LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Don’t raid our coffers
Editor: The following letter was sent to California Governor
Jerry Brown from the Sebastopol Chamber of Commerce.
Dear Governor Brown:
The Sebastopol Area Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Center Board
of Directors is writing you today to express our opposition to the
provisions in your January Budget Proposal that would eliminate
redevelopment agencies in California.  
Eliminating the redevelopment agency from our City of Sebastopol
would be in violation of the passage of Proposition 22, preventing
state raids of local government funds, including redevelopment
funding.
Our community relies on funding from this agency to support not
only affordable housing, infrastructure and community improvements
but other opportunities to stimulate the economy through public-
private partnerships that create vitality locally.  
The Sebastopol Chamber Board feels that the use of redevelopment
funds should remain at the local level of decision making,
determining what is best for our individual community. This
proposal is another attempt by the state to raid local tax dollars
and impede the will of the voters and at the same time provide
little financial gain for the state.
We strongly encourage you to reconsider this attempt to
eliminate redevelopment funds and consider the economic
implications it will have on our communities throughout California.
Let’s find a better way to bring financial relief to the State.
Majid Zeinal
Board President, Sebastopol Chamber
Teresa Ramondo
Executive Director/CEO
Cold, dead fingers
Editor: The City of Sebastopol can have my leaf blower when it
can pry it from my cold dead hands.
If they think they can just round up every leaf blower in town,
they are wrong. Along with other obvious unalienable rights, is the
right to bear leaf blowers. Not only do we have that right but we
should be able to carry them in public — as long as they aren’t
running. Leaf blowers don’t annoy people — people annoy people.
Liberalization of our country has led to a marked increase of
leaves on streets and sidewalks. More and more of these leaves are
found to be alien to Sebastopol. What are we supposed to do? Just
let them take over?
No, blow ‘em back to where they came from.
And a recent study in Berserkistan has shown a marked increase
in EMF wherever leaves gather — especially those in West
County.
An aluminum foil hat alone will no longer save you. Defend your
rights to possess a leaf blower.
And we can do it. Take heart from recent events in Egypt,
Tunisia, Bahrain and other places where the privileged elite banned
leaf blowers. We need to strap ‘em on and fire ‘em up.
God bless America and Sebastopol too.
John Necker
Sebastopol
Moral turpitude
Editor: Reading about the deliberation of the City Council’s
vote to ban leaf blowers in Sebastopol blew my mind. I was left
wondering if this decision was compensatory — to assuage the guilt
of some Council members for not making Sebastopol a SmartMeter Free
Zone. I say this because those who are sensitive to leaf blowers
can wear a small paper filter over their noses and mouths or cross
to the other side of the street if the blower is too noisy,
etcetera. They have choice. Those who are EMF, Wi-Fi, and cell
tower sensitive have no choice; nor will they have a refuge if
SmartMeters are installed in their homes. Downtown, public
buildings, and workplaces are already toxic to their bodies, minds
and emotions. There is no other side of the street for them to go
to except retreat to Nature.
If the City Council members read the scholarship and the
research in the documents given to them by the local EMF group,
they knew this. They also knew the dangers, including depression
and high suicide rates for children, reported in other countries
like Canada, when SmartMeters, cell towers, and Wi-Fi are installed
in schools. As a result, while the Council had no legal
jurisdiction in banning SmartMeters, they had a moral jurisdiction
to make a statement on SmartMeters in kind and equivalent to the
leaf blower ban. For instance, mandating wired in SmartMeters or
opting out on SmartMeters; as other California cities and counties
have done.
Separate from this, as my neighbor pointed out, the leaf blower
ban is unintentionally and potentially racist. Latinos and
Vietnamese and people of color, many with families to support, make
up a significant percentage of the professional gardeners in
Sebastopol. They mow lawns, tend gardens, and the like … and use
leaf blowers. Was there any consideration by Council members this
ban might and could seriously reduce the income of these
tradespersons and have great negative effects on their
families?
I fear the moral turpitude of some members of the City Council
in these decisions and in other members of the Council whose
solution to homelessness is to give the homeless a one-way bus
ticket to Guerneville; rather than make a toilet and shower
downtown available to the homeless. In this shrinking economy, the
homeless are with us in America/Sebastopol to stay. This is an
invitation to tolerance and creative solution-oriented compassion
towards the homeless, rather than intolerance and judgment on the
part of some Sebastopol City Council members.
Robert Leverant
Sebastopol
Prefers restriction to ban
Editor: The following words in last week’s article by editor
David Abbott on leaf blowers are accurate: “Shepherd Bliss … said
he wasn’t in favor of an all out ban.” I do oppose high-powered,
gas-operated blowers, because of their severe damage to the air,
plants, beneficial insects, bees, other animals, the soil, those
who use them, and other humans. Advertising by Echo brags that
their blowers fire at over 200 miles an hour, which is especially
dangerous to innocent people just passing by.
There are appropriate, limited uses for blowers, especially by
good neighbors, who use them seldom and when necessary, such as
dealing with our wonderful local oaks. They can also be helpful for
cleaning rain gutters, roofs, and some hard surfaces.
However, I have seen too many men using them inappropriately
chasing a single leaf into a neighbor’s yard. They may be protected
by goggles, earmuffs, hats, boots, and protective clothing.
Innocent bystanders, especially children, elders, pets, and cars,
are at risk. Health concerns should prevail over convenience for
caring people.
I do not favor limiting the use of other garden tools, such as
chainsaws and lawnmowers. Americans have wonderful rights. People
fortunately no longer have the “right” to blow second-hand smoke
into our faces, thus triggering asthma attacks. Nor should they
have the right to blow toxins into our lungs or shrill,
high-pitched, loud noises into our ears. 
With rights come responsibilities. Any ordinance should be
complaint-driven. So a good neighbor would not be likely to receive
complaints. Without this protection, some people would not feel
comfortable asking someone to stop invading their homes with air
and noise pollution. The air is our commons and we must protect it.
Many work at home and care for children, parents, and the sick, who
benefit from peacefulness to recover and play.
In Santa Barbara and elsewhere there has been a “business boost”
for landscapers who voluntarily accept restrictions. In our small
green town, that is what would happen. It would certainly help our
many small home-based businesses
The real losers of regulations are multi-national corporations
and giant oil companies who supply the fuel for the blowers’
two-stroke engines, which are far more polluting than cars. Local
businesses will benefit by restrictions that would level the field
and open up more jobs for workers to rake and broom.
Shepherd Bliss
Sebastopol