LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

People’s park?
Editor: First things first. Whole foods and all the other
merchants surrounding the Sebastopol Town Plaza should receive a
major business tax rebate for all the years they have had to
provide restroom facilities for the plaza.
Next, lets agree that a lot of municipalities, and people living
rough on the street, are very short on funds. Sebastopol is no
exception. Times are tough.
The city admits they have no funding to sufficiently monitor,
nor enforce the rules, at the Skate Board Park. There are more than
200 trees in downtown Sebastopol in desperate need of some TLC and
pruning. No funds. There are several dozen abandoned, ugly
newsracks downtown the city ignores. Not a pretty visual mix.
And now, finally, the city has installed public restrooms in the
Plaza. Public restrooms in parks are the ultimate necessary evil.
Note that the plaza has more than 30 posted rules. The four obvious
ones are already being ignored.
Granted, the new restrooms are in a nuclear and smart meter free
zone, but what will be the unintended consequences of an unattended
restroom and plaza?
A tight budget required a minimalist, vandal-proof structure,
but why no changing table or a simple hook to hang a coat or purse
on? How much does a hook cost? I’ll pay for a hook in each
bathroom.
My solution, offered only slightly in jest: Park two sure-fire
money makers in front of the restrooms. One is a taco truck with a
Wi-fi hook-up. The other is a medical marijuana/wine testing kiosk.
Charge both of these ground rent and use that money to hire a
daylight, 24/7 restroom and plaza attendant/monitor.
Otherwise, very soon, the Plaza is going to become a People’s
(as in Berkeley) Park, rather than a park for the people.
Neil Davis
Sebastopol
WSCHS opposes trail
Editor: On June 7, 2011, the Board of the Western Sonoma County
Historical Society voted unanimously to oppose the construction of
a bike path through Gold Ridge, Luther Burbank’s Experiment Farm,
located on the west side of the City of Sebastopol.
A group of citizens is working to create an East-West bike trail
through the city of Sebastopol. While we applaud the effort to
increase more trails dedicated to bicycles and pedestrians, this
part of the project is ill conceived. Such an incursion would
displace, damage or destroy a number of plants selected or
developed by Luther Burbank, and destroy the peaceful ambiance of
this property.
Luther Burbank’s Farm holds a unique place in horticultural and
agricultural history. In recognition of this fact, on Dec. 14,
1978, Gold Ridge Farm was included in the National Register of
Historic Places.
At its inception in 1975, the original purpose of the WSCHS was
the preservation of Luther Burbank’s worldwide legacy and the
rehabilitation and maintenance of the buildings and Burbank
original plants growing there. Over the years various Burbank
cultivars have been reintroduced so that the Farm is a living
museum containing over 250 Burbank original trees, flowers,
vegetables and forage.
The thousands of volunteer hours and dollars that have been
donated over the years for the restoration and upkeep of Gold Ridge
Farm must not be ignored by compromising the preservation of these
three acres as an intact whole.
Erin Sheffield
Sebastopol
Bias in reporting
Editor: Amazing how a few choice words can slant a news article.
In your paper today (“CVS proposal knocked down,” Sonoma West Times
& News, June 16), I read this: “Anyone who wants to purchase
goods from CVS in Sebastopol will still have to trudge up the hill
… at least for the foreseeable future.” Clearly a point of view,
rather than news, is in those few words, especially the choice of
“trudge.” If I were the editor, for example, I might have written,
“Anyone who wants to see the main entrance to Sebastopol truly
reflect the local flavor in looks and services, will still have a
chance, at least for the foreseeable future, as the CVS option was
declined by the Planning Committee.”
I love your paper, and never realized all these years you had a
bias. Maybe it was just a momentary slip, so I’ll keep my
subscription. But please, watch those biases. Nothing about the CVS
proposal matches our town’s adopted motto, “Local Flavor, Global
Vision.” And for the foreseeable future, you can still shop at CVS
where it is most suitably located: In a shopping mall, rather than
at the heart of our town.
Laura Duggan
Sebastopol