Younger people hit with virus in Humboldt

California’s coronavirus case rates are approaching an alltime low, but in one county on the North Coast, the numbers are moving in the wrong direction.

Humboldt County, whose biggest city, Eureka, is 230 miles north of San Francisco, recorded 137 new cases last week. That was the most since early February. Over the weekend, the county health department reported 33 additional infections, bringing the total number of residents who have tested positive for the virus since the pandemic began to 3,885.

Humboldt’s sevenday average positivity rate of 3.1% is now more than three times the state average, according to data compiled by The Chronicle. County officials attribute the recent

vices staff. Council Member Robert Carling did move to remove Stein from the Planning Commission, but the motion failed when no other council member seconded it.

“I would be happy to accept the conditions, I think it will make me a better planning commissioner,” Stein said following the vote.

Critics said his comments were offensive, blaming those who could not afford housing in a city where the average rent reaches over $2,000 a month, well above the national average. Some took issue with his use of the word “ghetto,” which has negative racial connotations and a charged history. Berkeley recently ditched the word after local businesses questioned its use in the neighborhood known as the Gourmet Ghetto.

“John Stein made racist and classist remarks,” Emily Wilson, a Livermore resident and cofounder of TriValley for Black Lives, said at the meeting. “This behavior from someone in a position of power perpetuates systematic racism.”

Attendee Allie Felker said that the word “ghetto” was only part of the problem. “These comments showed there was an implicit bias,” she said, adding that “a level of trust has been broken.”

Following significant community backlash, the City Council decided to discuss the remarks at its Monday meeting, and consider Stein’s removal.

Stein has since issued a public apology, writing, “In no way did I mean to insult, offend or denigrate any member or group in our community.” He continued that he supports affordable housing throughout the city, and called his choice of the word ghetto “extremely unfortunate,” adding, “I should not have used it.”

“I do believe that Livermore should be welcoming and I do support all groups coming to Livermore,” he said in an interview before Monday’s meeting.

Stein’s comments referenced the Eden Housing project, which would contain 130 new, affordable homes for lowincome families in downtown Livermore. At the meeting, he compared the project to other widely known examples of failed public housing in big cities.

Stein had said he did not want Livermore to be known as the “center of homelessness” in the region, and didn’t want the city to become the “goto place” for people experiencing homelessness. In an interview he later clarified that he believes surrounding communities are not doing enough to offer supportive services for those experiencing homelessness, and similarly he does not want Livermore to become the source of affordable housing for the entire valley. He did say it was a “poor analogy.”

The Planning Commission ultimately voted to recommend the project to the council, with only Stein dissenting.

The City Council will vote on the project at its May 24 meeting. In his apology, Stein wrote that he voted against the project only because he believed the parking was inadequate.

Grayson Peters, a member of housing advocacy group East Bay for Everyone, said there is a “great deal of community need” for the project, and East Bay for Everyone endorsed it. He explained that while California and the Bay Area have become very wealthy, “people are getting left behind.”

“It’s important that we not close the doors behind us, that we not saw off the ladder behind those of us who are climbing high,” he said. “And we try and make sure that everybody at the end of the day has a bed and a roof.”