The Arcata Eye gained a reputation for its police logs and recurring themes about local street life. The police log gained a large following inside Arcata and in the broader area (thanks to online publication) because it took interesting tidbits in local police reports and couched them in "witty" language. Two books collecting together a selection of police logs have been published. The newspaper's owner, Kevin Hoover, popularized the term "plazoid" to describe those homeless people who congregate at the city's central square ("the Plaza"), on city streets, and in other city parks.
