What do you think about the Eureka, Arcata, McKinleyville, Humboldt area?

[TheDragonslayer]

Originally Posted by GregFromOregon

WOW, neat. I may have to move to the Eureka area to hold on to a job(gotta follow the work), and I already don't like it there. It sounds like it has the same sickness that many other small towns get when you have a blue collar community be it fishing, logging, whatever, and you add some kind of feature like the redwoods, ocean, river, whatever, and all the people that drive through and say "look how pretty hun, we should move here" actually do camp out for the rest of there lives. You've got the added dissability of HSU and the neverending drug crowd that can't grasp the fact that the best stuff doesn't come from there anymore, but, they keep showing up. The mills close and fishing boats sit idle and the only thing that sparks your economy is the strip malls and casinos(Coos Bay, Lincoln City, Canyonville Oregon to name just a few) but thats not the town you had in you're daydream little head when you drove through all those years ago. It will never be what you want it to be because you get the "not in my backyard" mentallity, when in reality, you where the beginning of the cancer that is causing its death. Small town economy sucks, it will always suck, unless you let it grow into a big town, with box stores, strip malls, and casinos. But then it will not be the small town you fell in love with in the first place so you'll move to some other small blue collar town that has a view of Mt.Jefferson, or the Columbia River, or........Uugghh! I'm done, bash away people.

No need to bash away at you, you are mostly right in nearly all that you say. People drive through here to see the redwoods, the clean water and the quiet life. Then they move here, get in a hurry and want a star bucks on every corner. I moved to Humboldt in 1992 after losing all my garden jobs after the Oakland hills fire of 91. Every thing was so slow here then, there was no big box store in Eureka to speak of, no big K here in McKinleyville which has more than doubled since then. Now most of the towns except for McK are built to capacity, there are times that there is real traffic on 101, whereas in 92 there was very little. The price of homes have nearly tripled in less than 10 years and most long time locals cannot afford that increase, yet keep their jobs. But one cannot leave out the rape of our county and its redwoods by Horowitz of Texas, the same baron that was behind the savings and loan rip-off of the early 80's. Horowitz came in in the early 90's and basically bulldozed his way through our woods, leaving decimated tracts of land. But, I still love living up here, it is not always raining and it is not always foggy and cold. The past few weeks have been foggy, but the days have been in the upper 60's and low 70's with a humidity around 40 to 50 percent. It usually does not start raining till mid November and continues to about March and in that time we get about 40 to 50 inches of rain. Spring here is great and late summer to early fall is often very nice and in the upper 70's.

[Grenoble_slopes]

Originally Posted by GregFromOregon

And buy the way, your crime rate is almost TWICE the national average, very close that of COMPTON, CA.

High crime cities tend to have low rates of reported thefts and other property crimes. Think about it - what's the point of reporting a theft in a city like Detroit, or Compton? So their theft rates are below the national average. Overall 'crime rate' for any city, when including property crime statistics, aren't to be taken seriously for this reason. The violent crime rates in Compton are much higher than in Eureka, and the murder rate this decade in Compton is 10x higher than Eureka.

[HedgeWitch]

Thanks for so rationally explaining that, Grenoble_slopes. There are statistical crime rates, and then there's an overall environment of heavily urban crime & economic distress even in non-recessionary times (such as gang-infested, depressed areas like Compton, which is also engulfed by the cancerous Los Angeles Metro/South Central & its other depressed, crime-riddled areas!). So much of it is a matter of scale, not always obvious looking at stats without taking the big picture into account. Believe me, I'd take my chances having the Blue Lake Casino in town vs. living anywhere near Compton!

I've been here in the LA area since the late 1960s (San Fernando Valley, Long Beach, Laguna Beach, Hollywood, Pasadena and now way up in the Angeles Forest foothills, but still stuck working in downtown LA) due to family responsibilities & job requirements, can't wait to get away when we are able to retire. I miss the semi-rural area where I grew up with its open space, natural beauty and safety for kids to roam free (it's now sadly devoured by encroaching metropolitan suburbs), while remembering well the restrictions that country lifestyle placed on me as a teenager too young to drive anywhere for more urban fun!

I love the whole Arcata/HSU region, its climate, pace, lifestyles, cultural & natural resources from what we've seen visiting over the past 2 years & my daughter's reports from her college experiences at HSU and forays into Eureka, McKinleyville, Blue Lake, etc. We will be checking out Blue Lake & other nearby areas very closely -- I don't want to come in & change anything. [Who needs Starbucks when you've got Muddy Waters & other local coffee hangouts?]

My biggest concern so far is the lack of major medical providers nearby (given that we'll be retirees in our mid/late 60s when we can escape LA) and concerns about transportation if/when we can no longer drive, but senior transportation is lousy down here in the urban jungle, as well.

It's all matter of what you like and how you want to live. I truly appreciate those of you who live in/know the area sharing your experiences & examples of what to expect, the upsides and the down!