Livability and tourism
Over the past several months, there has been much discussion about the impact of tourism on our community. One of the city council’s adopted 2017/18 goals is to conduct a study that evaluates the economics of tourism / hospitality on our community and the impact of tourism from a livability perspective.
Staff received about a half-dozen proposals for a tourism study and prices ranged from $75,000 to $180,000. Based on the cost, the fact that some of the work had already been completed by Robert Eyler (www.ci.healdsburg.ca.us/DocumentCenter/View/7943) and a well-attended community meeting sponsored by a community group in May, the council decided to forgo the study for now and record a broader discussion on a variety of issues as they relate to tourism.
North Bay fires
As staff was preparing for the livability workshop, on Oct. 8, Sonoma, Napa, Lake and Mendocino counties were faced with the most destructive fires in California history. The impacts of these fires — specifically the Tubbs Fire — will be felt for years to come. We already knew before the fires that we had to address important community issues. After the fires, it was important to also recognize that these fires affected everyone differently.
To get a holistic view of our community, staff called together a diverse group of citizens to help develop and get consensus on a livability workshop. I want to thank Richard Burg, Jon Worden, Todd Everett, Janis Watkins, Brian Sommer, Ariel Kelley, Taya Levine and Carla Howell for their time.
Consequently, our aim was to ask community members about the opportunities and benefits, as well as the challenges and concerns of these topics: culture, food, health, housing, play, schools, transportation, work and other (which was a catch-all for comments that didn’t fit the other categories). Tourism impacts the community in different ways, so rather than focus solely on tourism, we wanted to get a better read on what the community thinks about these issues as they relate to tourism.
Livability public work session
On Nov. 1, the city hosted a public work session on livability at the Villa Chanticleer and about 100 community members attended. Our facilitator, Taya Levine, walked everyone through the comment process and asked everyone to provide honest feedback on all subjects of interest.
We were heartened to see lots of engagement and discussion among attendees, and it was clear that people took this task seriously. Staff transcribed handwritten comments verbatim from more than 500 post-it notes, and your passion, commitment and love for Healdsburg is clear. All of the comments can be found at (www.ci.healdsburg.ca.us/DocumentCenter/View/8087). The city may be able to address some of the comments quickly, while others may take more time. As we identify those action items, we’ll report out what actions are being taken to address those concerns.
Spanish-language work session coming soon
To better engage our Latino community, the city will hold another meeting to get direct feedback on the issues presented at the Nov. 1 session, such as schools, work and transportation. We are meeting with Corazon Healdsburg’s Comite (board) to determine logistics such as the date of the work session, topics to be presented, facilitator, English-language interpreting and child care. After we meet, staff will report out dates and details of the upcoming workshop.
The livability workshop on Nov. 1 was just the beginning of a much broader conversation over the coming months about livability and the role and impact of tourism on our city. Consequently, we will be reaching out to the community in more ways to gather feedback. The information we gather will help inform the city on how Healdsburg will continue to evolve as we go forward on creating council goals, updating the city’s five-year strategic plan, and more.
Thank you for your help in steering Healdsburg to become a truly livable place for all.
David Mickaelian is the Healdsburg City Manager. To submit ideas or questions for this column, email ci*******@ci.us.
