Hey, Eureka, These Guys Want to Know What You Think
Press release from Eddy Alexander:
Eddy Alexander, the marketing consultancy hired by the City of Eureka to build a new brand and tourism marketing strategy for the city, is inviting all Eureka residents and business owners into the process.
On Friday, August 23, 2019, Eddy Alexander mailed a postcard to every home and business in the City inviting each resident and business owner to share their opinions about what makes the city unique. The survey, which can be taken online at eddyalexander.com/eurekaor in person at either City Hall or the Eureka Library, includes demographic, cognitive, behavioral, experiential, and language choice questions which will help the firm better understand community priorities, preferences, personality, and affinity.
“In any tourism initiative, the local community is the host. Its critically important that we understand what local residents and business owners want from their promotions program, what they value about their community, and how they want to be perceived by the outside world, Eddy Alexander Tourism Practice Lead Bob Gilbert said. “Our first priority is always listening to the community. The survey takes most people just 15-30 minutes to complete but will allow us to produce a summary report that will guide our work and set the priorities for each decision to follow. We really hope everyone in the community take a few minutes to thoughtfully participate.”
The survey is now live.
Residents of Eureka and owners of businesses operating inside the City may take the survey:
- online from any mobile device with an internet connection (smartphone, tablet, or computer) at www.eddyalexander.com/eureka
- or may pick up a printed survey and complete it by hand at either:
- The Eureka City Library – 1313 3rd Street, Eureka, CA 95501
- Eureka City Hall: 531 K St Eureka, CA 95501
The survey will be available until midnight September 15, 2019. However, all interested community members are strongly encouraged to complete the questionnaire as soon as possible.
The aggregate results from this initiative will be made public at a community meeting/validation session to be scheduled later this fall.
For any citizens interested in following this brand development project’s progress, the last question in the survey also allows interested parties to opt-in to Eddy Alexander’s new project newsletter.
“This is a really exciting time for our city. There is enthusiasm, excitement, and lots of care and attention being focused on how to celebrate, showcase, and build upon all that our community has to offer. I really hope that every citizen and local business owner will take full advantage of the opportunity to weigh-in and share their opinions about how to shape and structure the new community brand,” Mayor Susan Seaman said. “Eureka is a diverse and dynamic city. We want to ensure that all voices, ideas, and opinions are captured and fully accounted for during this important process.”
Join the discussion! For rules visit: https://kymkemp.com/commenting-rules
Comments system how-to: https://wpdiscuz.com/community/postid/10599/
🕯🌳You’ve had a lot of local artists paint murals, boxes and a variety of others items in and around your city, for a small city that’s a tourist tour.
yes
One would think that the biggest tourist draw for Eureka is going to be the Homeless/ zombie druggie population on the nice walking trails on the bay front, old town and at the welcoming main drag on the south end of town. The visitors center could issue free/ low cost tags with a map and a little hand out bag of free needles so you can perpetuate the tourist attraction. Then the tourist could hunt them up and give them a hug and a hand shake and maybe a couple bucks all the while enjoying the views of the waterfront and all the little artsy shops. Under the Samoa bridge at the boat ramp the city could build a viewing platform so the tourist could watch them shoot up and crap behind the brush in their native habitat just like they have in Alaska for watching the bears.Pretty much a win/win for all involved and I offer you this at a no cost consultancy! (donations accepted).
yes, this unique experience you might not be familiar with in the rest of the US: drug addiction. you won’t see the opioid crisis anywhere else, folks. that’s right, this is the only place to see f****d up people in public spaces. so come on out from your Andy Griffith towns to see this unique Eureka problem!
People know where to go in their home towns to avoid such crap. Here the only part of town a tourist passes through is the worst part. Not a good welcome.
They are already on that with the zoo skybridge they are building in Sequoia Park
~co-mingling of funds. “The County”, you$ and me$ not living in the City limits, are paying for it.
It’s caged animals in a City zoo, for entertainment. And, as far as i’m concerned, doesn’t even make the list of priorities, or ‘to do’ city job descriptions.
I suggest the tourists not stop in Eureka. Too depressing.
I came in from Newyork. I was impressed by Eureeka and Arcata..people in those parts are friendly and they never bothered me. Im looking forward to coming back next Summer to visit my daughter. All positive
I was a tourist for a week or do,I liked Eureka
Thank you Tim!
I doubt they really want to know what residents think… Or rather doubt they really want to know what residents really think. But surely the pollster will be able to massage a great deal of income out of the results. In which the city will pay for the kenthusiasm, excitement, and lots of care and attention .”
~bread and circus shovel show on the part of the pollster. It’s like walking into the Post Office on West Clark & Broadway, and the gal behind the counter wants you to evaluate her. I’m serious!
Eureka has a good Mayor.
I guess “queen city of salt and fog” didn’t work out so well. I get the concept they were going for, but it was only appealing to a small portion of people.
more trees
Yes!!!! More trees, fewer bums.
Second that, more trees.
The ” nature scene ” is what the tourist come looking for.
More forests, fewer tree farms. Outlaw even-age timber harvesting strategies.
Make the cost of cannabis farm permitting more affordable for those with less than 1200 square feet of canopy space. Do not limit new grows to prime ag soil. Instead limit the size of grows when not on prime ag soil, for all grows, including those existing prior to 2016. This will help stop division and support the economy. Which will in turn help the homeless drug addict issues.
Also set strict limits the use of plastics for ground covers, greenhouse fabric, and black-out tarps. Nothing green about all that plastic.
None of which apply to Eureka.
Move the jail out of the Center of Eureka…
And more trees..
safer areas to walk in..
Good ideas.
Mary,
I second that.
I think the zoo is important thing the advertised there very few zoos left Oso are redwoods the park by the zoo is beautiful and there’s I don’t see this in other cities we go to this problem is not in Redding or Medford they obviously have found a way to either help their homeless find a place for them to be a wonderful boat ride that goes around the bay full of History what do the kind of things if I was going to a town I be interested in also yes cleaning up Old Town because if I saw that I wouldn’t get out of my car and walkaround
Move the jail,
or at least put a billboard in front of it with a nice mural on it and add more art around it.
Advertise the forests.
Advertise the Marina.
Move the bus stop where the pelican bay inmates get off to Redding or Santa rosa or at least move it to the edge of town. Moving the bus stop where the inmates get off to at least to the edge of town would improve Eureka alot.
Give those shooting up or homeless a place to go at the edge of each town, put Betty C. in charge of it. So people feel safe.
Clean up the bay so it’s more ready for oyster farming by getting a waste water treatment plant like Arcata has, the Arcata marsh.
Advertise the trees.
Advertise the forests, the Marina, the mountains, that’s what makes this unique.
No other place has redwoods, a marina and mountains.
Mention the fresh sea air, local produce, local dairy, local meats, this being one of the only non-gmo counties.
And emphasize the redwoods, the trees.
Guest and Mary Ellen for tourists board captains! Great ideas, especially that jail eyesore.
~all good, right up to local dairy. HumCo’s milk is shipped to Sonoma Counry, coagulated, packaged and shipped back to a store near you.
GMO corn is growing right at the bend this side (east) of the Post Office. Both sides of 36. On the right, it is so tall and sandwiched, you cant see the 5 year 24/7/365 rock and gravel mining the Van Duzen’s “Re-Source” – to do all of that county road repair.
Mining, clear-cut murder, burn, Glyphosate and greenhou$e$. We should be proud of ourselves.
Oh no..Not proud.I have not purchased non organic corn except by default(in products) for years. Why would anyone grow this horrid cancer causing non food?!
What anyone in Eureka – that’s in charge of anything for Eureka – needs to drive the 101 from the south side to the north side at different times of day.
Not as themselves, but look around, really see what’s is all over the place – thru a tourist’s eyes. Tourists drive hundreds of miles thru beauty, then thru Eureka.
So drive through with your eyes wide open and, as a tourist, ask yourself – do I want to stop here? Why would I want to stop here? THere is plenty of time to see EVERYTHING around you driving that route – as the traffic is so miserable thru there.
My opinion is clean up this town first. Deal with the homeless, the druggies, the theft and then deal with tourists. I can give three shits about tourists. But I do care about the safety and welfare of the community first and foremost. This city council just does not want to deal with the current reality of this area. It is laughable.
I was visting my daughter who moved there and as a tourist.i was in awe of the scene.so be nice
Are you sure you are talking about Eureka? Maybe you mean the Pacific ocean, the bay, the redwood trees, etc? Eureka is the bit of congestion, depression, and commerce between those things.
When I go to Eureka, I see a beautiful green fields with meandering streams beside the Bay. Then I see a commercial area but with some intriguing bits to it–the Lost Coast Brewery sign, the Pierson murals and hammer, the Bucksport mural. I see some that are sadly homeless and I see trash on the Broadway stretch and some empty battered buildings but I also see some stretches with wildflowers and trees.
I go past Eureka Natural Foods which actually has lovely art work statues in the parking lot! Then through the downtown which mostly appears healthy albeit with less green, living things than I like and more suffering humanity than I wish existed and some empty storefronts and the jail…. But there are lively murals, Victorian buildings, a lovely brick post office, nice brick corners on the sidewalks, etc.
Do we need to improve? Of course. But the town not only has potential–it is being revitalized in front of our eyes. I’m excited about what we will do to improve the place.
Yea, my sister in law hadn’t been here in years and was impressed by the beauty of Eureka. Loved the murals. You people hatin are just that, haters.
What is the booth that says “APPLY HERE” on the corner nearby Eureka Natural Foods? Every time I go there, there’s a group of people around it.
1. Emphasize the redwoods, the ocean, the marina, hiking trails, proximity to the mountains.
2. Move the jail.
3. Move the bus stop where the inmates from pelican bay get off.
4. Give the drug addicts and homeless a place to go.
5. Treat the water in the bay, a water treatment plant.
6. Get some kind of boat ride going, and try to get cruise ships to stop here.
7. Emphasize the local food, local seafood, local produce, local dairy, local meats.
Many people who have been here over 40 years, hate the drug and crime raised decay which keeps visitors away.
Eureka is a wonderful, almost magical place, which has been eroded by a lack of understanding and not dealing with the bad effects of the drug culture for the past 3 decades.
Plant more trees. Eureka, like all of the towns in HumCo, are devoid of nice street trees. The street trees that are still alive have either been topped or butchered in some way. Can we please recruit some volunteer gardeners (who know what they are doing) to care for the flower pots on the Boardwalk. Right now they are filled with invasive ice plant, dead plants & cigarette butts. Let’s get rid of the ugly electronic signs (I don’t know why the City keeps approving them), bury the overhead power lines/cables, provide regular clean-ups of the trash on the streets, sidewalks and alleys. The list goes on and on… but this is a start.
Article has a link to fill out ideas,everyone is generously invited to participate…. so naturallyeveryone post them here where they wont get accounted for on a forum that will be buried in a few days.
/facepalm
More activities for the kids… a family fun center, trampoline park. And maybe a eureka pool with a lazy river and hot tub with at least one water slide…. more stuff by the boardwalk. More local shops, restaurants, gift shop, maybe a bar and coffee shop
Thanks,
Quickly, Eureka scares the crap out of me. I lived in SoHum, but worked in Weaverville and then in Hoopa, so I scooted through, twice a week, without stopping except a short trip to Winco or maybe Target. The produce at Winco was always moldy, and the Target has the highest prices of any Target store, anywhere. Out in the parking lot, I was always hit up for “gas money” “food money” or “bus fare”, almost every time, by some very scary looking dudes. I wouldn’t go to downtown Eureka, and get out of my car, for any reason!
Eureka would be a good town to bypass, ala Willits… Eureka smells bad, a thousand raving tweakers live in the street, I would never eat anything from a restaurant there, and I regard it to be unsafe for tourists, ugly, and many of the shops downtown have weird stuff that is very high-priced. Don’t drink the water in Eureka, there is a large Cancer Cluster in Eureka, that the residents don’t talk about when they are getting their chemo… Thyroid Cancer, Lung Cancer, Prostate Cancer, Breast Cancer, all appear to be off the scale in Eureka…
I would rather go to Fortuna, an unfriendly, rather unintelligent and back-assward town from the distant past.
To say I don’t feel safe in Eureka, Arcata, or Fortuna is a deep understatement, and Arcata is quite unsafe to simply drive through, since many of the residents appear to hate everyone else and also appear to be under the influence of dangerous substances, whilst being as crazy as humans even come…
I would, in general, recommend that Tourists avoid this area like the plague, since, it’s just not San Francisco North…
If visiting, go North to Gold Beach, Brookings etc. Crescent City is similarly, not a place for visitors.
There is no formula for fixing Eureka. Eureka should be abandoned, bulldozed, turned into a large stinking hole, which is what it already resembles. Even Garberville is nicer, Willow Creek is cute by comparison…
The people’s republic of Arcata, I can’t understand why they even call it a town. McKinleyville is a good example of a place to avoid, and mostly it looks like Hayward, or Fremont. Or Bako.
Good luck Eureka. I do like Partricks…
Eureka has a long lovely trail winding along the bay that my 89-year-old aunt frequently walks by herself. I am sorry that your few excursions there have left you frightened.
I had a Great Aunt, who lived in downtown Oakland into her 80’s. Retired English teachr, high school, from Santa Rosa. She simply loved to “go slumming”, but she had a kind of tame life, after all…
I hope your Aunt stays safe, tell her to leave her purse at home, but carry her ID and Medicare Cards… I usually keep a few dollar bills in my ashtray, for the scary guys…
There are nice parts in Eureka, like in the Redwoods by the Hospital, Buhne Street, Harris and Harrison, over by Cutten…
~i’m in Eureka usually on a weekly basis, for years on end. Courthouse and WinCo areas. I am more than happy to a spare bill or change. I enjoy inter-mingling with the people -could be cuz i live in stone silence 99% of the time, except for animal sounds and rain. Look for the beauty in the people you pass on the streets and converse with in the public domain. Look at the magnificent architecture in Eureka’s older homes and business buildings – some of them have 5 colors of paint! -and basements, and mammoth sweeping staircases of yesteryear.
Afraid in Eureka? No, not me.
Sparing change to these bums only keeps them hanging around. As a person who lives full time and works in Eureka, I really wish people wouldn’t do this. There are plenty of outlets for well regulated charity here in this city, including the Mission, the food bank, and Betty Chin. These bums don’t need more money for their vices. They need to use the available resources to clean up their lives, or move on out of town. If there is anything making this place totally unsafe and ugly, it’s the transients, their garbage, and the rampant drug / crime culture they bring with them. Stop feeding the problem, please!
~well Elizabeth. It’s the same as when someone, or stray cat, or forest critter comes looking for food. My intent is to help, not to harm.
Not to say that i don’t see what you’re saying. We each are going to do what we’re going to do.
Just sayin.
P.S. I’m very, very, seldom approached.
My aunt says she doesn’t see anything scary. And she isn’t exactly the gullible, innocent type. I trust her judgement.
I have to go down to the big cities to the south a few times a year. We have little to complain about compared to what the big cities have to deal with.
So Victor, you felt safe in Hoopa though. You are so off base it is super sad. Good luck running from your shadow!
Is Weaverville a nice place to live, heard there was a lot of crime there?
Does Weaverville have less crime than Eureka?
Is Weaverville safe and without drug addicts, transients?
Thanks.
Use what you got (the need for weed) today senior yesterday flower child give them a place to relive the Woodstock experience from the south know alot of people would visit Eureka to be able to buy weed look at Colorado it’s right under your nose lituary
As a new transplant here my wife and I absolutely love it here. My only complaint thus far is all the trash around Broadway. I would think that the parole and probation department would have community service details cleaning the main roads. Obviously the City is neglecting the trash issue. At this point maybe a group of citizens could get together weekly for an hour a week and clean up. I would be more than willing to donate my time if anyone else would like to join that would be great. I’ve seen community come together and beautify the worst neighborhood in my previous city. Bitching and complaining is fair. Why not take initiative?
There are some organizations that work on removing trash. One is https://www.facebook.com/pacoutgreenteam/?__tn__=kC-R&eid=ARB3DLH6pLt6eiB1Yxk_9Q9JYjXLEdH5AMb9kglePAGmlZtjfImgy502sc2rGmgIfr-hWC05-bOuueB4&hc_ref=ARSqDwilu9LfO6acpMnZeK80JhsRW1xvm69GPosmHcMQfwDRv9gT6WPgCJUvIxTajrg&fref=nf
I selected type of music as er… ‘County’.
(Jeeze… somebody in their ‘organization’ should have picked that up.)
When I was a kid I called Eureka, ‘ur-stinka’… Those pulpmills were horrible
I needed to go to Eureka on Broadway last week. Pulled across southbound traffic when two people waited gave me space while the waited for traffic to move (a friendly wave to both) but leaving, was waiting to find a hole in the waiting traffic to pull out , started inching forward when a man going very fast on a bicycle on the sidewalk while his pit bull ran on a 10 ft food IN THE STREET suddenly passed right in front of me I was looking left at the traffic. Scared the bejeebers out of me. Got out into traffic in the small hole that seems to be all there ever is these days, drove up to the road to go grocery shopping where a group of 6? 8? guys were strewn on both sides of the entrance panhandling. When I left I detoured around to an intersection where a traffic light would help me get back into traffic and not risk hitting one of these guys.. Which worked except then a lady on another bicycle, towing a little trailer, who was pedalling fast up the center lane making little darting motions as if she was going move across the traffic if she could see the opportunity but, with solid lines of traffic, couldn’t make it. No hand signal so wasn’t sure. My goal is always to get off Broadway as soon as possible.
As long as there is this press of pedestrians, bicyclists and vehicle traffic pretty much freewheeling through Broadway and to a lesser extent on 4th and 5th, what tourist, much less local, is ever going to feel anything but stressed, hurrying through as best they can.
Indeed, Broadway is a traffic snarling mess. There should be an elevated bypass built along the industrial section of the waterfront allowing through traffic to continue on its way. I avoid Broadway like the plague, for multiple reasons, traffic being one of them, along with the fact that it is basically a de-facto open air mental asylum at this point, which absolutely ridiculous.
The grown men “drug couriers” on “stolen” bicycles that look like transients are the worst.
One did the same thing the other day, aimed right for my car, he went against traffic
just to do that, for absolutely no reason, but I missed him.
Maybe they could enforce the wearing of bicycle helmets,
these types almost never wear a helmet.
Anybody with solutions to this please comment.
~retirement seems to be all i can come up with right now.
I don’t even like the idea of more tourists/people in Eureka. It’s bad enough we have to deal with a town that’s been cut in half by a busy highway (I sometimes remind myself it’s called the Hollywood Freeway through LA).
An increase in day-use visitors means an increase in trash, traffic, parking problems, shops that cater to tourists- and not locals, and a loss of that small town feel, where you actually recognize many of the faces of the people who are out and about.
Oh, and @Shorttacus, I’m specifically not replying to the questionnaire, but would rather post part of my opinion here, as part of a different outlet for public discussion 😁. Cheers
A total focus on tourism when Eureka is not a destination anyways a waste of energy. Yes 101 funnels this lucrative traffic right to us but that is an iffy source of income at best. A little increase in gas prices and it drops. A recession and it dries up. It’s seasonable in the best of times and disappears in the worst of times. Sooner or later, Broadway will be abandoned for an easier route and Eureka better have built a more diverse income base if it wants to survive. That means lots of other opportunities like manufacturing, health care, educational institutions, arts, etc need attention too. If Eureka can be turned towards being a healthful place with various opportunities for earning a living, people will want to live here- in a gentle, self sustaining way. Not as a beacon of easy living for drug addicts and the mentally ill where the only people making a living are social workers and charities attending to them. Spending attention on making a good environment for people who are not a social drain will have the effect of solving some seemingly intractable problems of homelessness, drug addiction and its accompanying crime. Imagine Eureka if it was full of hard working people taking care of their own problems rather than endlessly fretting over those who cause problems.
Eureka had all of those things going for it, and more. Then politics stepped in, and the very foundation that makes Eureka a City, it’s Freeman’s Charter, was waved aside.
Humboldt is one of the most beautiful places anywhere, especially Eureka with its harbor;
most tourists or even detractors of Eureka agree,
but the drug addicts and the transients out in the open, are what tourusts and people in general seem to complain about.
Before the palco marsh camp disbanded, it was just in that area, after it disbanded they seemed to spread throughout Eureka and the county, at least northern Humboldt.
They should be given a place to go, but where?
What happens is that making a “place” for crime, drug addiction and untreated mental illness, attracts more of the same. It does not make it easier to live with. No matter where officialdom tries to put them, they will not stay there just because they no more want to deal with concentrations of their own dangerous society than the rest of the world. Long before PALCO marsh was disbanded, “suburbanization” of homeless camps had spread into green belts and crannies within walking distance around the feeding stations. Marshes have alway been places where people went to leave free but with sanitation and more environmental awareness, even there is not longer an acceptable place for living.
A combination of easy pick up jobs, cheap housing and good public transportation would do more to distibute the problem that offering free housing in one location.
” they will not stay there just because they no more want to deal with concentrations of their own dangerous society than the rest of the world.”
The so-called Devil’s Playground was in place for over ten years. The City of Eureka, herding the people -but where? as was asked. Good question. Step #2 wasn’t presented on the Agenda.
And Step #1 is not on the City’s job description, let alone the manner in which the day-time, short-notice raid played out, complete with hell-o-copter! Repair and Maintain the City streets IS on the City’s job description. And for this alone, the City reaps an F.
They’re just too busy w/a bridge in the zoo.