PREVIOUSLY

• A Trail Out to Manila? Arcata’s Looking to Make it Happen

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Only paths and parties were on last night’s Arcata City Council agenda. The councilmembers decided they’d solicit funding from the Great Redwood Trail Agency to build a trail out to Manila, and they approved a permit for the 2026 Sunny Brae Porchfest. 

Arcata’s trying to get the ball rolling on constructing a trail out to Mad River Slough, near the Samoa Peninsula. It’s long been the plan to connect the Great Redwood Trail to the peninsula on the old railroad bed, and now the Great Redwood Trail Agency has the money. The GRTA was allocated $100 $50 million from California’s Proposition 4 Climate Bond in 2024, with the requirement that half of it be spent on the trail. $10 million is going to planning, design, and construction in North Coast counties. The agency received the funds in June, and must be spent by the end of 2029.

The city council unanimously voted that the city should send in an application to the GRTA for funding to design and build the trail, which will be split into two segments: a spur connector through western Arcata using the GRTA’s right-of-way that connects to the Humboldt Bay Trail, and a chunk that runs two and a half miles to Manila. City Hall had originally only planned to ask for funding for the first segment, but after some deliberations with the agency’s board, Arcata decided to try and go for the whole hog. Emily Sinkhorn, Arcata’s Environmental Services Director, said that the agency wanted to offload some of the design work onto the city, who would still only be responsible for maintaining the chunk out to city limits. (The GRTA would take care of the rest.) The agency is focused on connecting communities around the bay, and a promise to add another link to the chain makes the request more attractive.

Arcata has yet to work out the specifics, Sinkhorn said, reiterating that the only plans drawn up so far were mere “lines on a map.”

Several Manila residents advocated for the extension. They  said they appreciated how the trail would make it far safer to ride or walk back and forth between Manila and Arcata. The council members said that they too were thrilled. 

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The Sunny Brae Porchfest, the neighborhood-wide extrava-band-a, will return for a third straight year. The council unanimously approved Playhouse Art’s major special event permit application despite the pleas of a disgruntled Sunny Brae resident, who characterized the event as a bacchanalia replete with people walking in the streets, drinking, smoking weed, illegal parking, and amplified “illicit” language. 

It’ll be slightly larger this year. Neroli Devaney, a program director with Playhouse Arts, said they were partnering with three Sunny Brae businesses who will also host some music. They’re adding an area for children, who will get their own kid-friendly musician.

Houses on a few streets will only feature bands in their backyards instead of on their porches to prevent people from standing in the street and getting in the way of neighbors’ cars. For future events, the council had a few suggestions, including somehow adding a shuttle or a trolley to transport people to and fro downtown Arcata, making the event staff easy to spot, or, perhaps someday moving the festival around to other neighborhoods as well. 

“It’s a really great community event, and a great way to bring people together,” Councilmember Sarah Schaefer said. “I think every neighborhood needs their own little porchfest.”