Editor:

I keep thinking next time someone feels the need to demonize Arcata that I won’t be surprised … but, here I am, surprised again (“Escape from Arcata,” Aug. 7).

Dennis Handy sounds suspiciously like someone who’s undergoing a bitter divorce and feels the need to prove the other guy wrong. I suspect him of dashed dreams, which is a pity, but doesn’t require scathing denunciation and a huffy departure to a city 10 whole minutes away (and, to my mind, far less congenial). Lots of drama queen going on here.

And, frankly, I can’t understand why the Journal printed the article in the first place. Am I missing something? Is there some huge, slimy, feces-ridden corner of Arcata in desperate need of purging that I’ve somehow overlooked? Is there anything constructive being suggested or accomplished by Handy’s rant (besides kudos for a few stores, the Farmers’ Market and the Eye staff)?

I mean, besides being sure our nice summer visitors and the parents of incoming freshmen don’t come back for fear of stepping in something nasty.

— Faith Freewoman, Trinidad