Tasting Room Tipping Point?
A relatively modest proposal to build a 1,220-square-foot, 45-person tasting room inside an existing warehouse in downtown Healdsburg has ignited a familiar debate among residents about the town’s core character.
This would be the 28th wine-tasting room in Healdsburg, city planning officials said at a...
Letters to the Editor, Dec. 26
The City Council’s informal decision on Dec. 16 to adopt a five-district, selected mayor format for city government in the redistricting process drew immediate reactions from several community members, who felt the decision was made unnecessarily quickly and short-circuited public discussion of the options. Here are a few of their comments:
New Year Happenings, January 1-8, 2026
Ease into the new year with the “NOT King Cole” trio, playing without a drummer and featuring tunes from the golden age of jazz. At the Spirit Bar, 6-9pm Saturdays.
Mike McGuire’s election gamble
Mark McGuire isn't just running to be a congressman in 2027, but in 2026 too. That would put another Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives which could be crucial in any congressional effort to limit or correct President Trump’s power at the national level during the remainder of 2026.
Great Redwood Trail Heads for the Border
The board of directors of the Great Redwood Trail Agency (GRTA) held its bimonthly meeting in Healdsburg last Thursday, April 20, reviewing the current status of an ambitious plan to convert 316 miles of rail corridor into pedestrian and bike paths from the San...
Taking climate action one step at a time
The 24-inch-by-20-inch blue signs have popped up at a number of streetside locations around town: in front yards and shop driveways, at Rec Park and Bell’s Ambulance, even at the Big John’s intersection. They’re anti-idling signs, encouraging drivers to “Turn Your Key, Be Idle Free!”
Back when, Fitch Mountain was a wild game refuge…
In order to pick the remainder of the grape crop and the light walnut crop with hands, it is urged that all local people, including high school pupils, assist with the grape harvest over the coming weekend. A shortage of over two hundred grape pickers exists in the Healdsburg section at the present time.
Library’s ‘BiblioBike’ gets national recognition
"In October, the Healdsburg Regional Library received a special award from the Association of Bookmobile and Outreach Services. Charity Anderson (our Children’s Services Librarian) and I traveled to St. Louis to accept the award on behalf of the library, and I want to give the community the full story of Healdsburg’s BiblioBike so we can celebrate together," reports Regional Manager Jon Haupt.
Where the Redwood Highway crosses the Russian River
Whether a tourist or a local (or that broad category of “visitors from nearby”), everyone knows the first stop is Healdsburg Veterans Memorial Beach, where the Redwood Highway crosses the Russian River. According to Sarah Campbell of Sonoma County Regional Parks, the most recent headcount showed about 68,000 visitors for the previous year.
Giving a big hand to the Geyserville Sculpture Trail
Agraria is a 7.5 ton (or larger) hand created by environmental artist Larry Kirkland of Portland, Oregon, and installed at the mall in December 1996. A full 12 feet long, six feet tall and three feet wide, it was carved from a single marble block twice its size from Carrara marble in Torrano, Italy, where Michelangelo got his stone. It's now at a new home in Geyserville...
Arts & Entertainment
Return to the Russian River
When Jake Messing stood in front of the mural he had just completed for Russian Riverkeeper on the north side of the nonprofit’s headquarters at 139 Healdsburg Ave., he had finished more than another mural. He had made a return to the source from the sea himself, like the salmon he portrayed.






















