Welcome to the Redwoods!

Eureka, California 1/13/09

They tell me I’ve gone behind the redwood curtain. After some explaining I realized they meant that I have traveled the boonies of California. My friend Eric sarcastically retorts: for Americorps volunteers it’s more like a revolving door. We get stuck in the turnstile and go in a full loop before it spits us out at the end of our year of service. Either way that is what I’ve decided to do for the next twelve months, go somewhere most people have not been before. I have taken a job with the RCAA (Redwood Community Action Agency), which is a Community Action Agency created out of Johnson’s ‘War on Poverty’. It runs a lot of public service programs in Humboldt County—from public housing to teen mentoring to homeless youth. So I’ve spent the last couple of weeks living in a two-bedroom apartment with another hilarious hot-mess of a volunteer from Philly, Jeff.

But back to my curtain metaphor. Humboldt hides nestled up against the Northern California coast approximately five hours north of San Francisco right on the Humboldt Bay. It is so isolated that a good subset of Californians couldn’t locate the place of a map (to be fair, it’s a big state and Californians don’t get out much) and south from Eureka an hour is a place called the Lost Coast. For me the metaphor seems exaggerated. A major highway system runs right through the middle of downtown Eureka, chain stores habituate the streets and locals spout words like ‘hella’ (something distinctly full of California culture). Getting on a freeway would take you to one of the biggest cities in the US in less than half a day. In comparison to where I came from, the town is quite exposed. But for locals, the feeling of being in isolation is quite true; few traverse these twisty and hazardous sections of the 101. Locals bask in their independence and libertarian roots as the pride themselves with having communities with a small town feel. The state of Jefferson in still talked about in the bars, as Humboldt residents spout about seceding from California. The irony of these ideas are enhanced by the fact that a large portion of residents get by living off of federal and state welfare programs.

The remoteness of the area helps shape the quirky and socioeconomically distinct people that end up in such a remote place. Northern Humboldt County has a large history of logging, both the high school in Eurkea and Humboldt State University in the nearby city of Arcata call their mascot the logger and lumberjack respectively. Eureka has seen several pulp mills come and disappear along with the jobs that these places brought. A strong blue collar job market that began this town has since fully collapsed in the late eighties and early nineties as environmental considerations, pollution standards and a large activist push against logging severely cut things back. Not to say that the timber companies were victims, quite the contrary they were some of the scummiest and corrupt people around. Rather, the fall-out on the lower-class provides an interesting starting point for any discussion of the town. The loss of thousands of jobs to a town of only 30,000 has had huge social and economic implications.

As in many Midwestern towns, who saw a similar collapse in jobs due to Reganomics and neoliberalism in the 1980’s, Humboldt County was slow to react to a shifting economy and thus the fall-out had a much larger impact on the surrounding community. Unlike many of these towns, Humboldt County was able to adapt a new type of economy that has since reshaped the political landscape. As a formal economy came and went, a much larger informal economy grew out of the ashes. Humboldt County now produces some of the heartier and stronger forms of weed in the United States. Now this industry is both deeply imbedded in economic activity in the area but also bypasses and shapes mainstream party politics that would usually divide a town. Here comes into play the strong presence of libertarian viewpoints.

Buying marijuana for medicinal purposes is legal in California due to a ballot proposition passed in the 1990’s. But it is still illegal on a federal level. So you can buy weed from a store in downtown Eureka but if caught with that weed by a federal employee, like the FBI, you can still be prosecuted. There are also strict limits to the number of plants you can legally grow. So the state and federal government do a kind of dance around the issue both occasionally stepping on toes and trying to be the one that leads policy. A noteworthy example of this was published in the local weekly paper in December within an article of the top 10 stories from Humboldt County in 2008. Apparently several FBI raids happen this year with hundreds of agents descending onto small towns of less than 15,000 people to do ‘undercover’ operations. Now if this doesn’t sound ridiculous at the onset imagine 400 agents taking over a small hotel, not answering any questions straightforwardly and obviously sticking out to the local residents who know everyone. The net results were one busted pot farmer in Southern Humboldt and the arrest of several illegal female immigrants working on a strawberry farm—yes a real strawberry farm. Now if anyone else is questioning the use of their federal tax dollars here’s something you can grumble about. With the thousands of illegal immigrants working in the state of California why they chose a handful of illegal immigrants is something to take up with the FBI. But it sets the stage for a county where houseguests are offered a beverage or a smoke; city tax revenue remains low because no one technically has any money; and people scoff when you offer to pay them for weed.

Humboldt still remains a largely economically deprived area, which has led to an overabundance of lunch time buffets. I recently went to one at a pizza restaurant and saw firsthand what causes what Jeff and I have affectionately nicknamed ‘Buddha Bellies’. The buffet consisted of cinnamon rolls, potato skins, buffalo wings, macaroni and cheese, pizza and chili. Now they did have a salad bar but the dressing options were ranch, extra thick ranch and thousand island. All for the cheap price of $7! One could imagine eating like that frequently or even occasionally could significantly increase the size of one’s pants. This is unfortunately given that local farmers markets accept food stamps.

So far avoiding Buddha Bellies is my biggest challenge—no not because of lunch time buffets, but rather the massive amounts of delicious beer at incredibly low prices. So much temptation. We’ve found the local breweries beer for as cheap as $4.99 for a 6-pack, kind of puts Juneau to shame. Also alcohol at bars is incredibly cheap at $3 for a pint of locally brewed beer and $1 PBR nights—not so tempted by that. So hopefully a combination of running and biking will put a stop to all love handles.

What I haven’t even mentioned is the amazing wilderness that surrounds me. Being a part of a new costal rainforest gives me spontaneous moments of pure happiness. I have already partaken in rainy day hikes/mushroom foraging and a damp afternoon of tide pool discovery. You better believe I poked every sea anemone I could find! But luckily even though the climate is somewhat damp all the vista volunteers have been in good spirits about doing things outside despite the rains attempts. I’ve explored a place called Fern Canyon and passed the place where they filmed the best Star Wars movie, Return of the Jedi. The Northern Coast of California is quite beautiful though not as glacially carved as I’m use to. I’ve put a toe in the water and now that I’ve done my polar bear dipping perhaps I’ll be less of a wimp next time. Expect more pictures to come but for my first entry this seems like probably too much information. Don’t forget to call and write. Love you all!