Page 208 | Bohemian | Sonoma & Napa Counties

Petaluma Mayoral Candidates Participate in Climate Forum

Michael Giotis

Oct 25, 2022

Petaluma Mayoral Candidates Participate in Climate Forum

Seeking to uphold the city’s reputation as a leader on environmental policy, Petaluma residents watched local political candidates discuss how the city should respond to one of the most pressing issues of the day: climate change.

The Petaluma City Council Mayoral and District Candidates Forum on the Climate and the Environment, held online on Oct. 12 by Aqus, a community-building nonprofit, gave the voting public an opportunity to hear city candidates share their intentions for local action to address the unfolding crisis.

While many who are concerned about pollution and climate change have long expected environmental degradation to be a primary voting issue, the issues have been largely absent from past candidates’ debates.

That is starting to change. A 2020 Politico survey found 69% of registered American voters, including 55% of Republicans, are in favor of transitioning from fossil fuels to renewable energy. The climate emergency was raised in both Biden-Trump presidential debates.

In the locally framed issues featured in the Zoom forum, three of the four Petaluma mayoral candidates identified transportation, housing and inclusion as key themes when addressing the climate crisis. The participating candidates were D’Lynda Fischer, Susan Kirks and Kevin McDonnell.

A fourth mayoral candidate, Patrick Flower, did not participate in the forum. He did not respond to a request for comment by the Bohemian.

A recording of the Oct. 12 virtual forum.

Transportation

While climate change and pollution are driven by the effects of many different human activities, many of which have been made possible by the burning of fossil fuels, the candidates agreed that the most important area for improvement at the municipal level is transportation. In 2020, transportation accounted for approximately 58% of Sonoma County’s greenhouse gas emissions.

The candidates each endorsed improvements to public transportation and bike infrastructure. They also called for environmentally responsible crosstown connectors, like the new bike path between Southpoint and Payran which opened last weekend.

Switching to electric vehicles (EVs) charged from clean energy could reduce local emissions significantly. However, electrification does not address the burden of infrastructure development that comes hand in hand with private vehicle ownership.

One of the most interesting ideas presented in the meeting was a microtransit fleet. Raised first by Kirks and independently by Fischer, such a fleet would work like a city funded rideshare.

Fischer described a small fleet of electric vehicles, allowing Petalumas who prioritize biking, walking and public transit to have access to a car when needed. Kirks’ vision was similar but included the possibility of using hybrid SUVs.

This proposed service could help to address the concern raised by McDonnell that EVs are often not realistic for car owners in the multifamily housing that is meant to be the majority of future housing development in Petaluma.

Housing

Rising rents and home prices have forced many community members out of Petaluma. Essential workers such as nurses and food service workers, vital community members while at work whether they live in town or not, often commute in from other, more affordable cities, increasing carbon emissions.

Fischer says that housing development and cutting emissions need to go hand in hand. “With the state requirement for the housing we need to build, there is no question that we need to be building just around our transit centers,” she said.

New multifamily housing is much more water efficient because it is built with the latest fixtures and does not have the same landscape watering requirements, Fischer pointed out. The average single family home resident uses 60% of their water on landscaping, she said.

McDonnell stated that he has focused his political efforts on championing solutions to homelessness and housing. “For me, housing policy is everything; it’s climate policy, it’s education, it’s health outcomes, it’s everything,” he said. With housing prices and rents continuing to increase, new development is needed to keep our workforce from being priced out of the city, he added.

McDonnell noted the city is already taking steps in the right direction. In 2022, of the 300 new units being built in Petaluma, 100 will qualify as affordable housing. The city used California state Project Homekey funds to create The Studios at Montero, which, when at full capacity, will house 60 “chronically homeless” individuals in self-contained units with private bathrooms in a repurposed two-building site.

Kirks raised concerns that Petaluma has very little wildlife habitat left. “We have to look for prioritizing and identifying greenspaces and in addition to that, wildlife corridors,” Kirks said. In housing development, she supports “looking in existing areas that can be rezoned, mixed use, near neighborhoods, near amenities, creating amenities for those, affordable housing and middle income housing as well.”

Inclusion

Understanding how climate change impacts some communities more than others is imperative to good climate policy. Including the voices of leaders in those communities in discussions of city actions allows for municipal projects which are more response to the needs of those communities.

Kirks raised concerns about the relatability of current climate policy proposals, saying that local climate activism needs to “add more environmental elements so that people are more connected and more interested.”

McDonnell said “all of our climate action needs to be out of its silo.” He expressed a desire for the city’s climate commission—the committee of volunteers that makes, reviews and recommends proposals on climate action to the city council—to be more supportive of other commissions when they are ready to take action, such as the pedestrian and bicycle advisory committee, on which McDonnell serves as city council liaison.

Fischer asserted that community engagement was “the most critical element of our [Climate Emergency Framework],” referring to the policy guide adopted by the city in 2021, adding “it is a matter of educating our community.”

There are recent engagement examples in Petaluma. In 2020, Fischer was part of the action committee that brought the Cool Cities program to Petaluma, securing a $1 million grant from the national nonprofit the Empowerment Institute to facilitate community resilience efforts on a block by block scale. “Block leaders” engage their immediate neighbors to help one another prepare for the impacts of climate change and fire. More than 100 blocks around Petaluma are actively organizing and reporting.

The Bohemian recently reported on efforts to include Spanish speakers and BIPOC citizens in an independently run sustainable development workshop whose findings, facilitated by green architects and civil engineers, were presented to the city council earlier this year. Engaging with the local Spanish speaking population, who are much more likely to be on the front line of the climate emergency, has been one of the most difficult and important hurdles in recent years.

While climate justice was a talking point for each of the participating candidates and Kirks voiced a desire for more BIPOC representation on the city’s climate committee, none identified a need for new strategies to bridge racial and cultural barriers to participation in climate action, as in the example of directly engaging Spanish speakers.

Open Mic: Keep an eye on Petaluma City Council candidates

Taryn Obaid

Oct 19, 2022

Open Mic: Keep an eye on Petaluma City Council candidates

Sadly, “pay to play” is a too-familiar concept in Petaluma. For too many years, campaign-contributing real estate developers have been given undue city council influence, resulting in problematic land use, traffic, flood-impact, tree clear-cutting and millions in taxpayer money losses. Petaluma is substantially overdeveloped: 525% of the state’s quota—all luxury-market rate homes.

Recently, a new special interest showed up: AT&T.

On July 27, Dylan Lloyd, a broadband consultant who is chair of the city’s Technology Advisory Committee (TAC), played a role in AT&T’s attempted co-opting of the City of Petaluma to lobby for AT&T by writing a letter to the California Public Utilities Commission supporting AT&T’s preferred terms for a broadband-related fine. AT&T enjoyed unchallenged access to TAC with no opposing public or consumer viewpoint represented. Only AT&T’s information was presented.

Despite city staff warning this was murky, potentially a conflict of interest, and outside proper jurisdiction, Chair Lloyd pushed forward—even past a committee member’s challenge (“we don’t have to write a letter”), continuing his dictation of the letter before a vote was taken. Further, Chair Lloyd limited comments by the public to just one-third of usual city committee-allowed time.

At the following week’s city council meeting (Aug. 1), an outraged public called out TAC’s multiple violations, which included the Brown Act (only one day public notice of AT&T support letter); violation of TAC authority; outside TAC’s jurisdiction.

At the next TAC meeting (Aug. 24), it was announced the Petaluma city attorney had taken action and called TAC to withdraw the letter. Sharp-eyed Petalumans demanded and got accountability.

The Nov. 8 election is critical for Petaluma. Petaluma’s next city council will decide whether Petaluma becomes sprawl by allowing the pushing out of its Urban Growth Boundary.

Keeping a sharp eye out for which candidates are funded by special interests as well as which candidates have a record of prioritizing the benefit of those interests is crucial.

Dylan Lloyd has announced he is running for Petaluma City Council… and his website lists he is supported by multiple real estate development industry interests.

Taryn Obaid lives in Petaluma.

Measuring Up – Letters to the Editor, Oct. 19-26

Bohemian

Oct 19, 2022

Measuring Up – Letters to the Editor, Oct. 19-26

Almost two years ago, 65% of Sonoma County voters cast their votes for Measure P. It was a clear reflection of a desire for stronger oversight of county law enforcement.

The sheriff, the Deputy Sheriff’s Association (DSA) and their conservative allies fought against it. Writing a measure is difficult. Most end up with wiggle room for different interpretations. That happened with Measure P.

But through the campaign, the framers, its endorsers and the voters were clear. They wanted independent investigations of death and serious injury at the hands of a deputy or while in custody to be independently investigated from Day One. They wanted the Independent Office of Law Enforcement Review and Outreach to have subpoena power. They wanted change.

The interpretation of the conservative groups which opposed Measure P guts much of the measure. So, when the Board of Supervisors proudly announced the implementation of Measure P through Letters of Understanding with the deputies, which interpretation did they implement? The interpretation of the opposition.

Recently, Supervisor James Gore claimed that “we all worked to pass Measure P.” Despite having supported the opposition, Mr. Gore claims that citizen complaints are “complete crap.”

And when the California Supreme Court supported the voters’ interpretation of Measure P, not the DSA’s, there was no proud announcement. There was silence.

Now that the courts have spoken, it is time for the board to rescind the Letters. If they fail to act, it will be difficult to miss understanding which side the board is on.

Susan Collier Lamont

Santa Rosa

Trivia Cafe – Oct. 19-25, 2022

Trivia

Howard Rachelson

Oct 19, 2022

1 America’s first computerized and fully automated rapid transit system, established in the Bay Area, is known by what four-letter abbreviation, which stands for what four-word phrase?

2 When did the phrase, “In God We Trust,” first appear on U.S. coins: 1864 or 1964?

3 The 2.4 million baseballs used in the Major League are produced each year at the Rawlings’ company factory, located in what central American country, which has produced very few, if any, major league players?

4 Three of Henry VIII’s eight wives had the same first name. What was it?

5 In the early 1790s, French architect and engineer Pierre L’Enfant laid out his design of what North American city?

6 The Grateful Dead’s highest charting song of all time hit #15 on the Billboard charts in September 1987. What was this song with a color in the title?

7 If the eastern end of the Earth is called the Orient, what is the western end called?

8 No human being has ever celebrated the sesquicentennial of their birthday. How many years are celebrated at a sesquicentennial event?

9 The historical region known as Transylvania, home of Count Dracula, is located in what modern-day country?

10 In 1874, C.F. Bennett, a designer of the Sharp & Smith sportswear company, invented what wearable item, to provide a more comfortable ride to bicycle jockeys working the cobblestone streets of Boston?

BONUS QUESTION: Among the five least populated U.S. states, which two of them border each other?

Want more trivia? Contact ho*****@********fe.com. Have a great question? Send it in with your name and hometown and if we use it, we’ll give you credit!

ANSWERS:

1 BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit)

2 On the two-cent coin in 1864 (printed on some stamps in 1954 and on paper money in 1957)

3 The Rawlings company is located in Turrialba, Costa Rica. Thanks for the question to Michael Vogel from Mill Valley.

4 Wife #2, Catherine of Aragon; #6, Catherine Howard; #7, Catherine Parr

5 Washington, DC

6 “Touch of Grey”

7 Occident

8 150 years

9 Romania

10 Jockstrap (the word jock comes from bicycle jockeys). Thanks for the question to Cynthia Pepper from San Rafael.

BONUS ANSWER: North and South Dakota. (Others are Wyoming, Vermont, Alaska.)

Rising food and gas prices spell trouble for North Bay nonprofits

Will Carruthers

Oct 19, 2022

Rising food and gas prices spell trouble for North Bay nonprofits

In the North Bay, as across the country, the price of doing good is rising.

In 2018, two years before the pandemic, 60,000 Sonoma County households, roughly one third of the total, “couldn’t afford enough food to eat a healthy three meals a day,” according to a February 2020 report prepared by the Sonoma County Hunger Index, a coalition of local nonprofits and government agencies.

Now, two and a half years into the COVID-19 pandemic, North Bay nonprofits big and small are struggling to keep up with demand from residents seeking food and other necessities. The Hunger Index has not released a report since the start of the pandemic, but food banks and other support nonprofits say the massive wave of demand at the start of the pandemic and other disasters never fully subsided.

“We have everyday disasters that are familiar, you know, whether people get injured, unemployed, sick, whatever the issue might be, and then we have these sort of larger scale public disasters, whether they are fires or floods or global pandemics. After each one of these, we have a new baseline… Service never returns to pre-disaster times. Our numbers never went back to pre-pandemic levels in terms of service,” said David Goodman, the executive director of the Redwood Empire Food Bank.

Making matters worse, increases in the costs of food, gas, rent and other necessities over the past two years have impacted struggling residents and the nonprofits attempting to help them.

Price hikes paired with decreased donations, recently led Food For All/Comida para Todos, a volunteer-run group which has offered weekly deliveries of food and other necessities to Sonoma Springs families since April 2020, to make the painful decision to cut back the number of families they serve.

“During the height of the pandemic, it was pretty easy to raise money. That’s no longer the case,” Maite Iturri, one of the group’s members, said. “The demand, and the need, for food has only increased, and our food costs have dramatically increased. So much so that we’ve had to cut back the number of people we’re serving [to 100 families from an average of 140].”

Iturri thinks that inflation and financial uncertainty may have slowed donations. However, another factor is the lack of visibility of the ongoing problem. At the start of the pandemic, swelling food lines drew news coverage. But, now that pandemic-era economic supports have tapered off and politicians have declared the worst of the pandemic over, the world is “back to business as usual,” and hunger has become less visible.

“Our hashtag right now is ‘It’s not over,’” Iturri said.

Food For Thought Food Bank, a Forestville-based nonprofit which serves people living with serious medical conditions throughout the county, is grappling with many of the same issues, according to executive director Ron Karp.

At the start of the pandemic, Food For Thought received significant donations from foundations and individuals—including some who handed over their stimulus checks—but those one-time contributions have fallen off, despite persistent demand. The food bank has served about 6,000 individuals per year since the start of the pandemic, up from 1,100 in 2019.

Meanwhile, costs have gone up across the board, Karp said. Increased food prices and gas prices make deliveries and operations costs more expensive. The nonprofit is even grappling with real estate costs. This year, the food bank’s property insurance premiums skyrocketed 300% due to fire risk adjustments, according to Karp.

“A lot of people were able to recover quickly from COVID or really never had an issue other than being confined at home. But the people at the bottom of the ladder, now that prices and rents have gone up—you know, rents have gone up way faster than inflation—it’s just making it really hard for people,” Karp said.

While the pandemic-era benefits like the Child Tax Credit, boosted unemployment benefits and stimulus payments reportedly temporarily lifted millions of families and children out of poverty, the definition of “poverty” itself is woefully out of date.

In 2020, the federal government defined “poverty” as a family of four making less than $26,200 per year.

However, the amount of money needed to get by comfortably, even before inflation worsened things, was much more. The living wage—the amount of money needed to support an individual or family in Sonoma County—is $128,336 per year for two working parents supporting two children, according to the MIT Living Wage Calculator. (In 2021, the average median wage for an individual was $40,531, much lower than the cost of living, according to the 2021 Portrait of Sonoma County report.)

Searching for a silver lining, Goodman said that the pandemic and other disasters may help with the “generation of empathy, where people just realize that ‘that’s me.’ ‘That could be me.’ And ‘why it’s not me is almost just dumb luck.’”

“We serve people that have nothing all the way up to people who are gainfully employed and are just struggling,” Goodman said.

Support Network

If you have the resources and would like to support someone in need by contributing or volunteering, contact one of the following nonprofits working on food access on this (incomplete) list:

Ceres Community Project (ceresproject.org)

Community Action Napa Valley (canv.org/emergency-food-pantry)

F.I.S.H. (Friends In Service Here) of Santa Rosa (fish-of-santa-rosa.org)

Food For All/Comida para Todos (foodforallsonoma.org)

Food For Thought Food Bank (fftfoodbank.org)

Petaluma Bounty (petalumabounty.org)

Redwood Empire Food Bank (refb.org)

San Francisco-Marin Food Bank (sfmfoodbank.org)

Sonoma Acts of Kindness (socoactsofkindness.org)

Free Will Astrology – Oct. 19-26, 2022

Rob Brezsny

Oct 18, 2022

ARIES (March 21-April 19): “We must be willing to let go of the life we planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.” Aries mythologist Joseph Campbell said that, and now I’m passing it on to you just in time for the Sacred Surrender Phase of your astrological cycle. Make sage use of Campbell’s wisdom, Aries! You will generate good fortune for yourself as you work to release expectations that may be interfering with the arrival of new stories and adventures. Be brave, my dear, as you relinquish outdated attachments and shed defunct hopes.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Plastic bags are used for an average of 12 minutes before being discarded. Then they languish in our soil or oceans, degrading slowly as they cause mayhem for animals and ecosystems. In alignment with current cosmic rhythms, I’m encouraging you to be extra discerning in your relationship with plastic bags—as well as with all other unproductive, impractical, wasteful things and people. In the coming weeks, you will thrive by focusing on what will serve you with high integrity for a long time.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Achilleas Frangakis is a professor of electron microscopy. He studies the biochemistry of cells. In one of his research projects, he investigated how cells interact with the outside world. He didn’t learn much about that question, but as he experimented, he inadvertently uncovered fascinating new information about another subject: how cells interact with each other when they heal a wound. His “successful failure” was an example of what scientists sometimes do: They miss what they looked for, but find unexpected data and make serendipitous discoveries. I suspect you will experience comparable luck sometime soon, Gemini. Be alert for goodies of which you weren’t in quest.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Renowned Brazilian novelist Osman Lins was born under the sign of Cancer the Crab. He wrote, “I will now live my life with the inventiveness of an engineer who drives his locomotive off the tracks. No more beaten paths: improvisation is the rule.” In the coming weeks, I am all in favor of you, my fellow Cancerian, being an inventive adventurer who improvises liberally and departs from well-worn routes. However, I don’t recommend you do the equivalent of running your train off the tracks. Let’s instead imagine you as piloting a four-wheel-drive, all-terrain vehicle. Go off-road to explore. Improvise enthusiastically as you reconnoiter the unknown. But do so with scrupulous attention to what’s healthy and inspiring.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): In recent years, art historians have recovered numerous masterpieces that had been missing for years. They include a sculpture by Bernini, a sketch by Picasso, a drawing by Albrecht Dürer and a painting by Titian. I’m a big fan of efforts like these: searching for and finding lost treasures. And I think you should make that a fun project in the coming weeks. Are there any beautiful creations that have been lost or forgotten? Useful resources that have been neglected? Wild truths that have been buried or underestimated? In accordance with astrological potentials, I hope you will explore such possibilities.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): The most important experience for you to seek in the coming months is to be seen and respected for who you really are. Who are the allies best able to give you that blessing? Make vigorous efforts to keep them close and treat them well. To inspire your mission, I offer you three quotes. 1. Franz Kafka said, “All the love in the world is useless if there is a total lack of understanding.” 2. Anais Nin wrote, “I don’t want worship. I want understanding.” 3. George Orwell: “Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood.”

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Libra poet Wallace Stevens said that the great poems of heaven and hell have already been written, and now it is time to generate the great poems of Earth. I’d love to invite all Libras, including non-writers, to apply that perspective in their own sphere. Just forget about heaven and hell for now. Turn your attention away from perfection and fantasylands and lofty heights. Disregard pathologies and muck and misery. Instead, explore and celebrate the precious mysteries of the world as it is. Be a connoisseur of the beauty and small miracles embedded in life’s little details. Find glory in the routine.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Here are two top Scorpio pastimes: 1. exploring and deploying your intense, fertile creativity; 2. spiraling gleefully down into deep dark voids in pursuit of deep dark riches. Sometimes those two hobbies dovetail quite well; you can satisfy both pursuits simultaneously. One of my favorite variations on this scenario is when the deep dark void you leap into turns out to actually be a lush wonderland that stimulates your intense, fertile creativity. According to my analysis of the astrological omens, that’s likely to happen soon.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): “I don’t want to be made pacified or made comfortable. I like stuff that gets your adrenaline going.” Sagittarian filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow said that. With the help of this attitude, she became the first woman ever to win an Academy Award for best director. Her film was The Hurt Locker, about American soldiers in Iraq who dispose of unexploded bombs while being harassed by enemies. Anyway, Bigelow’s approach is usually too hard-ass for me. I’m a sensitive Cancer the Crab, not a bold Sagittarius the Centaur, like Bigelow and you. But I don’t want to assume you’re in the mood for her approach. If you are, though, the coming weeks will be a favorable time to deploy it. Some marvelous epiphanies and healing changes will be available if you forswear stuff that makes you pacified or comfortable.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Author Jan Richardson tells us we can’t return home by taking the same route we used when we departed. This will be wise advice for you to keep in mind during the next nine months. I expect you will be attempting at least two kinds of homecomings. For best results, plan to travel by different routes than those that might seem natural and obvious. The most direct path—the successful passage—may be circuitous.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): In the coming days, maintain strict boundaries between yourself and anyone or anything that’s not healthy for you. Be ultra-discerning as you decide which influences you will allow to affect you and which you won’t. And rather than getting sour and tense as you do this, I recommend you proceed with wicked humor and sly irony. Here are three saucy self-protective statements you can use to ward off threats and remain inviolable. 1. “The current ambiance does not align sweetly with my vital soul energy; I must go track down some more harmonious karma.” 2. “This atmosphere is out of sync with my deep precious selfness; I am compelled to take my deep precious selfness elsewhere.” 3. “The undertones here are agitating my undercurrents; it behooves me to track down groovier overtones.”

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): While asleep, have you ever dreamt of discovering new rooms in a house or other building you know well? I bet you will have at least one such dream soon. What does it mean? It suggests you want and need to get in touch with parts of yourself that have been dormant or unavailable. You may uncover evocative secrets about your past and present that had been unknown to you. You will learn about new resources you can access and provocative possibilities you had never imagined.