By Donna Westfall – June 28, 2017 –
On the corner of US Highway 101 South and Front Street, the old Gardenia Motel has been revitalized. Motel 6 is scheduled to open this week.
Supervisor 1st District, Roger Gitlin, says, “It is always exciting to welcome something new and fresh into the community. It has been a long two years enduring the dilapidated Gardenia Motel and the opening of this inviting property. Del Norte County’s newest lodging awaits a Certificate of Occupancy from the City and plans to be open for business in time for the busy July 4th week and all summer-long.”
Motel 6 is a beautiful 49 room, pet-friendly property. You can reach management and make reservations at ( 707) 460-1700.
the other day while I was having lunch in Brookings Oregon I talked to a gentlemen who moved to Brookings Oregon from San Diego. I asked him, “so what are your thoughts on Crescent City?” I was not surprised by his response.
“When my wife and first came up here we looked at property online in the Crescent City area. But, when we arrived in Crescent City we saw a very dirty town with no shopping and kept on driving to Brookings Oregon.”
So it is nice to get a new motel 6. It is not surprising to hear there are 3 motels in town trying to sell. Until we get some unique character and charisma to bring people here it will never be anything more than what it is. There is no vision in our city council. There is no money to create a botanical vision and people can’t afford to keep the businesses they have because no one wants to stop and shop at Walmart.
The same day I talked to the gentlemen at lunch time I met with some friends for dinner. One is an associate of Sutter Coast Hospital. He told me the reason they are having a hard time for doctors to come here is because the doctors wives have no place to shop and nothing to do. Again, if we as a community cannot develop this place into a charming unique area where you want to walk the down town streets to see what is there…then…there will be no hope for change anytime soon.
Linda, it is so obvious it stares one in the face. With all these committees the BOS and Council have, you would think they would have an economic development committee. I don’t see where even the Chamber of Commerce is doing anything. There is just a giant sucking sound in leadership for our town.
What if all the doctors were gay.
Then they wouldn’t have wives.
We could just buy them tickets to Portland so they could get their thang on!
Linda, I think you’re exactly right! Sometimes I think that some people want everything to remain the same forever. We are the only county on the north coast that has not integrated with the main industry that has replaced the resource industry. Changing things will take a long time; I hope it’s not too late.
This remodel and opening is exactly the type of growth this town needs. We could earn far more dollars in tax revenues from tourist business, and far more related jobs, if we clean up this town and entice tourists to stop and shop here. Who needs the headaches that come from commercial cannabis? Let ’em go to counties that have nothing going for them.
While it is great that a company came in and invested into what was only recently an eyesore, and welcome to Motel 6, I like value when I travel, however, I am sorry WTF, I disagree. Tourism will never be more than a summer vacation (three months a year) business up here and offer mostly seasonal, part time, poverty positions that take folks to work right when it is best to live in a small town (parades and stuff). We operate a small shop on the highway that relies on tourism and our business is really only viable three months a year, any job we might provide would be best suited for a college kid or teen and the same can be said for 98% of our other tourism businesses up here. Our community has often and outright supported hotels to the tune that one near the lighthouse owes the school district a quarter million and about a million over all to the county. This is because in good times, our community gives and lends its excess property tax revenue to hotel owners because the county and city get a piece of the occupancy tax. If tourism reached Yosemite levels for us, we would not dare venture the would be dust road of Howland Hill, our quaint small town would only seem so when kids went back to school and the money would still only benefit the large property and business owners and give part time poverty wages to a few. The demand for Californian grown cannabis domestically from within California tops $7 billion, Humboldt will end up with a billion dollar GDP just in cannabis on the books before too long and if this county could just produce 2% of state demand, it would double our private sector GDP in Del Norte. Numbers must matter, math is universal. Our crab harvest for all of the OR, WA and CA coast is only $150 million and needs all of earth to demand it, not just CA. For this county to pass on this, lacking the basics of a community such as ample bus shelters and opting for ocean view lounges, it is negligence and is yet another example of our communities short sighted goal to be a community put on for visitors and retiree transplants and is not for a young work force in private sector living wage job paths. $7 billion, name one other industry that we could compete in with such a number. The resistance against this locally, I can tell you from the way it feels to see a community debate whether we are intelligent enough to plug in a light without a permit, is pure prejudice.
Robert, I respect your views and it’s okay to agree to disagree. The law is the law, one can grow and smoke their own. Local government will be plenty busy just monitoring folks doing their own thing.
One need only to go a few miles north to Brookings to see how a well ran, attractive city can draw tourists year round. I’m sure you’ll agree that nine pot shops is a bit much, but at least they can absorb it up there. Our run down city cannot. Pot and hash shops will scare away the few tourists we get, and do you really think the folks buying in Brookings now, will head south to our little town? Doubtful, very doubtful.
Robert and others are not talking about pot shops in Del Norte. We are talking about production for export. Surely you understand this economic distinction. This brings capital investment, jobs, economic activity, and tax revenue.
Commercial cultivation with the associated black market crime, water and environmental issues are just as bad as the pot shops. You boys should be content to grow the stinky pot in your own backyards, or why not travel to a less beautiful county and cultivate? Modoc awaits you!
I don’t know your name , but I understand your fears. I think you do not speak from past experience or current knowledge about what is being proposed. You can read some details at this government site: https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/is/mccp/
I appreciate well timed cynicism and clever sarcasm. This is a serious matter and I pray that we can raise the level of discussion to a point of productivity. You can listen to my pitch on KFUG radio 101.1 FM with Sam Strait ,tomorrow, Sun. 3pm.
We have stinky crab pots, a big shitter by the sea, drive out to cattle land in Del Norte (smells like crap), we have a large ugly prison, billboards lining South Beach a beach that smells like crap due to plant food manufacturing when the wind is going wrong, we let the end of last summer be tinged with the smell of a rotting digestive track near the S Curve for about two months, I could go on and on and we all should appreciate the jobs but really you find an issue with shops full of cannabis and greenhouses? Prejudice MUCH!!!!
I remember when this was the Thunderbird Motel. It was built about 1965 as part of the rebuilding of downtown Crescent City after the tsunami.
The big question is why the Crescent Beach Motel, the Quality Inn, and the former Travelodge (now Redwood Inn) are listed for sale.
Jr.,
As someone who has recently sold commercial and residential real estate in this town, I could tell you why those with $$ are selling, but it would infuriate the city government to call them out on their incompetence, or calling out the sheriff’s department for a variety of things. When you can’t count on the government you pay for to do the most basic of things in an honest way – game over. From someone chilling in a much warmer place… 🙂