Opinion

Ukiah, the city I work in, recently renovated the entire downtown area with new sidewalks, paved road, and all new trees with planter areas. In full transparency, I was involved in aspects of the planning of this project but not the design. When a co-worker of mine made a criticism regarding the new planters at all the street corners, I was excited to actually have some rare insight that I felt was useful in a nerdy sort of way. He complained that the contractor left the planter areas several inches too shallow and made an opening in the curb which will likely flood and dump garbage and dirty water around the new plants just put in. “Exactly the point!” was my response which only made him more confused, and as I presume, makes him not the only one. Let me geek out with you in a science meets nature sort of way.

Last January, now a whole year ago, America may have experienced both its worst and best days of the year.

Most of the time journalists go around looking for trouble. Lately, we haven’t had to look very hard. Our reporting has focused on the viral pandemic, the wildfires, the drought, climate change, civil unrest, constitutional insurrection and attacks of  “fake news” against our very being and profession. It’s never been more challenging to seek out troubles and alert our public about problems that need solutions. We watchdog our government leaders to uphold our public trust, our laws and our democracy. We sit through endless school board meetings and local government sessions looking for anything that might smell fishy. We count on you, our readers, to act on your civic duties as voters, taxpayers and independent voices. We can’t force you to read our news or speak up, but we will never tire of imploring you to raise your voices to power and to defend our fragile democracy.

A tribute to Rena

As the winter rains continue to fall, and hopefully bring relief to our watershed communities mired in a historic drought, the rainwater will begin to soak into our gardens and fields and run down the streets into our storm drains, which are not linked to the sewer. Storm drains are specifically designed to capture excess stormwater from streets and divert the flows through culverts and drainage channels into creeks, rivers, and eventually the Pacific Ocean. Stormwater drainage systems are not limited to just the drains on our streets; they can also include engineered systems which help reduce flooding, increase groundwater recharge, and improve overall resilience of the ecosystem. These engineered systems are called Low Impact Development (LID).

I’m submitting this terribly late in hopes it’s able to be seen before our final market, Saturday, Dec. 18. If so, you’ll know this will be a packed market: filled with plenty of produce despite many farms ending their season and all our delicious prepared and packaged food vendors you’ve come to know and love. We’ll also have close to 30 craft vendors, many who come throughout the season on a rotating schedule, but lots of new ones who’ve just come for our Fall/Holiday Craft Market. This will be the biggest week for this event.

Winter greetings and goodwill to all Healdsburgers. “IDlewood 3” was the town’s original telephone exchange and now “Hedda Healdsburg” wants to know all! Please send your newsy items to me in care of The Healdsburg Tribune.

Have you ever wanted a fresh start?

There’s no mistaking several recent incidents in the chambers of various local city halls and the county supervisors offices with the Jan. 6 violent insurrection at our U.S. Capitol. But all of these incidents exposed our democracy’s recent troubles with the peaceful and respectful passing of power from one party or officer to the next.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been cruel to all of us for many reasons. Of course there have been thousands of cases of illnesses in Sonoma County and now 414 deaths, almost all of them taking place unaccompanied by family or loved ones. Jobs and businesses have been lost and all our daily lives have been restricted by ongoing public health rules requiring us to wear masks, get vaccinated and tested and to limit our public interactions.