What concerns you about Sonoma County?

[Barry]

What concerns you about Sonoma County??? We will be voting for a new Sonoma County Supervisor in the 5th district (West county - which includes a big part of Waccovia!) this year and several of the candidates are Wackos! So let your concerns be heard!


Article published - Jan 16, 2008
Survey: What concerns Sonoma County?
BY Bob Norberg
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Sonoma County residents are more concerned about gangs and crime, foreign oil and a possible water shortage than they are about transportation issues, according to a survey conducted for the county’s transportation authority.

Still, people want to see safer, less crowded roads and are willing to pay a sales tax to fund transportation alternatives.

“Sonoma voters want to see a comprehensive plan, they would like to see transit for the disabled and buses for the elderly, they like a passenger train overwhelmingly and road improvements,” said Jim Moore of Sacramento, whose firm, Moore Methods, conducted the survey.See the rest of the article here: https://www1.pressdemocrat.com/artic...81/1033/NEWS01

["Mad" Miles]

Barry, SonomaCo'ers,

Off the top of my head:

Water (And the rest of the "natural" environment. Yes, Tiger Salamanders are Amphibians and NOT Reptiles, and they are animals. [What a Doof!?] An indicator species even.)

Roads (Surface quality and the ubiquitous clueless &/or asshole drivers)

Crowding (i.e. urban sprawl, population pressures, dumbing down of culture and politics. Lived in Orange County, CA from '74-'84 and visited regularly until '89, don't want to see it happen here. And it is, although more slowly, probably because of the constriction of the 101 Corridor, plus UGB's, and oh yeah, the price of real estate.)

How to survive after the oil runs out and the urban cannibals are ranging out from the center looking for new meat, and they're packing! (If you also include the current global set-up / power structure, well, you get the idea...)

That's it, for now....

"Mad" Miles

[Valley Oak]

What concerns me about Sonoma County is what will happen when the world's petroleum reserves are exhausted and there is none left. Our entire society will collapse into starvation, civil war, and the demise of the United States as a country. We will need to start building castles again in a 'Road Warrior' version of the future, with iPod kings 'n queens. The kings will be Elvis impersonators and the queens will be men on drag who are all technologically hip but still have to pull a plow for food.

Our local politicians need to begin transforming Sebastopol into an 'eco-hamlet' powered by solar, sweat, and vegetable oil and animal fat for fuel in vehicles. American flags and bibles will be used for towels and toilet paper in order to reuse valuable resources that used to be wasted on useless applications. We need our future local representatives to help us prepare for a primitive and kinky future without petroleum.

Edward

Barry, SonomaCo'ers,

Off the top of my head:

Water (And the rest of the "natural" environment. Yes, Tiger Salamanders are Amphibians and NOT Reptiles, and they are animals. [What a Doof!?] An indicator species even.)

Roads (Surface quality and the ubiquitous clueless &/or asshole drivers)

Crowding (i.e. urban sprawl, population pressures, dumbing down of culture and politics. Lived in Orange County, CA from '74-'84 and visited regularly until '89, don't want to see it happen here. And it is, although more slowly, probably because of the constriction of the 101 Corridor, plus UGB's, and oh yeah, the price of real estate.)

How to survive after the oil runs out and the urban cannibals are ranging out from the center looking for new meat, and they're packing! (If you also include the current global set-up / power structure, well, you get the idea...)

That's it, for now....

"Mad" Miles

[realfire]

My comments are sebastopol based and I can only speak for this area :
In no particular order :

Increased Traffic
Increased Lack of parking
Increased Graffitti ( personal and private property )
Seek Police Blogs in local papers : theft, violent incidence

Increased visibility of homeless people
Increased " hoodlum " types in the town square blasting their car radio, throwing garbage on the ground

Overall climate of " our little town "

thanks and I did not write these comments to be judged or to get into a debate on MY perception and will not respond to any type of banter
thanks

[shellebelle]

Sonoma reminds me of the county I grew up in. We could walk places to the mall, to the sites, to our friends homes and ride our bikes outside with just monitoring. We could walk to school as well (a big thing when I was small) and had our crossing guard to check in with as well as our teacher. We had BLOCK Parents - remember them?

We were small enough the police knew who to watch and who to just keep an eye on and everyone in between ad we kids knew them by name and site. They knew our parents and knew our parents were far scarier than they were.

There were problems but they were small town problems and we thought the adults had it all under control. We saw graffiti but not often and it was removed fast unless you were in "the bad part" of town. We had homeless but the shelter could handle them okay and of course we heard "it will get better - we have big plans".

The truth was my small town and county out grew its forecasts a lot. The adults in office were so busy worrying about what turned out to be in significant and not worrying enough about the big things.

The police force is the same size in my little town as it was when I grew up but the community size had almost tripled. They've added a few fire stations but not nearly enough and not trained enough in high rise fire rescue. Homeless has increased significantly but the shelters are the same size as is the population that supports them. The core population has gotten older, the schools prepared us for basic work nothing high tech - they couldn't possibly see the today we know, they tried to work with those who were the brightest but its hard for someone who has never been that advanced to teach someone who has but they tried and thats all they did they tried.

What they missed - they didn't set growth limits in population, they didn't limit land development, they didn't limit buildings in height size etc, they didn't limit commercial and retail, they didn't have a growing police force that increased by population, they didn't have a plan for the schools - what do you do when in 20 years your population triples after dropping 20%? POPULATION GROWTH they didn't plan for it.

The orchards I grew up with are gone. No one remember where the springs were so houses flood "suddenly". They are surprised by wild animals in the local neighborhoods despite years of showing that there was a wilderness migration and hunt path across the properties.

In the past I heard my son/daughter is in. . . now I hear my child has nothing to do. I have heard that here as well - my answer you are the parent go keep your kid interested in their community! If you don't you'll pay dearly in your grandchildren. What you sow this generation blooms in the your grandchilds.

My little town and county are gone. Its the big city now. My city had a population of 125,000 when I was 5 or 6 now its 350,000. The size hasn't changed, the population density has. I don't know if anyone saw it coming but I can see it here.

So look to little city that was quoted as being just like my little town in the midwest and now is too big for its own good and growing. Look at the county that said we won't be like . . . and see they are. Look at Anaheim - look at Orange County. Anaheim/Santa Ana is like Santa Rosa; Fullerton is Petaluma; Orange/Tustin like Sebastopol. Just look back 25 years or so and see the issues coming forward. Most are population issues.

I hope we are better adults and look at the important issues and leave the little ones. I hope others mistakes are learned from not repeated.

[nurturetruth]

In particular to "West County" area (and after this most recent power outage storm):

I quote Wacco member, "Terriann"


".......to have smaller, more locally controlled grids that allow for interdependence at a local level, with all the diversity of power sources that a region can provide for itself. Diversity = vitality and health--ecological, economical, and social."

~~ sources of WATER

~~ along with Road qualities

and having less Mental Health beings shot by the Sonoma Sheriffs..and more alternative solutions in dealing with mental health crisis!!

[Sonomamark]

Many detail issues of concern have been raised, but my concern is more macroscopic.

I'm primarily concerned about the decline of influence of the progressive community--particularly the environmental community--because it is increasingly unreasonable, absolutist, focused on fringe issues which are not of concern to the average Sonoma County voter, and ostensibly led by people who do not have sufficient credibility with said voters to actually be able to win at the polls.

In 1998, most of the city councils in the county had elected environmentalist majorities. That's why Windsor and Petaluma have voter-approved urban growth boundaries (those passed by other cities were done by citizen initiative), and why many of our cities have pursued sustainability efforts. These steps were accomplished through grassroots organizing in the cities, and strategic picking of battles that mobilized Hwy 101 corridor voters.

That level of traction collapsed in 2000. Now, only Windsor and Sebastopol have nominally environmentally-oriented city councils, and I'm sure there are plenty of people here who will hammer the Sebastopol council as "sell-outs" (you should be so lucky--those who remember how it was 15 years ago know you could do a lot worse).

So my concern is about the takeover of the progressive movement in the county from those who weren't against change and stood for something positive and innovative by those who seem to have a knee-jerk opposition to anything new, and no sense of political strategy at all.

Here's an example: the GMO initiative a couple of years ago. The bottom line is that the average voter in Santa Rosa or Rohnert Park or Windsor or Petaluma doesn't see genetically modified organisms as a top-priority issue for their attention. Nor do they see the crew of people from Occidental that led that campaign as credible leaders. As they were in the 90s, and as voters always will, they want leaders in their own communities. If they don't see that, they won't be interested. Was that worth going to war with the agricultural community? I would argue that it was not. It was a complete, quixotic waste of effort, and dead on arrival. I had friends who were infuriated when I told them six months before the election that the GMO initiative would max out at 45%, but sure enough, that's what happened.

That doesn't mean these voters have changed their values. If nothing else, the county has become even more environmentally oriented than it was back then--look at the insanely high vote for the reauthorization of the Open Space District.

But if the environmental movement is going to have the kind of influence, credibility and power it did in the late 90s again, it's going to require reestablishment of visible, credibly speaking presence in the media, organizing focused not on the rural areas but in the cities, recognized leaders who live in those cities and a willingness to be practical, incremental and strategic in which battles it picks to fight.

Blanket opposition to change in a NIMBY sense is not a winner, politically. It plays on the public stage as nothing more than selfishness. Nor does the kind of fringe-science/conspiracy-theory stuff we've seen here on the Wi-Fi issue have any influence with a typical Sonoma County voter. This county has the opportunity--and I would argue, the obligation--to be a leader on sustainability issues. To do that, we will have to bring people together, and meet the needs of not only West County leftists, but business, agricultural, and cultural minority interests, and find ways to meet ALL their needs.

My concern is that the environmental left here is becoming like the Christian right: absolute, ideological, and unwilling to accept less than 100% of what it demands. And that because of this, we will hand over the future of this county to those who are better able to play the real game: economic interests and the wealthy, who are flooding in and turning this place more Marinlike with every passing year.



Sonomamark

What concerns you about Sonoma County??? We will be voting for a new Sonoma County Supervisor in the 5th district (West county - which includes a big part of Waccovia!) this year and several of the candidates are Wackos! So let your concerns be heard!


Article published - Jan 16, 2008
Survey: What concerns Sonoma County?
BY Bob Norberg
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Sonoma County residents are more concerned about gangs and crime, foreign oil and a possible water shortage than they are about transportation issues, according to a survey conducted for the county’s transportation authority.

Still, people want to see safer, less crowded roads and are willing to pay a sales tax to fund transportation alternatives.

“Sonoma voters want to see a comprehensive plan, they would like to see transit for the disabled and buses for the elderly, they like a passenger train overwhelmingly and road improvements,” said Jim Moore of Sacramento, whose firm, Moore Methods, conducted the survey.See the rest of the article here: https://www1.pressdemocrat.com/artic...81/1033/NEWS01

[Barry]

...But if the environmental movement is going to have the kind of influence, credibility and power it did in the late 90s again, it's going to require reestablishment of visible, credibly speaking presence in the media, organizing focused not on the rural areas but in the cities, recognized leaders who live in those cities and a willingness to be practical, incremental and strategic in which battles it picks to fight. ...

Thanks for your comments, Sonomamark! What do you suggest as the way forward? Which battles would you like to see picked?

[Valley Oak]

Sonomamark, I would vote for you if you ever decided to run for office. I'm confident that many other people would do the same. You would probably have a good chance at winning a city council seat somewhere. Would you do so as an Independent or a Green Party candidate?

Thank you again for your thoughts,

Edward

Many detail issues of concern have been raised, but my concern is more macroscopic...

[Sonomamark]

Thanks, Edward--I appreciate it. There was a time when I was pointed in that direction, and I've come to decide that I don't think I have quite the right personality for it, at least not as I am now. But as you know, I've been deeply involved in the county's environmental politics for a long time--more narrowly focused on the Laguna, now--and neither my fascination and enthusiasm for the process of developing and advancing innovative solutions to problems nor my devotion to the beauty of this place and the opportunity it presents to be an example to the rest of the country have flagged one bit. (Sorry, that sentence got away from me.)

Also, I'm a Democrat. Not a Green, not an Independent. I'm a pragmatist, and as I read it, third-party candidacies are exercises in political futility, at least beyond the city council level. The Democratic Party had a terrible fall due to its holding power unchallenged for too long: it became corrupt and coopted by corporate interests. But with the rise of the blogosphere and the new crew of candidates like Jerry McNerney, Howard Dean, Scott Kleeb, Gary Trauner &c., we're starting to see progressivism return to the Democratic party. The DLC/Clintonians will fight like hell to stop it, but it's coming. And I'm all for it. So I'm a Dem.

In answer to Barry's question, I think the approach that worked in the 90's-- mostly characterized by Sonoma County Conservation Action's grassroots organizing and its partnerships with local environmental groups in the cities to lend organizing support to their goals--is still a sound one. (Disclaimer for those who don't know: I was the founding executive director of SCCA and its primary liaison to partner organizations and spokesperson in the press during those years. I left at the end of 2000 after ten years).

During those years, SCCA was unbelievably successful. Its full-time door-to-door professional canvass organizing led to victories that I can still hardly believe we had, like the cancellation of the proposed West County wastewater dam at the Button Ranch, the abandonment of the later proposed direct wastewater discharge to the River, and the cancellation of the proposed doubling of capacity at the Airport. All were accomplished through organizing the voters that the decision makers cared about: the ones that vote for them. When the two targeted Santa Rosa city council members who were the swing on the West County dam got 1,300 handwritten letters from Santa Rosa voters, that made a big difference to them, when years of howling from the River communities hadn't bothered them in the least. We probably had more than 100,000 individual one-on-one conversations with voters in support of rail transit, and I'm convinced that was the factor that took the idea from a romantic fringe concept to one that is supported by more people than widening the freeway.

We also made mistakes, and I take responsibility for some of them. I was only 29 when I came on board at SCCA--I was brash and combative, and there were times when we could have gotten farther with more alliance-building and less swinging for the nose of the opposition. But the primary difficulty today is one that we had less of in the 1990s: the lack of an articulated vision for what we want to happen here, and a willingness to take an organizational, strategic approach to moving that vision forward, rather than constantly bogging down in the tactical (today's campaign, this election's outcome).

Tactics without strategy can take you places you didn't want to go. Here's an example from my watch: we worked like hell on behalf of Pete Foppiano for Supervisor, and did such a good job that Onita Pellegrini, the Chamber of Commerce candidate, wasn't even one of the top-two vote-getters in the primary. This unknown Christian-right guy named Paul Kelley edged her out. Foppiano proceeded to blow the general election, and we've had Supervisor Kelley ever since. Thankfully, with the global warming issue, he seems to have started to figure things out.

The Climate Protection Campaign has done a good job with setting a vision. They're specific about the improvement they want to see accomplished, and that's a start. After that, you can start talking about how to get there.

My perspective on this has been that SCCA's strength turned out also to be its weakness. Its board when I was there was made up of a remarkable crew of activists with tremendous capacity to make tactical strides for the causes they cared about with nearly nothing in the way of resources. Seriously: SCCA and its allies won about 70% of the issues and elections it was involved with for a ten-year run. That's pretty amazing when you consider that the institutions it was up against had many times more money, more insider connection and more media support than the environmental community did. Credit is deserved all around but the leadership of that board deserves top billing.

The downside was that no one was thinking about organization building. The doors were always on the verge of closing. I'm not very familiar with how things are there now, but I don't see the organization mentioned in the press much, and it doesn't seem to have been as big a factor as it used to be in local elections. Some of that is the inevitability of the Empire Striking Back--more money got poured into campaigns by the business and ag communities to offset the effectiveness of the grassroots organizing. But some of it seems to be a leadership/voice vacuum and lack of a coherent vision to rally around. Much of what I hear now about the organization's efforts seems to be fighting the firefight-du-jour, and in some cases picking unwinnable battles. I could be wrong about that, but that's how it looks from the outside.

I learned a lot in my 10 years at SCCA, and I'm happy to be working now at an organization where I can apply what I learned. Being clear on the goals, specific in strategies developed to pursue them, and methodical and collaborative in implementing those strategies--while remaining nimble, entrepreneurial and risk-tolerant enough to seize opportunities as they arise--is a delicate line to walk, but it has extraordinary rewards, and I think what we're going to see in the revitalization and public cherishing of the Laguna de Santa Rosa over the next decade or so will bear that out.

Especially now that the UGBs are in place, I think most of Sonoma County's voters have moved on from growth concerns and will place less emphasis on environmental issues (focusing instead on economic and quality of life concerns like gangs and education) unless they see 1) A threat; 2) A vision that presents a positive opportunity; 3) a clear definition of who is carrying that flag--a person they see has having similar interests and values to themselves, meaning someone who lives in the 101 corridor, like most of them; and 4) how they can become involved in the effort.

Water presents a key issue, but most of the voices on water thus far are from the rural parts of the County, and voters in the suburban neighborhoods don't see those people as being like themselves. I'm not saying they shouldn't be doing what they're doing--there's a lot of activity out there and I can't make a general characterization--but rather that there is a need for a spokesperson who has the capacity to speak persuasively and with inspiration, and speaks on behalf of a recognizable organization or coalition that is viewed as being made up of people like the typical voter of the 101 corridor.

I should mention: we have some elected officials like that, but that's a different category. Words from a politician are always taken differently than words from a public-interest organization. That's not always fair, but it's true. We have some very good officials in this county, several of whom SCCA helped to elect while I was there, and they are still working hard in the public interest.

Well, this has been a long one. Thanks for listening.



Mark

Sonomamark, I would vote for you if you ever decided to run for office. I'm confident that many other people would do the same. You would probably have a good chance at winning a city council seat somewhere. Would you do so as an Independent or a Green Party candidate?

Thank you again for your thoughts,

Edward

[Melodymama]

Barry; Which battles would you like to see picked?

I can only focus on one song at a time and mine is recycling. We are still complacent even though many have the religion. I was shocked to learn that even the organic and healthful grocery stores are businesses that do not and are not required to recycle. Most do not have recycle containers outside the stores. Thank you Whole Foods for providing these. I wince when I see plastic bottles and glass tossed in generic containers by people I know are intelligent and informed. It is not so much one bottle as it is denial of the import of the thoughtless toss. The powers that be in whatever arena (countywide would be awesome) need to require that businesses begin recycling in earnest (not just the cardboard) and that all of us are made aware of the sum effect of our need to consume and hastily toss. We have the creativity among us to make this happen. While we are wringing our hands over global climate change and know our garbage is being shipped elsewhere because of lack of landfill options, how can we ignore this? When both landfills and wastewater are problems, how can we allow growth? Do we like swimming in our own garbage? Laura

[alanora]

I have wondered about that very thing for some time now. How do building permits keep being given when our water and waste issues seem insurmountable? Also, very noticeable on my river walk yesterday, was the high water line being marked by plastic bags, in various stages of shredded glory, waving from the tops of the river-side trees. I am not tall enough to reach and begin cleaning the mess before they are blown or go drifting along to the ocean. arrrrgh. mindy

Barry; Which battles would you like to see picked?

I can only focus on one song at a time and mine is recycling. We are still complacent even though many have the religion. I was shocked to learn that even the organic and healthful grocery stores are businesses that do not and are not required to recycle. Most do not have recycle containers outside the stores. Thank you Whole Foods for providing these. I wince when I see plastic bottles and glass tossed in generic containers by people I know are intelligent and informed. It is not so much one bottle as it is denial of the import of the thoughtless toss. The powers that be in whatever arena (countywide would be awesome) need to require that businesses begin recycling in earnest (not just the cardboard) and that all of us are made aware of the sum effect of our need to consume and hastily toss. We have the creativity among us to make this happen. While we are wringing our hands over global climate change and know our garbage is being shipped elsewhere because of lack of landfill options, how can we ignore this? When both landfills and wastewater are problems, how can we allow growth? Do we like swimming in our own garbage? Laura

[Frederick M. Dolan]

Thanks, Edward--I appreciate it.
...

Mark

Thanks, Sonomamark, for these thoughts. They shed a lot of light on the 101 corridor.

[Sonomamark]

It is surprising to me that this thread has petered out, given that it's a catch-all for the things we're worried about for the future of our region. Just for starters, here are some macro-scale things the county is going to have to confront, and soon:

• Impact of rapidly climbing fuel costs on cost of living for rural residents and commuters, and the likely dislocations this will spur;

• Probable significant shifts in the structure of the local economy, which has relied on construction and development for a major portion of its revenue since the 1960s, but is unlikely to see a lot of that for quite awhile, given the combination of high housing costs relative to elsewhere and the collapse of available credit;

• Maxing out of available fresh water supplies, which is already driving major plans for reuse of reclaimed water and real efforts at conservation, after years of mostly symbolic gestures to conserve;

• Protection of the quality and quantity of groundwater resources, and figuring out a way to do that despite concerns by (mostly rural) landowners that they don't want government monitoring their wells.

• Solid waste issues, as we have now begun to export our garbage to landfills elsewhere. This will become less and less tenable as fuel costs climb, and it's not morally acceptable, anyway. Maximizing recycling and succeeding in reestablishing local siting for landfill (with methane energy generation) is something we should be striving for.

• Impending regulatory decisions which will further constrain economic activity to the benefit of the environment, such as the conservation of the California Tiger Salamander, the California Toxics Rule, final rulings on the Eel River diversion into the Russian, and development and implementation of TMDLs to improve water quality in the Laguna and the Russian River.

• An accelerating divide between the very wealthy in Sonoma County and everyone else, as this remains a highly desirable and "high-status" area to live for the affluent;

• Associated with this, problems associated with poverty in the serf-class, which will include crime, gangs, and the possibility of escalating racial tensions.

• Deterioration of the quality of public education as state budgetary pressures and the high cost of living here squeeze out quality teachers. This will not affect the wealthy, who have private academies and charter schools to serve their children--a few high achievers from the underclass will be able to qualify for scholarships to these schools, but this will further undermine the public school system by removing the highest academic achievers from them and lowering the performance bar for everyone else.

• The x-factor of global warming impacts, with weather fluctuations, flooding, etc., all coming to bear in a manner which is largely unpredictable.

This is a very different suite of problems than those which the West County has typically seen as the top areas of concern, such as growth. Urban sprawl and population growth are now largely constrained by resource limitations and the Urban Growth Boundaries, and for the moment, what little development is occurring is the kind that always does, under any economic circumstances: the construction of mansions by the rich.

In my opinion, land use takes a back seat at this time to these much larger and thornier issues.

Any others I missed?



SM