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With just three days until Election Day, the “Yes on F - Housing for All” campaign is pulling out all the stops to secure a win at the ballot box.
In its latest round of glossy mailers, the “Yes on F” campaign used half a dozen out-of-context quotes from disgruntled Old Town and Downtown business owners as apparent endorsements for the ballot measure. However, most of the quotes printed in the mailer are sourced from public comment at a Eureka City Council meeting that took place more than two years ago, long before any version of Measure F had been made public.
Humboldt Bay Coffee Company owner Luci Ramirez took to Instagram and Facebook on Friday to call out the “Yes on F” campaign for using something she said “about a very specific topic … that impacted [her] employees” at a February 2022 Eureka Council meeting for “political gain.”
The “specific topic” Ramirez was referring to did have to do with parking limitations in Old Town, but she said the issue was resolved when the city started offering parking permits for people. “[It’s] been a game changer,” she said. “Employees no longer have to play musical cars every 2 hours.”
Ramirez also said she was “never contacted about the measure” by the “Yes on F” campaign, adding that she would have “never endorsed it.”
The “Yes on F” campaign also used an out-of-context quote from Greg Gehr, executive director of the Northern California Indian Development Council and managing partner for the Carson Block Building Property, in a recent press release. His quote, from another February 2022 city council meeting, states: “[This] will have a devastating effect on the economy, the business services, retail businesses, residents and general public in using the old town and downtown area that we worked so hard to restore,” though it doesn’t specify what “this” is.
Reached for comment via text message, Gehr told the Outpost that he was on the board of Eureka Main Street at the time and that the group was speaking out against the city’s plans to turn the two parking lots behind Lost Coast Brewery into the EaRTH Center, a mass transit hub and housing development.
Asked whether he supported Measure F, Gehr said, “I can only speak as myself, not as an official representative of the corporation, but I think the tagline that I’ve seen around town really says it all – ‘it’s confusing for a reason.’”
The Outpost emailed “Yes on F” spokesperson Gail Rymer for additional comment on the matter. We’ll update this post if we hear back.
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We’ve got links to our previous Measure F coverage in this post. To read the official arguments for and against the measure, as well as the Eureka city attorney’s impartial analysis, click here. Election Day is Nov. 5.
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PREVIOUSLY:
- Ballot Battles, Lawsuits and a Ticked-Off Millionaire: CalMatters on Eureka’s Parking Lot Wars
- Security National Has Spent $710,645 and Counting on Measure F, the ‘Housing for All’ Initiative
- Eureka City Schools’ Deal With a Mystery Developer for the Jacobs Campus is Dead
- Anonymous AMG Communities Confirms Death of Jacobs Campus Deal, Vows to Try Again After Election Results
- Security National Just Dropped Another $286K Into Measure F, Bringing Its Total Spending to Nearly $1M
- How Will the Collapse of the Jacobs Campus Deal Impact Measure F? It Won’t, Backers Insist.
- What’s Next for the Jacobs Campus? The Eureka City Schools Board of Trustees Will Consider Five Options at Thursday’s Meeting
- Humboldt Progressive Democrats Endorse Candidates in Arcata, Eureka City Council Races, Urge ‘No’ Vote on Measure F
- Measure F Could Wreak Legal and Financial Havoc on Eureka, California Housing Defense Fund Warns
- With $1.15M From Security National, Measure F is Now the Most Expensive Ballot Initiative in Eureka History
- THE ECONEWS REPORT: What If Measure F Passes?
- The Measure F Campaign Called Him a Criminal and a Cheat. He Has a Different Story to Tell.
- GUEST OPINION: It’s Unfair That Media Coverage Doesn’t Note That Measure F Would Easily Solve All of Eureka’s Most Pressing Problems, Including Housing and Parking and the Economy
- How the Measure F Campaign is Going
- Several Dozen ‘Housing for All’ Signs Illegally Places on Telephone Poles Around Town Over the Weekend
- Would Measure F Actually Preserve Eureka’s Downtown Parking? Nope, State Law Would Override It, Staff Says