PARC NEEDS HELP

HELP…

“We all need somebody to lean on”

No matter how “together” one is, most people of this earth actually need help. Whether that be spiritual uplifting, emotional encouragement, physical assistance, or (to put it plainly) money. PARC (Peoples’ Action for Rights and Community) truly needs financial help.

It is actually very honoring and humbling that I am able to write this email asking all kinds of kind people for money donations to keep PARC’s door open. I wish I was able to donate cash for rent and bills. I do feel good while washing dishes after people have had nourishment, sweeping or mopping the floor after thankful people have come in and out from the sunshine or the rain, setting up tents for the night, giving out blankets and warm clothing, or cheering someone with singing or conversation. The PARC space also allows us to make literature and set up weekly informational displays about ending long term solitary confinement. It’s a big deal that we receive the financial help we need.

Giving of one’s time and energy helps people who come to PARC, and it  contributes to the community organizing that goes on here.  Sadly, money is the only thing to ensure that this welcoming, safe, blessing of a place can actually stay open.

So, to the gritty details.

PARC desperately needs funds for:

2 separate Phone Bills:  Each phone line services two purposes, including a jail support hotline and, recently to support people facing ICE harassment in Humboldt

PARC rent: $750 to the kindest “landlord” ever; for a space that is open almost every day of the year and almost every minute between 9:30am and 9:30pm

Electricity and Gas Bills:  at this point, payments are overdue!

Additional need this month:  A few of us from PARC have been helping someone who has no shelter and who has recently been very hurt and traumatized.  We’ve been paying for campground stays and other expenses (i.e. gasoline) and working toward setting up a more long-term and stable situation.  Although the campgrounds are cheap, we are BROKE.  Please help.

To donate to PARC online, click here:
http://www.youcaring.com/other/parc-needs-to-stay-open-for-the-people-/153592

(Please also “like” and “share” it on your facebook)To otherwise donate to PARC, one can:
Come by and drop off donations (or call & we’ll come to you!)
Address Money Orders to Kimberly Starr
Address Checks to James Decker
and/or mail any of the above to:

PARC
P.O. Box 5692

Eureka, CA  95502

(707) 442-7465Other types of donations needed:

 

-toilet paper

-socks

-hats/beanies

-blankets, sleeping bags

-soaps, shampoos

-natural dish soap

-gold or black spray paints for a new batch of stenciled sweatshirts and t-shirts! (“End Long Term Solitary Confinement”)

Thank you!  Thank you to everyone who gives money, spends time laundering towels and clothes, donates food, gives their smiles and encouragement, and fills PARC with life and the spirit of resistance.

Signed,
a friend of PARC

Houseboats for Mixed Housing in Eureka

If we utilize our marinas to berth some houseboats we could berth 1,000 houseboats there and grow the low income housing stock for Eureka.   1,000 houseboats in the marina = 2,000 new customers for Old Town businesses.   It means a houseboat building and maintenance industry on Humboldt bay.   It could be started right now.

A planned Sausalito.  Make sure there are nice boats and humble boats.  Mixed community on the water.

Of course there would be impacts on the bay, you would have to connect the boats to city sewer.   But you could grow the population and low cost housing stock of Eureka easily and quickly and create a whole new industry (houseboat building and maintenance)  on Humboldt Bay.  Without heavily impacting the land.

have a peaceful day,

Bill

The Excess Energy Tax is Economic Suicide for Humboldt County – Turn Out the Lights

Yesterday I sent you my analysis from 2012 about the Arcata excess energy tax.

A couple of months ago I sat in a room with a genius who schooled me about the importance of building resilient communities through the concept of import substitution.

This is a nice way of building local economies by identifying things that are used locally but imported and then substituting if possible locally manufactured goods for the imported ones.

Now there is this proposal for an “excess energy tax” which is being sold county wide as an environmental issue.

What it is economically is, is “export substitution”, it is the hollowing out of our local economy.    It is the exact opposite of “import substitution.”

Lets assume that there are 1.000 indoor growers in Humboldt now.   After the tax, these people will leave.  They will sell their houses and relocate to another county or state.   Real estate values will drop by at least 10%.

But the most pernicious aspect is that we will turn a net positive inflow of dollars into a negative flow out of Humboldt County.   These indoor growers (I call them cottage industries)  produce a product that is both exported and used here.   After the tax they will be located elsewhere, but we will still be buying their product.   It will have gone from being a domestic product to an imported product.

And of course we will lose the direct inputs of these people and businesses into our local economies.

I get it that indoor growing uses electricity.   What kind of jobs do you propose for these people to do that pay $15 or more an hour and that don’t use electricity?  Factories consume electricity!  How many new little businesses will you have to “incubate” in Eureka, Arcata, Fortuna etc. etc to make up for the loss of 1,000 REAL small businesses, and where will that incubation money come from?

The only way that Humboldt to make up for this small business exodus would be for the big pot growers out in the sticks to ramp up their production.  Of course that could have disastrous  effects in the fragile countryside here and accomplish nothing as far as carbon loading on the planet.  Because the indoor growers will be growing in the next county or state.  That would solve the import/export imbalance but the big pot grows don’t provide any ownership or benefits to their workers besides agricultural jobs and trim jobs, all non-union and many of them low paying now.   This is not the old mom and pop days when family and a few close friends were invited over to trim the 10 plant harvest.  The same income inequality emerges.   Let’s get real.

These small business people, these entrepreneurs are my friends along with the working poor.   What am I going to say to them if I support a tax that will put them out of business?  How do you expect people in the city to make a living?  Working at Walmart?  We don’t all have 20 acres on a hilltop to grow fine sun buds.

And as a patient, a consumer of cannabis, you must know that I buy mostly from local small growers.  I can’t afford your fancy sun buds grown in Sohum or Mendo.  Those are all grown for export to LA and NY.   We cant afford that shit and its not offered to us on the streets of Eureka, where there is still no dispensary!  As a patient, we want more production to drive these ridiculous prices down, especially on the local market.

So this tax will impact us poor consumers here greatly.  As far as I am concerned this is a non starter and needs to be re-thunk.

So my question is.   What are you all thinking?

I understand the need to reduce carbon loading.  I get it that people don’t like grows in their residential neighborhood.  As an advocate for poor people I really get it that housing stock should be for people not manufacturing.   We have industrial areas of Eureka sitting abandoned.   Lets put the grows there if we don’t want them in the neighborhoods.

If you insist on this tax without accommodating real small business by moving them to the industrial areas you risk losing the support of several thousand locals whose living depends on small scale cannabis production.

have a peaceful day,

Bill

Catholic Priest Murdered in Eureka at St. Bernards

shortlink here:  http://wp.me/p38Pt0-m9

update suspect arrested http://lostcoastoutpost.com/2014/jan/2/freed-murder-case-suspect-gary-lee-bullock/

this is breaking news I am going to investigate there is a crowd gathering in front of the Church at 6th and H Eureka.  I live two blocks away.

update 10 am jan 2.   From a block south this morning traffic is normal on H st, its not blocked anymore.   If there are any folks left in front of the church I can’t see them, there are a couple of trucks blocking my view.   The HCSO Crime Scene Van is gone.

update 220 pm

There is a crowd of 50 or more in front of the church, St. Bernards.   The H st is blocked off between 7th and 6th, and there is crime scene tape all around the church.   Humboldt County Moblile Crime Lab on scene, multiple EPD officers, Mayor Jager, most of the Eureka City Council, EPD Chief Mills all there.

Report is that the priest was shot and killed perhaps sometime this morning, maybe inside the parsonage just south of the church.   There is an EPD standing watch at the open front door of the parsonage.  I don’t know the priests name, or if anyone is in custody.   There is at least some media on the scene.

Lost Coast Outpost:

http://lostcoastoutpost.com/2014/jan/1/st-bernards/

KIEM Ch. 3 NBC Eureka http://kiem-tv.com/video/st-bernard-priest-murdered-police-investigate  VIDEO

John Chiv’s blog, I think John was close.   http://johnchiv.blogspot.com/2014/01/sometimes-breaking-news-is-not-what-is.html

update from times standard

The Times-Standard Posted:   01/01/2014 10:44:37 AM PST | Updated:   21 min. ago

The Eureka Police Department is investigating some type of violent crime  at St. Bernard Church. Few details have been released. (Jose Quezada/For The Times-Standard)

Eureka Police Chief Andrew Mills confirmed during a press conference this afternoon that his department is currently leading a murder investigation at the St. Bernard Church rectory.

Mills would not identify the victim, but Mayor Frank Jager confirmed that he is Rev. Eric Freed, who was found deceased in the building after he failed to show up for 9 a.m. Mass.No suspects or persons of interest have been identified in the case, Mills said, but he assured his department would expend every resource to conduct a complete and thorough investigation. The cause of death was not released. More information to be posted shortly.

http://www.times-standard.com/breakingnews/ci_24828687/epd-investigates-violent-crime-at-st-bernard-church

Police have cordoned off the entire church property with crime scene tape, and Mills said investigators with EPD, the Humboldt County District Attorney’s Office, the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office and the California Department of Justice remain on scene investigating.

http://www.times-standard.com/breakingnews/ci_24829497/epd-investigating-slaying-beloved-st-bernard-priest

North Coast Journal:

http://www.northcoastjournal.com/Blogthing/archives/2014/01/01/st-bernards-pastor-killed-overnight-in-church-rectory

Rev. Freed’s car found in Mendo?

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20140101/wire/140109983  1st comment

Wet/Cold Weather Emergency Eureka

Emergencies come in all forms, the one we are with today and every night in Eureka is people suffering and dying from exposure.  Cold wet weather takes a heavy toll on the most vulnerable members of our community.  We at Peoples’ Action for Rights and Community (PARC) have an immediate emergency response to harsh and sometimes fatal conditions that hundreds of people must endure 24/7.

Please, any of you with a garage or big yard willing to help keep people warm and alive, we need your help.

Please call 707-442-7465

In the recent past, a household opened up their garage and made available a space for volunteers from PARC to organize a peaceful Safe Sleeping Space – for 11 nights – in direct response to harsh weather conditions and the ever-present harassment from police.  It was a complete sucess.

It was fairly simple to organize a peaceful Safe Sleeping Space, with reasonable boundaries and a set beginning and end date, for the sake of stability for all those involved.

We are experienced in maintaining peaceful Safe Sleeping Spaces.  We are available to discuss how it works and tailor it to your specific needs.

Please call PARC at 707-442-7465

Support People’s Activism!

Support People’s Activism!

It’s “holiday” time. So that not only means lots of you are gathering (and gorging out) with families, friends, and loved ones, but you’re being bombarded with “Buy This, Buy That.” What a better way to give the finger to hyper-materialism and put a little money ($20?) to something meaningful and long-lasting– PARC! Spread the word and take up a collection.

PARC is working for higher wages in Eureka;
providing safe sleeping space in this cold weather;
giving out blankets, clothes, shoes and tents;
supporting people who are forced to go through the criminal in-justice system;
struggling to end long term solitary confinement as part of the Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition;

sharing food;

navigating bureaucracies (when necessary) for people to get assistance;

and doing a million other things to build informed, caring, community;
defend human and Earth rights;
grow rebellion;
and take care of each other.

Why spend your money on frivolous stuff? PARC needs some seasons’ gleanings!

Please donate for RENT, BILLS, LAUNDRY, and SUPPLIES.

We can only function through your donations.

Thank You and take care,
Verbena

Big, best wishes and blessings to Coffee Jim who is right now struggling to survive from burns all over his body.

_______________________________________________________
To donate to PARC, you can:
Come by and drop off cash (or call & we’ll come to you!)
Address Money Orders to Kimberly Starr
Address Checks to James Decker
and/or mail any of the above to:

PARC
P.O. Box 5692
Eureka, CA 95502

Peoples’ Action for Rights and Community is open between 9:30am and 9:30pm every day (directions below). Please call first in case we’re out doing stuff on the street. (707) 442-7465

Directions to PARC, in the Q Street alley between 3rd and 2nd Streets, Eureka

From the south, go past the Eureka library on 3rd Street, go down 3rd Street toward the Samoa bridge, take a left on Q and a right into the alley (There’s a green house at the head of the alley where you turn right) Once in the alley, you will see (on the right) the PARC sign, yard, carport, Mumia banner, “Close Gitmo” banner, and front door.

From north of Eureka, take a left onto Q Street from the 101 South (also called 4th Street). Continue on Q Street for a quick moment after the 3rd and Q Stop sign, take a right in the alley. (There’s a green house at the head of the alley where you turn right) Once in the alley, you will see (on the right) the PARC sign, yard, carport, Mumia banner, “Close Gitmo” banner, and front door.

A Magical Musical Night at Old Town Coffee and Chocolates Wednesday Open Mic

I don’t get down to the open mics much anymore because I am playing all the time now but when I first got to Eureka I went to every open mic I could every week.   I think they are a great thing for the community.

I wandered into the Coffee and Chocolates open mic last night (Wednesdays) and ran into my friend Sara Torres.  Sara is going to be a star someday, she is still just over 21.  She has a voice that is powerful and angelic at the same time, and she is also capable of near Janis grit.  She is for real.  A very talented songwriter as well.

Sara had a friend there also named Tami Lynn (sorry if I have it spelled wrong that’s how I understood her name phonetically) who is a singer guitarist in her own right.   Well they worked out a kind of impromptu duet on the old Joni Mitchell song “For Free” with Tami Lynn just singing solo and Sara Torres just playing guitar.   Two things.  OMG Tami Lynn has a voice!  Astounding!  And then young Sara Torres did a tour de force guitar accompaniment.   Wow.  The two of them together made me cry and the last time that happened was listening to Joanne Rand at the CUHW rally.

My understanding is that Sara and Tami Lynn and a few other local women are going to do a Joni Mitchell tribute in early November.    If you like beautiful singing and guitar playing be there.

There were several other worthy singers there too last night, one named Jim and the other John.  Both lefties and singing kind of Americana style material, though Jim played plugged in and John played a nice resonator guitar unplugged.  Very enjoyable open mic.

Lyndsey Battle Kickstarts Her Next Album

shortlink here: http://wp.me/pbr9G-3J0 mnemonic here: http://urlet.com/unveil.seven

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/327874541/all-ways-in-a-good-way-lyndsey-battles-new-album

http://www.lyndseybattle.net/

Benefit TONIGHT for Rhizome Info-Shop in Eureka

 

shortlink here:  http://wp.me/p38Pt0-aW

Grassroots Getdown: May 10 benefit for Rhizome features circus, bluegrass, folk, + DJs

By Editor on May 3, 2013 in Blog, Events, The Rhizome Info-Shop

Come on Friday May 10th for a fun-filled night of circus performance, Humboldt bluegrass, local folk music, beers, DJs and dancing till late with friends old and new.

Featuring:

Sunshine and Yellabird (raucous folk)

Mad River Rounders (Humboldt bluegrass jams)

DJ Derail (Liberation Soundclash)

and circus performances by Circus of the Elements.

+ $2 Mad River Brews! (with ID)

$5 at the door gets you in to the party and helps support your local grassroots community!

All proceeds will benefit the Rhizome Infoshop, a radical lending library and community resource center in Eureka. We offer anarchist books and zines, free Internet, and low-cost copying.

The Rhizome Infoshop is inside the Ink Annex (47B W 3rd St in Eureka), 1 block south of the Eureka Co-op in the 3rd Street alley.

Bring your friends and come party for the cause on Friday, May 10th at 7:00 pm @ the Ink Annex in Eureka. See you there!

Contact: rhizomeinfoshop@gmail.com

Phone: 707-440-9310

http://humboldtgrassroots.com/hg/2013/05/483/

Court Support May 7th! EPD Sued for Violation of Civil Rights!

shortlink here:  http://wp.me/p38Pt0-at

mnemonic here: http://urlet.com/inconvenience.rotation

Suing Eureka Police for Violating Civil Rights During Occupy Eureka Protest: SUPPORT IN THE COURTROOM IS VITAL!!

Tuesday, May 7th  at 9:00am 2nd floor, Humboldt County Courthouse Courtroom #6 with visiting Judge Johnson

This email is similar to the last one about this with a few additions in bold:

Please support the civil rights lawsuits against the Eureka cops who  intimidated, hurt, stole from, incarcerated, and violated people during  the Occupy Eureka demonstrations!  Verbena is suing the cops in small  claims court for 3 separate arrests, massive theft, huge police attacks, for being arrested and jailed for FILMING, and being jailed for participating  in a demonstration.

The trials are to start on Tuesday.  Your support in the courtroom is vital.

Lawyers are pretty much prohibited in small claims, but the police and City defendants have had a cadre of lawyers with them (on our dime, of course)

Recently the cops represented that they have no police audio from the big November 7th raid of Occupy Eureka.  Eureka Frank Jager was supposed to give the audio to me (after he realized what that ALL officers had audio recorders running) and failed to give it to me before this weekend.

In the courtroom with Murl Harpham, Frank Jager, Officer Guy, Officer Liles, and Officer O’Neill, and the wretched lawyers that defend the police for abusing and killing– your support and lots of good people behind me in the courtroom makes a huge difference!  Please tell a friend who cares about civil rights, the right to video the police, the right to be FREE from abuse, police theft, incarceration, and INJUSTICE!

May 7th  at 9:00am

2nd floor, Humboldt County Courthouse

Courtroom #6 with visiting Judge Johnson.

SOLIDARITY IS THE WAY!

Please remember that one must pass through a metal detector to come into  court.  No ID is required to enter.  Almost all courtrooms are on the  second floor.