Progress

[Sara S]

Letter to the editor-Sonoma West Times and News, 11/17:

Progress
EDITOR: Can you see it coming - lurking behind the glossy facade of unfettered growth? Jobs, opportunity, stability! Leading the charge, the almighty Barlow (with attached new hotel); conceived - with an enthusiastic nod from our revenue-centric majority leadership - designed, engineered, developed,constructed, managed, leased and staffed, not to mention even patronized… by outsiders. Who needs us?

Rents and housing costs skyrocket, evictions prevail; long term, low-income residents — dear friends many — relocate to God knows where. “Rent controls, affordable housing” they say, as resolution in name only.

Make way for the trendy, brave new pre-packaged lifestyle; quaint, impersonal iterations of wine-soaked, image-obsessed mediocrity. Tourism. No longer room for humanity, for community, for integrity; such outmoded distraction. We are but dupes; corporate wealth (obscene) buys our votes, and their quisling toadies slither into influential office. Progress.

Robert Beauchamp, Sebastopol