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  1. TopTop #151
    79paul's Avatar
    79paul
     

    Re: Sebastopol Trail Makers needs your support for new bike trails

    I would echo Nancy's sentiments of applauding Lynn's efforts to get this going, and hope that those many people who said "I support this proposal BUT.... " will step forward and help make this a reality.

    I was proud of the decorum and civility of our community last Tuesday night, and especially pleased with our mayor and how he handled the proceedings. Having been to many council meetings over the past dozen years, first on Laguna Vista, and later on CVS, where the community had a clear target, I was pleased to see that we could be civil and hear each other's opinions.

    Although we're far from perfect, in light of what's going on in Furgeson and other divided communities around the country, I'm glad to be living in this community. A Thanksgiving poem for us:

    An Invitation


    Make of your kitchen a hearth
    where you warm and nourish your life.


    Make of the sky over your town your temple
    where you refresh yourself daily.

    Make of the people in your town your Beloved
    to rediscover with kindness each day.

    Make of the earth of your town your own garden
    where you gaze with attention each day.

    Make of your life a steady flame of delight.

    Look around you in this moment and see
    how all of this, pierces us with pain and such happiness.


    - Elizabeth Garber

    Quote Posted in reply to the post by nancypreb: View Post
    I want to applaud Lynn for his poise in the presence of that jam-packed room full of emotion. It was not an easy room to stand in front of, but Lynn did with grace and eloquence. It was admirable. I especially liked the line, "There's only one person in this room who gets to tell me what to do!" So cute... reminded me of my parents!

    I also want to echo Cynthi's comment to the effect that this proposal united this town in a way that we have not seen for a very long time. Despite what side of the debate you were on (and in this case "debate" is a good, appropriate, and healthy part of the process), gatherings were happening among neighbors in living rooms all across town. This proposal got this town energized about something besides the easy target, CVS.

    There were people in that room that never go to city meetings. There were people there for their first time ever. There were teenagers. Granted, they were getting credit for their class, even extra if they spoke, but they got a real and valuable education in civics. I think we're moving in the right direction as the City evokes more community participation.
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  3. TopTop #152

    Re: Sebastopol Trail Makers needs your support for new bike trails

    Hey Paul, just as another perspective, to be supportive of an idea &/or proposal does not necessarily mean one feels it worthy of their attention to bring it to fruition. Perhaps it means only that they would not actively go against it, with the noted exception of whatever the "but" stands for. I personally feel that stepping forward and making multi-use trails a reality should be up to the folks who were so busy trying to convince us that Lynn's original proposal was worthy. It obviously wasn't and it's absurd to think that those of us who recognized the flaws should roll up our sleeves to fix them. The idea that no one opposes bike paths as a general rule is not that same as we all think they are important.

    In Lynn's most recent post he clearly misrepresented Magic's question to the room when “every” hand was raised in agreement. Her question was not “who thinks we need these multi-use trails?" Her question to the room was “if you would like to see a healthy safe place that doesn't invade anybody’s rights already to have a bike path(s), a walking path would you want that, could you raise your hands if you would want that?” There is a significant difference in these two questions. I personally don't feel that we “need” these trails. In truth if the question posed was as Lynn is attempting to suggest I would not have raised my hand and it is likely that the hand count would not have been unanimous. My point is, when we tacitly accept the path of illusion and/or passive-aggressive manipulation we lose our critical thinking skills, our integrity and our ability to discern what it is we are actually pursuing.

    Quote Posted in reply to the post by 79paul: View Post
    I would echo Nancy's sentiments of applauding Lynn's efforts to get this going, and hope that those many people who said "I support this proposal BUT.... " will step forward and help make this a reality.
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  5. TopTop #153
    Magick's Avatar
    Magick
     

    Re: Sebastopol Trail Makers needs your support for new bike trails

    My name is Magick and I am the person that Lynn quotes in this post when he says, "However, a telling moment was when an individual speaker asked the crowd "who thinks we need these multi-use trails," every hand in the room went up."
    This summation of what I said is inaccurate.

    What I was trying to do was bring us all back to common ground by stating that I know we all want our children to have safe bike paths to school, and we want our elders to be respected, we want our neighborhoods to be safe and we want our air to be cleaner..

    I appreciate all the work people have put into this so far but I was not advocating for your proposal, Lynn, I was advocating for a united community exploring how to reach these goals together in a non-confrontational way.

    There was confusion at the meeting because it was not clear that this was still in the exploratory stages and what we hopefully did accomplish that night was a process for that exploration. That is what Una Glass proposed. She stated repeatedly she wanted a qualified, paid facilitator so that all our concerns and imagination could be synthesized into a cohesive plan.

    People were reacting out of fear that their homes were threatened. They thought they had to stop something right then.
    The tragedy of that evening was there were so many people that were new or rarely come to meetings and we could've put our imaginations together. But without the sense that there were alternatives and it was going to be this plan or none, the meeting became adversarial.

    So sad that children who were there with hopeful parents thinking they were showing their young ones democracy at work instead heard people mainly speaking in a defensive mode. Sad, watching the expectant young faces look dismayed when they were hoping to hear that a dream of biking all over their town safely would be the outcome.They witnessed people who do care very deeply, forget that if they were parents or grandparents to these very children they would be offering help and hope.
    I would hope in the future the council would frame such a topic in a way that would be inclusive by laying the foundation of common ground, explaining the process, so people are not defensive .

    When everyone raised their hand it was as a community united around values. Now the process of exploring how to initiate those values in a respectful, considerate way, with alternatives offered, this our challenge.
    In solidarity, Magick

    Quote Posted in reply to the post by Barry: View Post


    Dear Multiuse Trail Supporters,

    The trails proposal before the council went well. One of the most important things that happened is that the Council heard loud and clear how important these trails are to the community. They listened. They got it. They did not take the big steps that we had hoped for, yet they did take positive steps to move forward.

    For those of you who came and especially if you spoke for the cause, thank you. This made a difference. The place was packed with advocates.

    The meeting was also attended by many who did not want a trail on their street or Burbank Farm. They were organized and spoke with passion and wanted the trail somewhere else. However, a telling moment was when an individual speaker asked the crowd "who thinks we need these multi-use trails," every hand in the room went up. It is not if we should have the trails, but where.

    A point that came across strongly by trail advocates, and was probably good for the City staff to hear was that lines painted along the edge of the highways are no substitute for an off road trail. Many accomplished riders made statements like, "I will not risk my daughters life there….” and several stated they had been hit by a car riding at the edge of busy roads.

    Actually what the Council did:

    1) Require Planning Department to return with a public process for determining a E-W and a N-S (Class I trail priority) trail extending from the Joe Rodota Trail near Hopmonk, and,

    2) determine the cost of a professionally managed feasibility study for inclusion in the 2015-16 budget in April.

    It did not put the proposed trails into the Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan, but this is progress.

    A final take away — we need to involve all the affected community in the process and solution. People need to be informed and invited to participate in creating an alignment that works for them. Also, we need to keep multi use trails in front of the Council, for it really is public support that will make it happen.

    With gratitude,
    Lynn
    Last edited by Magick; 11-28-2014 at 08:30 PM. Reason: grammar
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  7. TopTop #154
    AllorrahBe
    Guest

    Re: Sebastopol Trail Makers needs your support for new bike trails

    The reason BH&O residents were so vocal in their objections was because almost every thing we read referred to "these trails" or perhaps "the trails," which would imply specific trails already named and mapped out and circulated to various people in the area (insiders?) That very same map made it impossible for even bikers who live here to approve the dangerous route proposed across our campus and Luther Burbank's historical Gold Ridge Farm.

    The buzz on campus is that we achieved our purposes by attending and protesting en masse, so we can now move on to protesting the CVS intrusion upon our peaceful enjoyment of our homes... or go back to sleep, as the case may be.
    Rev. BE
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