Let’s Talk Tourism: SoHum’s Economic Development
Press release from the Southern Humboldt Business and Visitor Bureau:
Hosted by the Southern Humboldt Business and Visitor Bureau:
Let’s Talk Tourism will include updates on our community’s economic development, beatification, health, safety, and overall, all aspects of tourism.
Hear from county, state officials, local community leaders, business owners and local organizations.Confirmed panelist to date:
•Supervisor Michelle Bushnell
•Sheriff Honsal
•County CAO, Elisha Hayes
•Director of Economic Development, Scott Adair
•Director of Aviation, Cody Roggatz
•Director of Public Works, Tom Mattson
•Director of Building and Planning, John FordHear from audience representatives from:
•Southern Humboldt Community Health Care District
•Humboldt County Visitor Bureau
•Humboldt County workforce Development
•Southern Humboldt Community Park
•Southern Humboldt Trails Project
•Vocality Community Credit Union
•Southern Humboldt Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Center
•Redwood Rural Health Center
•Humboldt Cannabis Tours
•Briceland Forest Farms project
•Huckleberry Hill Farms and Five Sisters Farms- cannabis Tours
•Redwood Trail Project
•Humboldt County Growers Alliance
•Mateel Community Center
•Humboldt Lodging Alliance
Join the discussion! For rules visit: https://kymkemp.com/commenting-rules
Comments system how-to: https://wpdiscuz.com/community/postid/10599/
My experience has been that visitors are unfavorably impressed by our large homeless population and obvious associated hard drug activity. Just a few years ago, my mother came to visit. She was surprised by the numerous burnt out abandoned cars and litter along our otherwise scenic roads.
Yes, me own visitors have also indicated the same. So as part of their visit we made brown bag eats of fat sandwiches, chips, donuts, bottled water and other. Then drove the area giving them out to local house less. Made an afternoon of it as I gave friends local histories of the area fafa style. We finished with a nice picnic in a beautiful grove and a hooter! Friends can’t wait to come back and do it again!
That is something I used to do elsewhere, just pack up reused clamshell plastic with lunches of beans, rice, cabbage, and fruit. Modest but healthy food.
Garberville is one scary fucking town…
And all the greatest examples of what makes it scary, will be well represented at the Mateel, which itself is pretty unsavory…
John Ford, SoHum Health, Michelle Bushnell… Ick!
Another flaccid attempt to “solve the problem” is expectable!
And you can waste your time trying to beatify Garberville, but there still won’t be anywhere to live that you can afford, the rats will be in the walls, the Hospital will continue to sink into the ground, and the people in charge will continue to steal you blind…
You can’t polish a turd, and any town that cuts down every tree and allows bums and permanent RV living in the streets, which last paved the streets in the 50’s and which has no discernable government, ineffective healthcare, crumbling housing, and out of town drug wholesalers parked in the motels, is doomed, and no “Aviation Director” (how much does THIS guy get paid?) or Marijuanista Supervisor will be able to suggest anything workable…
It all sounds like a healthy waste of time, and a great reason to go smoke-up in the Shop Smart parking lot…
Tourism is off due to a lack of everything, just like in Lake County, Mendocino County and even, yes, Napa County, and because it costs too much to travel and drive, and because Millennials don’t have cars, man…
On the whole, it was nicer there 50 years ago, and even 10 years ago, it was amazing…
Soon, there will be much higher need for Senior Care, and many more Seniors will be homeless! So, I suggest you build some Senior Housing, and bring in providers for Mental Health, Internal Medicine and expand your Hospice by increasing fundraising… Even Lake County has a place to donate household items and then sell them…
Make the leaders of your NPO’s and BOS stop stealing the proceeds and end the tendency for persons with conflicting interests to end up in offices where they can then benefit!
Michelle Bushnell is a disgrace, as is Matt Rees.
These people are sycophants, paid to lie to everyone, screw you over while wearing a suit, and waste your resources…
I’m glad that a coalition of sorts has come together to brain storm some possible ideas and are making an effort towards problem solving and community bonding. If anyone thinks they can do better than PLEASE do so. I look forward any success anyone can muster.
Pity there are so few brains and so much storming. Bankrupting your community is not conducive to co-operation.
Wow, seriously? Everyone knows Bushnell doesn’t give one rats ass about the “ beautification, health or safety“ of our community. If she did, she would’ve listened to our community members who , OVER THE YEARS, have over and over and over pleaded with her to please clean up her Tweaker property that she owns with her husband north of Redway there. Her land Has been nothing but an infestation of violent criminals, drug addicts hard drug dealing and just overall one of the BIGGEST sources of a public,health and safety hazard in our Redway community to say the least. The zombies come off the Bushnell land at night to terrorize, to rip off, to drug deal to overdose to vandalize you name it. Hopefully somebody will step up to the podium and call bushnell out Because Bushnell is one of the biggest problems holding up any real tourism in our community.
Oh yeah , she does believe in economic development…. HERS!! ….and what is serving herself and her family.
I strongly agree…
Bushnell is only interested in enriching herself, as are the folks who operate SoHum Health, and John Ford, who job shopped in order to get more salary…
Estelle sold you out, now Bushnell wants you to starve and die.
Abandon Lower Redway, or carry a .45, is the Sheriff’s Dept advice, and don’t wait for tourists who can score excellent weed almost anywhere from Alaska to Hawaii to the Atlantic…
Clean up your town, your Motels, your NPO’s and your County Supervisors…
And what did Estelle do??? Only enrich herself through her fake persona , ($100,000 dollar supervisors income and voted to raise it) with lies, creating massive Cannabis stonewalls and laws to drive mom and pops into poverty. Just another grifter just like Trump.
Good luck keeping the topic on tourism.
It’s always important to remember that communities, for practical and ethical reasons, need to be designed to serve community members.
Cleaning up the streets and improving the community are good aims, but these are good aims because it improves the quality of life of locals.
Locals first.
Those who tour, versus those who live
Beatification: (in the Roman Catholic Church) declaration by the Pope that a dead person is in a state of bliss, constituting a first step toward canonization and permitting public veneration.
Or nonsense. The guy is dead.
The Catholic Church is so morbid. Driving around with bones on tour. Creepy.
Cannabis laws have caused a depression in SoHum and the effects are obvious. Tourists beware as you might step on a syringe…
Internalize the profits and externalize the cost to the public, this is what private developers do best, making deals outside of public meeting and in backroom deals. The only one who benefits from boondoggles like this are developers, allot of smoke and mirrors, without any detailed information, management plan or financial responsibility! Where do you plan to have water shipped in from? Or if PG$E can support this project? Who is the SHBVB; a private group of developers and buisness owners who need public funding to internalize the profits and claim, with nothing to back it up, it will increase your property value? They will say anything, because if their lips are moving, they are lying!
The odds any of these people will have an answer anytime soon and all be on the same page is like being able to heard quail…
Geez, some of you commenters remind me of Congress, always bitching and never offering any better solutions. I know Ed Voice is opposed to anything at the Community Park, but it is likely the one piece of property that could truly facilitate so much needed tourist related economic development.
How about..
Reservoirs in the Bear Creek Canyon and possibly the Quarry creek canyon. They could accommodate small reservoirs to provide recreation opportunities and an additional water source for Garberville and Redway. Neither one of the creeks can be accessed by salmon or steelhead due to the Highway and culverts.
MX Track: Brought hundreds (300-500) of out of towners for every race and practice. Remember Honda debuted their 1998 MX lineup at Philliipsville. Honda alone rented the entire Benbow Inn.
Water Park: A large, eco friendly, northcoast themed water park located at the Community Park.
Zip Lines/Skywalk: A zip line and skywalk park either at the Community Park or somewhere on HRSP lands.
Regional Native American/Local History Museum: A large museum with individual rooms/exhibits representing all the northcoast tribes, early exploration and settlers, logging history, Save the Redwoods League and the cannabis history. Would have to be a huge building, like the size of a Super Walmart.
Avenue of the Giants Trail: Need a Class II trail adjacent to the Avenue of the Giants to provide safe bicycling. Really scary riding a bike on the Avenue.
Amphitheater: Maybe a 2,500 seat amphitheater similar to the Mountain Winery (https://www.mountainwinery.com/concert-series/) or a larger one similar to Ironstone Winery Amphitheater (https://ironstoneamphitheatre.net/wired/).
My thoughts on a cold Saturday!
Does your ‘what if’ tourist related economic development plans include increased water and additional PG$E usage? Given the fact 6 months out of the year, Garberville & Redway are in high demand and very short supply of water from the South Fork Eel River and PG$E has now stated, in public, it would take 4 to 6 years, if at all, and a cost of hundreds of Millions to get increased service capacity to serve Southern Humboldt. Just because someone has a half baked idea to make themselves money, does not mean anyone needs to offer any better solutions to be able to speak or comment. It makes about as much sense as the Garberville Sanitary District Board looking into reinstalling Benbow Dam for added water capacity earlier this year!
For example, the proposed new hospital, hospital housing projects and expanding the old hospital building in Garberville, using over 5 millions gallons per year. How much water will be left for fire prevention, given the Garberville Fire Protection District wants to expand its new service area by 35,000 acres?
The reality is, with inadequate water supply and PG$E service capacity, the horse is dead, get off!!!