Arcatans: You are living in a multi-modal paradise. Trails in almost every direction have been built, are being built, or are planned to be built. Right next to town is a 2,350-acre forest stuffed with trails. There are pretty cool trails a short ways from town — there are world-famous trails just a tad further than that. You live there — you know all this. It’s common knowledge, civic glue: Who doesn’t love them? 

Turns out, there are millions of people beyond Humboldt’s borders that don’t — but only, the city council hopes, because they don’t know about them. The council unanimously voted Wednesday to authorize city staff to seek a “Trail Town Program” designation from the International Mountain Biking Association, which literally puts Arcata on a map. 

If their application is approved, the council members said they hoped it’d draw more visitors to town. The idea didn’t come out of nowhere: Consulting firm Civic Possible finished a study earlier this year that outlined a scheme to grow Arcata’s economy. There are a lot of moving parts, a lot of ideas, but it boils down to a recommendation to double down on what makes Arcata unique: the culture (intangible as that may be), the university, and the nature that surrounds and defines the city. Civic Possible recommended that the city try and snag the designation as a simple way to draw roving cyclists in, who, if all goes according to plan, will stay there for a spell, spending their money around town and pumping up the economy in between sessions of shredding the forest’s ample singletrack.

It’s not a guarantee that the association will award Arcata the label, but the city already earned the highest possible score on a pre-application assessment that judged the quality of its bike infrastructure and how easy it is to access. The bare minimum for eligibility: 25 miles of natural-surface trails within 30 miles of the city center, reliable funding, and a community that shows a regular commitment to its trails. Having more than five miles of trails within a half-hour ride of the city center also helped.

“We do have incredible trails and natural assets, and it’s an opportunity to connect our local businesses and economic development,” Mayor Kimberley White said. Councilmember Sarah Schaefer agreed. “It’s a slam dunk.”

CDBG Funds

Two Connies — Connie Stewart, Cal Poly Humboldt’s executive director of initiatives, and Connie Beck, the county’s director of the Health and Human Services department — made their case for a piece of City Hall’s CDBG Program Income funds, money recouped from repaid loans the city distributed from state Community Development Grant Block Grant funds. 

The CDBG program is a state funding program for local projects that will benefit low- or moderate-income residents “through the creation and expansion of community and economic development opportunities in support of livable communities.” Several of these past projects involved the city loaning small businesses or individuals money; now, Arcata gets to decide how it’s going to spend the repaid loans, which total about $1 million, with the provision that it has to be on projects that serve the same end. The state still has to approve the city’s picks.

The Connies want the entire million dollars for a proposed behavioral triage center, to be built at Mad River Hospital. (Read more about it here.) Mad River Hospital and the DHHS are very close to securing all $30 million for the project, but they need a tad more to make their hoped-for opening date of early 2029. Stewart said she already included the city’s million in her accounting.

Several councilmembers indicated they’re likely to vote for funding the triage center, though they didn’t come to any decisions. They may not choose the triage center; there’s a whole list of other places to spend that money, including a homeless shelter that’s short 16 beds. They’ll choose which ones to fund at the next council meeting in two weeks.