CVS to open this Sunday, Jan. 22 - What will you do? Support? Boycott? Protest?

[John Eder]

I am currently working on a review of the events regarding CVS in Sebastopol, from my perspective as a former City Councilmember. I hope to post it this weekend.

Thanks for your patience.

Even if you support CVS, don't you just love the really neighborly manner in which they maintained the former dealership property and the "F___ Y___" fence around it for so long? Even getting them to cut the weeds down was a major undertaking...

[SonomaPatientsCoop]

Someone asked earlier in this thread of you shop at "whole foods" . How about this- do you shop at Amazon? A company with a brutal corporate culture. And who rely on warehouses run by subcontractors, who they can then claim no responsibility for. Brutal working conditions, low wages, numerous confirmed reports of workers living in camps in brutal conditions just outside these warehouses.

I am constantly amazed (disgusted?) at the number of people who rage about things visible in their comunity (N.i.M.B.Y. ?) yet who gladly emprace the many other injustices in our world.

[jesswolfe]

Living across the street I have to say this isn't a failing strip mall. People go to CVS all the time. As well as Marys, the auto parts store, the mail center, the laundromat, the thrift store. A lot of people shop there and at times finding parking is a challenge. Lucky is not so well used even though their prices for some things are less than Safeway. There are also a couple of stores that have changed hands but the parking design makes for a weird corner that's not as accessible. There was no valid reason to be in the center of town snarling traffic.

Jessica

...Are you familiar with their former location? hidden away in a failing strip mall...

[Sieglinde]

This is true. I thought Thrifty's (later Rite Aid) had also banned tobacco products but I have noticed that Rite Aid sells tobacco products. It is Target that quit selling them, even before CVS. There are municipalities with tobacco-free pharmacy laws. I don't know if they affect places that have pharmacies such as Wal-Mart.

..As to CVS, please feel free to correct me if I am wrong but they are the first (and only?) national drug store to stop selling tobacco. ...

[Sieglinde]

I will not go to CVS until I visit the Feed Store for something else. The old location was actually wrong sized for their needs. Rite Aid did the same thing in another town I lived in. I am not going to protest anything.

[Sieglinde]

Interesting. The one next to Lucky's until tomorrow sold cold remedies and other over the counter remedies, makeup, hair products, nail products and seasonal junk. Handy for wrapping paper and greeting cards.

I will not shop there. I went to a CVS yesterday for the first time in many years, and found that it mostly sells candy and other junk food, and liquor. The pharmacy part is minor.

[Sieglinde]

Lucky's has added to EV charge spots and I actually saw someone using it. My next car will run on electrons. :)

...Nice to know there's another EV charge spot in town though.

[Sieglinde]

I was here during the entire astonishing thing. I am not as liberal as the majority even though I voted for Sanders in the primary. I knew how drive throughs on pharmacies work because I lived in a town with one. Did the city council look at drive through pharmacies in other towns? I think not. This is not like a Taco Bell drive through but lightly used. But this city council does not let itself be confused by facts very often.

I've been struck by the tone of recent postings by what I think are newly arrived residents, questioning our opposition to CVS ...

[Sieglinde]

I am not a Trump voter but when I moved into this town, I felt like a Goldwater conservative in comparison. I voted for Sanders in the primary. I guess West County Weird applies to the city council also

...But do you realize how many of our neighbors voted for Trump? ...

[erinsheff]

What time should we show up?

I will be out in front of CVS protesting on Sunday- I encourage as many people who can make it to show up. ...

[Shepherd]

The protest starts at 10 a.m. this Sunday and goes until the last person leaves. Please consider bringing signs. I hope to see many of you there.

What time should we show up?

[Jerry Green]

I'll boycott. Their north-town store gives me the creeps, and their business tactics are Trumpish. Bah.....

[spam1]

You clearly know nothing of the history of CVS forcing their way in and bullying our city council. I guess you don't know that our city spent $336,000 to try and stop them from moving there. It's not that people don't simply like CVS. But many people don't like that a big corporation has bullied our small town...because it has deeper pockets than us. Doesn't that bother you in the slightest?

Pellini's had the right to sell the property. CVS had the right to buy it. CVS had the right to commercialize it in the way that they did. The city wanted crystal shops or something, but the city does NOT get choose such things. It is NOT the city's property. They don't have a right to decide what goes there beyond the limits of the zoning. and the building looks fine. And CVS seems like a reasonable business. So say what they want, the city caved because they did not have right on their side. And, if your protests are successful and CVS says "gosh, you're right, you don't want us, we're closing down" then what? Another 10 years of nothing on the corner? Mind you, I seriously doubt they will say that. You are just wasting your time and annoying others, but then that is your right. And no, I won't go downtown to shop there because it's inconvenient. So now its Safeway or Rite-Aid (but they do have the...slowest....service....people....ever).

[Barry]

Here are the major discussions threads on WaccoBB in chronological order for the CVS project over the years. They provide a good summary of the community's concerns. You might scan them to read the Barry's Pick's posts:

CVS/Chase development proposal

CVS/Chase - After the approval with conditions

CVS sues Sebastopol

Behind the CVS Lawsuit: A Corporation's "Civil Right" to Profit by Screwing Sebastopol

Sebastopol and West County Boycott of CVS

CVS Building Permit Issued - Demolition to start next week

While CVS is under construction

(November 2014)

[SonomaPatientsCoop]

You clearly know nothing of the history of CVS forcing their way in and bullying our city council. I guess you don't know that our city spent $336,000 to try and stop them from moving there. It's not that people don't simply like CVS. But many people don't like that a big corporation has bullied our small town...because it has deeper pockets than us. Doesn't that bother you in the slightest?

Sorry- but what on earth are you talking about? You do realize we live in a free country? CVS broke no laws whatsoever in establishing a place of business.

However- our city council, tried to push through a ban on businesses with a drive through window - not in response to any problem with such businesses- but to stymie a specific project (how would you feel about a town pasing a ban on "xyz" to prevent a dispensary, or some other business that was disagreed with solely on political grounds?! ). The city council- NOT cvs cost us that $336K.

But I suppose it's ok for the enlightened to illegally block legitmate businesses where there is no existing law to do so? And you'd be whining even louder if the tables were turned. What hypocrisy.

[musik900]

Sounds like you aren't aware of what really happened...CVS tactics were clearly not ethical. But you can think what you want. Have a good day.

Sorry- but what on earth are you talking about?...

[Weiser]

CVS actually opened at 8 am yesterday not 10 am. Having planned to be their first customer at the new location I arrived at 8:15 and had to settle for second place. My purchase. A nice greeting card for my friends Bob Green and Kathleen Schaffer.

[John Eder]

My purchase. A nice greeting card for my friends Bob Green and Kathleen Schaffer.

Mark,
Tell them I said "hello".
P.S.- I believe that the correct spelling of her last name is Shaffer...
[FYI, John defeated Kathleen, who supported the CVS project, in her re-election bid in 2012. ~ Barry ]

[John Eder]

David, [aka SonomaPatientsCoop]

I am perplexed as to why an old West County pot dude like you would be such a vociferous cheerleader for a large national corporation that crapped on Sebastopol and vends the products of "Big Pharma" for the bulk of their profits. Weird.

CVS probably doesn't even carry rolling papers...

[Sieglinde]

I went Monday. I wonder why they built that false second story. Maybe to accommodate a high ceiling. Not much different than the old one. I did not notice. Did they have Thrifty's ice creme?

[SonomaPatientsCoop]

David, [aka SonomaPatientsCoop]

I am perplexed as to why an old West County pot dude like you would be such a vociferous cheerleader for a large national corporation that crapped on Sebastopol and vends the products of "Big Pharma" for the bulk of their profits. Weird.

CVS probably doesn't even carry rolling papers...

am not a suppoprter of CVS. But, even though I am not religious, I am reminded of the Serenity Prayer: "God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, And wisdom to know the difference. "

CVS is here. The opposition lost (at great expense to the taxpayers by the way it was handled). As I've said- we live in a community - and "we" are not the gatekeepers - clearly a large part of the broader community felt little to no opposition to the CVS. And clearly CVS believes there is more then enough support in the broader community to not only cover the costs of a massive construction project- but turn a hefty profit.

Especially now- there are far greater issues to face...and ones there may still be a chance to do something about.

[tommy]

FYI, the new CVS is out of compliance with Sebastopol's General Plan. In that Plan, drug stores are supposed to be located in shopping centers outside of the central core - such as where CVS has been located, in the Redwood Marketplace. The central core is for pedestrian friendly businesses, such as restaurants, coffee shops, gift shops, bookstores.

[rossmen]

And yes, this ordinance was adopted after cvs won their case, in response to citizen lament, how did the monstrosity get approval? Hindsight, so clear. This is why roundtable couldn't come back to downtown. And why we have a really bad fish and chips place with drivethrough where mcds used to be (also indegestible). Government sets the law, bizness trys to make money. I liked cvs where it was, because it was imby.

To recap, cvs is in compliance because they are grandmothered in.

FYI, the new CVS is out of compliance with Sebastopol's General Plan. In that Plan, drug stores are supposed to be located in shopping centers outside of the central core - such as where CVS has been located, in the Redwood Marketplace. The central core is for pedestrian friendly businesses, such as restaurants, coffee shops, gift shops, bookstores.

[SonomaPatientsCoop]

Sounds like you aren't aware of what really happened...CVS tactics were clearly not ethical. But you can think what you want. Have a good day.

Really? Care to elaborate on what "really happened" you think was not "ethical"?

Because I was paying attention before this was on most peoples radar- from years in construction I knew the developer who was pushing this.

And would you please explain how the Sebastopol City Council, passing a temporary ban on businesses with a drive thru, which cost taxpayers...what..$330K... was ethical?

[SonomaPatientsCoop]

FYI, the new CVS is out of compliance with Sebastopol's General Plan. In that Plan, drug stores are supposed to be located in shopping centers outside of the central core - such as where CVS has been located, in the Redwood Marketplace. The central core is for pedestrian friendly businesses, such as restaurants, coffee shops, gift shops, bookstores.

??? And the Feed Store- formerly Frizelles, which was the longest serving downtown business was/is "pedestrian friendly". Yep- I see people with 6 bales of hay on their back trudging through downtwon daily.

Please- CA...and the US as a whole- are very much car centric. I see people every day driving 1 1/2 blocks rather then walking.

I'm sorry- but nice dream. Until Sebastopol follows a handful of examples and blocks off the downtown core from traffic (and spends how many billions of taxpayer dollars rerouting traffic...where?) this was just another pipe dream wishlist of our grand city council.

[Peacetown Jonathan]

I noticed that my friend Barry decided not to list my investigative story about CVS and the singular role that a suspiciously rigged traffic report played in bringing getting the CVS project passed.

As excerpted below, had the traffic study actually measured the current level of traffic heading east on Bodega Highway into Main Street, it would have found that traffic does indeed take more than 35 seconds at risk hour, and this entire project would not have been given the green light that it was. Because somehow Mr. Webster's planning department instructed the external traffic study company to eastbound traffic from High street instead of Jewell Avenue, the Council was provided with a "negative traffic declaration." That there was no significant traffic at the busiest traffic intersection in West County.

The thread is hereL https://www.waccobb.net/forums/content.php?190-Is-the-Sebastopol-Planning-Director-Rigging-the-CVS-Chase-Project

Excerpt and chart:

I have been an investigative financial reporter for decades, analyzing and publishing articles on major real estate projects and financial scandals for magazines like Forbes and New York. An examination of Mr. Webster's actions in the course of the approval process for the CVS project suggests that at every critical juncture, the City's Planning Director has acted in a pro-developer advocacy capacity, as opposed to the professional analytical capacity to which he is legally and ethically obligated.

Instead of enabling a fully informed review of this critical project by our democratically-elected, legally empowered City Council, Mr. Webster has acted in a dictatorial, domineering manner to push the approval of this critically located, enormously unpopular project.

Our Council has been advised that it is "not allowed" to consider the traffic impact of this project because a traffic study with a "negative declaration" of its impact has been issued. But it seems that this negative impact was built upon a Kenyon Webster rigged foundation from the start. It will surprise Sebastopolians that of the ten sites which Mr. Webster selected for the traffic study provider to assess, the Bodega Highway eastbound access point, one of the most backed up traffic choke points in West County, was only measured from High Street. No further western points, especially the long area to Jewell Avenue, where traffic backs up every rush hour, were assessed. Because any projected traffic delay of more than five seconds from the CVS project would be "significant," and prevent a negative declaration, Mr. Webster removed this "problem," by limiting the traffic sites that the study would assess.



Source: Mitigated Negative Declaration

As a result, the citizens of Sebastopol and our City Council are told they must now legally believe what on the face of it is unlikely and unbelievable: that adding 2,000- car trips every day to the proposed CVS site will NOT CAUSE AN ADDITIONAL FIVE SECOND DELAY heading east on Bodega Avenue.

[Sara S]

Thank you for trying, Jonathan.....

[Barry]

I noticed that my friend Barry decided not to list my investigative story about CVS and the singular role that a suspiciously rigged traffic report played in bringing getting the CVS project passed.

For the record, I didn't "decide" not to include your very worthy article about the traffic report, rather I looked for the major CVS threads based on a reply count of over 20. Your article got 10 replies, which isn't to say it wasn't important. Thank's for reminding us about this aspect.

[Karl Frederick]

I have found that, during the school year, mid-afternoon eastbound traffic on Bodega Avenue is often backed up for half a mile, from Main Street to Robinson Road, and I can walk that half mile as quickly as drive it. For the sake of neighborhood residents, I won't mention an alternate route.

I noticed that my friend Barry decided not to list my investigative story about CVS and the singular role that a suspiciously rigged traffic report played in bringing getting the CVS project passed.

. . . . . . .

[tommy]

What are u smoking, David?

I don't know if you were around in 2013-14, when the Planning Commission, Design Review, and City Council had meetings about the new CVS. If you had attended those meetings, you would have learned that most people in Sebastopol opposed the new CVS, as inappropriate in its new location.

No argument about hay bales or blocking traffic will obscure that truth.

Why did they oppose it? This from the Press Democrat after the next election when Sebastopol passed a moratorium on new chain stores:

"City officials insist that the moratoriums are not directed at the $10 million CVS and Chase Bank project that is already in the works. Rather, they say they are attempts to control the types of businesses that open in the west Sonoma County hub and promote the homegrown establishments that give the city its small-town feel. 'We have an independent streak and want to do things our way,' said Councilman Patrick Slayter. 'This is a way to get ahead of developments that I don't think a lot of residents would support.'"

I doubt there would have been any opposition to a new CVS in Rohnert Park, or along Hwy 80 in Sacramento. Sebastopol has a different feel than those places, and different kind of people live here. That gives Sebastopol character, which Rohnert Park does not have.

Why was it eventually built? Money and power! CVS had the money to buy the property, build the store, and most importantly, make improvements to the streets, sidewalks, and utilities,.. & litigate the controversy... that no one else had. It has been well documented that CVS has done this over and over, in many small towns: harm the character of a small town by building a store that does not belong there. This is why we have zoning, building codes, general plans, etc. This is what distinguishes Sebastopol from Rohnert Park. Rohnert Park was built one subdivision after the other, without much concern for town character, a downtown, or community feeling. I'm not trying to bash RP, it is what it is, it's just alot different than Sebastopol.

??? And the Feed Store- formerly Frizelles, which was the longest serving downtown business was/is "pedestrian friendly". Yep- I see people with 6 bales of hay on their back trudging through downtwon daily. ...