Supervisor hopefuls chart their road to a more prosperous future
H
umboldt’s 4th District is the county’s most compact in stature. Wrapping around much of Eureka, up to the Indianola Cutoff and across the bay to Samoa and Fairhaven, the district encompasses Humboldt County’s largest urban area, as well as the county seat. While the district shares similar challenges with the rest of the county, some of the issues and strengths of the county are particularly focused in the area. The 4th is home to Humboldt Bay’s largest ports and marinas, industrial and commercial zones for businesses as well as residential neighborhoods, homelessness, indoor marijuana grows and empty storefronts. The Journal recently sat down with the two supervisorial candidates vying to represent the 13,000 registered voters in that portion of the county: incumbent Virginia Bass, who was elected in 2010 and served on the Eureka City Council for eight years before that; and Chris Kerrigan, who himself served on the Eureka council for eight years before being termed out in 2008. Bass and Kerrigan spoke about several issues facing the county — and the 4th District in particular. Here’s an overview of the candidates’ plans.
ILLUSTRATION BY CHRISTIAN PENNINGTON
There’s No Place Like Humboldt Fourth Coming By Grant Scott-Goforth
Boom or bust
Humboldt County’s economy — and what can be done to improve it — seems to be an eternal discussion. While the country continues to recover from the great recession, the board of supervisors recently approved a document outlining economic goals and target industries to promote. The most recent edition of the Humboldt County Economic Index lists a 7.2 percent unemployment rate, half a percent above the national rate. And the county’s median household income, according to 2012 census data, hung around $41,000, well below the state’s median of $61,000. Meanwhile, a walk through Old Town shows empty, unused storefronts. The 4th District offers many opportunities for economic growth: much of the bay, including waters conducive to aquaculture and recreation, the county’s largest shopping centers and industrial sites. So how can the county government improve our economy? Bass said it’s still going to be some time before Humboldt County’s employment numbers are back to 2008 levels. She said the economic strategy adopted by the board this year is a step forward, identifying high-growth industries that would lead to good paying jobs.
14 NORTH COAST JOURNAL • THURSDAY, MAY 8, 2014 • northcoastjournal.com
That’s all part of what she called a “new normal.” “Diversification is important because we can’t rely on one type of industry or another,” she said. The Samoa Peninsula, she said, is an “opportunity for this community to realize some of the best economic growth that we’ve seen in a long time.” She said the county needs to support the Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conservation District in its cleanup of the Samoa Pulp Mill and focus on cleaning up other brownfields, as well as pre-permitting and pre-zoning lands to attract industries. She’s particularly excited about a local businessman’s desire to build a wood pellet manufacturing plant, utilizing what would otherwise be a waste product from the timber industry. It’s just the kind of business the county needs, she said. “They’re local. They care about our community. They’re not here to take advantage of us.” Finally, Bass said, the county should create a bay-wide land inventory, identifying properties that are zoned for general industrial use and ones that are zoned for coastal-dependent industrial use. Rather than expecting new businesses to research and seek out zoning changes appropriate for their industries, Bass said the county can come up with a long-range look at the peninsula, identify needs and work
with the California Coastal Commission to fulfill them. Kerrigan said a healthy economy will come from switching from a resource extraction economy to a resource management economy. “Growing up I think it was folklore that you had to balance the economy and the environment,” he said. That means encouraging businesses that make the most of our natural resources — specialty forest, fish and food products, for example — maximizing their value before selling them to markets outside of the county, rather than shipping raw products to be processed elsewhere. The county can encourage this by using the Headwaters Fund and the Redwood Region Economic Development Commission to invest in businesses and the infrastructure that startups rely on, he said. By pre-permitting land for business and keeping zoning and planning consistent, Kerrigan said, the county can attract investors to the area. Kerrigan said quality of life is crucial to a healthy economy — citing trails, pedestrian and bicycle safety, infill in neighborhoods and public safety as attractions for businesses who want happy employees, as well as two other key demographics: young families and retiring baby boomers. Another thing that appeals to investors and people seeking to move or stay here and that could improve Humboldt’s abil-