We are trying to solve the problem of how we work together as a community that is based on sustainable resources. Arcata, five miles north of Eureka, is a beautiful town of about 17,000 people surrounded by redwood-cloaked hills on the east and farmland and marshlands on the west. Like Austin, Texas, or Bloomington, Ind., it is a university town surrounded by a vast territories dominated by somewhat more conservative-leaning spirits. He said later he was only kidding. Green Party members say their cause benefited hugely from a short-lived proposal by Simpson Timber Company to build hundreds of new homes on land it wanted the city to annex.
Meat is Murder'' is a typical bumper tag in a town with lots of bumper tags.
Of the three Green Party members on the City Council, Hanan and Kirkpatrick are vegetarians and have given up driving cars. Ornelas drives a van and occasionally likes a steak. But like Eureka across Humboldt Bay, Arcata struggles under an unemployment rate of about 8 percent. Both towns have their roots in logging and fishing, industries that have faded as environmental regulations reduced the timber cut, and habitat destruction and over-harvesting virtually wiped out the commercial fishing industry. For many in the environmental community, the answer to economic worries lies in tourism and the proliferation of small and regional industries and farming operations based on renewable resources.