Healdsburg 2025
Editor’s note – As we celebrate our 150th year of publishing, the Healdsburg Tribune seeks to balance a reverence for the past, a keen eye on the present and a healthy curiosity about the future. Occasionally, a forward-thinking reader sends us what we like to call “A letter from the future,” examining present-day Healdsburg from an imagined perspective of the future. Jay Beckwith submitted this thoughtful and interesting essay.
It’s what we wished for
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.”
Managing the public sector
With this year’s elections fast approaching both candidates for the 4th Supervisorial District, James Gore and Deb Fudge have represented that they possess the knowledge and skills necessary to manage Sonoma County’s public sector and its problems, one of which is the gorilla in the room—unfunded pension liabilities.
To fish or not to fish
At least that was the question until it rained last week. Till then, the fish were holed up in pools of the lower Russian River, unable to go on their spawning runs because there wasn’t enough water in the river to allow it. I expect the rushing brown water from several creeks and tributaries has raised the river flow enough for the fish to be on their lusty way.
Wish you were here
It’s exciting to see county planning commissioners stepping up to the plate this week to address the county’s booming vacation rental market.
