Up to Code

The immediate emergency may be over, but life in Sonoma County will never return to pre-fire “normal.” We are changed—certainly those who lost homes, but all of us to some degree. The question is, how shall we proceed?

Like it or not, we must anticipate more crises. Not just fires and climate-linked weather events, but earthquakes and human-caused disasters (failures of our energy and financial systems) as well. Overgrowth during the last century has set up human civilization as a whole, and Sonoma County in particular, for all kinds of “corrections,” as stock market analysts call them. Let’s rebuild our communities in ways that promote resilience.

The most obvious resilience fix would be a better early-warning system. Many county residents close to the paths of fires complained they had little or no warning of approaching flames (my wife and I were awakened at 3am on Oct. 9 by a neighbor; many were not so fortunate). Why not install a system of sirens? Japan’s warning systems for earthquakes and tsunamis have saved thousands of lives.

Also, rebuild fire-smart: require fire-resistant building materials like concrete, stone and brick; prohibit buildings on steep slopes, where fires move fast; and require homeowners to plant only vegetation that doesn’t easily dry out and catch fire.

Resilience implies the ability to adapt to changed circumstances while maintaining essential functions, and sometimes maximizing adaptability requires redesigning the system. For example, a resilient food system is one with more redundancy of suppliers and more distributed inventories. Just growing grapes while importing the rest of our food may be economically efficient and may help us compete in the global economy, but it sacrifices resiliency.

Since so many threats cluster around climate change, it makes sense to rebuild so as not to exacerbate global warming. Sonoma County could take a cue from Greensburg, Kan., a town devastated by a category five tornado in 2007. Greensburg decided to rebuild as “the greenest town in America,” with renewable energy and LEED-certified municipal buildings.

Crisis can be an opportunity, if we choose to see it that way.

Richard Heinberg is senior fellow at the Post Carbon Institute and a contributor to ‘The ‘Community Resilience Reader.’

Open Mic is a weekly feature in the ‘Bohemian.’ We welcome your contribution. To have your topical essay of 350 words considered for publication, write op*****@******an.com.

Letters to the Editor: October 25, 2017

Not Connected

Stett Holbrook’s article (“The Terrifying New Normal,” Oct. 18) would lead us to believe that the fires in Sonoma County were caused by climate change. The earth has always been a violent place. For example, on Oct. 8, 1871, in Peshtigo, Wisc., a quick-moving fire whipped up by high winds in dry conditions, like the one we just saw, burned 1.2 million acres and killed 1,500 to 2,500 people. These are the very same conditions we have here in Sonoma County every October. Can we connect the Peshtigo fire to climate change? I agree we are changing the weather on earth, but if you look at earth’s history, the disaster list is endless.

Our hearts and prayers go out to the families who lost loved ones, homes and jobs in this disaster.

Windsor

Rebuilding Plan

Thinking forward to rebuilding Sonoma County’s housing stock, it seems now would be the perfect time to accomplish a secondary goal as well—more affordable housing—by creating government incentives/assistance for adding secondary living units to any home lost to the fire whose owner would like to do so. Insurance only covers the cost of replacing what was there, but the city and county could (with adequate political will) negotiate whatever might be required with insurance companies to facilitate such additions, identify and secure a funding source and offer favorable terms, such as perhaps a zero-down loan with closing fees deferred until pay-off to fund the additional cost amortized over 20 years but due in five (giving owners adequate time if needed to establish a rental-income history that could be used to refinance or take out a new second). Repayment could be scheduled to begin only after the construction is completed, so that a homeowner could use the income from renting out the secondary dwelling for repayment if needed. Makes perfect sense to me. Any reason why not?

Via Bohemian.com

Fountaingrove Revisited

I remember when the Santa Rosa City Council gave its final approval for housing developments in the Fountaingrove wilderness area in the early 1990s. Then-mayor Sharon Wright and her colleagues on the council ignored people (myself included) who warned that doing so would expose homes in the area to the threat of wildfire. The council decided that the financial benefits (tax revenue from wealthy residents) outweighed the possibility of a catastrophic tragedy. I wonder if Sharon Wright and her fellow former councilmembers still feel that way? This is one of those rare times when I really wish I had been wrong about something. Being able to say “I told you so.” has never felt so unsatisfying.

Santa Rosa

Write to us at le*****@******an.com.

Ghoulish Charm

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Crackling lightning, mist-shrouded cemeteries, ominous shadows and eerie organ music: playwright and Bohemian contributor David Templeton’s Mary Shelley’s Body, premiering at Main Stage West in Sebastopol, arrives just in time for Halloween.

More ghost’s story than ghost story, the play, adapted from Templeton’s novella of the same name and directed by Elizabeth Craven, gives us a cheeky Mary Shelley narrating the story of her life from the stone slab that is now her tomb. Missy Weaver’s lighting design, recreating flickering bonfires, plunges the stage into an intimately ominous landscape, but Shelley refuses to allow the melodramatic atmosphere to dampen her afterlife. Fist raised, she rails against it, meandering into a chilling narrative filled with gruesome humor and vulnerable reflections on her famous book and its creature, the rejected creation of a young student.

Visceral descriptions of icy winds and the creature’s terrified awakening create a riveting experience, assisted by Doug Faxon’s effective sound design, popping with thunder and pulsing electricity. Sheri Lee Miller as Shelley keeps a mischievous sparkle in her eyes throughout the sassy commentary, but is able to set aside the comedy for moments of challenging revelation. Her pain as she cradles empty air where her child’s head used to rest is raw and mesmerizing in its depiction of motherhood and loss.

Templeton has the ability to bring offstage characters to life through realistic observations drawn from his meticulous research, as with Claire, Mary Shelley’s sister. But Shelley’s preoccupation with interrupting an otherwise spellbinding story with precise dates breaks the supernatural ambience.

Still, I felt shivers at the character’s retelling of the alarming dream that prompted the writing of Frankenstein. Shelley drops dark humor into her tale, pausing to add sensational histories that explain backstories to the creature’s body parts, from how he received a courageous heart to the fiendish “Washerwoman’s Tale” that left the audience gasping with horror.

Gradually, Shelley reveals key events in the novel that correspond to her own life and ventures into despair over rejection by a father who refused to understand how she could love a married man, the tragic loss of her children and being cast out to wander in the gloom, suffering alone without hope of redemption.

Rating (out of 5): ★★★★

No Hurry

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Contrary to local lore, not all good things start in Sonoma County. Indeed, the Slow Food movement didn’t arrive here until 1997, 11 years after Carlo Petrini founded it in Italy to protest the spread of fast-food restaurants and the opening of a McDonald’s in Rome.

Chapters soon sprang up all over the world like wild mushrooms after winter rains. Now Slow Food Sonoma County North and Slow Food Russian River have pooled resources to create their own version of a long-running international program known as the “Snail of Approval.”

Cloverdale resident Carol Diaz spearheaded a committee of seven who picked four restaurants that met their rigorous standards and those of Slow Food International, which boasts a thousand chapters in 160 countries.

Not every restaurant that receives the Snail of Approval meets the same standards. Each locality, from Boston and New York to Chicago, creates its own criteria, though they all rally behind the watchwords “clean, good and fair.”

Diaz said that she and her fellow committee members in Sonoma borrowed freely from Vermont Slow Food when they created their standards. Indeed, the food must be fresh, restaurant workers treated with dignity, business practices sustainable and produce sourced locally and organically. That’s a tough row to hoe, and not every restaurant in the running for a Snail of Approval can hope for a perfect score.

Four Sonoma County restaurants—Diavola in Geyserville, Shed in Healdsburg, the Naked Pig in Santa Rosa and Estero Café in Valley Ford—met the rigorous criteria.

They will be recognized at a launch for the Snail of Approval program, upstairs at Shed, which has served for years as a meeting place for activists and foodies. (Full disclosure: I’m a member of Slow Food Russian River.)

Cindy Daniel and her husband, Doug Lipton, have made Healdsburg’s Shed a destination and showcase for local farmers. “It meant a lot to me when I was in Italy to see the Snail of Approval in restaurant windows,” Daniel said.

Her goal now is to turn Shed into a carbon-neutral, zero-waste environment. “The Snail of Approval is one way to move the whole conversation forward,” Daniel said.

Indeed, the future of food and sustainability in Sonoma might belong to the likes of Shed’s Meg Rottinghaus, 33, who comes from an Iowa family that raises soybeans and feed corn on hundreds of acres. Organic is a harder sell there than here.

Now Rottinghaus manages Shed, trains its 100 employees and bicycles to and from work. When the Snail of Approval team members came to inspect the restaurant and market, she gave them a tour. She and executive chef Perry Hoffman also answered questions on subjects like sourcing, recycling and cooking.

“We’re transparent,” Rottinghaus said. “We’re also part of a giving and receiving community.”

Bank on It

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On a recent Sunday morning, there was a long line of cars outside Station 3990, the emergency distribution center for the Redwood Empire Food Bank (REFB).

With the North Bay fires leaving many without a steady source of income and food, the food bank has been a saving grace. So much so that, outside of the building, a group of people is re-lifting a sign that has fallen, reading “Thank You Second Responders.” Everybody appears in high spirits, chatting and laughing together as they fill carload after carload. There’s a sense of community that only catastrophe can bring about.

The REFB has been around the block when it comes to feeding those in need. But never has it witnessed a tragedy like this.

“We normally distribute 15 million pounds of food per year,” says CEO David Goodman, who helped fill the cars with nonperishables. “In the past two weeks alone, we’ve already distributed 1 million pounds.”

Without the fire, the food bank still has plenty of work to do. It runs 12 programs that fall under three initiatives: Every Child, Every Day, which is dedicated to ending childhood hunger; Senior Security, which provides seniors with weekly produce pantries, monthly food boxes and any extra groceries they may need; and the Neighborhood Hunger Network, with the goal of supplying fresh produce and necessary groceries to anyone in need. “This is just what we do,” says REFB communications coordinator Kevin West of the organization’s dedication to serving the community. “We help hungry people.”

The food bank’s website lists facts that are indisputably heroic. From distributing 13.1 million meals to serving over 175,000 meals to children after school and in the summer, the REFB is relentless in its dedication to its mission, even in the face of adversity. “We’re the most misunderstood company,” says Goodman. “People don’t know what we do. During times like this, people get it. But we’ll still be here after the media and national attention fades out.”

Sonoma County has rallied in this time of need, with continuous financial and food donations flowing in within the first two weeks. “The support of our local community and all of the Bay Area has been amazing,” says West. “Donations have come from individuals, community food drives, school food drives, businesses and corporations. We couldn’t do what we do without community support.”

But West reminds the community that the food bank still needs help. “With the fires extinguished, we need community response to last. We are in this together for the long haul, and if support lessens, it will directly affect the response,” he says.

Shotsie’s Sonoma Strong Gallery

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Shotsie Gorman has been sending us photos of the various Sonoma Strong tattoos he’s done since the fires—all proceeds go to helping victims of the catastrophe now pretty much ended, insofar as containment stands at around 95 percent. Here’s a few scenes and Sonoma Strong tats straight from Shotsie’s shop:

Tax Break

Unlike grape growers, cannabis growers who lost their plants in the fires don’t qualify for crop insurance. But the news isn’t all bad. Qualified cultivators will get some tax relief from Sonoma County.

Tax bills for growers in the legal pipeline are due Oct. 31. But those with damaged or lost crops can request a reassessment of their farms. No crops, no tax.

“They’re not out of luck,” says Andrew Smith, deputy agricultural commissioner for Sonoma County’s Department of Agriculture, Weights and Measures. “You shouldn’t have to pay tax on something that’s not marketable.”

The ag department is helping growers get out to see their property in fire-affected areas. “We anticipate the need for [crop-loss assessments] to be very great,” says Smith.

Eligible growers include those who have applied for permits or those who have filled out a penalty-relief form. Taxes for growers are based on the canopy size of their crops.

According to Tim Ricard, project manager with the county’s Economic Development Board, 122 permit applications have been submitted to the county. The vast majority of those are for cultivation. Ricard said his agency has proposed the board of supervisors extend tax deadlines for the cannabis industry to Nov. 17, and to the end of November for those in the evacuation zones.

Tawnie Logan, president of the Sonoma County Growers Alliance board of directors, counts three permit applicants affected by the fire so far, and of those planning to submit applications, there are at least 10 cultivation sites, three manufacturing labs, two warehouses for mixed-permit use and two genetics nurseries lost or damaged by the fire.

Beyond that, for those disqualified for permits by zoning, Logan counts 15 cultivation sites lost and one lab operation that was looking for property with the proper zoning. As for home grows, she estimates at least 50 were lost in the city limits and another 50 in the unincorporated areas.

But that doesn’t mean there is going to be shortage of cannabis. SPARC and CannaCraft, two major Sonoma County producers and distributors affected by the fires, say they will backfill their inventory from other sources in California. In the run-up to recreational legalization next year, the state’s cannabis production this year is at an all-time high.

Ghouls & Guitars

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It’s been a long, terrible month in the North Bay, but the air seems to be clearing just in time to remember that Halloween is right around the corner.

As the spirited holiday falls on a Tuesday this month, clubs and venues around the region are taking the entire weekend to party with local acts and touring bands. Get your costumes ready; these shows and events are so fun, it’s scary!

Santa Rosa’s Pacific Soundrise take the stage this week on Oct. 28 at the Whiskey Tip in the Roseland neighborhood to celebrate the release of their new album,

Chug Life. The reggae-rock outfit, fronted by brothers Shaun (bass) and Spencer Read (drums), will lead a costume party and likely chug a few beers in the spirit of the Halloween weekend.

In Petaluma, the Phoenix Theater hosts its annual Halloween Covers Show on
Oct. 28, featuring local bands dressing up as their favorite classic rockers and playing the hits they grew up on. Indie-folk band Trebuchet trade in their harmonies for head-banging jams from Andrew WK, songstress Ashley Allred channels Madonna and other North Bay favorites impersonate everyone from At the Drive-In to ZZ Top. Also in Petaluma, Halloween gets heavy with a face-melting bill at the Big Easy on Halloween night, Oct. 31, with Hellbender headlining a shred-a-thon.

In Guerneville, Jerry Knight’s River Theater hosts a costume party on Oct. 28 with the psychedelic sounds of House of Floyd, the premiere Pink Floyd concert experience in the Bay Area. Other tribute acts overflow in the North Bay this week, including Black Sabbath tribute band Electric Funeral, playing at Spancky’s Bar in Cotati on Oct. 27, and 1980s rock-revue Aqua Nett at the Flamingo Hotel in Santa Rosa on Oct. 28.

Despite losing microphones and cash to some scumbag looters during the recent evacuations, Sonoma’s Sebastiani Theatre is moving forward with its annual Witchie Poo Halloween extravaganza, performing musical medleys for the whole family Oct. 28–29. Also in Sonoma, the Reel Fish Shop & Grill holds a Halloween bash and benefit for fire victims featuring rock and rollers Modern Action and a silent auction, and B&V Whiskey Bar & Grille presents a late-night Halloween party with drinks, dancing and costume contests, both on Oct. 28.

In Napa, Halloween gets fabulous with a concert at Silo’s on Oct. 28 with dance-inducing band the Fabulous Screwtops. In Calistoga, the town’s favorite dive bar, Susie’s, encourages patrons to dress in costume for a DJ party on Halloween, Oct. 31.

For more info on these and other Halloween concerts, see the Music calendar, adjacent page.

Unpacking the so-called in the “So-Called Wine Country Fires”

“To name something is to own it,” is a statement typically flung around in semiotics dissertations and dopey Thomas Friedman editorials. But now the North Bay faces a sensitive and non-academic naming issue of its own. If to name it is to own it, who will own the fires?

So far it looks like “Wine Country Fires” is emerging as a potential consensus choice, but there’s a hedge for the moment in the media.

It’s too soon.

Numerous references to the “so-called” wine country fires” have appeared throughout the week in publications and online sites ranging from the local Press Democrat to the Mercury News to MarijuanaDoctor.com to the East Bay Times.

“The so-called wine country fires” has become something of a placeholder.

“So-called” by whom? I never called it that. Did you? Who is this patient-zero who first uttered the phrase “Wine Country Fires,” without the tactful restraint of a qualifying “so-called”?

An informal survey undertaken this week revealed scoffing, repulsion and shrugging fatalism in the face of “Wine Country Fires” as the culturally accepted catch-all for the series of fires that raged through the region the past couple of weeks.

People don’t seem to like “Wine Country Fires” much, and why is that?

In some measure, “so-called” is what you say when you don’t want to say the thing that “some people” are saying (or promoting)—but might, in the current scenario, be a little crass and awkward to freely unveil to a victimized and fire-stoked public.

Are they “so-called” for the time being because of generalized unease, or outrage, about how “Wine Country Fires” puts the wine industry first on the victim list in the rendering of the horrific events and their aftermath?

So-called or not, it is hard to argue against the potential marketing and promotional benefits to the industry should “Wine Country Fires” emerge as the consensus choice.

Before the fires, wine country was already taking a beating from environmentalists and the neighbors insofar that questions about “peak wine” were on the civic agenda in the grape-crowded hills and dales of Napa and Sonoma counties.

The built-in emphasis that Wine Country Fires puts on the destruction that met wine country may serve to extinguish some of that debate, given the industry’s critical role in the regional economy, which ripples into every imaginable corner of civic life—hotels, gas stations, restaurants, retail, the media.

Many residents and workers here in some way or another rely on the wine-tourism economy, so an advocate for “Wine Country Fires” might say that it’s just an accurate reflection and extension of an already-established regional appellation. It doesn’t leave anyone out, since everyone relies on or interacts with the wine country in some way or another.

Another might argue, “Wine Country Fires” is a vulgar appropriation of disaster for the purposes of marketing and promotion.

It’s a touchy subject. It may even be a so-called moment of truth.

The Wind-Down

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On any other day, a dark and foreboding afternoon sky over Santa Rosa, with heavy, drooping clouds, might raise some concerns among residents—but nearly two weeks after fires broke out through the North Coast, rain has danced into the region, perhaps a bit lightly, and there’s a discernible sense that a fire wind-down is afoot.

Still, Santa Rosa residents Thursday were more likely to see out-of-town fire equipment rolling through city streets than the local SRFD—Burbank, Pasadena, Sacramento pumpers were just a few of those spotted around town. And as of Thursday morning, fire officials at Cal Fire had pushed out the date of expected full containment of the numerous fires from tomorrow to next Tuesday, Oct. 24. Friday was always a hopeful estimate, officials stressed earlier this week, but as the Buddhists like to say, “hope and fear won’t change the weather.”

Thursday morning, total containment stood at 80 percent across the Tubbs, Pocket and Nuns fires, with the Tubbs at 92 percent, Pocket at 73 percent and Nuns at 82 percent.

A paramedics crew from Truckee Meadows, Washoe County, Nevada, was eating lunch at El Patio downtown in the early afternoon—and in their own way, giving back to a community they’d driven hundreds of miles to protect and heal: The owners of El Patio, the colorful Mexican restaurant popular with the junior high kids from Santa Rosa Middle School, had lost a home in the Fountain Grove part of town. Through it all, the El Patio chicken fajitas tacos were as reliable as ever.

The Truckee Meadows crew said they were headed home later today or tomorrow and were awaiting word on whether their services would still be needed locally, as the wind picked up a bit and a few drops of rain started to fall. But just a few.

The command center set up at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds continued to be operational, as first-responders and National Guardsmen lined up for free tacos from a Dora’s truck set up in the parking lot. Burly tattooed men were getting massages, a common sight through the week, and a phenomenon whose origins may lay in the days after 9-11 when first responders were tested to the limits of their endurance, and public massages were a common sight.

There was a welcome sense of calm and accomplishment at the command center, as first-responders chatted over paper plates of chow and endless cups of coffee. The Fairgrounds still hosted a massive tent city for first responders, scores of fire trucks were parked as far as the eye could see, and it appeared as though the National Guard was preparing to reduce its presence in the city.

It’s kind of amazing to think that in less than six weeks, all that eye-popping National Guard military equipment will be gone—and supplanted by thousands of cannabis-economy participants who’ll descend on the Fairgrounds in early December for the annual Emerald Cup. I think it’s a safe bet to say that total containment will have been achieved by then.

Up to Code

The immediate emergency may be over, but life in Sonoma County will never return to pre-fire "normal." We are changed—certainly those who lost homes, but all of us to some degree. The question is, how shall we proceed? Like it or not, we must anticipate more crises. Not just fires and climate-linked weather events, but earthquakes and human-caused disasters (failures...

Letters to the Editor: October 25, 2017

Not Connected Stett Holbrook's article ("The Terrifying New Normal," Oct. 18) would lead us to believe that the fires in Sonoma County were caused by climate change. The earth has always been a violent place. For example, on Oct. 8, 1871, in Peshtigo, Wisc., a quick-moving fire whipped up by high winds in dry conditions, like the one we just...

Ghoulish Charm

Crackling lightning, mist-shrouded cemeteries, ominous shadows and eerie organ music: playwright and Bohemian contributor David Templeton's Mary Shelley's Body, premiering at Main Stage West in Sebastopol, arrives just in time for Halloween. More ghost's story than ghost story, the play, adapted from Templeton's novella of the same name and directed by Elizabeth Craven, gives us a cheeky Mary Shelley narrating...

No Hurry

Contrary to local lore, not all good things start in Sonoma County. Indeed, the Slow Food movement didn't arrive here until 1997, 11 years after Carlo Petrini founded it in Italy to protest the spread of fast-food restaurants and the opening of a McDonald's in Rome. Chapters soon sprang up all over the world like wild mushrooms after winter rains....

Bank on It

On a recent Sunday morning, there was a long line of cars outside Station 3990, the emergency distribution center for the Redwood Empire Food Bank (REFB). With the North Bay fires leaving many without a steady source of income and food, the food bank has been a saving grace. So much so that, outside of the building, a group of...

Shotsie’s Sonoma Strong Gallery

Shotsie Gorman has been sending us photos of the various Sonoma Strong tattoos he's done since the fires—all proceeds go to helping victims of the catastrophe now pretty much ended, insofar as containment stands at around 95 percent. Here's a few scenes and Sonoma Strong tats straight from Shotsie's shop:

Tax Break

Unlike grape growers, cannabis growers who lost their plants in the fires don't qualify for crop insurance. But the news isn't all bad. Qualified cultivators will get some tax relief from Sonoma County. Tax bills for growers in the legal pipeline are due Oct. 31. But those with damaged or lost crops can request a reassessment of their farms. No...

Ghouls & Guitars

It's been a long, terrible month in the North Bay, but the air seems to be clearing just in time to remember that Halloween is right around the corner. As the spirited holiday falls on a Tuesday this month, clubs and venues around the region are taking the entire weekend to party with local acts and touring bands. Get your...

Unpacking the so-called in the “So-Called Wine Country Fires”

“To name something is to own it,” is a statement typically flung around in semiotics dissertations and dopey Thomas Friedman editorials. But now the North Bay faces a sensitive and non-academic naming issue of its own. If to name it is to own it, who will own the fires? So far...

The Wind-Down

On any other day, a dark and foreboding afternoon sky over Santa Rosa, with heavy, drooping clouds, might raise some concerns among residents—but nearly two weeks after fires broke out through the North Coast, rain has danced into the region, perhaps a bit lightly, and there’s a discernible sense that a fire wind-down is afoot. Still, Santa Rosa residents Thursday...
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