Remember those cartoons during the Covid Era where people from the expiring year would look in terror around the corner at the arriving year, saying, “What now?” It’s sort of like that all over again, as so much has changed since January it doesn’t seem possible that there’s more to come. We take a look here at the local scene for the first six months of the year … but there is much more to come.
Last New Year’s Day, Jan. 1, 2025, we were immersed in coverage of the required separation of Healdsburg into five districts, with a council-selected mayor. The squabbling got rather heated between December 2024 and April 2025 when the maps were finally settled. But not till this new year, 2026, will we see our first election by district of new council members. Districts 2 and 4 will hold elections this year for their representative; the odd-numbered districts will do so in 2028.
Casinos and Gyms
Our Jan. 16 issue, headlined “Feds Greenlight Windsor Casino,” referred to one of the last acts of the Biden administration and one which was quite unpopular locally. The Koi Pomo band of Lake County wanted to build a casino in Sonoma County, but the Sonoma Pomo fought it every step of the way. In September, a federal judge reversed the decision and took the 69-acre property on East Shiloh road back from the Koi, seen as a big win for the local Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria.
Also in January, the former Frost Hall on the Healdsburg High campus was rededicated for the late student wrestler Drew Esquivel, which felt like a heartwarming story at the time. But the Healdsburg Unified School District had failed to check with the Frost family, and after the mea culpas and trade-offs were negotiated, the as-yet-unnamed East Gym assumed the mantle of Frost Gym.
In February, local artist and inspiration Jennifer “Jendala” Utsch died in Tucson. The charismatic metalcraft worker and educator left a hole in the art of the local arts scene, and her “jingle wagon” at the Jendala Day on April 13 was a touching exhibit of who she was.
The City of Healdsburg got into trouble next, when in late January a local attorney filed suit for Brown Act violations leading up to the Measure O campaign of the previous year, and a “pattern of misbehavior” in the culture of Healdsburg’s city government. The suit was later settled between the two parties, with the city paying all legal expenses of almost $70,000 and promising to do better.
City issues arose again as the downtown merchants faced off over the arrival of a “formula store” in the Plaza area—not a Starbucks or a Pizza Hut, but a menswear company named Faherty’s. The issue compounded the arguments over the expanded business district in the Measure O rezoning campaign, and added to the fire of the ongoing mapping of proposed districts for city council seats.
On April 21, the City Council again took up the five-district map, after a previous agreement on “Map A” had been revisited to become a new agreement over “Map D.” The effort to save Map A failed, and Map D became the official decision.
All told, the district discussions, mapping and revisions lasted the first five months of the year, only reaching reluctant majority support in May. For a while the question “What district are you in?” became a conversation topic, never more so than for the five incumbents. Among the impacts affecting us in the coming year: elections for City Council members in Districts 2 and 4 this spring.
The Coming Pavilion
The Healdsburg Farmers’ Market began its final year of operations in the West Plaza Parking lot, an awkward location that has become comfortably familiar over the years. Meanwhile construction continued across North Street at the former Cerri warehouse that was being renovated, at least in part, to house the market in coming years. (Both projects came together just last week, with the Dec. 15 Open House at the Community Pavilion, and the final Farmers’ Market of the year on a drizzly Dec. 10.)
Civic squabbles became less fraught when springtime arrived along with the tourists who support Healdsburg’s economy. The Chamber of Commerce handed out $95,000 in support to local events, drawn from a 14% Tourism Occupancy Tax, or TOT. Cash went to Healdsburg Jazz, the city’s own Merry Healdsburg, the return of Songwriters in Paradise and Edge Esmeralda, among several other sponsorships.
The next weekend brought the third return of the Healdsburg Wine & Food Experience, a sign that things might be returning to normal. The Farmer’s Market got underway in April, and Liza Gershman embarked on an ambitious book project involving it. She became a biweekly columnist with “Farm + Market.” But many would argue that things would never be normal again.
Also in May a giant marble hand, installed in front of the Santa Rosa Mall almost 30 years ago, found its way north to Geyserville, becoming a new downtown landmark for the ag town at the crossroads. It’s now part of the Geyserville Art Trail, still growing even as the year ends with a new mural.
On May 1 an event transformed Healdsburg into something it always has been, an agriculture community with a large debt to its local workforce. The as-yet-unnamed Community Center came up for branding, and an exception was made to the longstanding city naming ordinance, allowing it to be christened for Hispanic media pioneer and businessman Abel de Luna. With Delores Huerta on hand, while the winds from Washington blew rightward, the inclusive tribute to the still-active former mayor was a source of local pride.
The first overtly anti-Trump rally, with about 30 protestors, was held in late April at a downtown corner. Six weeks later a thousand people lined Healdsburg Avenue on the first “No Kings Day,” June 14, calling for an end to the authoritarian direction of the Trump administration. The signs and chants stretched from McDonald’s to the Roundabout, a route that seemed somehow significant.
Ever attentive to significant moments in the cultural matrix, the City Council turned its attention to naming a City Tree, or Flower, or perhaps Plant, in June. By late August it came to fruition, so to speak, with the designation of the once-ubiquitous and now endangered Valley oak. (So where are the T-shirts?)
June ended with the first neighborhood reaction to SMART coming to Windsor, a not-always-smooth process at first. A “no horn” zone needed to be implemented to save the sleep patterns of the locals. Once the kinks were worked out, Windsor welcomed the SMART train more than anyone, except perhaps Deb Fudge, had anticipated. And Healdsburg began to turn its gaze, again and at last, to the Hudson Street depot location, which needs a bit of polish to be ready for train time.
Part Two of our 2025 Retrospective will cover the months July through December and appear in our Jan. 1, 2026, edition.
