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Opinion Page Read these opinions below: • THIS TIME, THE TRAIN RUNS ON WEEKENDS • NO SUCH THING AS WASTEWATER ANY MORE • Enjoy the Sweet Darkness of Winter • FREE FROM SPRAWL• THE CAMPAIGNS BEHIND THE CAMPAIGNS • PROPOSAL TO LIMIT RAIL TO SONOMA COUNTY IS REJECTED
THIS TIME, THE TRAIN RUNS ON WEEKENDS By CHRIS COURSEY April 20, 2007
That was the warning issued the other day by the Sonoma-Marin commuter train's chief critic, Mike Arnold of Marin Citizens for Effective Transportation. And members of the bicounty SMART board of directors didn't disagree. __________________________________________________________ NO SUCH THING AS WASTEWATER ANY MORE By Chris Coursey, The Press Democrat March 23, 2007 Nice timing by the Sonoma County Water Agency. I'm guessing that the timing of the lawsuit and the environmental report is coincidental. Even so, the two events serve to highlight the growing concern about how Sonoma County will meet the water needs of a population that is expected to balloon from less than 500,000 today to almost 800,000 by the year 2050.
Enjoy the Sweet Darkness of Winter By Shepherd Bliss Press Democrat Close to Home, December 1, 2006 The steamy compost piles on my farm are full of spent plants, chicken manure, kitchen scraps and a wide variety of once-alive but now-decaying organic matter. They will feed my berries, apples and other plants, giving them life. Everything that lives perishes – individuals, relationships, nations, empires, species, even planets. Other living things combine from what remains of the departed to replace them. It’s a natural cycle.
An essential often-maligned aspect of that cycle is darkness, which frightens some. What goes into my compost piles have many colors, including green, yellow, red and even purple. What comes out is brown or black.
For more than a dozen years living and working on my farm I have regularly brought in manure as fertilizer. I know that this “brown gold” will bring forth tasty fruit. Darkness can be fruitful, in various forms, which some people shy away from. The dark earth provides our eternal grounding.
I write in praise of certain kinds of darkness, which the Welsh-American David Whyte describes in his poem “Sweet Darkness.” Whyte’s poem enabled me to see more deeply into the possibilities of sweetness in a time of darkness – literal, seasonal, political and figurative. “The night will give you a horizon/ further than you can see,” Whyte’s poem assured me.
A full moon was scheduled for the night that Whyte’s poem arrived by email, so I checked it out. I felt a larger context within which we humans dwell. In addition to the guidance of our daylight logic, we could benefit from the insight of nighttime’s more diffuse lunar light within its ample darkness.
In Semitic languages and early Christianity “black” and “wise” were associated. St. John of the Cross spoke of the “dark night of the soul,” a journey which was difficult but ultimately restorative. But darkness has a bad reputation in the United States today. “Dark” is even used to label that which is allegedly inferior. Malevolent forms of darkness do indeed exist. But my concern here is with benevolent, or sweet, darkness.
Whyte’s poem stimulated me to seek more poems about darkness. “Night cancels the business of day,” the Persian poet Rumi declared. “Be refreshed in the darkness,” he added. “Midway along the journey of life, I woke to find myself in a dark wood.” Dante begins “The Divine Comedy.”
“You darkness, that I come from and love so much,” Rilke wrote. Scientists describe it as dark matter and dark energy. “If I reached my hands down, near the earth,/ I could take handfuls of darkness!" A darkness was always there, which we never noticed,” Minnesota poet Robert Bly writes.
Kentucky farmer and poet Wendell Berry encourages us to “know that the dark, too,/ Blooms and sings,/ And is traveled by dark feet and dark wings.” Maybe this darkness is not as bad as I was thinking that cold, wet morning when Whyte’s poem arrived and led me into myself and to other poems.
“Things are different at night,” writes Jungian analyst Clarissa Pinkola Estes in her book “Women Who Run With the Wolves.” “Night is when we are closer to ourselves, closer to essential ideas and feelings that do not register so much during the day.” There is less to distract us when the night cloak falls on everything except that which is closest.
In darkness we can dream, revealing hidden parts of ourselves. “We need to…create the dark in a new image…the dark creates us,” Cazadero resident Starhawk writes in her book “Dreaming the Dark.” Starhawk later adds, “How do we find the dark within and transform it, own it as our own power?”
Weaving the multiple benefits of darkness into my life (and avoiding its pitfalls) seems to be my main winter task at the end of 2006, as 2007 approaches. In the darkness one can rest and be renewed. Spring may come again, with a different set of gifts.
Shepherd Bliss is a Sebastopol resident. E-mail him at sb3@pon.net ________________________________________________________ Published in the Press Democrat, December 1, 2006 Yes, it would be nice to have a store located in that shopping center. Yes, Wal-Mart is in both Windsor and Rohnert Park without significant traffic issues, but both of those locations have updated intersections and high-traffic capability. The intersection at Stony Point and Sebastopol roads gets terribly backed up much of the day since Stony Point goes down to only one lane in each direction. This is with a dead-store location. Add a Wal-Mart with all its associated activity and that end of town will be so deadlocked no one will be able to get to the store, much less choose to shop there. ________________________________________________________
Published in Press Democrat, August 18, 2006
EDITOR: I agree with columnist Chris Coursey (July 21) that the SMART train is good for our environment. Passage of the SMART measure will encourage city-centered development and reduce auto-supported sprawl. What could have been added is the rail’s influence to sustain our urban growth boundaries (UGBs). Petaluma SCCA Founder and Current Board President
Published in the Press Democrat, August 11, 2006 EDITOR: In an Aug. 5 letter "Common sense test," the writer espouses ideas about getting from Sonoma County to San Francisco Airport. Ideas can be tested in several ways, one of which is to know some plans for the future of the Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) District. Specifically, I refer to the southern terminus in Larkspur. Printed as an editiorial in the Press Democrat, June 18, 2006 SMART project would fulfill promise of Railroad Square When Sonoma County residents think of large public plazas where people are able to buy fresh produce and flowers, meet someone for espresso or catch a train, they think of Europe. But, believe it or not, they may soon be thinking of home.
THE CAMPAIGNS BEHIND THE CAMPAIGNS
For the first time since it was created in 1998, the group took issue with statements made by a candidate backed by business and development interests -- the very same interests that many political insiders believe provide the financial backing for Tell the Truth.
"I always knew that someday we'd have to correct the business community's side,'' she said about a new flier that takes county Supervisor Paul Kelley to task for a mailer in which he claims to have "built the Boys and Girls Club in Windsor.'' "He didn't physically build it," says the single-page flier, which also repeats the group's earlier complaints about statements made by Kelley's challenger, Windsor Councilwoman Debora Fudge. The new flier is not likely to silence Tell the Truth's critics. While the group purports to keep politics honest in Sonoma County, it refuses to disclose the sources of its $40,000 annual budget, or where it got the $15,000 Timmsen says it will spend on this year's Fourth District "campaign watch.'' It doesn't have to - as long as it doesn't back a particular candidate. Questions about the group's neutrality come up because it most often has found fault with candidates and causes supported by the environmental group Sonoma County Conservation Action. The questions resurfaced this spring when Santa Rosa real estate agent Ross Liscum sent an e-mail soliciting donations to Tell the Truth, which he said would help Kelley retain his supervisor's seat. Tell the Truth, Liscum wrote, "has been the only group of reasonableness in fighting and making accountable the groups like the Conservation Action and the other left leaning, no growth, stop it all groups in this county.'' Timmsen denied her group is in Kelley's camp, but said it's true Tell the Truth has served as a " counterweight'' to Conservation Action. "We started in 1998 because some of us were so (angry) with the way Conservation Action played loose with the facts,'' she said. "They're still the most egregious group.'' Conservation Action, with a budget of about $300,000, uses door- to-door canvassers to recruit dues paying members. It operates year round, and in campaign seasons the canvassers tout specific candidates. This year, they support Fudge. "We support environmentally progressive candidates,'' said Denny Rosatti, the group's co-director. "We're not trying to pull the wool over anyone's eyes.'' His canvassers have knocked on about 8,000 doors in the Fourth District, recruiting and handing out Fudge fliers. Fudge said she will report about $1,000 of "in-kind'' help on her campaign finance statements. Kelley, though, won't have to report any help from Tell the Truth. Even though that group has sent mailers and canvassers questioning Fudge's truthfulness to thousands of Fourth District homes, it was not working directly for Kelley, and thus is not required by campaign laws to file as one of his contributors. Besides, Tell the Truth now has added Kelley to its list of fibbers. Meanwhile, a third group is working the Fourth District campaign. "Citizens for Fair, Open and Decisive Leadership'' has taken out ads and mailed fliers supporting Kelley. Lee Gunnerson, the group's treasurer, said it is comprised of "private landowners'' who back Kelley, but are not connected to his campaign. "I don't know anything about it,'' Kelley said in a phone message. "But I appreciate the outside, independent group acknowledging my work.'' Contact Coursey at 521-5223 or ccoursey@pressdemocrat.com.
Will 'big-box' store be good or bad for southwest Santa Rosa? By Patricia Lynn Henley Henry Ford sought to pay his workers enough so they could buy the cars they produced. Sam Walton sought to pay his workers so little that they could afford to shop nowhere else. Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, with more than 5,700 stores and upwards of 1.7 million employees, is casting its hungry corporate eye on Stony Point Plaza in southwest Santa Rosa's Roseland neighborhood. Always in the mood for expansion, the megachain wants to replace two long-vacant storefronts with a 106,000-square-foot superstore that would be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Avid supporters of the proposal paint a rosy picture of more than 250 new jobs, low-price shopping and general economic renewal for a struggling section of Santa Rosa. Opponents foresee a more grim future of low wages and few benefits for employees who will need public assistance to survive, as well as cut-throat competition creating bust rather than boom times for nearby small businesses. Uncertainty breeds questions, the foremost being: When is welcoming a new Wal-Mart to town a good thing? Perhaps even just a decade ago, there might have been a choice of local or regional retailers waiting to fill empty shopping center spaces like Stony Point, says Stephanie Dyer, an assistant professor at Sonoma State University who specializes in consumer, business and economic history. But over the past 30 years, the high-volume, so-called big-box discount stores such as Wal-Mart have squeezed out less massive players who had traditionally relied on customer service and community support rather than extremely cheap wholesale prices for products sold in immense quantities. "Smaller firms can't compete, and firms that pay living wages can't compete when everything is about price and volume," Dyer says. "It's a vicious cycle. I don't fault working-class people for shopping at Wal-Mart. But the more we have a service economy that pays low wages, the more people are going to have to rely on volume discounters like Wal-Mart, because that's all they can afford." The City of Santa Rosa recently completed a draft environmental impact report (EIR) for the Wal-Mart proposal; a revised EIR is expected to be presented to the city's planning commission sometime this summer, with a final decision on the project possibly coming this fall. "Ideally, you would hope that the community would have some kind of leverage to demand things like a living wage," Dyer says. "But a corporation the size of Wal-Mart doesn't have to meet the demand of one local community; they can just bypass the community and go on to another. In that sense, it is a very difficult situation facing the people of Santa Rosa." Certainly, no one thinks things should stay as they are at the Stony Point Plaza, located at the corner of Stony Point and Sebastopol roads, just south of Highway 12. There's a general air of abandonment within the large cement-block walls that once housed Home Base, which closed in 2001, and the adjoining Rite Aid, which shut its doors in 2003. The huge Food Maxx in one corner of the L-shaped center still attracts consumer traffic, especially on the weekends. There are also a number of smaller shops, including Vietnamese and Mexican restaurants, a cafe featuring Greek gyros, a clothing store where most of the clientele speaks Spanish, a travel agency with signs in Spanish, a video store, a Rent-a-Center, a Payless Shoe Source, a check-cashing shop, an insurance agency with bilingual English-Spanish posters, a laundromat, a dry cleaner and a beauty salon, as well as a few empty storefronts. But the largest sites, considered the "anchors" of the shopping center, are filled with a whole lot of nothing. No merchandise. No jobs. No customers. Although the buildings appear to be connected to the Food Maxx, they are structurally separate. If its proposal is approved, Wal-Mart wants to demolish the empty stores and construct a 101,048-square-foot building on that same footprint. There would be a 4,900-square-foot retail garden center between the new building and the Food Maxx. The resulting Wal-Mart would sell dry goods but not groceries, so it would not be in direct competition with Food Maxx. As founder and coordinator of the South and West Business Association, Terry Hilton thinks Wal-Mart will bring a rising economic tide that will float all boats. "The biggest reason that I support them is that Wal-Mart is going to be a magnet for southwest Santa Rosa, and we need more magnets," he says. "There are businesses that are moving into southwest Santa Rosa now because Wal-Mart will bring so many more people into the area." Hilton doesn't believe assertions that Wal-Mart hurts small businesses. "People make it sound like they come into an area and rape and pillage the economy. They don't do that. Look at the Wal-Mart in Rohnert Park, and look at all the thriving businesses around there." Among other benefits, Hilton notes, Wal-Mart buys from small suppliers, including two local firms that are members of the South and West Business Association. And the taxes generated by Wal-Mart won't hurt the area, either, Hilton says. "Here comes a player who is going to pay half a million dollars or more in sales taxes to the city. The dollar value of Santa Rosa's sales taxes is just going to pump up the southwest part of the city like you won't believe. They will have the wherewithal that we need to get things done: community centers, libraries, swimming pools, trails, parks." Hilton also has personal reasons for his passionate support of Wal-Mart. Several years ago, his late fiancée, Gloria Machado, was battling cancer. She wanted to work but, emaciated and having lost her hair, she had trouble finding a job. "Wal-Mart hired her and let her work around her chemotherapy schedule," Hilton recalls. "Talk about enhancing someone's self-esteem. It made her feel like somebody. They didn't bat an eye if she couldn't make it because her chemo session ran overtime." Machado lost her battle against cancer, but her six months working at the Wal-Mart in Rohnert Park let her "die with a little dignity," Hilton says. Wal-Mart always supports its community, Hilton adds, with everything from cash donations to putting flyers for local events into customers' bags. The Windsor store did that for the chamber of commerce's nonprofit trade show, with amazingly positive results. "We got so many people to attend, it was fantastic," Hilton says. "Other places wouldn't do that." Opponents of Wal-Mart, Hilton contends, are just being snobs. Low income does not mean low class, and people need a place to find bargains. "Socioeconomic prejudice is hard to define, but it is there," he says. "You're going to deny low-income people an opportunity to save money? That's not acceptable." Ben Boyce of the Sonoma County Living Wage Coalition and the Accountable Development Coalition laughs when he's asked if opposition to the current Wal-Mart proposal is rooted in class or social prejudice. "That's an attempt to play on liberal guilt," he responds, adding that it simply isn't true; even low-income people think a job should pay enough to support the worker. "The issue we have with Wal-Mart is that it represents probably the largest [purveyor] of the new economy—those low-wage, low-benefit employers that are helping to drive down living standards in the United States. Wal-Mart is consistently at the bottom of the pay and benefit scale, even within a low-wage industry. Its mantra is 'always lower prices,' but that means always lower wages and benefits." Support from the local business community would diminish rapidly, Boyce adds, if small store owners had a more accurate picture of the impact of a Wal-Mart. "Studies in the past have shown that Wal-Mart has been the neutron bomb of businesses. When they come into an area, in five years numerous small businesses around them have disappeared." The problem is not with Wal-Mart itself, Boyce says, but with its business model, which drives down both prices and wages while deflecting a lot of the company's costs onto the public sector. A study by the University of California Center for Labor Research and Education found that 75 percent of the 44,000 Wal-Mart workers in California in 2004 earned less than $10 an hour, and less than half received health benefits. "The average Wal-Mart costs the community at least $420,000 a year in subsidized medical and housing," Boyce says. "Our objection to Wal-Mart is that it represents a pernicious business model. It is a relentless engine that drives down living standards. They get goods produced at near slave wages in Southeast Asia, sold by workers earning peasant wages in the United States." A better business model, Boyce said, is that of Costco, which pays its employees an average of $17 an hour and provides health insurance and other benefits to a majority of its workforce. Costco also has a significantly lower employee turnover than Wal-Mart. "Wal-Mart is sort of the poster child for this low-road business model that is downgrading the living standard in the United States. I would point out, in all fairness, that Wal-Mart is not the only bad apple. They are just the largest and most visible." While it is obvious that Wal-Mart will bring Santa Rosa a huge chunk of sales tax revenue, Boyce says other costs need to be taken into consideration. "Will these be living-wage jobs that will sustain a family, or are these going to be McJobs, junk jobs that basically condemn people to being part of the working poor and having to use welfare and other subsidies to supplement their income?" he asks. Jayanthi Ramen has worked at the Wal-Mart in Rohnert Park for almost nine years. "I like the people I work with, and I've never had a problem with it. I like my job, that's all I can say. I do have ups and down, any job does, but I like it." Ramen works three or four hours a day, about two to three days a week. She lives with her husband, their 15-year-old son, her father-in-law and her mother-in-law, so her main focus is on caring for her family. "Especially for women like me who have families, they definitely help me out with my hours," she says. "They work with me and help me out." Wal-Mart was Ramen's first job outside her home. She started as a cashier and is now a support manager. She says she does have medical insurance. Ramen's supervisors are encouraging her to consider becoming an assistant manager, but that would mean more hours and more responsibility. She's thinking about it but she's not sure she's ready to make that commitment. Her family still comes first. Ramen works a second job a couple hours a week at the Taco Bell in Stony Point Plaza, which is near her home. She's thought about asking for a transfer if the Wal-Mart gets built in Stony Point, but she likes her co-workers at the Rohnert Park store and feels she is treated well there. "I don't know how other people feel [about Wal-Mart]. For my opinion, they give a lot of people jobs. A lot of people get an opportunity to work." But is having a job, just any job, enough? And is that the best possible use for the property in Stony Point Plaza? Michael Allen of the North Bay Labor Council points out that when Safeway built a new store at Steele Lane and Mendocino Avenue, the city of Santa Rosa required the company to set aside land for a 28-unit apartment complex catering to mid- and low-income households. The city's general plan doesn't have the same mixed-use requirement for Stony Point Plaza, but that doesn't mean it couldn't be added. However, it's important to tone down the rhetoric and study the situation carefully, Allen says. "I think that Wal-Mart believes in its business model while a lot of us believe it's a race to the bottom. If people put on their thinking caps, it's hard to believe that Wal-Mart could be the highest and best use for this property. It's possible that putting in affordable housing and mixed-use retail could act as an incubator for small businesses in the area. And maybe Wal-Mart could be part of that. Maybe it's not an all-or-nothing proposition. Maybe they're not exclusive uses." Wal-Mart has become shorthand for bad business practices, and some people oppose it just on principle, Allen says. "I don't want to demonize Wal-Mart. I don't want to stop Wal-Mart. I want them to change their business practices so they would be acceptable in any community. Any time you start demonizing the other side, it makes it easier for them to demonize you. Everything goes up in heat." Allen says he's aware that Wal-Mart is ramping up its efforts to improve its public image. "I'm really interested in how much they are changing their business practices versus giving the appearance of changing their business practices. Some of it is separating the myth from fact, which is hard." Kevin Loscotoff, Wal-Mart's director of public affairs for Northern California, has a number of facts at his fingertips. There is the fact that the Rohnert Park Wal-Mart contributed $50,000 to local organizations in 2005, while the Windsor store raised and gave away more than $48,000. There is also the fact that the average hourly wage for Bay Area Wal-Mart stores is now $11.08. (Loscotoff admits that he doesn't know exactly what the starting wage would be for the proposed new store.) It is a fact that when a new Wal-Mart opened last year in Oakland, there were 11,000 applicants for its 400 jobs; a new store in Fremont received 8,000 applications. And, according to Loscotoff, it's a fact that the new Stony Point Wal-Mart will bring quality jobs complete with heath benefits. Furthermore, he avers, if the project is approved, Wal-Mart will be investing between $10 million to $15 million in Santa Rosa, and bringing between 250 and 350 jobs with competitive pay as well as benefits—health, medical, 401K for retirement—to the area. Loscotoff adds that 76 percent of Wal-Mart store managers started out in hourly positions. "These aren't only hourly positions. There are opportunities to grow into careers. That's something we're very proud of." Asked about the charge that Wal-Mart employees have to depend on the community for medical services and other supplemental support, Loscotoff says that the company "absolutely" offers its employees health insurance and other benefits. He adds that a survey showed that "7 percent of associates joining Wal-Mart are on Medicaid and only 3 percent remain on Medicaid after working at Wal-Mart for two years. It certainly shows the positive influence that our healthcare offerings provide." And, Loscotoff says, the Stony Point Plaza Wal-Mart will bring more consumers to the area, helping business of all sizes, including the local companies who are Wal-Mart's suppliers. "Not only can you drive by the Rohnert Park store or anywhere and see a number of local businesses thriving with a Wal-Mart in town, but you must also recognize that small and medium businesses are suppliers to Wal-Mart," he reminds. "In California alone, we spend more than $19 billion on merchandise and services from more than 3,800 suppliers." But the discount giant continues to draw heat throughout the nation. In January, the state of Maryland approved what is commonly referred to as the "Wal-Mart bill," requiring any corporation with 10,000 or more employees to set aside at least 8 percent of its payroll to provide healthcare or pay an equivalent amount to the state for those services. Only four Maryland employers have that many employees, and all but Wal-Mart already meet the requirement. With other states considering similar legislation, Wal-Mart quickly unveiled a plan to expand the health insurance coverage it provides its workers. In Mississippi, where Hurricane Katrina destroyed several Wal-Mart superstores, smart-growth advocates are suggesting replacing them with "Wal-Mart Villages" where apartments, condominiums and town houses would surround the stores. Streets and sidewalks would allow easy pedestrian access and parking would be hidden behind the buildings. Wal-Mart has announced it will rebuild, but hasn't approved a specific plan. Robert Greenwald's 2005 documentary Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Prices attacked the retail giant for paying poor wages, offering inadequate health benefits, overworking its employees through unpaid overtime and fighting workers' efforts to unionize; filmmaker Ron Gallaway countered with a pro-company film, Why Wal-Mart Works and Why That Drives Some People Crazy. There's a long list of books and articles that are both for and against Wal-Mart and its business model. And there are a number of websites chronicling the megaretailer's missteps, as well as a company-sponsored website covering the same information from Wal-Mart's perspective. In Santa Rosa, owners of the small businesses already located in Stony Point Plaza are concerned about parking and traffic if a large Wal-Mart is built. The draft EIR says that repainting the parking lot will double the number of spaces to 828 spaces, but that is incorrect, says Neil Soskin, vice president of leasing for Weingarten Realty Investors, which owns the shopping center. In reality, the Wal-Mart changes will only add about a dozen new parking spots. And traffic was a strong concern of those commenting on the draft EIR. A detailed solution for both these issues will be included in the final report. Some store rents have already gone up in anticipation of Wal-Mart's arrival. "Rents for space are driven by supply and demand for the market," explains Soskin. "There will be more tenants interested in the shopping center with Wal-Mart coming. If you're a small retailer, it's nice to be near someone who spends as much money as they do on advertising and who brings in a lot of people." The nonprofit Southwest Community Health Center is literally just a block from the proposed Wal-Mart site. Naomi Fuchs, the health center's CEO, is neither for nor against the project; she simply would like more specifics about Wal-Mart's benefits for its employees, especially the availability and affordability of health insurance. "Sonoma County has a serious problem with uninsured people and a lack of resources for uninsured people. I want to encourage [Wal-Mart] to provide adequate health benefits, but I don't know what they are so far." If Wal-Mart employees do not have reasonable access to health insurance, it seems likely they might seek free treatment at the nearby medical center. "We are already at capacity. They need to help people get insurance, not add to the problem." That's why controlled-growth advocates Ben Boyce and Michael Allen want the city to require more in-depth reports on the impact on small business and community services, such as the health center. "I hear Wal-Mart saying they are getting people off welfare, but that's not what past studies have shown," Allen says. "I do know that Wal-Mart is trying to answer some of the criticism, and I know that they recently changed their health policies." He adds that before a final decision is made, the review process should cover much more than just physical or environmental impacts. "Many municipalities say if you want to do business in our community, pay for these studies so we understand all the impacts. It doesn't make much sense to say we're only going to study traffic and noise but not look at how it's going to affect the infrastructure and local government. If they want to do business here, we want to understand all the costs. We owe it not only to that area of the city but to any area where a major project might be going in." On a recent weekday afternoon, southwest Santa Rosa resident Anita Ireland hauled a basket of her clean clothes out of the Stony Point Plaza laundromat and loaded them into her aging automobile. Looking around the half-empty parking lot, where small pieces of unidentifiable debris skittered in the wind, Ireland says that it doesn't matter to her whether the Wal-Mart project is approved or not. While this prototypical Wal-Mart consumer thinks it might be nice to have one closer to her home, she really doesn't care whether the Stony Point store gets approved or not. "I kinda sorta want Wal-Mart here, and I kinda sorta don't," she shrugs. "If it comes, it comes." New College of California sponsors an evening discussion on the Wal-Mart-ization of Sonoma County on Thursday, March 16, at 7pm. 99 Sixth St., Santa Rosa. $5 donation.707.568.2605. Send a letter to the editor about this story.
Proposal to Limit Rail to Sonoma County is Rejected
By Mark Prado
SANTA ROSA - An attempt by a member of the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit Board to discuss removing Marin from the train project was shot down Wednesday. Board member and Novato Councilwoman Pat Eklund wanted to discuss the idea of having a planned rail line only serve Sonoma County instead of linking with Marin as proposed. Eklund reasoned preliminary numbers show most of the ridership would be in Sonoma County. Eklund asked SMART staffers to place that item, as well as issues about noise, a bus instead of rail alternative and other topics on Wednesday's SMART agenda. But those items were not on the agenda, even though Eklund said she notified SMART staff weeks before the meeting. "I'm very disappointed," Eklund said. "My concern is time is slipping by." SMART is trying to get its environmental impact report on the project certified, then asking voters in Marin and Sonoma to OK a quarter-cent sales tax in November to help pay for the $340 million project that aims to link Cloverdale and Larkspur. Eklund said key policy issues need to be discussed before the environmental report is certified. But an attorney for SMART advised that it is too early to delve into specific issues of the plan because rail staffers are still going through the responses received during two public hearings in January. Board member and San Rafael Mayor Al Boro agreed. "It's not appropriate to discuss the EIR (environmental impact report) until the EIR is worked through," he said. Next month, the SMART board will find out the report's status. Also Wednesday, the board hired a consultant for $96,000 to, among other things, look at ridership numbers outlined in the environmental impact report. It showed 191 riders coming from Sonoma into Marin during the peak morning commute and 4,800 daily passengers using the system overall by the year 2025. A new computer model on ridership will be conducted that could show more riders, officials said. "Those numbers do not look good and that could be used against us," said Hal Brown, Marin supervisor and board member. Board member and Marin Supervisor Charles McGlashan said a good ridership model is needed "to rebuild credibility with voters." SCCA SUPPORTS SMART RAIL By Dennis Rosatti Sonoma County Conservation Action has advocated for a passenger rail along Highway 101 for over a decade. Our grassroots organizers have made personal visits to hundreds of thousands of homes over that decade, and have been pivotal in establishing the public mindset that currently exists today. It is a mindset of city-centered, smart growth that advocates mixed use buildings and housing density to avoid the sprawl that was the norm until recent years. Our Urban Growth Boundary campaigns framed the public dialogue in a way that was reasonable and sensible, for the public and the local environment. No one wants to see our beautiful open spaces and rich, agricultural tradition lost to mini mansions, pavement, and smog. SCCA is working for the SMART rail on several fronts. We continually educate the public of Sonoma County with our door to door team of organizers, who walk neighborhoods 5-6 days per week, in the rain and cold of winter, and the sweltering heat of summer. We also have piloted a Marin County canvass, called Trains and Pathways in Marin (TAPIM). In several weeks of Marin County canvassing, we found that of the people we were able to poll at their doors, more than 86 percent were in favor of rail! The sample population came from a variety of Marin County areas. These numbers are very encouraging, and show that the general public of Marin does indeed want rail, and the bicycle/pedestrian pathway that comes alongside. Conservation Action supports SMART and its vision of a rail line connecting Cloverdale in North Sonoma County and Larkspur in Marin. SCCA believes and received the affirmation of the public that Sonoma County residents, as well as Marin County residents, are ready and willing to enact a modest sales tax to help pay for start-up costs for this rail service. We recognize that there is no single solution to our transportation woes in the North Bay, but SMART offers a multi-modal transit opportunity that is far too enticing to pass up. Conservation Action is reaching out and looks to forge alliances with like minded organizations and individuals who also share the vision that is SMART. Dennis Rosatti is SCCA Co-Director and can be reached at scca@conservationaction.org
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 Election Results 2006SCCA Endorsement Success! City Council: 13/16= 81% Local Candidates: 14/19= 74% Overall Success: 23/30= 77% *These results are very encouraging overall for the local environment! A big thank you to all of our members, donors, and volunteers who made this success possible! Letters to our EditorsAppropriate Use of Recycled Wastewater Letter to SCCA Editor Hi Chris,
Minority defeated Measure R Marin Independent Journal Saturday Readers' Forum 11/18/2006 The self-congratulatory letters from Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit's opponents in the IJ (Saturday Soapbox) and the Nov. 9th editorial ("SMART's defeat needs to trigger more train debate"), all miss one salient detail: SMART wasn't defeated. While Measure R did not succeed, 65 percent is an extremely strong showing. Even in Marin, where the opposition turned some voters off to SMART, Measure R still received 57 percent (unofficial results). That is substantially stronger support than Supervisor-elect Judy Arnold received in her race. Let's not forget: the opponents of the train represent a minority of voters. It is only because of a legal quirk (Proposition 13) foisted on us by anti-tax Republicans that this minority was able to prevent the majority from voting to tax itself a tiny amount to build for a better future. This minority has no mandate, moral high ground or claim to truth. All it did was confuse and scare enough people to delay the inevitable and make it more expensive. We'll look back at this election as a low-point in environmental activism, where the politics of hope were mugged by the politics of fear. David Schonbrunn President of Transportation Solutions Defense and Education Fund, San Rafael Why is two-thirds needed? Marin Independent Journal Saturday Readers' Forum 11/18/2006 A little-noticed fact from the election: Measure R, the sales tax measure to bring commuter rail to Sonoma and Marin, actually got a bigger endorsement from residents of those counties (65 percent) than state measure 1B, the highway infrastructure bond act, did from California voters (61 percent). Regardless of what you think of the merits of highways vs. mass transit, there's something backwards about a system in which a proposal that owns up to its expenses and levies a new tax to cover them, needs a two-thirds vote to win, but one that runs up debt for the next generation to pay off can pass with a simple majority. Nicholas Kibre Redwood City
SCIENTIFIC CONSENSUS Published in the Press Democrat August 3, 2006 EDITOR: I applaud The Press Democrat's lead story by Guy Kovner on July 27, "It's hot but can we blame global warming?" The media's role in helping the public understand the critical and complex issue of global warming cannot be overstated. While journalists must present both sides of a story, I was concerned that some of your readers might conclude from Kovner's article that the science behind global warming is somehow still under debate. It's not. Recently, a review of 928 peer-reviewed articles on climate change could not find a single one that challenged the scientific consensus that global warming is happening, or that it is primarily caused by humans. ________________________ ACT NOW Published by Press Democrat August 21, 2006 EDITOR: The Sonoma County Water Coalition is advertising for people to show support for a county comprehensive water plan during the updating of the General Plan by the Board of Supervisors. Do we need to run out of water before we act to preserve it? It is still being squandered by many households and businesses without reign or penalty. If what we read is true, we will likely also run out of oil, forests, waste disposal sites, fish, clean air, cool air and ice caps, very possibly when it’s too late. I would like to see our supervisors start being proactive and tough about these things before it is indeed too late. _________________________ RECYCLE WATER Published on July 20, 2006 © 2006-The Press Democrat EDITOR: I am writing in response to the article, "SR may ship wastewater to river." Instead of Santa Rosa's proposal to dump billion of gallons of wastewater loaded with nutrients, heavy metals and pharmaceuticals into the river, which will cause great harm to downstream drinking water sources, fish, the environment and the tourist industry, the city should recycle it and use it to flush their toilets and to water their lawns. This will also help their water conservation efforts. _______________________ IGNORANCE AND FEAR Published on July 20, 2006 © 2006-The Press Democrat EDITOR: The Tuesday night meeting of the Sonoma County Planning Commission to hear testimony on the general plan update of the riparian element was, to put it nicely, lively. The Merlo Theatre at Wells Fargo Center was packed, with the overflow seated outside in the lobby. The majority of attendees were farmers, Realtors, wine growers and third-generation land owners. They are afraid of losing control of their land, afraid of losing profits and afraid of government regulations. ________________________ DIRTY DIESEL Published on June 29, 2006 © 2006- The Press Democrat EDITOR: I was dismayed to read that North Bay Corp. has not met its commitment to get rid of its dirty diesel garbage trucks. As a member of the Solid Waste Evaluation Committee when I served on the Santa Rosa City Council in 2002, reducing diesel emissions was a top priority for our committee when we accepted North Bay's bid. Waste Management Inc. had already committed to alternative-fuel trucks, and the members of our committee understood that North Bay would do the same. __________________________ EASING CONGESTION Published on June 26, 2006 There's perhaps little question that car-pool lanes can help ease congestion by encouraging solo motorists to travel in groups and getting cars off the road. But carpool lanes are not the panacea that the officials from the state Department of Transportation and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission who were quoted in your story would have us believe. And closing the gap in San Rafael still doesn't address the much larger and rapidly growing problem of overall traffic congestion north of the Golden Gate Bridge. With population growth in Marin and Sonoma counties expected to climb by more than 20 percent over the next 20 years, handling the resulting traffic will require more than a single solution. NICK CASTON Co-chair, Transportation Alliance of Sonoma and Marin ________________________ CALIFORNIA'S FUTURE Published on June 22, 2006 With California being the 12th largest emitter of pollutants that cause global warming, we owe it to ourselves, our children and our world to see that this bill becomes law. Assemblywoman, 7th District _______________________ AT RISK OF SPRAWL Published on June 1, 2006 The report also says that lands inside urban growth boundaries are at risk of sprawl development. That's true. Those areas are appropriate places for development, but it's an open question how they'll be developed: with sprawling car-dependent subdivisions or with compact neighborhoods near transit. We need to be vigilant about making sure this development is done well. CRAIG LITWIN Sebastopol City Councilman _________________________ PHONE CAMPAIGN Published on May 15, 2006 © 2006- The Press Democrat EDITOR: So far my house has gotten four calls from phone banks in Texas urging us to vote for Paul Kelley. The misinformation and false polling from the land of George Bush and Tom DeLay says, among other things, that only the incumbent can stop gangs. This is pure, biased, election eve malarkey. We need a supervisor who will work for everyone in Sonoma County; one who works with the community, who is supported by local volunteers, and who has an honest, fresh approach. We don't need slick phone campaigns, nor the people behind them. In this election, my vote goes to Debora Fudge for supervisor. __________________________ ROSELAND WAL-MART Published on March 31, 2006 © 2006- The Press Democrat EDITOR: The Press Democrat devotes much column space to hand-wringing over what must be done for those Roseland residents. If not solutions being given for the violence of Cinco de Mayo, then new plans for economic recovery. In a recent Forum section, urban designer Laura Hall shares her experience designing a Wal-Mart for the devastated Gulf region and speculates that Roseland could benefit from such a design. A walkable Wal-Mart village is what Hall thinks would be a great thing for Roseland. So a traffic-cramped neighborhood should get a Wal-Mart because it would be a benefit to an underdeveloped economy? Marvelous, and what an original argument. Can't wait for every tax penny to be put back into our neighborhood. Wonder what we could use most? Best wait and ask Wal-Mart. __________________________ POPULAR SOLUTION Published on April 7, 2006 © 2006- The Press Democrat EDITOR: I have walked door to door in Sonoma County for 14 years, and it heartens me that the Sonoma-Marin Are Rail Transit train is on the ballot this November. Of all the different community issues and social agenda that the citizens of our county face, a passenger rail from Cloverdale to the Larkspur ferry is about as popular a solution as apple pie. I used to think, along with many others, that Marin was the hold-up. So I went to Marin County and knocked on doors in Novato, San Rafael, Mill Valley and Fairfax. Boy, was I wrong. People there can't wait for a train. They really understand that it takes more than widening freeways to effectively move people from one location to the next. I can't wait to help get out the vote this November for the SMART rail. _____________________________ Campaign Spending Reality February 23, 2006 • 3:20pm Conservation Action Editor, ______________________GROWTH LIMIT: CLOVERDALE NEEDS TO DRAW A LINE IN THE SAND -- AND ON A MAP Published on January 26, 2006 © 2006 The Press Democrat- Editorial Cloverdale may be about to shed its distinction as the only city in Sonoma County without an urban growth boundary. We hope it's true, but we recognize that there's work ahead. _________________________ SMART part of 20-year question for North Bay Published January 22, 2006 Marin Independent Journal By Dick Spotswood The Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) District has finally submitted its Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for review. There's a lot to like in the 700-page analysis. At the same time, the voluminous report provides plenty of fodder for those devoted to derailing the concept. The temptation is to nitpick the EIR to death. Yet the better alternative is to look at the big picture by asking the following questions: Will Marin and Sonoma benefit by an alternative to the U.S. 101 freeway? Does public transit have a future in the North Bay? Is it time that the North Bay did its share to provide environmentally sensitive mobility alternatives that can guide future land-use decisions in a sustainable manner? The fundamental issue is what we want the North Bay to look like 20 years from now. It's the public policy question of the decade. It's safe to say that if we do nothing, our future is guaranteed to be more suburban sprawl driven by automobile-centered planning. Thanks to farsighted leadership by the Golden Gate Bridge District and the two counties, the entire Northwestern Pacific Railroad, stretching from Cloverdale in the north down to the Larkspur Ferry, is in public ownership. Now the topic is whether we want to take advantage of this incredible asset and tax ourselves to build and operate a commuter rail line. My conclusion comes down on the side of getting on with the task of creating the rail line and proposed parallel bike route. In the Nov. 7 election, voters in Marin and Sonoma will be asked if they support the rail concept and are willing to pay for it with a quarter-cent sales tax increase. There are only two options: Either go forward and create an alternative to the freeway or land bank the rail line until a future generation has the determination to actually get something done. The best scenario calls for long-range vision and the courage to make big decisions. The worst alternative is to again allow a handful of Marin-based anti-rail activists to manipulate voters by sowing seeds of doubts. The latter is the tried and true Marin method to doom a proposal for physical improvements. The reality is that all projects result in change. The Golden Gate Bridge would never have been built if a guarantee was required of zero damage. Yet, change in the North Bay is inevitable, even under the "do nothing" option. The task is to determine if providing funds to build an alternative to the automobile will lead to more positive changes than will occur by maintaining the status quo. While focusing on broader issues, the details of the draft EIR are significant and portions of the plan likely will be modified based on public comments. SMART's EIR's ridership figures are overly conservative to the point of absurdity.They were based on faulty data that incredibly managed to overstate the number of lanes on Highway 101. Those projections must be clarified to give voters a true view of the long-range benefits of SMART. While details, such as the poorly conceived Larkspur rail-ferry connection, frequency of service and even the alternative of starting the system with a Sonoma-only shuttle, should be addressed before the EIR is certified as complete, the public is wise to focus on fundamental questions and not be drowned in minutiae.
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