A Eureka Reporter story this morning headlined “CR drivers may be in for Halloween treat” reveals that College of the Redwoods is spending $1.5 million in Measure Q interest to repave the parking lot instead of using parking fees. That’s money that should be spent on educational facilitie

On the first day of the Towards Carfree Cities Conference in Portland, I was immediately impressed by a presentation on high-density co-housing projects that are the collaboration of Orange Splot LLC (a cohousing developer) and Communitecture, an architecture firm using innovative green building techniques and superb design to create beautiful and inviting high-density living arrangements in Portland neighborhoods.

Site of pedestrian fatality in a collision at 4th and A Streets in Eureka in September.

Article from the Eureka Reporter (Dec 28, 2007):

"The total number of traffic-related fatalities in Eureka rose to two this year from last year’s one. In comparison, the CHP reported fatal traffic collisions doubled from seven by November 2006 to 14 by November 2007."

The reason:

"CHP Public Affairs Officer Paul Dahlen attributed the increase in accidents to more people being on the road. “We’re hitting the baby boomer generation, so there’s more elderly people on the road,” he said, adding that the baby boomers’ children are also on the road."

Hmmm. Would it make sense to reduce the number of cars on the road by giving people better and safer options?

On October 19th, I attended a meeting of the Humboldt Council of the Blind. I wanted to learn more about the role of transit for blind people, and how our transit system could be improved to serve their, and all users’ needs, better.

Humboldt Council of the Blind members include business owners, talented musicians, technology consultants, students, and others, blind and sighted. The meeting agenda dealt with a lot of serious business, but folks were light-hearted and funny. I laughed a lot.