What's the deal with Eureka? Why all the negatives? (Los Angeles: college, living in)

[TheDragonslayer]

I am going to put in my positive two cents on Eureka and the Humboldt Bay region. I have been here in Humboldt county since 1992 and prior to that I lived in various places in both Oakland and Berkeley and not the nice parts. I lived in the MacArthur and Telegraph section and the Fruitvale sections of Oakland and the San Pablo Avenue area of Berkeley. Both areas were drug and crime ridden and walking at night was taking a risk, so was walking during the day, but I had a large American Staffordshire pit bull and he was my passport around both towns. Here in Eureka, if I were stuck in Eureka at night, I would feel safe to walk home. I always feel safe here, Eureka, Arcata, McKinleyville or any of the towns. I was threatened with both guns and knives in both Berkeley and Oakland and more than just a few times, gunshots were often heard and one day those shots resulted in a neighbor lying dead in the middle of the street. That was the Fruitfale district of Oakland. Up here when you here gun shots, it is probably a duck hunter. We do have crime and murder, but not at a rate you see in a large city. Every place has its bad scenes and we have ours, but it is much safer here. If we do not have everything on some bodies list, just make a mini vacation out of a trip to the SF bay area or to the Portland Oregon area.

[nmskies]

Originally Posted by CA central coast

OK, that's supposed to explain why an isolated city of 25k becomes drug invsted and dangerous. C'mon?

Yes, our town of 25K in New Mexico is drug infested because of lack of jobs.

[CA central coast]

Originally Posted by nmskies

Yes, our town of 25K in New Mexico is drug infested because of lack of jobs.

maybe you're right, but how does that happen. drugs cost money, for one. also, people decide to start doing drugs because their job went away? maybe they do, I'm just not getting it, I guess.

[jeho76]

People of all societies throughout the history of mankind regardless of socioeconomic status have sought out ways to cope with one's existence here on Earth. Most seem to like engage in activities or thought processes that boost their adrenaline levels and or make them feel different than their usual way of feeling. There are as many examples of this as there are grains of sand on all of Earth's shores--certainly many more than the total number of people who have existed because everything every person ever did was meant to cope with or respond to the situation at hand. I don't think the "ghetto people" would consider themselves ghetto people; However the self-righteous obviously non-ghetto people that have all the solutions to everyone else's lives should perhaps consider the words of a pretty cool dude who said.....why do you consider the mite in your brother's eye when you have a mote in your own eye? First fix your own eye. And love thy neighbor as you love yourself.

[jeho76]

And by the way, regarding the "ghetto-people" and the "ghetto" itself....although I've never visited Bethlehem, and I certainly wasn't there 2000-plus years ago; the "pretty cool dude" that I was referring to in my first submission to this forum wasn't born in the rich section of town.<br>

[reddesertfox]

Originally Posted by majoun

and eureka is proof that native born white americans can be ghetto as well, given that eureka has very few immigrants, almost no nonwhites, and an extremely tiny latino population. Eureka makes newport beach look as diverse as alameda county by comparison.

let's not get carried away pal.we all know who causes the crime in america and makes us the laughing stock of the world.

[mileena]

I visited Eureka/Arcata this past fall (I live in the Bay Area). The first thing I wondered was why a town so small would have tons of bail bond shops, pawn shops, cheap no-name motels, and bars. The number of these places was in complete disproportion to their population. I thought for a while I was in north Philadelphia. I was on alert, figuring this was a high-crime area. I also noticed a lot of hippie-types riding bikes everywhere, as well as homeless. Needless to say, I did not feel comfortable in the area or parking my car there in a plaza.

When I got home, I checked wikipedia, and this is what I found:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humboldt_County,_California

"Marijuana
Humboldt County is also widely known for its cultural attributes associated with the cultivation and proliferation of marijuana.[14] Proposition 215 allows patients and caregivers who are given a doctor's recommendation to legally (State level only) grow up to 99 plants in Humboldt County.[15] David Samuels of The New Yorker describes the county as "the heartland of high-grade marijuana farming in California."[16] However, in the years before Prop 215 (early 70's-late 80's), Humboldt County saw a large migration of the Bay Area counter-culture to its region. Many came looking to purchase cheap land, and ended up growing marijuana to pay for their land payments to eventually became owners of the land. Especially around Garberville and Redway, the rural culture and hippie scene eventually collaborated to create a "hippy-billy" community in which marijuana became the center of the economy. Many people prospered by exporting their marijuana down the California coast and to Midwestern states because of its reputation for quality. Conflicts between local growers and state and federal officials have also become a part of Humboldt's reputation. Every harvest season since 1983, CAMP (Campaign Against Marijuana Planting, a drug task force) land helicopters on private property and perform mostly unwarranted searches and seizures.[citation needed] Austin Steve Bowser, a well known local in the 1980s recalls state police officers telling him it was time to bring Humboldt County back to the United States.[17] A Garberville radio station, KMUD, in the past has issued warnings and alerts to the region with information on whereabouts of law enforcement on their way to raid marijuana gardens.[18] The 2008 independent film Humboldt County centers on the county's marijuana cultivation subculture."

[eureka1]

The garbage I read on this forum could win the Pulitzer prize for fiction. This is an ancient thread. Let it die.

[stevieslonr]

Ive visted thousands of cities in my lifetime & Eureka has the MOST transients ive EVER encountered!...can any one tell me why?...or have a theory?

[BeauCharles]

Coastal areas of California attract lots of transients/vagrants/bums (Monterey, Santa Barbara, SLO). Coastal areas of California with a well know counter-culture bent attract even more (Eureka, Santa Cruz, San Francisco). Just the way it is. You won't freeze to death being homeless in those places and that's a magnet nationwide for those inclined to live like that.

Yeah, this may be an old thread, but it looks like it gets resurrected regularly.