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If you’ve driven down Giuntoli Lane in Arcata’s Valley West neighborhood recently, you may have noticed a big, red and blue circus tent peeking over the top of a fence on Carlson Park Drive. If you thought that the circus was coming to Valley West, sorry to say, that is not the case. The tent – which was set up a couple of weeks ago by the Arcata Playhouse/ Playhouse Arts – will actually be used as a space for unhoused people to make art out of the garbage from abandoned camps. 

Jacqueline Dandeneau, executive artistic director for the Playhouse, told the Outpost that the project is an extension of Playhouse Art’s Our Space program, which offers free art classes to unhoused or housing insecure folks in our community. This specific project, which is collaboration between Playhouse Arts and the Northcoast Environmental Center (NEC), was funded by an Upstate California Creative Corps grant and aims to provide a creative outlet for  houseless and housing insecure artists, while diverting trash from the wastestream into the artstream.

“The purpose of the grant is using artists to help address community issues,” Dandeneau said in a phone interview Thursday. “So we’re addressing homelessness and the environment, because the camps are environmental degradation.” 

NEC has been helping with cleanups of homeless camps for about two years, and started working with the Our Space program about a year ago. Caroline Griffith, executive director of NEC, said that the partnership came about because NEC wanted to figure out a way to reuse some of the items being left behind at abandoned camps. 

Griffith said that NEC was seeing a “troubling trend” of campers being shuffled around from place to place, which causes the litter to be more spread out. Also when people are forced to leave their camps, they often don’t have the resources – such as dumpsters, recycling cans or transportation to the dump – to adequately clean up their camps. 

When Griffith went to check out Our Space – then located in a storefront on Ninth Street – she found a very welcoming environment, where people were having conversations, sharing food and making cool art. NEC thought that providing the artists with reusable items recovered during the cleanups would be a great way to support the program, while also diverting waste from the landfill. The two agencies started working together and have since collaborated on art/ environmental projects like the Craft for the Coast Trash Art Contest. 

For the project in Valley West, Griffith said that it is still in the very early stages and NEC is currently setting up the system for bringing in and sorting materials and will soon start holding building sessions with unhoused people from the community that they have been working with through the Our Space program and through helping with the camp cleanups. 

And the circus tent for art-building is not the only cool thing that’s happening on this little patch of property in Valley West. The site has been occupied for some time by Isaac Lyons and his business Humbuildt Homes – which has a warehouse on the north side of the site. After another tenant that was sharing the property left, Lyons decided to lease the entire parcel. But since he didn’t really need the entire space for his company, he decided to sublease to various nonprofit organizations.

For about a year Zero Waste Humboldt has been renting a shipping container on the site for its Reuse Center – a thrift store for craft and construction materials, such as doors, windows, scrap metal, hardware and more. The store is open every fourth Saturday of the month between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., and by appointment.

Cooperation Humboldt also plans to use the site to open a tool library – a place where folks who don’t have the money or space for their own tools can borrow them to work on a project – and Julia Finkelstein, a local artist and owner of Epitome Gallery in Eureka, has also been using the space to showcase street art and helped paint colorful murals along the outside fence and on the shipping containers inside. 

Lyons said that his dream is to turn the site into a hub for sustainable development that houses multiple business and nonprofit organizations, offering classes and other community resources. Lyons said that his business is currently working on a line of modular, prefabricated homes that he hopes to be able to showcase on the site. Lyons said his team is also setting up classrooms in the warehouse so that they can offer classes on general carpentry and construction techniques, plumbing, solar installation and more. Eventually Lyons would like to create a pathway for community members to become a general contractor, something that he feels could address the shortage of licensed contractors, while also helping people who maybe can’t afford to hire contractors for their projects.  

“Currently, with the number of tradesmen out there and general contractors – that’s part of the issue and challenge — there’s not enough of them to ever create enough housing for all the people who need it,” Lyons said in a recent phone interview. “And people who need [a home] often can’t afford to have it built for them. We need to teach people essentially how to fish.” 

As far as when all of these services will be up and running and accessible to the public, it’s hard for Lyons to say. All of the various groups are still figuring out how everything can come together. But there are plans in the works to hold a couple of outdoor events on the site in the summer. 

“We’re hoping there’ll be some synergy there between all of us and that we can create something that is fun and can be offered to the public,” Lyons said. 

As for the Our Space program under the big tent, things are already underway and Griffith said that the volunteers are planning to build several sculptural pieces out of objects that they find a lot of at camp cleanups, such as bicycle parts and tent parts. Griffith didn’t want to give too much away about the sculptures, but said that they will likely be mobile in some way and that the group plans to bring them to some public events in the late summer/ fall. 

The Playhouse and NEC are only committed to keep the tent at the site until November 15, at which point the tent will be coming down to protect it from the elements. That’s also when the grant funding for the project dries up. But if the project is successful, Dandeneau and Griffith said it is likely that they’ll pursue additional funding to keep the space running and help transform the property into a thriving community center for Valley West an area that has been historically underserved. 

When asked why the Our Space project was important for our community – particularly the unhoused or low income folks in Valley West – Dandeneau and Griffith said that programs like this are not only a great way to help keep waste out of the landfill, but also help those contributing to the project to feel productive and even empowered. 

Though they understand that helping unhoused people make art is not going to solve the issue of homelessness, they feel that it can be a part of a multifaceted approach to improving the lives of those who are struggling to survive. 

“I’m a big believer in creative placemaking and that the arts are a vibrant part of mental health, community health, individual health, social health, and that the arts really are a place where people can express themselves and people can feel pride of place,” Dandeneau said. “We’ve kind of gone on this linear wellness train, thinking that if we give someone a job and a roof over their head, that they’re fine. And we all know that that’s not the truth.”

Press release from the City of Arcata:

Starting April 20, in celebration of Earth Day, the Arcata Plaza will be fully closed to vehicles during the Farmers’ Market every Saturday!

The Arcata Plaza Farmers’ Market is a popular destination for many community members on Saturdays, and the market has continued to grow over the last several years. The street closures will support public safety and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. ADA access and parking will be maintained or expanded.

Plaza Closures during Saturday Farmers’ Market has been a long-awaited goal of the City. It was a recommendation of the Plaza Improvement Task Force in 2020 and has been included as a Council Priority Project for 2023/2024.

Implementation of Plaza vehicular closures will be made possible through a collaborative partnership between the City of Arcata, the North Coast Growers’ Association (NCGA) and the Arcata Chamber of Commerce.

When asked about the upcoming street closures, NCGA Executive Director Portia Bramble said, “I’m truly excited to see safety improved for families with young children and accessibility improved for people who are walking and biking, reduced congestion and improved flow to local downtown businesses. I’m also super excited to meet what the community asked for in our Plaza Improvement Task Force process. This came out of multiple years of planning and development. Walkability and reducing traffic and congestion in the downtown area is one of the highest priorities in the City’s general planning process.”

NCGA Board President Melanie Cunningham also commented, “I’m really looking forward to the change. It’s long overdue and will only improve the market for shoppers and farmers alike.”

NCGA is the operator of ten Certified Farmers’ Markets in Humboldt County. A number of independent markets and farm stands continue to operate in various communities. For a list of community markets, farm stands and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms as well as a directory of our farmers’ market vendors please visit this link.

Membership in the North Coast Growers’ Association is open to residents of Humboldt County who grow or raise what they sell within Humboldt County. Working collaboratively, NCGA staff and members represent agricultural interests in Humboldt County through community partnerships that promote local and healthy foods, programs that increase access to local food, participation in local and statewide policy-making, and coordination of ten Certified Farmers’ Markets.

NCGA is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization with the primary mission to operate certified farmers’ markets for the benefit of both producers and consumers, to promote awareness of and support for farmers’ markets, to work with other direct marketing associations to share resources and improve market management, to educate consumers, and to promote and improve access to local agricultural products for the community.

If Plaza businesses have thoughts/suggestions for how to better integrate the Farmers’ Market with the Plaza-facing businesses, please reach out to the North Coast Growers’ Association or the Chamber of Commerce.

For more information, please visit cityofarcata.org or call (707) 822-8184.

The recent announcement that the planet was warmer in 2023 than any other year in history — with records broken for ocean temperatures, sea level rise, Antarctic sea ice loss and glacier retreat — was sobering. Also last year, 21 species went extinct in the U.S. alone, including birds, mussels, fish and one mammal. Because greenhouse gases released from burning fossil fuels are driving our planet’s warming and the related climate impacts, the actions necessary to slow this concerning trend are clear: we need to stop using fossil fuels as quickly as possible. Transitioning to clean, renewable energy is central to that goal. Because offshore wind naturally complements other renewable power, like solar, we need to take offshore wind seriously as a promising way to provide people with electricity while transitioning away from fossil fuels.

Every day, the amount of power being consumed across California changes minute to minute. Every time you flip a light on or off, plug in an electric tea kettle, run your dishwasher or charge a device, you change the total amount of electricity being consumed at that moment. Multiply those changes by 40 million Californians and you get the dynamic power demand for that day. Our electric grid operator, the California Independent Systems Operator (CAISO), is tasked with matching the right amount of electricity supply to ever-changing electricity demand. Too little supply and the lights go out, too much supply and you waste a lot of electricity. This process is called “balancing the grid.”

Back in the bad old days when all of our electricity came from fossil fuels, balancing the grid was relatively simple. As power demand increased, we would simply burn more coal or gas to generate electricity, and vice versa when it decreased — but renewable energy doesn’t work like that. Unlike more predictable, controllable (but environmentally destructive) fossil fuels, most renewables are intermittent, since solar panels require sun and wind turbines require wind in order to generate electricity. Today, grid operators have to balance the State’s ever-changing power demand with ever-changing renewable energy supplies, which is a lot harder! The grid operator for the United Kingdom made a fun little game you can play to learn just how hard their job is.

California has installed approximately 46,874 megawatts worth of solar panels. Rooftop solar makes up about 10% of our state’s electric supply, and another 14% comes from utility-scale solar fields. The result is that on a sunny day, California generates a lot of solar electricity.

The graph below represents electricity demand in the State of California on March 17, 2024. The teal curve is total demand for electricity throughout the day. You can see it goes up a bit when people wake up in the morning, dips when folks are at work or school and aren’t using their appliances at home, and then jumps back up pretty quickly when people start to come home and turn all of their appliances back on. The purple curve represents net demand — the amount of electricity we need, minus the amount of electricity generated by renewables like wind and solar. As you can see, net demand drops precipitously when the sun rises and solar panels begin generating electricity, and then rises very steeply when the sun sets as solar panels stop working.

First, let’s just pause and congratulate ourselves! By installing all that solar, we’ve reduced California’s average daily carbon emissions from electricity generation by thousands of metric tons of carbon dioxide. The graph below depicts the carbon dioxide (or its equivalent in other greenhouse gasses) emissions during that same day for the entire California electric grid. As you can see, emissions drop considerably as the sun rises and then rise steeply as the sun sets.

But this success has also created an extra challenge for grid operators. Every single day, grid operators have to be ready for the sun to set and solar panels to stop working just around the same time that folks are getting home from work and turning on all of their appliances — a sharp decrease in renewable energy paired with a sharp increase in demand for electricity. Currently, operators handle that by importing a lot of fossil fuel energy from other states and quickly turning on a lot of natural gas power plants. Such natural gas power plants that can be quickly ramped up are known as “peaker plants,” and are unfortunately far dirtier than natural gas plants that operate at a constant pace. California has close to 80 peaker plants, about half of which are located in disadvantaged communities. Therefore, by over relying on solar renewable energy, we’re both failing to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions at night and spewing a lot of air pollution onto vulnerable Californians.

Batteries can help a bit with storing energy, but are not without their own problems. Lithium mining has serious environmental consequences. We’re already seeing the negative impacts of lithium mining with the amount of batteries we need now, and there would be even more destruction if we try to rely on lithium batteries for all of our energy needs every night. Beyond the environmental cost, there is also a considerable financial cost, as well as a considerable loss of power when storing electricity in a battery and then using it later. Unlike a battery, wind turbines can create new electricity at night and ensure that the lights stay on without polluting vulnerable communities or the atmosphere. Other strategies, like increasing our energy efficiency and reducing our consumption by designing communities that don’t require a car, are also necessary to reduce total energy demand but don’t solve the problem of what to do at night.

Wind energy is necessary to solve this problem. Because the wind keeps blowing even when the sun sets, we can use it to avoid turning on dirty gas power plants. Offshore wind is particularly helpful at solving this problem because it tends to blow more consistently than onshore wind, and the winds off the coast of Northern California and Southern Oregon are some of the strongest and most consistent winds in the entire United States. By linking that offshore wind energy to the California electric grid, we can ensure that the state doesn’t have to turn on a bunch of dirty peaker plants every night when the sun sets. Similarly, if we ever want to shut down our local natural gas power plant, the Humboldt Bay Generating Station, we will need to replace it with a consistent source of electricity that works at night.

If we want to stop burning fossil fuels to generate electricity, slow the climate catastrophe, and avoid using some of the other proposed non-fossil fuel energy sources like nuclear and hydro, we are going to need wind power. And one of the best places in the country to implement offshore wind is off our coast. This is Humboldt’s opportunity to make a meaningful difference in the global fight to end climate change and directly benefit disadvantaged communities that live next to dirty natural gas power plants. For an organization that is very good at saying “no” to things, EPIC isn’t willing to rule out the proposed Humboldt offshore wind project without taking a hard look at all of the impacts, both positive and negative. We will continue to watch and engage with the planning process closely, read every study that comes out regarding the impacts of offshore wind, and advocate for the project to follow strict environmental rules, processes, and governance. But at the end of the day, I’m open to offshore wind because the climate crisis terrifies me and offshore wind has the potential to make a meaningful difference.

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Matt Simmons is the Climate Attorney at the Environmental Protection Information Center

They’re called “Pell runners” — after enrolling at a community college they apply for a federal Pell grant, collect as much as $7,400, then vanish.

Since fall 2021, California’s community colleges have given more than $5 million to Pell runners, according to monthly reports they sent to the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office. Colleges also report they’ve given nearly $1.5 million in state and local aid to these scammers.

The chancellor’s office began requiring the state’s 116 community colleges to submit these reports three years ago, after fraud cases surged.

At the time, the office said it suspected 20% of college applicants were fraudulent. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government loosened some restrictions around financial aid, making it easier for students to prove they were eligible, and provided special one-time grants to help keep them enrolled. Once these pandemic-era exceptions ended in 2023 and some classes returned to in-person instruction, college officials said they expected fraud to subside.

It hasn’t. In January, the chancellor’s office suspected 25% of college applicants were fraudulent, said Paul Feist, a spokesperson for the office.

“This is getting significantly worse,” said Todd Coston, an associate vice chancellor with the Kern Community College District. He said that last year, “something changed and all of a sudden everything spiked like crazy.”

Online classes that historically don’t fill up were suddenly overwhelmed with students — a sign that many of them might be fake — Coston said. Administrators at other large districts, including the Los Rios Community College District in Sacramento, the Mt. San Antonio Community College District in Walnut, California and the Los Angeles Community College District, told CalMatters that fraudsters are evading each new cybersecurity strategy.

The reason for the reported increase in fraud is because the chancellor’s office and college administrators are getting better at detecting it, he said. Since 2022, the state has allocated more than $125 million for fraud detection, cybersecurity and other changes in the online application process at community colleges.

The reports the colleges submitted don’t include how much fraud they prevented.

The rise in suspected fraud coincides with years of efforts, both at the state and local level, to increase access to community college. Schools are reducing fees — or making college free — while legislators have worked to simplify and expand financial aid. Those efforts accelerated during the pandemic, when community colleges saw record declines in enrollment.

It’s not surprising, then, that “bad actors” would take advantage of the system’s good intentions, Feist said.

Financial aid fraud is not new

College officials suspect most of the fake students are bots and often, they display tell-tale signs. In Sacramento, community colleges started seeing an influx of applications from Russia, China, and India during the start of the pandemic. Around the same time, administrators at Mt. San Antonio College saw students using Social Security numbers of retirees. Others had home addresses that were abandoned lots. Uncommon email domains, such as AOL.com, were another red flag.

These scams aren’t new. The federal government has long required colleges to report instances of financial aid fraud. Every year, the federal government closes around 40 to 80 cases, including a recent conviction of three California women who stole nearly a million dollars by collecting fraudulent student loans. California community colleges also say they’ve spotted fraudulent applications from people trying to get an .edu email address in order to receive student discounts.

“If I saw, for example, that a college that only gets 1,000 applications in some time frame gets 5,000, you kind of know something is probably up.”
— Valerie Lundy-Wagner, vice chancellor for the community college system

When the chancellor’s office began requiring community colleges to file monthly reports, it asked for the number of fake applications and the amount of money they gave to fraudsters.

CalMatters submitted a public records request for the data, broken down by campus. After the request was initially rejected, CalMatters appealed and received an anonymized copy of all of the monthly reports, lacking individual campus details.

The reports show that between September 2021 and January 2024, the colleges received roughly 900,000 fraudulent applications and gave fraudsters more than $5 million in federal aid, as well as nearly $1.5 million in state and local aid.

The numbers show that fraud represents less than 1% of the total amount of financial aid awarded to community college students in the same time period. It’s hard to tell how accurate the data is because compliance is spotty, with some months missing reports from as many as half the colleges.

More fraud, in more places

To understand how fraud is evolving, the chancellor’s office uses several sources of information and data, Feist said. One indicator is an atypical bump in applications.

“If I saw, for example, that a college that only gets 1,000 applications in some time frame gets 5,000, you kind of know something is probably up,” said Valerie Lundy-Wagner, a vice chancellor for the community college system.

The chancellor’s office provided CalMatters with anonymous application data for each month from September 2021 to January 2024. CalMatters analyzed the data using two different techniques to identify statistical outliers in the application data and asked the office to verify the methodology. The office repeatedly declined.

East Los Angeles College in Monterey Park on March 14, 2024. Photo by Jules Hotz for CalMatters

According to the analysis, more than 50 of the state’s 116 community colleges saw at least one unusual spike in the number of applications they received during that time frame. In the last year, colleges have seen more unusual spikes than at any point since 2021. Along with fraud, however, outliers could also reflect normal fluctuations in applications or the overall increase in college enrollment last year.

“What we’re hearing is that (fraud) is happening more widespread than people are letting on, but people just have their heads in the sand because it looks good to have your enrollment going up,” said Coston with the Kern Community College District. Many college administrators say improvements in artificial intelligence have made it easier for people to attempt fraud on a larger scale.

Yet clamping down too hard on fraud can have unintended consequences. More than 20% of community college students in California don’t receive Pell grants they’re eligible for. Administrative hurdles — including the verification process — are one reason why, according to a 2018 study by researchers at UC Davis. To help, the federal government is trying to simplify its financial aid application, but in some cases, it’s created more barriers for students during the rollout this year.

“We’ve overcorrected at times, even in policy, and in how stringently we’re verifying students relative to the amount of fraud in the system,” said Jake Brymer, a deputy director with the California Student Aid Commission. As a result, he said, real low-income students get pushed out.

Kicking real students out of class

Sometimes, the fraud detection backfires on actual students, ousting people like Martin Romero.

In order to graduate from East Los Angeles College, Romero, 20, must take American history, so last fall he enrolled in an online class where students can watch pre-recorded lectures on their own time.

He said it’s all he had time for. Romero takes four classes at East Los Angeles College each semester and serves as its student body president. He also helps out at his family’s auto body shop, sometimes as much as 15 hours a week.

On the first day of class last fall, he said the online portal, Canvas, wasn’t working on his computer.

That day, the American history professor did a test through Canvas, asking students to respond to a prompt in order to prove they were not a bot. Romero didn’t answer, so the professor dropped him from the class.

“I was freaking out,” he said, and wrote to the professor as soon as he found out, begging to be reinstated. The professor told him the class was already full again, so letting him in would mean kicking someone else out.

“We’re frustrated with the fact that some of these courses are getting filled really quickly. We see it as an access issue for our students.”
— Leticia Barajas, Academic Senate president at East Los Angeles College

For the college’s Academic Senate, the faculty group that governs academic matters, fake students is one of the top three issues, said its president, Leticia Barajas.

“We’re frustrated with the fact that some of these courses are getting filled really quickly,” she said. “We see it as an access issue for our students.”

She said there’s been an uptick in recent months, especially in certain kinds of online classes, that has forced professors to focus on hunting bots instead of teaching. Professors now are expected to test their students in the first weeks, asking them to submit answers to prompts, sign copies of the syllabus, or send other evidence to prove they are real.

Increasingly, she said, the bots are evading detection, especially with the help of AI. “They’re submitting assignments. It’s gibberish,” she said.

The endless, multi-million dollar game of combating fraud

Campus and state officials described fraud detection as a game of whack-a-mole. “When we get better at addressing one thing, something else pops up,” said Lundy-Wagner. “That’s sort of the nature of fraud.”

To fight fraud, she said, the chancellor’s office, the 73 independently governed districts and their colleges all must work together, including those who oversee information technology, enrollment and financial aid. Part of the challenge is that the system is so “decentralized,” she said.

The largest reform underway is a new version of CCCApply, the state’s community college application portal, which will offer more cybersecurity, Feist said. He also said there are other “promising” short-term projects.

One of them, a software tool known as ID.Me, launched in February. The contract with the software company, costing more than $3.5 million, gives it permission to check college applicants for identification, including video interviews in certain cases. Privacy experts have warned that the company’s video technology could be racially biased and error-prone.

To mitigate these privacy concerns and avoid creating enrollment barriers, applicants need to opt in to the new verification software.

In the first few days after its implementation, 29% of applicants opted in to ID.Me’s new vetting process. Some applicants started the verification process but never finished, said Feist, while others are ineligible because they’re under the age of 18. The rest chose not to verify their identity for other reasons, including many who are suspected bots.

‘We’re just trying to survive’

In Los Angeles, community colleges have already seen a drop in suspicious applications, said Nicole Albo-Lopez, a vice chancellor with the district. But she’s skeptical the problem is solved. “The lull we see, I don’t believe we’ll be able to sustain,” she said. “They’ll find another way to come in.”

Her district is now concerned that bots are trying to steal data or intellectual property, not just financial aid. “Say I have 400 sections of English 101 online. There are 400 variations of readings, assignments, peer-to-peer questions that somebody can go in and scrape,” Albo-Lopez said.

Barajas said faculty at East Los Angeles College are so overwhelmed by bots they haven’t discussed the potential risk to their intellectual property: “We’re at such a level where we’re just trying to survive.”

Meanwhile, students like Romero who are wrongly mistaken for bots must develop their own survival skills. When the professor denied the request to re-enroll, he signed up for the same course in the one format that was still available — in-person. The class met every Monday and Wednesday at 7:10 a.m., and the professor deducted points for anyone who was late.

“It was torture,” he said, noting that he missed two classes and was late to around four. He finished the class with a B but said he would have had an A if he had gotten into the class he wanted.

As student body president, he said he’s been outspoken about the issue. While he was able to fulfill his history requirement, he worries that other students may not be so lucky.

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Data reporter Erica Yee contributed to this reporting.

Adam Echelman covers California’s community colleges in partnership with Open Campus, a nonprofit newsroom focused on higher education.

CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

I’d just hitch-hiked from Helsinki, capital of Finland, to the town of Mikkeli, where I’d been assigned a student-exchange gig for the local “TVH” (Ministry of Works) during my summer university break. It was a Sunday afternoon, offices closed. Not knowing a word of Finnish beyond “good morning,” I walked into a drugstore, thinking — correctly as it turned out — that people whose business was pharmaceuticals might speak some English. When I asked about a budget hotel, a kindly assistant took pity on me, telling me, in English, to come back in an hour when she was off work. Soon I was eating dinner with her and her family, later sleeping on their couch. Next morning I found my way to the Ministry of Works office (where I promptly acquired the name “Musta parta,” black beard). These days, my iPhone would have taken care of me, but at what price of innocence?

That was 1962. Every so often when Louisa and I are traveling, a small incident reminds me of the difference between then and now — essentially how much easier it is now. For instance, last night, reading a Kindle book on my 7-ounce iPhone, I remembered carrying three heavy books in my bike panniers through the mountains of Spain in the ’80s.

Let me count some of the other ways that makes traveling in 2024 a cinch compared with back then.

Money

Remember Travelers’ Checks (Amex) or Travellers’ Cheques (Thomas Cook)? We were reminded of these two popular types in Sri Lanka 40 years ago, when I tried to cash some Cook’s cheques (bought in the UK a month previously) in Nuwara Eliya, at the town’s only bank. “Sorry sir, we only handle American Express. You have to go to Kandy for Thomas Cook.” Two half-days of traveling later, I returned triumphant, rupees in hand. Nowadays, a debit card from any US bank will be accepted at virtually all ATM machines the world over. Oh yeah, and now you can use euros in most of Europe, no changing currency at borders.

Maps

I’m a Queen’s Scout (the UK original version of an Eagle Scout), so map-and-compass went with the territory, so to speak. Anyone who has cycled in France knows the satisfaction of using Michelin 1:100,000 paper maps: stick to the yellow roads (the ubiquitous paved back roads) and you’ll be fine. Today, of course, Google will plot your route, after you’ve told it (her?) whether you’re on foot, on a bike or driving. Even — the ultimate in magic — what time a bus or train leaves for your destination, including where and when to change.

Booking

That’s booking.com for us. In the old days, we’d arrive — on foot, bike or bus — not knowing where we’d spend the night. True, we never lacked for accommodation, despite some close calls (pitching a tent in the courtyard of an Athens hotel, a haystack in Finland), but the sheer luxury of arriving somewhere, tired (often wet) and knowing there’s a room already reserved has no equal. In Mexico, where traveling in long distance buses reminds us of flying business class, booking seats in advance online is so handy.

Uber

— and its many clones. How many times has Uber saved our asses, from flying into Gatwick (UK) at 2 a.m. to getting back to our hotel from a remote Roman ruin an hour away in Bulgaria? There’s a downside to the ease of summoning Uber: hitch-hiking was easier back then. We still do it, despite being advised not to (in Lebanon, every driver who picked us up gave us a lecture on why. we shouldn’t hitch there!), but somehow the casual, carefree ease of hitching — someone would always pick us up — seems to have gone the way of steel-frame bikes.

Communications

Aerograms! Telegrams! Telex! Phone booths! General delivery/Poste restante! Need I say more?

Everything is so much easier for a traveler these days, and, at my age, I appreciate it all. And yet…I miss the self that figured out how to find an English speaker in a small Finnish town, the self that drove to Istanbul in a funky van with five other students while waiting for the results of our finals, the self that hitched half the width of Scotland with a collapsed bike wheel.

Gotta go, I have to check the online bus timetable and book seats.

This week on the EcoNews Report we discuss how fish are monitored and counted. Our host Alicia Hamann from Friends of the Eel River is joined by Dave Kajtaniak from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and Samantha Kannry from TRIB Research. Tune in to learn about the hopeful returns salmon returns on the Eel and why preserving genetic diversity is so important to giving species the adaptability they need to survive our changing climate.

Click here to learn more about TRIB Research.

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ED. NOTE:  Suzanne Forsyth, former editor of the Humboldt Historian, was delighted to find herself channeling the pseudonymous voice of “Louella Parsnips” —an ill-reputed, scandal-hungry gossip monger who right-thinking society people publicly abjure — for these pieces of true history.

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In November of 1911, two respected Eureka physicians, the brothers Charles C. and Curtis O. Falk, got into an explosive argument, leading soon after to a second encounter resulting in the hospitalization of the older brother, Charles C. Falk. This is shocking, but there is more: the initial shouting match between the brothers had broken out in a hospital operating room in the midst of an operation they were performing, as their patient, with his insides exposed, lay anesthetized upon the table. Not even the creators of our modern medical dramas on TV have conjured such a scene, at least to my knowledge, and should they ever do so—should, for example, the Doctors McDreamy and McSteamy of one popular TV series ever get in a fight while performing surgery — remember you saw it first in the Humboldt Historian.

Members of the celebrated Falk family, which locally produced entrepreneurs, doctors, lawyers, and judges over several generations, Charles and Curtis Falk began their professional partnership with high ideals. In 1906, they established the Northern California Hospital, one of the most state of the art facilities in the West. Located at the corner of Trinity and F Streets, the Falk brothers’ hospital incorporated “all the modern ideas and scientific principles, such as ventilation, sanitation, light and heating,” was open to “all reputable physicians” and the general public, and was a registered training school for nurses. Insurance was offered to Humboldt’s laboring men — primarily woodsmen, whose dangerous work brought many calamities — in the form of yearly and semi-yearly certificates.¹

Dr. Charles C. Falk. Photos via the Humboldt Historian.

Charles C. Falk, the older brother, was the president of the hospital, and his younger brother Curtis was the secretary. In surgery, Charles generally wielded the scalpel, with Curtis attending. Reader, you may now begin to surmise the source of their discord, for it was none other than that oldest and most powerful engine of discontent, jealousy. My informant reports:

It is understood that the ill feelings [had first] cropped out in the form of petty jealousies. It began with Charles getting the credit for difficult operations in which he was assisted by Curtis. It would be said that so-and-so was operated upon by Dr. Charles Falk assisted by Dr. Curtis Falk. Sometimes it would be the reverse. One would win honors which the other deserved, or at any rate was gathering the glory.²

These jealousies may have festered for some time, may even have had their roots in childhood rivalries, but the first outward sign that the brothers’ relationship was not just in trouble, but approaching detonation, was in the operating theater of the brothers’ hospital, and in the presence of several friends and associates of the Falks who had been invited to witness the operation. My informant was among them.

Charles was performing the surgery, with the younger Curtis assisting, and the operation had progressed to the point where Charles was explaining to those present a certain method he had for stitching such cases. Suddenly, Curtis could take no more. In the words of my informant:

Curtis, becoming tired of playing a minor part, then and there took off his rubber gloves and remarked something about being tired of working with such a braggart, inferring that Charles was using the opportunity to win more laurels.³

Bursting with resentment at his brother’s allegations, Charles countered by announcing his intention to sever their partnership, asserting that he would come up with a figure by which Curtis could become the sole proprietor of the hospital.⁴

All those in attendance were stunned and the Falk blowup immediately became the talk of the town. As to the patient who had lain on the operating table waiting to be stitched up as his doctors squared off, I can offer no report. It seems this fellow was completely forgotten about during his operation, and in the aftermath as well.

The incident was still fueling gossip when Eurekans were treated to yet another scandal, for the flare-up in the operating room was but the prelude to a full-blown knock-down drag-out, which took place two weeks later in Charles’ offices in the Connick and Sinclair building on F Street between Fourth and Fifth. There were no eyewitnesses this time, but several reliable citizens in adjoining offices heard the brothers’ voices and the noise and put the story together. It is said that Charles had now come up with his figure and submitted a proposal to Curtis to purchase the hospital. Curtis declared the figure exorbitant and said Charles named it because he knew it was prohibitive.

My informant gleaned the following account of the altercation from those present in the building:

Language conducive of violence entered into the discussion and soon the brothers were locked in combat. The younger but larger Curtis, who weighs about 185 or 186 pounds, is said to have caught Charles by the throat and brought his free hand around with a mighty blow that sent his older brother, who weighs about 148 or 150 pounds, sprawling on the floor. Charles tried to put up a resistance, the reports say, by making a fight to protect himself in his own office. His resistance was met by other blows and soon the smaller man was completely down and out. He is reported to have asked Curtis if he (Curtis) was going to kill him (Charles), but about that time became unconscious. When he came to his senses again, Dr. E. C. Glatt, a dentist with adjoining offices, was standing at this side, and Curtis was a little distance away in the same room.⁵

Word got out that Charles was worsted in the fight, his injuries such as to require hospitalization and the constant care of a nurse. My informant, who visited Charles several days after the encounter, reports that he still carried the marks of his brother’s fingers upon his neck.⁶

Of course, as everyone knows, stories in the streets regarding this incident got a bit out of hand. For example, while it is true that Charles’ pistol was almost within reach, my informant reports that “authentic sources say no attempt was made to use it, and that all reports on the streets about gunplay are unfounded.”⁷

If the citizenry focused on the Falk feud as the most riveting topic of the day and even let their imaginations run away with them, the Falk brothers themselves were utterly silent on the subject. When pressed by my informant, both men were evasive. Charles said he didn’t want to talk about it, but did acknowledge that he and his brother would have separate offices in the future. Curtis would only state that he was severing his connection with the Northern California Hospital. About the report that the two men had engaged in a physical altercation, both men merely waved it off with a laugh.

As my informant recalls:

Both tried to make light of such reports; both declined to make any statement about what led up to their separation.

In spite of all that had happened between the two men, it does not appear that a lasting separation between the brothers actually occurred, either personally or as business partners in their hospital. Indeed, Curtis was in his brother’s care when he suffered a typhoid infection in the spring of 1918,⁸ upon recovering from which he joined Charles in the battle against the Spanish influenza epidemic.⁹ The Northern California Hospital remained open throughout most of 1918 to care for flu patients, closing only when both Charles and Curtis joined the US Army Medical Corps in November of that year.¹⁰

After the Army, the Falk brothers each returned to private practice.¹¹ Perhaps they did not want to tempt the gods of ignition by trying the partnership route again. Personally, however, I like to imagine that the brothers did not long deprive the townspeople of some thrilling recrudescence of their rivalry. And so I am putting the pair’s lively misconduct at the top of my list for “Best Medical Melodrama” of early 1900s Eureka.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Many thanks — and, yes, a time-travel expense account — to my man about town, Rory Hedger.

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NOTES

1. Humboldt Standard, May 10, 1911 (Advertisement).
2. Humboldt Standard, Friday December 29, 1911.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid.
8. Humboldt Times, April 6, 1918.
9. Humboldt Times, November 16, 1918.
10. Humboldt Times, November 8, 1916.
11. The Falk brothers sold their hospital in 1920 to the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange, who renamed it St. Joseph Hospital, which continues to this day.

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The story above was originally printed in the Spring 2012 issue of the Humboldt Historian, a journal of the Humboldt County Historical Society. It is reprinted here with permission. The Humboldt County Historical Society is a nonprofit organization devoted to archiving, preserving and sharing Humboldt County’s rich history. You can become a member and receive a year’s worth of new issues of The Humboldt Historian at this link.