Editorial

Fasten your seatbelts. This week marks the official start of Election Year 2016, culminating next Nov. 8 with the election of a new U.S. President and Congress. Dozens of local elections also will be decided, along with the usual flash mob of statewide propositions.

If you look at our waterways from above, you can see a rolling and flowing patchwork of managed lands and natural landscapes, including urbanized neighborhoods, agricultural fields, riparian forest, seasonal channels and open water. More and more we are seeing how our management of these lands influences the others.

Except for all the unrepentant procrastinators among us, it is

Keep Free To Be

I request that the city council reconsider their action to prohibit short-term vacation rentals. I understand that there are valid concerns about loss of low cost housing and the impact vacation rentals could have on our residential neighborhoods.

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.