Editorial

The Healdsburg Museum is grateful for five decades of outstanding community support. We are celebrating our 50th anniversary all year with free special exhibitions and programming. With your support, we will continue to elevate local history for the next 50 years and beyond.

Healdsburg’s City Council recently approved “When The Time Comes” (WTTC), a new city service designed to help residents navigate end-of-life planning and support.

"Medicine in Sonoma County has changed in so many ways over these years, but it is still an amazingly rewarding calling and so fulfilling to care for patients and their families. We thank you for entrusting us with your care," say local women's health professionals...

"It certainly was a different time in the ’Burg back then. Dogs and kids were allowed to wander around in the bars. And along the stretch of (then) West Street and Plaza Street, it seemed there were so many bars! All the owners supported each other and enjoyed beers at the different establishments..."

Pantone has anointed its 2026 Color of the Year and, in an act of breathtaking caution, selected white. Well, basically white. “Cloud Dancer” is its official name—a soft, contemplative white-adjacent non-color billed as a balm for our overstimulated moment.

The fantasies that once lived on cheap newsprint now pulse through mainstream culture. In the social media age, anything can be “true” if it flatters one’s bias or fuels their outrage, writes Jared O, Bell.

A noted Dry Creek farmer complains that streambed degradation is evident at Yoakim Bridge as the gravel around the instream pier has been scoured away, resulting in a partial void under the pier footing. ...

"My name is Max Morris and I am the senior class president for Healdsburg High School. Healdsburg is one of two schools in our area that don’t have a girls flag football team, let alone a single flag football game..."

"Every local government is unique in the range of services it provides and how those services are delivered," writes the city's Finance Director. "For example, while both Healdsburg and Petaluma provide police, fire, water and sewer services, Sonoma does not. Additionally, Healdsburg is the only one of the three that provides electric services... These differences among many factors influence the total size of the city budgets and lead to inaccurate comparisons if not considered."

Writes a former mayor, "This letter is not hyperbolic or overly dramatic. Our governmental system, our vital Checks and Balances, our Human Rights, our economic freedom and most important to me, our beloved, hard-earned Democracy, erodes in front of our eyes. We have to do more than observe, hope, pray and just believe it will get better. This time invites action. As a lifelong learner, a career secondary educator and a public servant, I write to appeal to you... "