Editorial

A couple of weeks ago I saw a tiny item in some newspaper or other about a preacher browsing through the book department of a big chain discount store. He noticed that they had placed the Bibles in the “Fiction” section, and he took offense. The store apologized profusely and fell all over itself to right this supposed wrong.

The July 5th edition of the San Francisco Chronicle featured a remembrance of the 75th anniversary of the first Herb Caen column to appear in that paper. I started reading Herb Caen’s columns when I was a senior at Napa High School (Class of ‘62). My parents subscribed to the Napa Register so, for reasons I can’t recall, I began to read Caen’s Chronicle columns in the Napa High library. I’d leave home in whichever of my dad’s vehicles was available, often the ‘56 Chevy pickup which I still drive, arriving at the high school in time to walk through the main entrance, avoid stepping on the tile school emblem on the floor just inside the door, say hi to friends gathered around the senior heater, a radiator at which for some unknown reason a group of senior boys congregated, and then I’d head to the library for my daily dose of Herb Caen before heading off to my first period class.

I ran into Mike McGuire the other day at the First Annual

If kids can't read, they can't succeed...this is the motto for

What the county’s Board of Supervisors hoped would be a sleepy little single-issue election on June 2 for the Measure A county sales tax increase is turning out to be anything but.

Unless you’ve been closely following Sonoma County happenings, you may not be aware that another local, iconic bridge, the 1915, Parker-through-truss, Lambert Bridge, is in jeopardy of being removed from service. Like our Healdsburg Memorial Bridge, until recently, this bridge had a Caltrans reported structural Inventory Rating (a rating used for federal funding purposes) of zero tons. Its Sufficiency Rating is 4.8 compared to our Memorial Bridge’s Rating of 2 on a scale of 0 to 100. In June of 2013, I became aware of this threat and corresponded with our County Supervisor, Mike McGuire.

Vote to support libraries

Healdsburg’s rental housing market is in crisis. Evictions, 60 day notices and often 20 percent-plus rental increases are occurring daily, the most recent eviction being the 21-unit rental housing on Prentice Drive, with all tenants being evicted for building repairs, and rents going from a range of $850 to $1,400 to $2,100 – a 65 percent rental increase and more in one year. How many rental units and people are in Healdsburg? According to the 2010 housing element statistics there are 4,378 total housing units in Healdsburg. Forty-two percent of them (1,857) are rental units. With an average of three persons per unit, this could represent 5,571 people in our community of 12,000 residents.

Two decades ago, lots of Sonoma County winemakers and innkeepers were jealous over the attention heaped on their counterparts in Napa Valley, but they swore they’d never actually want to be another Napa or another wine country version of Disneyland. Back then, Sonoma’s wine and hospitality people would chortle, “Sonoma’s for wine, Napa is for auto parts.”

It is Wednesday, September, 17, 2014, I’m writing from Room 111B at Healdsburg District Hospital (HDH). My room overlooks a lovely courtyard, for which I am most grateful as I recover from my right knee replacement by Drs. Tomasin and Rose.