Hot Summer Guide Omission
The Hot Summer Guide (May 16) was really pretty hot! However, there is something missing from the paper and that is the lineups for Sonoma County’s music in the parks. I would love to have the schedules for Santa Rosa (Juilliard Park?), Windsor, Healdsburg, Cloverdale and anywhere else in the county where cities are planning community events. Several years ago I created a spreadsheet with days and artists to plan my summer—it would be awesome if the Bohemian did the work for me!
Thanks for being you!
Forestville
Thanks Sharon—we, too, have noticed that those summer concert listings are usually buried and hard to find on various city sites. Visit our online music blog, City Sound Inertia, for a full list.
Unfortunately, there were even more listings from last week that got eaten by the PDF monster and regurgitated as restaurant listings for San Jose, of all things. We regret the error, and readers can find the missing Hot Summer Guide listings in this issue on p38. —The Ed.
The Pacific Sun Endorses This Guy
Michael Allen’s bill, AB 1962, would allow SMART to build a 20-story hotel/casino with a roller coaster on the roof in downtown Petaluma, and the residents could not do a damn thing about it, neon lights and all.
This could be repeated in Novato and San Rafael, up and down the line. Why do you think so many politically connected people have bought land along the right-of-way?
It’s a developers’ paradise. A Los Angelization of the 101 corridor from Larkspur to Healdsburg and beyond. SMART is not a transportation plan; it’s a development plan. A taxpayer-funded Ponzi scheme that will wind up as a shabby Myrtle Beach/Atlantic City–style urban disaster.
Candidate for Assembly,
Lagunitas
Error Alert
The Library Commission meeting on Monday, May 7, was remarkable for the commission’s inability—or adamant refusal—to listen to points of view other than their own, especially with regard to their pet project, self-check machines. The documents that were meant to inform an incisive conversation about the self-check equipment were over 58 pages long and did not include any information from the employees who have been the “testers” for the equipment. The documents were posted on the website less than two days before the commission meeting, and were still being revised hours before the meeting itself. A large number of employees and community people came to the meeting, and several commented on the self-check machines.
According to the users, the machines frequently exhibit confusing error messages. They do not process CDs or DVDs as well as they do books. While Sonoma County materials can be piled on the scanner to be read, items from other counties (with whom the library has reciprocal exchanges) need to be separated and treated differently.
Some employees prefer not to use the self-check machines at all, because they take longer than simply checking out materials as before. Many patrons have also encountered problems with the machines, but the library management is insisting on “100 percent usage of self-check,” prompting appeals to be reasonable from both employees and patrons.
Worst of all for Rohnert Park employees and patrons, the self-check machines are constantly triggering the security alarms. According to testimony at the meeting, this occurs several times a day at Rohnert Park library, but out of the thousands of alarms sounding since the gates were turned on, only four have been actual cases of theft. The union has pleaded with management to turn off the security alarms, but management refuses to do so.
The Library Commission made a presentation to the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors on March 27. It is worth noting that this is the second time the commission has met since appearing before the board, and none of the suggestions made by the supervisors at that meeting have appeared on an agenda or been discussed in any way.
One wonders if the library commissioners are even capable of listening to divergent viewpoints or to admitting any errors on their own part.
SOCOSOL Steering Committee
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