I live in a small town, Eureka California. It has about 26,000 residents and is the seat of Humboldt County. I have lived here for a little over a decade and would not want to live anywhere else. Mild winters, cool summers, although global warming has started to change that. The surrounding countryside is some of the most spectacular you will ever see anywhere in the world.
Sounds Idyllic but here is the problem, our little town is being crushed under the weight of poverty. I will not get into the environmental exploitation that killed off the Salmon and most of the other fishing while clear cutting the forests killed the timber industry right along with the streams. The problem we face today is like many small communities, big box retail, Target and most recently Walmart have come to town and devastated our local business districts. Their low wage go to the food bank pay scales are impoverishing everyone in our community. We are at a 19% poverty rate compared to California's state wide average of 15%.
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