Category Archives: Arcata

Golfing on Graves? Why not?

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There has been a lot of gossip lately about people playing golf at Ocean View Cemetery. Perhaps they were employees. It doesn’t sound like anyone knows for sure. There have been outraged posts in places like Facebook about what a terrible outrage this is.

I have family going  back four generations in Eureka and most of them are buried at OVC. If I were buried there, I would be dead (hopefully)  and I WOULDN’T CARE if someone wanted to hit a few balls while standing on my marker. How can it be disrespectful?  For some people golf is a religion, anyway.

I lost my sister in January 2015. She had expressed a desire to be buried at sea so I made the arrangements. I found that Ayers Family Cremation provides a burial at sea and they were very kind and easy to work with.  They take the ashes and when they have two or three to sea-bury they take them in a boat out past the bar and scatter them there. Then they go surfing, which is very life-affirming. When I die, I want Ayers to deal with me.

Golf has come under a lot of criticism lately because it consumes a lot of water and land. On the other hand, golf courses DO provide recreation, exercise (if you walk) and beautiful open spaces.  The Mad River Union has been reporting on the crisis at Baywood, which has half the membership they had ten years ago, and is in such dire financial  straits that they are trying to get a THP approved so they can log the course!!!   Yup,  logging trucks on Buttermilk Drive is what the Baywood folks are pushing.  Nice way to treat Arcata. Here’s a better idea:  sell a few gravesites up there.  I’d bet there are more than a few diehard duffers who would welcome a chance to be buried on their favorite course or even their favorite hole. Am I wrong??

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The Tragedy of Toni’s

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Over New Year’s we had occasion to revisit Toni’s 24-Hour Restaurant.  This is a terrific establishment, especially at 2am when I will never see it, but we experienced the same flaw as on our first visit-stale frying oil. This time it was the chicken-fried steak , which otherwise would have been wonderful,  which had been fried in oil that should have been changed.   I brought it home for LouLou but it was really a shame. On the other hand, the onion rings were great. Go figure. The burgers continue to be superb. My companion ordered a triple and almost finished it.

My chicken-fried steak came with a choice of breads including a home-made biscuit, which was delicious  and served with a huge gob of soft butter.

I guess in order to avoid the tragedy and heartbreak of stale oil, you could just order carefully, staying away from  anything  fried.  “I’ll have a blue cheese burger and a biscuit”. Nah, doesn’t work. I’ll keep playing the cooking oil roulette at Toni’s because when they do get it right, it’s glorious.

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Airport News- Medford Is BUSY, Eugene’s Adding Service

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While our ACV struggles to maintain a four-flights-a-day schedule, the Medford airport is jammed. A Friend of the Blog turned us onto this story from the Medford Mail Tribune . Medford is handling 19 departures a day to ACV’s four and passenger traffic is at an all-time high.

Eugene too! The excellent article also points out that “Eugene’s Mahlon Sweet Airport has announced expanded service, with a daily flight to San Jose by Alaska Air Group’s Horizon unit, a Southwest Airlines flight to Dallas and five flights per week to Beijing by Hainan Airlines.”  (One-stop in San Jose). Yes, Beijing.  Whee!

I mentioned the Eugene flights to a Chinese friend who commented that due to the economic expansion in China there are direct or one-stop flights to China now from American locations that would have been unthinkable until recently.  Like Eugene. 

Our Friend also points out that the departure of Avis R/A/C from our ACV has been accomplished and Avis didn’t mind paying $9K to get out of its contract.  A windfall!  Not exactly, but it will cover the cost of trimming a few trees.

The invaluable Mad River Union has a story today about the Grand Jury recommendations re: ACV.  The piece is not online but contains the following startling statistic: “Between 2007 and 2013, McKinleyville enplanements plunged to 56,682 from 105,969, costing vital federal dollars, which are apportioned by a formula linked to the number of annual enplanements.”

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OYSTER FESTIVAL-Too Big For the Plaza?

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It was only a couple of days before Saturday’s Festival that I took a really good look at the festival map. I discovered to my horror that the powers-that-be at Arcata Main Street had decided to eliminate the parking lot/shuttle stop on Samoa Boulevard down around K Street “due to not enough use”, as the staffer told me when I called to complain. Their revised plan was to cut off access to the Plaza from the North so that anyone who rode the shuttles and got off at their stops on 11th Street had to walk all the way down to 7th Street to get access.

I know three extra blocks doesn’t sound like much, but when you’re (hopefully temporarily) disabled as I am that’s a real issue. I’m using a cane due to a recent knee replacement and three blocks is beyond my comfort zone so I called Arcata Main Street and spoke with a nice person who directed me to their “ADA parking” off 7th Street. Those dear folks, with all the good intentions in the world, had set side a big fat 16 parking spaces for a festival expected to attract 16,000 oyster fans. Even the person I was speaking to realized how silly that sounded. I don’t recall the actually ADA setasides for outdoor Festivals but it’s a helluva lot more than 1 in 1000. 

So we ended up showing up at before 8am in order to get a closeby parking space. In a way, it was great because by the time the Plaza got hot and crowded, we were ready to go home. On the other hand, when you leave at noon you miss a lot of stuff.  I found myself wondering WHY the Festival is on the Plaza in the first place. There’s no connection between the Plaza and the Oysters and the Festival disrupts the Farmers’ Market every year. Moving it to the Community Center would lost the “Festival” aspect. The Festival should be held on the BAY!!  Woodley Island isn’t part of Arcata Main Street’s domain plus it’s too small and getting everyone on and off the island would be a nightmare.  But looking ahead to an era when lots of interesting developments are coming up in Samoa, I hope that one day the Festival will expand its footprint,  reducing the congestion.  We can only hope.

Congratulations to AMS and their volunteers for another successful Festival, but let’s put a little more thought into the arrangements next year. 

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Have Kids? Take Them to ACV June 9th.

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In a local version of the Harmonic Convergence, our still NOT renamed airport will host BOTH the Wings of Freedom air meeting AND the Goodyear blimp on Tuesday June 9.  The Wings of Freedom event offers a chance to tour vintage Word War II aircraft,  and the blimp!! Well, what can you say about the blimp other than that it is the most recognizable American icon, apart from the Statue of Liberty. 

The festivities actually start on the 8th and the exact date of the blimps’ arrival is unclear (it takes several days to get here from Long Beach) .  Check the papers or  the Fly Humboldt Facebook page for updates.

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Arcata Business Closures

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The Mad River Union has a helpful summary of recent business closures in Arcata. These include McKenny’s DIB, the St Vincent de Paul store on K Street, the Hunan Plaza Chinese restaurant (after 27 years!!), the Essence of Humboldt gift shop and , at the end of the month, the Eden seed and gift shop on Ninth Street.  It looks worse when you list them all together. Thanks to the Union for compiling these. No link available.