Editorial

This is a Christmas memory of an older Sebastopol. It took place in a Sebastopol before tourism was encouraged, before there were any hotels, when the Barlow was just one of many apple processing plants in the area. This was before the Rialto, Peace Park, Skateboard Park, a town square or tree lighting. This was when Sebastopol was part of the Redwood Empire, not wine country.

A facility for the needy

In favor of market and pavilion

There’s a lot of news and circumstances behind Sonoma County’s record-low rate of unemployment, which this week stands at just 2.8 percent. As always, the news is a mix of good and bad.

Sonoma County residents are accustomed to the risks that wildfires pose. Earlier this year, we experienced a wildfire that forced residents into the all-too-familiar position of standing by for a potential evacuation order. This is why it is so imperative that proposed development projects anticipate strained evacuation routes before bringing more congestion to our roads. The Koi Nation’s proposal to construct the Shiloh Resort and Casino ignores this responsibility.

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.

We keep getting told by national and so-called social media that we are living in very divisive times with an America that seems split right down the middle. We get messages and news feeds that render our nation as being full of right and leftist political extremists, mass murderers, lots of bad cops, greedy corporations, sham politicians and a very small sliver of families and people just trying to get by, stay out of the way and be left alone.