LETTERS TO THE EDITOR – 1-19-12

In support of SUSD board
Editor: We the teachers of the Sebastopol Union School District
would like to be clearly on record as supporting our school board
and superintendent in accepting the Twin Hills School District
offer to lease Pine Crest School.
We are certain that our board has acted with honesty and integrity
throughout a very difficult, lengthy and time-consuming process
with the Sebastopol Independent Charter School. The SUSD Board
acted responsibly, honestly and with fairness as fiscal custodians
of the community. We appreciate the Board’s foresight in looking to
safeguard components of the Pine Crest campus in order that it
remain available for community recreational and group use.
We are disappointed by recently-published comments made about our
board in a guest commentary in this newspaper. We teachers feel
strongly that SUSD leaders made decisions and acted in the best
interest of all students and adults of our Sebastopol school
community. We encourage discussions that consider the educational
welfare of all students.
Submitted by Laurie Maguire on behalf of the Sebastopol
Elementary Teachers Association (SETA)
What about Rite Aid?
Editor: Although I have no firm opinion on the proposed CVS project
I find myself wanting to reply to the letter “Eyesore Property”
(Jan. 12). The writer praises the project and states that the
ability to have a drugstore in town would be phenomenal. Since the
writer has lived in Sebastopol for 30 years and owned a small
business in town for 12, I’m surprised that they seem unaware of
Rite Aid or Safeway’s pharmacy.
Emil Bacilla
Sebastopol
The 1 percent
Editor: I have lived in Sebastopol for 30 plus years and have
watched the local politics for all of that time. In the last 10
years this community has lost its way and shifted further and
further to the extreme left, stop growth, no growth, shut down all
retail activity that this small group does not agree with.
I feel that I represent the majority of the town folks who do not
agree with this position, but for whatever reason remain silent. We
and people like us are the majority and support this project as it
is currently presented. Do not let the 1 percent sway your vote.
For a change, represent the majority of the community and quit
taking your marching orders from this small group.
Pass the CVS project and let’s improve this community.
(PS: I served on the Design review committee many years ago and I
do understand the process).
James and Rosemarie Pacatte
Sebastopol
Civic responsibility
Editor: A decision to greenlight the CVS/Chase project on the old
Pellini property has nothing to do with the future of Sebastopol.
It just opens the door for our town to lose its charm and slowly
disappear.
I believe the Pellinis have a responsibility to the community that
has put bread on their table for almost a hundred years, and that
something else built on the most prominent corner in Sebastopol
could further enhance the Pellini name, benefit the city and make
us all proud. It isn’t CVS or nothing. It’s no on CVS so that we
can do better.
Bill Shortridge
Sebastopol
Good neighbors?
Editor: A message to the Mayor and other City Council
members:
Do what is consistent with the General Plan. Say “no” to Armstrong
(CVS/Chase developer) and its clients. They are fine where they are
with that nice big parking lot and not at an intersection downtown.
If they really are good neighbors, they’d withdraw their
application acknowledging that they are thriving in our small town.
Consider also the adverse effects of building a pharmacy three
blocks from Rite Aid and leaving the northeast part of town without
one.
Brenda Poston-Schaeffer
Sebastopol
Wishing CVS well
Editor: Please tell the Mayor and other City Council members to do
what is right for our town and to say “no” to Armstrong Development
and its clients. This is not what the heart of Sebastopol needs or
wants.
We support the withdrawal of their application and their continued
success in their current location.
Karen and Brinton Poe
Sebastopol
Creative re-use
Editor: To the Sebastopol City Council regarding the Pellini
property:
When I think of the neighborhood that the old Pellini Chevrolet
occupies, I don’t think of it as an unused car dealership. I look
at the creative re-use of the railway powerhouse building that the
Hop Monk brewery occupies, and that elegant three story office
building across the street with the birds on it. Why can’t
something go on Pellini’s property as nice as its neighborhood,
rather than squish together what the architect says is a “hybrid”
to tie together the industrial buildings to the east and the
downtown to the west?
I say the businesses to Pellini’s west set a good example to
follow.
Please say no the the CVS/Chase proposal.
Mark Mills-Thysen
Sebastopol
Sign of the Apocalypse?
Editor: I am sure you have noticed the banner in the Occupy
encampment encouraging people to show up at the city council
meeting and voice their opposition to the CVS/Chase project.
When the Occupy movement was granted the permit to keep their tent
in the plaza the city did not grant them the right to erect banners
and signs on city property. All of Occupy materials were to be kept
inside their tent. Using city property to advocate a position on a
matter to come before the city council should not be permitted.
Will the people supporting the CVS project be allowed to erect a
banner in the plaza? How about a billboard?
The issue before the city council should be decided on the facts,
not on a group’s ability to intimidate through numbers, clapping,
catcalls, wall postings, etc. and other disruptive behaviors that
has occurred at the Design Review meetings.
The matter before the council is not about the type of corporate
citizen or the type of business that CVS and Chase are. Banks and
pharmacies are allowed to be in our city and on that piece of
property. It is not about drive-through or no drive-throughs, chain
stores or no chain stores, what will happen to Redwood Market
Place, and the number of banks in town. It is not about traffic as
this was settled in the mitigated negative declaration (now in
court). It is about design, a very subjective issue that even
sensible people can disagree.
How much should a government be allowed to dictate to a private
property owner who is investing his money?
Linda J. Johnson
Sebastopol