronts & Waterways Symposium — the first one ever held on the West Coast — this diverse group of folks met in conference rooms to share stories, information and ideas. They gave PowerPoint presentations and mingled, munching on corn chips and hummus. They heard talks from panels of experts, a speech from U.S. Sen. Patty Murray of Washington and, at a seafood banquet, a song of blessing from a Puyallup Tribe elder. The Journal was there, along with a few others from Humboldt County, and the symposium provided a rare opportunity to view our local waterfront in a national context. Oceanfront communities big and small are facing the same
inter-related challenges, trying to strike a balance between commerce, the environment and public access in the face of globalization, environmental declines and rising sea levels. And here’s the surprising picture that emerged: Sure, Humboldt County has its challenges, and we could certainly learn a few things from what’s being done elsewhere. (You’ll find some examples below.) But in many ways our harbor- and ocean-related activities can serve as a model for getting along, showing how planning and collaboration can prevent paralyzing conflict. This is no mean feat given the legacy of different, often conflicting uses along Humboldt County’s 100-plus miles of coastline (as the Aleutian geese fly), and particularly in and around our harbor, the second-largest natural bay in California. Whether it’s the North Coast stakeholders group that hammered out a unified proposal for the Marine Life Protection Act or the collaborative planning effort that could expand aquaculture in Humboldt Bay, people in Humboldt County have been solving problems better than we sometimes imagine. Which is a very good thing, considering the challenges on the horizon.
It was a cold, gray morning
in Tacoma, and wind gusts were tossing frigid mists outside the Hotel Murano while Sarah Garcia stood in one of the beige-carpeted conference rooms to
EUREKA’S WATERFRONT REVITALIZATION PROJECT HAS GIVEN THE CITY A NEW BOARDWALK AND FISHERMAN’S TERMINAL, BUT MANY OF THE NEARBY STOREFRONTS AND LOTS REMAIN VACANT. PHOTO BY RYAN BURNS
10 NORTH COAST JOURNAL • THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 2013 • northcoastjournal.com
deliver one of the more captivating presentations of the week. Garcia, who has soft features and a calm authority, is the director of economic development for the port of Gloucester, Mass. Like Humboldt Bay, Gloucester’s port has a long and colorful history, dominated by working fishermen, and that history is often invisible to visitors. (The big exception was The Perfect Storm, the book and movie about Gloucester fishermen who were swept to sea during a hurricane.) “People say, ‘Gloucester is like a veiled woman; she could be beautiful but you’re not sure,’” Garcia said. In an effort to unveil her, the port authority came up with an idea for an interactive harbor walk that leads tourists and locals in and out of the working waterfront, up to the town’s civic center, stores and museum and down the city’s Sicilian main street before looping back to the waterfront. The tour is enhanced not only by 42 little pillars with informational plaques (called “story moments”) but also with short, entertaining videos that can be viewed on a smart phone or tablet. Garcia explained how it works: You download a free app (which cost the port authority $20,000 to have developed) and then scan a QR code at the entrance to the “HarborWalk.” Up pops a YouTube video with a friendly female narrator who instructs you to point your phone at a nearby parking
lot and shake it. Suddenly, on the screen, the drab parking lot fills with confetti, followed by a montage of images from a festival called Fiesta, which takes place on the spot each June. And with that, the tour has begun. Each video directs you to the next stop, where you can watch another short video. One tells you about the annual Greasy Pole competition, where contestants (often inebriated) attempt to walk across a long, slippery power pole suspended above the bay and grab a flag at the far end before splashing into the water, 20 feet below, to the wild cheers of revelers. The video shows highlights and slip-flail-splash lowlights set to opera music. Another clip directs you to a dory, a 16-foot rowboat, that’s stationed on a pier. You can work the oars and blow a conch shell while watching the harrowing tale of Howard Blackburn, a fisherman who survived a brutal storm in a boat that size in 1883. The 2 ½-mile walking tour covers the history, economics and cultural events of the port. “We wanted to tell the whole story,” Garcia said. And since it was launched last August, the project has started to change that story. “A commercial business owner said he saw business