Ocean Beach, SF

The Reporta is dead. Long live The Reporta!

It is with great sadness that I inform you – my loyal fans – that this website will no longer be updated with any real regularity. As so many youth who migrate to Humboldt County with dreams of making a life for themselves here, I too fell victim to the region’s bittersweet truth – only the few, the lucky, and the fortuitous can survive, and the rest must flee to more lucrative pastures.

I have migrated to the Bay Area, specifically the fine city of Oakland (it’s not so bad). It has been an interesting transition so far as I have not lived in an urban area for a good eight years now, and by urban I mean a lousy suburb of Sacramento for a handful of months. I came to Oakland ready to dive into the media scene, because it is here in one of the last bastions of people-centric politics where the greatest innovations in media are taking place; and I want in.

That aside, I want to make a couple of points before I shut down this broadcast for the time being. Humboldt will always be in my heart: the people, the breath-taking scenery, and the fine food and drink warmed my soul in a way I will hold close to my heart living in a quite different environ. What I learned has given me an insight into the world so unique that I wish to spread its message with all I see. I may never be able to remove myself from the debate about her future, because I would love to return when the time is right. And speaking of debates, I want to share a story with you all, one I hope will resonate with each of you no matter where you stand on the slew of contentious issues the area faces.

In my eight years in Humboldt, I’ve had the opportunity to befriend many people across different backgrounds, may they be journalists, artists, scientists, tech-savvy folk, or blue collar workers. Especially for those who migrated to Humboldt for college, these people, including myself, had to face a difficult decision upon graduation, for we all fell in love with what we considered our new home – how can we stay and make a sustainable living?

A handful of my friends lucked out with stable work through the region’s primary employers: Humboldt State University and the County of Humboldt. My friends with the tech know-how appear to have landed the best jobs of the bunch, despite the general state of tech in Humboldt being rather abysmal (opportunity for growth here folks). For the remainder, the choice of whether to stay or go was more difficult.

I was shocked about how many of my friends, me included, seriously considered the possibility of growing marijuana to sustain ourselves and how many went through with it, because you have to really appreciate that pot is the fastest-growing industry in Humboldt whether you like it or not. The quicker the county as a whole comes together to create a realistic economic plan for marijuana, even if it’s still technically illegal, the better off you will be in staving off what will inevitably be an inflation of crime in the mountains and the cities, and the growing Big Pot machine down here in Oakland, Berkeley, and Richmond (there have been setbacks, for the time being though); because Humboldt is dependent on pot money. Period.

For those who chose not to take the marijuana route, the choices were severely limited. If you have the financial capital and a good idea, you could start a business. But even that is difficult in the midst of one of the worst economic meltdowns this country has ever seen. And of the other employers? You’re probably better off in the blue collar sector, but again the economic meltdown is impacting construction, and as a consequence every connected industry. The rest scrape by; I did off freelance work for a time and cooking at the North Coast Co-op. But media is my passion, so I chose to pursue it whole-hardheartedly.

When faced with no real opportunities outside of minimum wage or below-living wage work and for those who don’t have the support system of their families living in the area to provide either work or cash money, what you get is brain drain. Horrible brain drain. Humboldt, you are losing some of the most talented, creative, and hungry people coming out of HSU and College of the Redwoods, because there is no opportunities here. This isn’t a question of lack of want or trying, this is a consequence of a regional mentality still entrenched in the idea that resource extraction, retail, and the general status quo will save the county; it will not.

People across all political spectrum, with varying economic and social interests, need to seriously sit down and figure out how to work together, because I have no doubt from the many wonderful people I met that each person really does, in their heart, have the interest of Humboldt in mind, even if self-interest is the driving factor.

I don’t have all the answers; I don’t think anybody does. What I do know is that Humboldtians are a creative bunch when they stop fighting with one another and they start working together for the common betterment of the community. I know, I know, I’m an idealist, but someone has to be. I want to see Humboldt thriving –her economy and her natural beauty. There are ways to find balance between the two.

And with that, I say ado, until the next broadcast that is. If you would like to stay connected with my work and my travels, link up with the Facebook fan page at the bottom left of the page if you haven’t already, as I will keep all my work abroad posted through there.

Cheers, and Happy New Year!

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