commentary Unchecked tourism overwhelming small communities

There is a “tourism tsunami” effect happening to our small town community now. Healdsburg has been discovered, but it is still our small town, and if local residents complain, we can turn the tide. As we’ve learned about the deals behind closed doors that led to the “Meat Market” changes, many residents feel these to be a violation of public trust. “A project for locals” will now serve high-end tourists. I am fourth generation Sonoma County, descended from some of the earliest pioneers to Sonoma County. I know what nice small communities like Healdsburg were like until tourism and big money transformed them. Now they resemble Hollywood North. Healdsburg residents should be aware the local Chamber of Commerce and its promotional budget is fueling this transformation. Another problem we are facing is that our neighborhoods are changing radically. According to Brigette Mansell, our newest elected city council member, too many of our residences are becoming second homes, and investors are grabbing up anything that comes on the market. “Bottom line, I fear too many people are putting profit before community,” she says. The trend to second and third homes also causes a shortage of rentals for our own people, e.g., young people, city workforce residents and low income families. What we are now seeing in Healdsburg is a rampant spread of greed that does not serve the majority of local residents or their descendants. While I don’t know the “Meat Market” owner personally, I can sense that his intention was originally for the public good. Nonetheless, the plan changed from something that would serve the residents to luxury hospitality. This is compounding the sensitivity of the situation and creating the tourism effect which is also impacting the town of Sonoma and communities in Napa. We face more of the same with the approved 300-acre project north of the Plaza that will include a large luxury hotel and multi-million dollar homes. We are in the worst California drought in recorded history, but it doesn’t seem that City Hall and the business community is considering the state-mandated conservation of water. Nor are they considering the impact of hotels and tourists that are using vast amounts of water. Yet, local residents are using dishpan water to irrigate their front yard plants, and have cut back the size of their vegetable gardens to comply with the state mandate. When I questioned a city council member in 2014 about where the water would come from for this large new development, I was told, “Healdsburg sits on a huge aquifer near Dry Creek Valley, we don’t have to worry about water.” I guess water conservation is just for those of us who reside in town and have lived here for decades to generations. What residents are really upset about is the continuing growth of this cancer that is spreading through our community. It is not sustainable for healthy, viable neighborhoods. Residents do not feel that city government has their best interests in mind, and we are afraid that this fast paced change will tear the very fabric of our community apart and eventually increase dislocation of longtime residents and disrupt the very heartbeat of our town.
Claudia Lyman is a registered nurse and descendant of Irish immigrants who arrived in Petaluma in the early 1860s. She grew up in Santa Rosa and has lived in Healdsburg for decades.