Arcata had a pretty hefty city council meeting last night, touching on everything from improvements to pedestrian infrastructure, the Arcata Police Department’s community ambassador program, the Annie and Mary trail, with, of course, a little Middle East-focused international relations sprinkled in there.

The SAMSIP Project

Bereft of a sidewalk, protected bike lanes, or (really any) traffic calming measures, the Highway 101 crossing on Samoa Boulevard is scary to cross on foot or bicycle. However! Sometime in the next five years, it might not be. Two staff members from GHD, the design firm working on plans to modernize the road, presented a dense, 30-minute report to the council.

The South Arcata Multimodal Safety Improvement Plan (SAMSIP) aims to improve pedestrian and cyclist access to and fro Sunny Brae and around the Samoa Boulevard in a few different ways, such as adding some kind of protected lane for human-powered transport on that overpass. There also will be measures for slowing traffic down and for beautifying the roadways. 

During their research, GHD found that the current infrastructure around Samoa Boulevard encourages speeding, is difficult to ride a bicycle or walk on, and also plays host to lots of minor fender-benders. The staff members presented several different configurations for the project to mollify these woes, but the one they’re most bullish about involves combining several roundabouts with a trail on the bridge, separated from vehicle traffic by a concrete median with plants. Off the bridge, cyclists and pedestrians would each have their own paths. 

Constructing these upgrades will take a lot of time and money, and GHD said they’re angling for both federal and state grants to fund the project. However, Arcata may be able to make some low-cost improvements in the near future, such as adding “flex posts” to bikeways, speed bumps to South G Street, and improving the roundabout on Union and Samoa Boulevard. 

If they can get the funding, the project may be completed in December of 2029. 

All of the council members praised the project and said they were excited to make it happen. 

Community ambassador update

If you’re ever out walking around downtown Arcata and you see a green-vested someone picking up trash or talking to the homeless, they’re probably one of the Arcata Police Department’s community ambassadors, appointed to be “kind and compassionate individuals,” who “take pride in connecting visitors and locals to all Arcata has to offer,” as Lead Ambassador Royal Hunter put it. Although they don’t directly help out people in need, they do put them in touch with organizations and people who can. 

APD Lt. Luke Scown, who presented an update to the council on the ambassadors, clarified that they were not a security force. 

“They’re not there to tell on people,” Scown said. “They’re there to build relationships and build that bridge.”

Scown shared some statistics (collected by the ambassadors) with the council on their doings. This year alone, they’ve talked to unhoused people over 4,000 times and have collected almost 3,000 5-gallon buckets of trash. Since the program started in 2022, they’ve picked up almost 12,000. 

“The things they do matter,” Scown said. “I’ve seen it. I genuinely believe that. They have a connection with the community. They know the people out there…they trust them. We have a cleaner city because of them. We have a reduced need for police services in this city — like, genuinely.”

Scown said that after the first year they started work, he compared how often the police had to be sent out to the area they work in to what it was like before, and the difference was large; “some types” of calls dropped by a third. 

He’s working on hiring three more ambassadors (making nine total) and expanding out to Valley West.

Annie and Mary Trail

The council members voted unanimously to approve a $7,111,503 contract with the Granite Construction Company to build the long-awaited Annie and Mary trail from downtown Arcata all the way to the Mad River on West End Road. City staff said they wanted to get the section from the skate park to the new Hinarr Hu Moulik dorms done quickly. 

$3.6 million is from the Active Transportation Program grant, $2.3 is from CalTrans, the Yurok Indian Housing Authority is contributing $1 million, and Cal Poly Humboldt is kicking in $500,000. A little more is coming from the city’s Measure G. 

Construction is expected to start this month and be completed next year. 

One public commenter raised concerns about what any homeless people living on the corridor will do when construction commences, but all of the city council members were excited and lauded city staff for their hard work. 

CalPERS Divestment

After the Eureka City Council passed a letter urging CalPERS to divest from companies making money by war profiteering, the Arcata City Council has faced increasing public pressure to do the same. Many residents during the public comment sections asked them to consider it, and during the council reports segment at the end of the meeting, councilmember Sarah Schaefer said she had written something up and was working with other councilmembers on the best way to proceed. 

Stacy Atkins-Salazar said she also didn’t agree with investing in war, for-profit prisons, or encampment centers.

Schaefer also took the opportunity to lambast some louts. 

“I know, us up here as women, we get our intelligence insulted a lot,” she said. “We don’t understand budgets. Numbers are scary for us. We don’t understand city planning. How can we know how a fire department works? Just to remind the public — we are not ignorant. We understand history, wherever we fall. Specifically, I was a history major in college! Religious studies minor, with an emphasis in decolonization. So — that. Just that. And I’ll leave it there.”