Keep Calm

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Keep Calm

As the first day of 2014 wound to a close, a mysterious fire destroyed part of a tent, photos and other sacredly infused objects at a large Moorland Avenue memorial to Andy Lopez, at the site where the 13-year-old boy was shot and killed by Sonoma County Deputy Sheriff Erick Gelhaus on Oct. 21.

Speculation about the fire’s origins immediately set the community on edge. In a letter addressed to retired Santa Rosa Police Department chief Tom Schwedhelm (he stepped down Dec. 20) and Sheriff Steve Freitas, dated Jan. 2 and sent via overnight delivery, Lopez family attorney Arnoldo Casillas wrote, “The first-hand accounts I have received indicate that the fire appears to be intentionally set.” Casillas continued: “The intentional burning of the monument represents a threat against the parents of Andy Lopez based upon their race/ancestry/national origin and is
a blatant act of intimidation. . . .” In the letter’s conclusion, he requested that officials undertake a “hate crime investigation.”

Other activists and community members soon leapt to the conclusion that the fire had been set with some sort of malicious intent; with tensions running high since the shooting and Gelhaus’ subsequent return to work—despite calls for his ouster—the assumptions are somewhat understandable. But it may be time for cooler heads to prevail. A daylong investigation by arson investigators from four agencies determined that the fire was started accidentally—most likely by a burning candle at the center of the memorial structure. Central Fire Authority chief Doug Williams told the Press Democrat that no evidence of accelerants, such as gasoline, were found at the site. Plans are in the works to rebuild the memorial.

Meadowcroft Wines

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Meadowcroft Wines

Despite a steady drumbeat of press insisting that Riesling is a dry, dry, dry wine, I’m told that the most common remark among visitors to this tasting room is surprise that it is not always sweet. This after decades of well-intentioned incantations against the enduring infamy of cheap Liebfraumilch. But instead of despairing, perhaps it’s time to stop chanting that tune and accept that when the gods made Riesling, they gave it the noble stuffing to make both excellent sweet and dry wines. Meadowcroft has got your palate covered either way, and bless ’em for that.

All three in the current Riesling lineup are sourced from Borden Ranch in Lodi. Neither brisk with acidity nor deeply aromatic, they’ve got their own charms—with the 2011 Reserve Riesling ($26), it’s spicy orange tea aromatics and dry pear and peach juice flavors; chamomile tea, Sweet Tarts for the 2012 Thomas Henry Riesling ($18), named for winemaker Tom Meadowcroft’s father. The unfashionably sweet treat is the 2011 Foyt Riesling ($32), made for the family of four-time Indy 500 winner A. J. Foyt, but even this is really half-dry.

The tasting room inhabits a freestanding shack at the entrance to Cornerstone Sonoma, the diverting complex of sculpture gardens and antiquey-boutiquey shops whose signature feature was once a big, blue tree. Today, look for plastic snowmen. The atmosphere is casual, there’s stuff to buy and a big, sleeping dog to step around, and a comfortably furnished deck upon which to lounge.

At first sombre with mulchy notes shrouding pie-crust aromas, the 2011 Bonneau Vineyard Sonoma County Chardonnay ($26) brightens up for a rich, butterscotchy finish. Reds begin with a stewed Pinot and a rustic Sangiovese, picking up a bit at the 2011 Knight’s Valley Zinfandel ($28), a juicy and round enough claret. Meadowcroft’s main event is the 2010 Mt. Veeder Estate Cabernet Sauvignon ($75). Like a lot of producers’ top Cabs, however, it displays obvious, promising quality with its dusty and well-knit finish and somewhat reduced, young and weedy aromas, but is not currently as much fun as the runner-up 2010 Oak Knoll Cabernet Sauvignon ($50), with its plush, cranberry-black cherry liqueur flavors. As for tawny hue and treacly, the chocolate liqueur smack of the port-style “All She Wrote” Cabernet ($36 for 500 milliliters) is just as delicious and sweet as it’s supposed to be.

Meadowcroft Wines, 23574 Hwy. 121, Sonoma. Daily, 11am–5pm. Tasting fee, $5–$10. 707.934.4090.

Taking the Bait

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Taking the Bait

‘Pretty much from the word go, from note one, we do our best to give the audience an action-packed show,” says Reel Big Fish drummer Ryland Steen in a recent phone interview. “These days, you want to leave a show feeling like you’ve been somewhere. We do our best to give them a fun show, that kind of experience, and the music, universally, just makes people go crazy.”

For Steen, a native of Lincoln, Neb., playing fast-paced ska-punk was at first a challenge. “Growing up, I had knowledge of reggae music, but I didn’t know anything about original ska, much less the third wave of ska music that Reel Big Fish came out of,” he says. “It took me a couple years before I really felt comfortable.” Reel Big Fish play Jan. 7 at the Phoenix Theater.

The band enjoyed a surge in the late 1990s, when groups such as No Doubt and Sublime helped push ska to the forefront of the alternative rock scene. “Sell Out,” the single from the group’s 1996 album Turn the Radio Off, reached number 10 on Billboard’s modern rock chart, and the video saw considerable play on MTV. But the popularity of ska-punk proved brief, and Reel Big Fish never again cracked the upper tier of the rock charts.

After 20 years, singer Aaron Barrett is the only remaining original member of the band. Steen will soon mark his eighth year in the band.

“They go by in a blur,” he says. “When I first joined the band I thought, ‘I’ll be in it for a year or two.’ Eight years later, I feel really lucky to be in this band and to have it turn into the experience it’s become.

“Being able to be on a bus and tour the world six or seven months a year is so great,” Steen continues. “Wherever we go, we seem to have a great group of people to see the show, at every show. Because we’ve toured so much, the band has built its reputation on the live show. We try to bring it every night, and the people always do. We feed off of that.”

Reel Big Fish play Tuesday, Jan. 7, at the Phoenix Theater.
201 E. Washington St., Petaluma. 7:30pm. $20–$23. 707.762.3565.

The Chosen Spot

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The Chosen Spot

West County, you really have it going on. When the sun’s light hits your apple orchards, the towns become lightly perfumed, genuinely sweeter; often it’s beams are softened and obscured by the coastal clouds.

You are the only place where I have been greeted, chauffeured and bid adieu by reused material that’s eager to please, tucked away in unfamiliar crevices kissed by the westerlies. The communal sensibility of your inhabitants supports growth and exploration without ever concerning itself with onlookers’ attempt at claiming you were once pigeonholed. I have seen members of your third to last generation meet in a rundown gym, pin apple-shaped nametags on each others’ chests; every so often two would cry in each others arms as together they grew older, week by week. The rest of the crowd offered no response beyond comfortable milling over the worn wooden floor.

Your towns are quaint enough to occupy the space between shrunken apples baked into a pie and its top crust. Even the highway that connects your towns totes the name “Bohemian” out of respect for the powerfully unconventional. It contours the sometimes moist (sometimes dry) land scattered with moss rocks and dangles from Sebastopol to Freestone; just a mention will cause locals to immediately recall the taste of the best freshly baked bread they have ever eaten.

Keep following it out to the beaches that line our charming span of the Pacific, or pierce the fog veil and wind your way to Occidental among the wise evergreen furs.

West County, please continue doing what you have always done.

Happy 2014.

Jamie Payne is a freelance guitarist and SRJC student whose paintings can be seen at JamesPayneful.tumblr.com.

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.

What We’re Reading

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What We’re Reading

Everyone reads and writes Top 10 lists around this time of year, but how often does one get a peek into what their local region is reading?

That’s what Copperfield’s Books does annually by compiling its top-selling books of the year. This year’s list from the company’s local stores is refreshingly free of vampires, tawdry S&M and hunger games; indeed, it’s the most literary-minded list in years.

And the top-selling books are:

1. ‘Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Near-Death Experience and Journey into the Afterlife’ by Eben Alexander (pictured above)

2. ‘The Ocean at the End of the Lane’ by Neil Gaiman

3. ‘Wild’ by Cheryl Strayed

4. ‘And the Mountains Echoed’ by Khaled Hosseini

5. ‘Beautiful Ruins’ by Jess Walter

6. ‘Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls’ by David Sedaris

7. ‘Where’d You Go Bernadette’ by Maria Semple

8. ‘Flight Behavior’ by Barbara Kingsolver

9. ‘Inferno’ by Dan Brown

10. ‘Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation’ by Michael Pollan

—Gabe Meline

Sanglier Cellars

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Sanglier Cellars

There are lots of folks who move to the wine country for the lifestyle—at least, the lifestyle that those who can afford to purchase vineyard estates and collect expensive wines enjoy. And there are those locals whose family business it is to farm those vineyard estates and grow the grapes for said dear wines. And then there’s Glenn Alexander, who wasted no time in becoming both kinds of folks at the same time.

Alexander joined Sonoma County’s seeming diaspora of wine-loving Texans in 2001 after a running a successful manufacturing business that involved whirlpool baths, says his daughter Chelsea Hawley with a hint of Texas twang. She caught up with the family in 2007.

After purchasing a tractor for his eight-acre vineyard, Alexander found himself tooting around his neighbors’ vineyards on request. He then obtained a viticulture certificate from Santa Rosa Junior College and founded Bacchus Vineyard Management, which farms vineyards for such hot-ticket brands as Kosta Browne, Paul Hobbs and Pahlmeyer.

Key here is that Alexander uses only grapes that he farms for clients. There’s Pinot and Chard, but the core wines are sourced from Kick Ranch, the sought-after Rhône varietal sensation located in unlikely Rincon Valley.

Viognier, Roussanne and Marsanne make up the lovely 2011 Blanc de Tusque ($22). It’s got an oily quality to the palate (“unctuous,” for us wine snobs) with honeyed floral and apricot aromas and a dry, saline finish. Mostly Syrah, the 2010 Rouge du Tusque ($26) jots a note with purple marker on the nose—it says, “exotic, figgy, licorice, plush.”

The signature 2009 Boar’s Camp ($45) is a blend of Syrah, Grenache, Cinsault poised between wet stone, blood and blueberry syrup, while aromas like savory herbs, crushed blackberries and raspberries add complexity to the palate-friendly 2009 Kemp Vineyard Syrah ($40). Not too showy, serious but immediately enjoyable, the Sanglier style is a nice addition to the wine country. Lifestyle not included.

Sanglier Cellars, 132 Plaza St., Healdsburg. Daily, 11am–6pm; Saturday, 11am–7pm. Winter, closed Wednesdays. Tasting fee, $10. 707.433.6104.

Letters to the Editor: January 1, 2014

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Letters to the Editor: January 1, 2014

Je Ne Sais Jacques

In your Jacques Brel article (“Jacques and Awe,” Dec. 25), you mistakenly call the fifth anniversary show the 50th. I know, for I was there, seated four rows behind the man himself. He had not come to America in many years as a protest of our aggression in Vietnam. He made an exception this night. Brel sat on the aisle next to Judy Collins, a faithful interpreter of his work. The Village hip and the uptown swells joined at Carnegie Hall to honor the voice of the generation—or as Ms. Collins said, “The world’s greatest performer.” The audience was dotted with elites from the theater and devotees of the show—many of us who had seen the show multiple times. My seven times seeing it was a minor blip. Many had seen the show 20 times or more. The music and lyrics are life-altering.

—Michael Pollack

Via online

New Year,
New Love

Here we are at the time of the year when most people look back and reflect on their lives, experiences, successes, failures, relationships and beliefs. Most are also looking ahead, planning for the coming year—preparing and constructing their goals, purposes and aspirations as the old year draws toward an end. Many people enjoy the comforts and pleasures of reflecting on past accomplishments and experiences with loved ones, sharing meals together, exchanging gifts with one another and generally being thankful for having such people in their lives. This is a time where most individuals really embrace the idea of family and truly slow down just enough to realize what that entails.

Past successes don’t always guarantee future successes. Failures don’t always condemn us to impending doom. Family, however, on whatever level one chooses to acknowledge or experience it, is the heartbeat of everything. It is one thing that will always just “be.”

Love makes the world turn. It is the creative power in the universe. Embrace it and accept it on any and every level during this wonderful time of year, and try to carry those thoughts, intentions and feelings with you throughout the duration of the coming year.

—Scott Foster Harris

Via online

Dumb Digital Design

Digital read thermometer probes have been a lifesaver for me, because I don’t cook enough meat (except on the grill) to really know by “feel” or experience when that whole turkey/beef roast/crown roast is done (“Food-Fad Fails,” Dec. 18). But I have to agree with their flimsiness! Usually it’s the metal wire leading from the probe that fails, usually from heat! Wouldn’t you think they’d take that into account during the design process? “Our product will be used in 500 degree grills. I guess heat resistance to 200 should be sufficient.”

—’Geodrone’

Via online

Free Beaches

More than 37 years ago, the Sonoma County coast was the birthplace of the movement that led to the California Coastal Act, which has preserved maximum public access to our coastline and beaches ever since. And in the 1990s, the Free the Beaches movement stopped a threat to charge the public to use our beaches.

Today, we need your help to fight an unfair and unwise proposal by the state to charge day-use fees to use beaches along the Sonoma County and Northern California coast. Please join me and show your support by signing our petition to stop the state’s plan and protect maximum public access for our beaches.

The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors and our state senator, Noreen Evans, have been aggressive opponents of these day-use fees. I’m grateful for their tremendous work and leadership on this important issue.

Unfortunately, this ill-considered proposal has made it this far because too many other leaders in Sacramento have lost touch with their local communities. I would be honored to have you stand strong with me to protect the public’s right to use our beaches free of charge. Sign our petition today!

—Mike McGuire

Candidate, State Senate

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

Turning the Lens

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Turning the Lens

This summer, after a civil suit challenged the New York City Police Department’s notorious program of patting down “suspicious” residents, Judge Shira A. Scheindlin of the Federal District Court in Manhattan imposed an experiment in which officers in precincts with the highest reported rates of stop-and-frisk activity would be required to wear video cameras for a year.

Earlier this year, a 12-month study by Cambridge University researchers revealed that when the city of Rialto, Calif., required its cops to wear cameras, the number of complaints filed against officers fell by 88 percent and the use of force by officers dropped by almost 60 percent. In addition, research suggests that Judge Scheindlin has made the right call; requiring officers to wear video cameras helps protect citizens’ Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure.

For example, a 2004 study in criminology and public policy by criminologists Stephen Mastrofski from George Mason University and Jonathan Gould from American University evaluated direct observations of police searches in a medium-sized American city. They conservatively estimated that nearly one-third of police searches were performed unconstitutionally, and almost none of those unconstitutional searches came to the attention of the courts.

Jay Stanley, a policy analyst with the American Civil Liberties Union, calls police-worn video cameras “a win/win for both the public and the police”—i.e., video recordings help shield officers from false accusations of abuse, as well as protecting the public against police misconduct.

Officer-worn video cameras do have the potential to violate the privacy of citizens. After all, the police frequently deal with people who are having one of the worst days of their lives. Police often enter people’s houses to investigate disturbances and disputes. In such cases, video of someone’s metaphorical (or literal) dirty laundry is nobody else’s business.

Consequently, Stanley argues that strong rules regarding the retention, use and disclosure of videos from police-worn cameras must be established and enforced. For example, videos should be retained for no more than 30 to 60 days, unless flagged. Of course, if the video contains evidence of a crime, it should be retained just as any other evidence would. Flagging would also occur for any incident involving force or that produces a citizen complaint. With the appropriate privacy protections in place, very little of police-recorded video would ever be retained or viewed.

Officers should also be required to notify people that they are being recorded. Some preliminary evidence suggests that both police and citizens behave better when they know that they’re being recorded. Additionally, the police should not have discretion to release any video to the public. For example, departments would be barred from “leaking” videos like that of a drunk Reese Witherspoon being arrested in Atlanta for disorderly conduct after a traffic stop. (For what it’s worth, the Atlanta police department denies releasing the Witherspoon scene.)

Besides those legitimate privacy concerns, what possible objections could there be to requiring every officer to wear a camera? Some contend that since practically every citizen can now record police activity using his phone, police-worn cameras are unnecessary. But some states have made it illegal to record people in public without their consent, and the police are often adamant about enforcing that prohibition when the camera is turned on them.

Also, citizen recordings will often be incomplete or misleading. People typically start recording only after an encounter turns aggressive, so the context of what is happening is lost.

Won’t police officers resist wearing video cameras? Initially, perhaps. But most patrol officers are now becoming comfortable with dashboard cameras in their cruisers. A 2004 study for the International Association of Chiefs of Police found that in cases where police misconduct was alleged, in-car video evidence exonerated officers 93 percent of the time.

The same report further noted that dashboard cameras enhanced officer safety, improved agency accountability, reduced liability, simplified incident review, enhanced new recruit training, improved community perceptions, helped advance case resolution and enhanced officer performance and professionalism. In fact, the Atlanta police officer in the Witherspoon dashcam video comes off as quite professional. He consistently refers to Witherspoon as “ma’am” and keeps a level tone of voice despite some fairly hilarious provocation.

Body-worn cameras will clearly augment all of those objectives. And it will accomplish an important democratic task as well: turning the tables on the functionaries of the surveillance state. It gives citizens better protection against police misconduct and against violations of their constitutional rights. And it protects good cops against unfair accusations.

Ronald Bailey is ‘Reason’ magazine’s science correspondent and author of ‘Liberation Biology: A Moral and Scientific Defense of the Biotech Revolution.’

Mouse Trap

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Mouse Trap

My favorite films of 2013 include Captain Phillips, Her, Gravity, 12 Years a Slave, Nebraska and The Grandmaster. But the worst film of 2013 was The Lone Ranger.

What a bad year for Disney. Watch them try to burnish their image with the lie-filled Saving Mr. Banks, where they imagineered the story of starchy Brit P. L. Travers (Emma Thompson), author of Mary Poppins, learning to lay back and enjoy market penetration. Cut to The Lone Ranger, a Disney franchise that no one knew how to launch. Who was that movie for? Psychotic kids?

And then there was 2013’s Revolt of the Disney girls. Defenders of Spring Breakers (I’m not really one) claim the transgressive qualities of this thang were proved by defecting Disneyites Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens, going down and dirty. (And Spring Breakers came out even before the former Hannah Montana decided to twitch her undernourished hams at that awards show.)

But I preferred Randy Moore’s all-out attack on Sleeping Beauty’s castle. Escape from Tomorrow, filmed guerrilla-style inside Disney World and Disneyland without permission, even has a counter on its website ticking off the time until the filmmakers are sued by Disney. Moore added to the encouraging black-and-white revival of 2013: Frances Ha, Much Ado About Nothing, Nebraska and the charcoal-and-snow-tinted colors of Inside Llewyn Davis. While proving the viability of monochrome, Moore also snatched his movie out of one of the most heavily monitored places on earth. You’d rather steal chump change from Smaug.

My favorite movie of the year was Blue Is the Warmest Color, with its two mesmerizing leads, but I also loved the two unfortunate women facing religious mania (or is it religious solace?) in the Romanian tragedy Beyond the Hills. And the troubled friendship in Frances Ha, and brave Beatrice sticking up for her kinswoman Hero in Joss Whedon’s typically feminist take on Shakespeare in Much Ado About Nothing.

It’s the reason why the Bechdel Test means so much as I get older, and why male buddy films mean less to me.

So Long, 2013!

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So Long, 2013!

THE SPOTTED CHIHUAHUA

‘We know that there are public elected officials here today and that you’d better listen. You better start coming over to our side of town over there, and listen to what we have to say. Because now I’ve got what you’ve always had: it’s called money. And listen carefully, each of you. Until you come out and talk to us and listen to us and answer to what happened, I will take my money and run a spotted Chihuahua against you and let it win. And I mean it.’—Greg Sarris, Nov. 3

Citizens! I’m a spotted Chihuahua, and I want your vote. The above quote is from my campaign manager Greg Sarris. You may know him as the chairman of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, which opened a casino in Rohnert Park a few days after Sarris’ speech announcing my candidacy. (Well, it was supposed to be a speech honoring Andy Lopez at a meeting of the North Bay Organizing Project in conjunction with a tribal donation of $8,000 to his family, but we felt the time was right for a political announcement.)

My team and I haven’t yet decided what I’m running for, exactly, but I’m leaning toward county supervisor. Good pay, high reelection rates for incumbents, ability to get into trouble without severe repercussion—it seems like a perfect fit for an ill-tempered, scrappy, undersized perrito like myself. And I hear there might be a good chance at defeating an incumbent pretty soon.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: Spotted Chihuahua, you’re adorable and everything, but where do you stand on the issues we care about? What about water conservation, commercial development and paving our roadways? I can assure you, I will pretend to care about every little thing your heart desires, just so long as I get my treats. Give me a peanut butter crunchie, and I will sing and dance for you all day.
—Nicolas Grizzle

EFREN’S UNDERWEAR

“Efren Carrillo got arrested last night. He was drunk and in his socks and underwear.”

It was the kind of text that makes you drop the phone and go “Daaaang!” And, like most people do when a public official is caught with their pants down (or missing entirely), I shot back with a joke. “Hey, it’s like the KONY 2012 guy, without the masturbation!”

But here are the facts as we know them: Around 3am on July 13, a woman placed two 911 calls after a man rustled the blinds at her bedroom window, and soon after, Carrillo knocked on her front door and ran away. The 32-year-old Sonoma County supervisor was found in only his socks and underwear, and the screen to the woman’s window was discovered to have been torn. Police believed Carrillo intended to commit sexual assault, and arrested him on suspicion of burglary, prowling and possible sexual assault in West Santa Rosa.

The day after the arrest, I tossed around a few Champagne-fueled speculations with a friend. I was convinced Carrillo had suffered some sort of mental breakdown, and initially, I empathized with the guy. I spent my ’20s and early ’30s sucking down whiskey drinks, a tendency that led me into “adventures” that might never have passed ethical muster in the light of day. Of course, I wasn’t on the board of supervisors.

My friend, on the other hand, thought this was your run-of-the-mill booty call gone awry. But as facts were revealed, it turned out that this was far from the truth. The young woman barely knew Carrillo, aside from the superficial interaction you might have with a neighbor who lives across the fence, or in this case, across the driveway. Far from a case of buyer’s remorse, this was something way more serious. For most women, an unknown man entering a bedroom window in the early morning hours is the stuff of nightmares.

As Carrillo’s charges were reduced to peeking, the calls for his ouster were repeated, but much of the press focused on whether the whole incident would have long-term repercussions for Carrillo’s rising political star. A more crucial question might be: How can the women of Sonoma County feel safe in a community that allows elected leaders to violate the safety of one of his own constituents, whatever Carrillo thought the potential outcome might be of his two-beer-in-hand, nearly naked, pre-dawn visit? As Rosanne Darling, the victim’s lawyer told the Bohemian in December, “Nobody’s talking about what this means for the women of this county. What are we willing to accept in 2013, in a place as progressive as Sonoma County?”

That’s the question we should be asking ourselves in 2014.
—Leilani Clark

SINKING ROCK

Hey, remember BottleRock? The most promising music festival to ever hit the North Bay, with the most insanely top-notch lineup of bands? Of course you do, because if you weren’t at the festival itself, you were either stuck listening to your co-workers talk about it all the time, or just plain stuck in its traffic.

Or hey! Maybe you’re one of the many people to whom BottleRock owes money. That’s because after five festival days with nearly everything running smoothly, the star-struck promoters paid the bands—and forgot to pay full invoices to the stagehands, the backstage caterer, the portable toilet company, the trash lady, the shuttle bus company, the city of Napa . . . And the list goes on. Even the father of one of the promoters filed suit against his own son to be paid. Ouch.

As of late November, a trio of new investors was interested in taking over the festival and paying off its estimated $8.5 million in debt. But between the lawsuits, the bad press, the infighting and the obscene levels of financial mismanagement, who would want to take the chance?

Meanwhile, three-day passes for BottleRock 2014 remain for sale on the festival’s website. Our tip: save your $329 until a real lineup is announced.—Gabe Meline

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THE DEATH OF A CHILD

Andy Lopez was just another 13-year-old walking through his neighborhood on Moorland Avenue in Santa Rosa, on his way to a friend’s house to return his toy gun. When he heard someone from behind yell to him, he began to turn around to see who it was. Instead, he was pumped full of bullets, killed in plain daylight by deputy Erick Gelhaus, who continued to shoot after the boy fell to the ground.

According to the autopsy, which showed the bullets’ trajectories, Andy Lopez was only halfway turned around before he was shot from behind. According to witnesses, Gelhaus didn’t identify himself as law enforcement. And according to the sheriff’s own time stamp, the whole incident—from radioing in a suspicious person with a gun, to radioing back that shots had been fired—took just 10 seconds.

Andy Lopez didn’t have a chance.

Marches, vigils and actions have been a weekly occurrence since, and you can’t walk a hundred yards in southwest Santa Rosa without seeing “Justice for Andy” painted on a car window. In other parts of town, though, things aren’t so tumultuous. The Santa Rosa Police Department is as close as ever with the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office, and is tasked with the “outside” investigation. District Attorney Jill Ravitch is tasked with reviewing that investigation, despite being cozy as can be with Sheriff Steve Freitas—the two spoke at each others’ campaign kickoff events. A nearly all-white, middle-aged grand jury will likely dutifully stamp the results.

Lopez’s death caused us all to “have a conversation” in 2013. But with 27 officer-related fatal shootings that have occurred since 2000, and with Gelhaus back at work and likely to be cleared of any wrongdoing, it’s time to stop talking and start acting to change a system that allows such tragedies. At the very least, Ravitch should voluntarily recuse herself from reviewing the investigation of Frietas’ department—a clear political conflict of interest. Better yet would be for the formation of a civilian review board to oversee officer-related shootings, which has long been recommended for Sonoma County and is currently being studied by a task force. If it could stop even one innocent 13-year-old from being killed, it would all be worth it.
—Gabe Meline

THE ELECTEDS’ MUSICAL CHAIRS

A barrage of political candidacy announcements marked the second half of 2013 as local politicos revved up for an election year. After State Sen. Noreen Evans announced that she would not seek re-election in 2014, Sonoma County Supervisor Mike McGuire launched a bid for her state Legislature seat. (A “leaked” poll of 400 registered North Coast voters shows McGuire with a significant lead over the other two candidates, for whatever that’s worth.)

It wasn’t long before potential candidates began vying to take over McGuire’s position. Those entering the fray include James Gore, a former senior official in the Department of Agriculture under President Obama. A Sonoma County native with wine industry ties, the 35-year-old recently moved back to Healdsburg with his wife and daughter, announcing his candidacy soon afterward. Environmentally minded Windsor councilwoman Deborah Fudge will make her third attempt at supervisorial seat, as will lively, rampant Press Democrat commenter Keith Rhinehart, former Healdsburg mayor Pete Foppiano, and Healdsburg city councilman Tom Chambers.

In Santa Rosa, former Press Democrat columnist Chris Coursey announced a run for a seat on the Santa Rosa City Council. If he wins, he’ll leave behind a long journalism career for public office, leaving his loyal readers to sigh and cheer at the same time. Shout out to Erin Carlstrom for bringing her new baby to city council meetings and providing inspiration to working moms everywhere—and a brickbat to the misogynist troll who wrote that Carlstrom should “stay at home with her first child.” This was also the year that the 31-year-old attorney, who’s served less than a year on Santa Rosa City Council, announced that she would run for State Legislature . . . oh wait, no, never mind . . . make that the 10th District assembly seat, currently held by Marc Levine, who last year unseated Michael Allen. Carlstrom hasn’t made the official announcement yet, but maybe this one will stick.—Leilani Clark

DELICIOUS GAMBLE

Rohnert Park residents rejoiced this year when the long-awaited casino opened on the outskirts of town. Not because there would finally be a form of entertainment other than miniature golf or theater in the city, but because the $800 million gambling mecca has a top-notch taqueria.

The 34,000-square-foot casino is fun and all, but the real draw is La Fondita. The Santa Rosa eatery was hand-picked by tribal chairman Greg Sarris to open another outlet of its popular Roseland restaurants inside the casino. With the incredible response to the opening of a Chipotle restaurant in Rohnert Park (diners sometimes waited upwards of an hour in line), it was obvious that RP residents were in desperate need of a real burrito.

Yes, the casino was a source of controversy for over a decade before it was even built, and traffic was terrible on opening day,
Nov. 4. But the delicious tortas were worth the wait, as a full parking garage and packed gambling floors littered with drips of crema and guacamole will attest. It’s a mainstay, and even if Amy’s Kitchen does open a healthy fast-food establishment down the street, it won’t make a dent in La Fondita’s business. A healthy chorizo chimichanga is one that I don’t ever want to meet.

And if a strip mall or two opens across the street with a Taco Bell or a Baja Fresh, so be it. Station Casinos bought all the land adjacent to the casino it bankrolled, and it can lease the space to whomever it likes. You know why La Fondita doesn’t give a shit? Because their tacos are the shit—the best little meat bombs a tortilla has ever had the honor of transporting to a mouth. And the elote? That’s no gamble, that’s a sure bet for deliciousness, corn-teeth be damned. Rohnert Park has changed forever, no thanks to the smoky, flashy, loud, money-sucking sensory blitz of the Graton Rancheria Casino, but to the beautiful, rich, spicy carne asada contained within.—Nicolas Grizzle

THE INTERNET LOTTERY

Out of the thousands of things we post online every year, we’re never completely sure what’s going to capture the imagination of the public at large. But in the case of a mid-July post about a newscast, we at the Bohemian captured eyeballs worldwide. In a post titled “KTVU Reports Asiana Pilots Named ‘Sum Ting Wong,’ ‘Ho Lee Fuk,'” we had the somewhat dubious honor of being first to break the news that KTVU anchors had messed up really, really bad. In just one day, we’d amassed 250,000 views; the post would go on to break the half-million mark by the end of the week. What can we say? People all over the world like racist news bloopers.—Gabe Meline

Keep Calm

As the first day of 2014 wound to a close, a mysterious fire destroyed part of a tent, photos and other sacredly infused objects at a large Moorland Avenue memorial to Andy Lopez, at the site where the 13-year-old boy was shot and killed by Sonoma County Deputy Sheriff Erick Gelhaus on Oct. 21. Speculation about the fire's origins immediately...
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Meadowcroft Wines

Despite a steady drumbeat of press insisting that Riesling is a dry, dry, dry wine, I'm told that the most common remark among visitors to this tasting room is surprise that it is not always sweet. This after decades of well-intentioned incantations against the enduring infamy of cheap Liebfraumilch. But instead of despairing, perhaps it's time to stop chanting...
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Taking the Bait

'Pretty much from the word go, from note one, we do our best to give the audience an action-packed show," says Reel Big Fish drummer Ryland Steen in a recent phone interview. "These days, you want to leave a show feeling like you've been somewhere. We do our best to give them a fun show, that kind of experience,...
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The Chosen Spot

West County, you really have it going on. When the sun's light hits your apple orchards, the towns become lightly perfumed, genuinely sweeter; often it's beams are softened and obscured by the coastal clouds. You are the only place where I have been greeted, chauffeured and bid adieu by reused material that's eager to please, tucked away in unfamiliar crevices...
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What We’re Reading

Everyone reads and writes Top 10 lists around this time of year, but how often does one get a peek into what their local region is reading? That's what Copperfield's Books does annually by compiling its top-selling books of the year. This year's list from the company's local stores is refreshingly free of vampires, tawdry S&M and hunger games; indeed,...
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Sanglier Cellars

There are lots of folks who move to the wine country for the lifestyle—at least, the lifestyle that those who can afford to purchase vineyard estates and collect expensive wines enjoy. And there are those locals whose family business it is to farm those vineyard estates and grow the grapes for said dear wines. And then there's Glenn Alexander,...
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Letters to the Editor: January 1, 2014

Je Ne Sais Jacques In your Jacques Brel article ("Jacques and Awe," Dec. 25), you mistakenly call the fifth anniversary show the 50th. I know, for I was there, seated four rows behind the man himself. He had not come to America in many years as a protest of our aggression in Vietnam. He made an exception this night. Brel...
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Turning the Lens

This summer, after a civil suit challenged the New York City Police Department's notorious program of patting down "suspicious" residents, Judge Shira A. Scheindlin of the Federal District Court in Manhattan imposed an experiment in which officers in precincts with the highest reported rates of stop-and-frisk activity would be required to wear video cameras for a year. Earlier this year,...
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Mouse Trap

My favorite films of 2013 include Captain Phillips, Her, Gravity, 12 Years a Slave, Nebraska and The Grandmaster. But the worst film of 2013 was The Lone Ranger. What a bad year for Disney. Watch them try to burnish their image with the lie-filled Saving Mr. Banks, where they imagineered the story of starchy Brit P. L. Travers (Emma Thompson),...
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So Long, 2013!

THE SPOTTED CHIHUAHUA 'We know that there are public elected officials here today and that you'd better listen. You better start coming over to our side of town over there, and listen to what we have to say. Because now I've got what you've always had: it's called money. And listen carefully, each of you. Until you come out and...
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