News

Our California drought is a tangle of mathematics problems. And, so far, it doesn’t look like the numbers are adding up. Facing our worst drought in 120 years, we know the severe lack of rain will require a lot of subtraction and sacrifice. This math test is no longer optional. Last week, Gov. Brown made it mandatory and we all have to save a minimum of 25 percent over previous rates of water usage.

As we observe National Volunteer Week (April 6-12), the staff of the Healdsburg Senior Center would like to extend our heartfelt thank you and appreciation to our volunteers for all they do to serve our guests, as well as assist us in our daily operations.

There is a “tourism tsunami” effect happening to our small town community now. Healdsburg has been discovered, but it is still our small town, and if local residents complain, we can turn the tide. As we’ve learned about the deals behind closed doors that led to the “Meat Market” changes, many residents feel these to be a violation of public trust. “A project for locals” will now serve high-end tourists. I am fourth generation Sonoma County, descended from some of the earliest pioneers to Sonoma County. I know what nice small communities like Healdsburg were like until tourism and big money transformed them. Now they resemble Hollywood North. Healdsburg residents should be aware the local Chamber of Commerce and its promotional budget is fueling this transformation. Another problem we are facing is that our neighborhoods are changing radically. According to Brigette Mansell, our newest elected city council member, too many of our residences are becoming second homes, and investors are grabbing up anything that comes on the market. “Bottom line, I fear too many people are putting profit before community,” she says. The trend to second and third homes also causes a shortage of rentals for our own people, e.g., young people, city workforce residents and low income families. What we are now seeing in Healdsburg is a rampant spread of greed that does not serve the majority of local residents or their descendants. While I don’t know the “Meat Market” owner personally, I can sense that his intention was originally for the public good. Nonetheless, the plan changed from something that would serve the residents to luxury hospitality. This is compounding the sensitivity of the situation and creating the tourism effect which is also impacting the town of Sonoma and communities in Napa. We face more of the same with the approved 300-acre project north of the Plaza that will include a large luxury hotel and multi-million dollar homes. We are in the worst California drought in recorded history, but it doesn’t seem that City Hall and the business community is considering the state-mandated conservation of water. Nor are they considering the impact of hotels and tourists that are using vast amounts of water. Yet, local residents are using dishpan water to irrigate their front yard plants, and have cut back the size of their vegetable gardens to comply with the state mandate. When I questioned a city council member in 2014 about where the water would come from for this large new development, I was told, “Healdsburg sits on a huge aquifer near Dry Creek Valley, we don’t have to worry about water.” I guess water conservation is just for those of us who reside in town and have lived here for decades to generations. What residents are really upset about is the continuing growth of this cancer that is spreading through our community. It is not sustainable for healthy, viable neighborhoods. Residents do not feel that city government has their best interests in mind, and we are afraid that this fast paced change will tear the very fabric of our community apart and eventually increase dislocation of longtime residents and disrupt the very heartbeat of our town.

The news this week is good. Sonoma County was just rated the eighth healthiest county in California, based on findings in a national survey of 3,000 counties. Good health is always good news.

On this coming Easter Sunday we will rejoice in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, a moment visited by angels from the afterlife delivered to us by the almighty power of God. The Easter stories of the rolled away stone and empty tomb will be retold and the gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke will be recited where Jesus, the son of God, died for our sins and “was carried on high into heaven.”

I am a local who has been visiting and shopping downtown since 1990. The current parking dilemma has arisen because of the past political marriage between downtown business and local politicians. In an effort to promote growth and accumulate revenue, Healdsburg has incorporated the in-lieu parking fee concept, which although is good for developers, it has failed the local property owning taxpayer.

Most of us are still adjusting to Daylight Saving Time, trying to get our biological clocks re-set to early morning darkness and droopy eyelids. All this to save an hour of evening sunlight? We can think of better things worth saving.

Millions of gallons of oil have been spilled across the United States through ship, rail and road collisions, explosions, pipeline ruptures, storms, etc. Big oil disasters continue to reverberate through the environment and through our news cycles: the BP oil rig explosion that wreaked havoc in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, the ship Cosco Busan that crashed into the Bay Bridge in 2007 dumping oil into San Francisco Bay, and the famous Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska in 1989. While we watch the ongoing analysis, litigation and attempted cleanup from these high-profile events, there are measures we can all take to reduce a lesser but still very serious threat.

The answer to “when is enough, enough?” will appear on the June 2 county election ballot. That’s when the county Board of Supervisors will ask voters to approve a quarter-cent sales tax increase, promising to use the money to catch up on road and street repairs.

Healdsburg’s Growth Management Ordinance (GMO) is a citizen initiative enacted to preserve the town’s unique quality and character and insulate it from the pressures of unregulated market driven development. It effectively put the brakes on residential development and allowed the community to contemplate its future free from outside development pressures. The GMO’s authors and supporters are to be commended for their courage, perseverance and continued resolve.