Dear Editor…
Dueling Maps
Mayor Mitchell hijacked the last council meeting to push through her own mapping agenda. She is worried about a “bulb-out” on the map in her own district. I guess symmetry is more important to the mayor than the actual purpose of district elections, which is representation for the underrepresented.
Councilmember Edwards may have had good intentions when he also went with Map D versus A as he believed that it would be difficult for a minority to be elected in the three districts around downtown because the underrepresented would have a hard time getting financial backing. Maybe he doesn’t believe there are any more Ron Edwards out there, as he has been elected here two times.
Finally, and most important, Chris Herrod is the council member who initially presented Map D at a previous meeting. It should be noted that in Map A Chris Herrod and Ron Edwards are in the same district. Ron’s term runs through 2028, and Chris’ expires in 2026. Under Map A, Chris would likely be termed out and unable to run again till the 2028 election. Chris’ only reason to back Map D is self-preservation.
No one can remember the last time when someone from the southern district served on the council. Map D would likely assure this slight continues till at least 2032 after the districts have been redrawn, while Map A would guarantee a council member would actually reside in the southern area.
Please contact our council members and ask that they act in the spirit of district elections and vote for Map A. Healdsburg needs equal representation, not the perpetuation of self-interests.
Dan Pizza
Healdsburg
Parklets Discussion
I found Monday night’s Parklet discussion entirely unsatisfactory. Public Works had advance notice of the topic, yet failed to produce a slide deck for inclusion in the Council packet?
Adopted in 2022, Healdsburg’s Parklet Program imposes an administrative fee on each parklet (currently $2,400 per year) to cover the City’s “direct costs” of administering the program. City staff estimated the Admin fee and parklet rent (from 20 parklets) would contribute $175,000 to the general fund each year.
The Admin fee made sense when parklets were converted from tables on pavement to ADA accessible platforms with roofs, sunshades, lighting and heaters. However, last year only one parklet was relocated and (so far) this year, only one parklet was removed (to install a grease trap), so how much oversight is necessary?
In one year, the Admin fee from 16 (current) parklets will generate $38,400. If Carmel’s Dutch Door believes there aren’t enough doughnuts in this town, did they also cover the City’s administrative costs from removal of Duke’s parklet?
Mark Horne
Healdsburg
Birds Fly Away
As a user of the bikes since March, 2023, I was able to see the pros and cons associated with them. I am disappointed that they chose to leave, as it impacts my daily life.
Our 2040 Parks & Connectivity Work Group will reach out to Larry Zimmer to see if he will give us the Bird usage data to examine. It would be interesting to see if the city did anything with the information Bird provided them. I know my complaints to Larry insured some bikes be allocated to Barbieri Park, which were definitely used by the neighborhood.
I spoke to the gentleman who had the contract to maintain the bikes a couple of months ago. He told me how difficult the job was. He had to pay for all the replacement parts upfront, and wait for reimbursement from Bird. That is why so many bikes were in such a state of disrepair.
The community groups like Healdsburg 2040, MOVE! Healdsburg and Climate Action Healdsburg will keep prodding the city to implement better micro-mobility solutions and bicycle/pedestrian infrastructure improvements. We need the public to have a seat at the table when these decisions are made. It is unfortunate we lost our voice when the Transportation Advisory Commission was dissolved in early 2019.
Mark McMullen
Healdsburg
Readers are welcome to send letters of up to 300 words to ed****@he***************.com.
