Main Street

The common trust
I’m still trying to sort out why the prospect of new hotels in downtown Healdsburg has everyone is such a lather. Specifically, I’m struggling with the notion that we need an ordinance to prevent or curtail hotel development. I visited the SIRS group a few weeks ago, and one would expect a bunch of retired businessmen to believe that prosperity is a good idea. Not so. The consensus in the room was that a ballot initiative to limit hotel development is a good idea.
I still think that the system we have works, by weeding out lousy projects (like Plumpjack) and encouraging good projects (like H2hotel). But, I also know that some of the folks who support an anti-hotel ordinance are bright, thoughtful people, so I’m keeping an open mind.
I do believe it speaks to trust. For decades, we’ve trusted in the concept that inviting people to visit our town, leave a few bucks here and go home, will be good for the community. More importantly, we’ve trusted the folks at City Hall to seek balance, steer the ship in a centrist manner and not get stupid.
Has that trust eroded? It seems that it has. Getting it back might be a better use of our time than fighting over whether 36 rooms is better than 43.
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By the way, banishing hotels to the periphery of town is a terrible idea. It will create a sprawl effect, as businesses cluster around the new developments, and it will make downtown parking worse. Every visitor to our hotels wants to be downtown – to eat, drink, shop and hang out. Can you imagine the chaos if they all have to drive to get there instead of just walking out of their downtown hotel?
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Have you signed up for Obamacare? The federal healthcare overhaul got a bumpy start, but it’s working better now, and the California version has been working all along. The scary stories about millions getting their health insurance plans canceled was a manufactured crisis. The health insurance companies knew they were selling people junk insurance plans that would not be allowable once the law went into effect. I guess you can blame the government for what private companies do, but it doesn’t seem fair. I just wrote a check for my new coverage. It’s almost identical to the plan I had before and I’m saving $202 a month on my premium.
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Main Street heard from City Hall that the street furniture for the downtown pocket parks on Center Street will be here next month. Assistant City Manager David Mickaelian says the furniture company told him the order will be shipped on January 8 and installed as soon as possible after it’s received.
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Santa in cuffs? Believe it. Karl Hilgert, a principled and thoughtful guy who happens to look a lot like Santa Claus, is fond of dressing up like the holiday icon. When he lived in Healdsburg, Karl played Santa for a few good causes, and he took up a new cause last month. On the day after Thanksgiving, Karl put on his Santa suit and showed up at the Ontario, California Walmart to protest the low wages paid to Walmart workers.
A photo of Karl in handcuffs, being led away by local cops, became an Internet sensation and even made the big time, when it was featured on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Another photo shows Ontario Police Sergeant Pat Birkett trying to stifle a smile as Karl/Santa hands him a candy cane while Birkett tries to read Santa his rights.
In case you’re wondering why Santa Claus would protest the labor practices of what some call “the world’s most efficient consumer empowerment machine” consider that some Walmart stores held food drives for their paid employees around Thanksgiving, tacitly acknowledging that the wages they pay are so low that some employees can’t afford to eat regularly.
Is it worth it to support a system that squeezes people that hard just so you can save money on something you probably don’t need? Do you really have to buy your grandkid a shirt made in another country by a kid their age who does this sort of thing for a living instead of playing, going to school and opening presents?
Ray Holley digs that radical Santa. He can be reached at [email protected].