Ringing In the New Year, 2024
New Year's Eve offers a variety of fine dining options, parties, and kid-friendly activities in the Healdsburg area, as well as transportation options for those without designated drivers.
Boys & Girls Club heads for overdue renovation
Both Wendy Cline, the facilities director, and chief executive officer Jennifer Weiss were excited by the prospect of the remodel. “Our amazing team is working quickly to bring this new incredible state-of-the-art clubhouse to our deserving kids and community,” Cline said. “This marks a significant step toward making our long-held dream a reality, creating a space where kids can thrive.”
Wine Tasting from Plaza to Parking Lot
Even as the city prepares for Sunday’s Healdsburg Crush—a Plaza event to “taste limited production Pinot Noir and Sparkling Wines from over 60 of the top California wine producers”—the city council on Oct. 2 agreed to allow the much larger Healdsburg Food & Wine...
Snapshot: Wisps of Wisteria Signal Spring
Wisteria is associated with romance and spring, and it turns out spring love is more than a romantic idea. Longer days and increased warmth boosts phytochemicals in plants and hormones in animals. Plants transition from vegetative to reproductive growth (blooms and flowers) when Flowering Locus T (FT) is released.
Point Fire Torches Dry Creek Valley
As thick smoke poured across Sonoma and Napa counties, more than 300 residents of the northern Dry Creek Valley and its foothills rushed to evacuate, along with hundreds more lake and tasting-room visitors...
Flashback: Aven Theatre opens in 1950, to become the Raven
The new Aven theatre on North Street is nearing completion. Designed by Gale Santocono of San Francisco, the stucco and concrete block building is 73 by 130 feet, with a seating capacity of 738....
City Council Struggles with Maps for District Elections
The third public meeting held in the effort to split Healdsburg’s electorate into districts, to satisfy the requirements of California’s Voting Rights Act, led to a general consensus among the council members to stick with their original preference: five districts each to elect a councilmember, with the mayor’s role rotating between them.
‘Harlem Nutcracker’ in Concert at the Raven
Now widely known as The Harlem Nutcracker, it was one of several suites Ellington and Strayhorn wrote for Columbia, as well as film scores and other work. “One of the things that he and Columbia Records talked about was him and Billy Strayhorn doing a sort of Nutcracker Suite” just in time for the Christmas 1960 record-selling season, Marcus Shelby said.
Singing the Heart’s Song With Jendala
Mark Themig, a close friend of Jen’s in recent years, was in a position to coordinate both city and community resources for the ceremony. “I think it was exactly what Jen would have wanted and enjoyed herself,” he said of the April afternoon gathering at Villa Chanticleer.
Letters to the Editor, Dec. 26
The City Council’s informal decision on Dec. 16 to adopt a five-district, selected mayor format for city government in the redistricting process drew immediate reactions from several community members, who felt the decision was made unnecessarily quickly and short-circuited public discussion of the options. Here are a few of their comments:
Arts & Entertainment
Healdsburg Happenings, Jan. 29 – Feb. 5
Goings on in and around Healdsburg this week and next
Community
Look at Ukraine
Local ophthalmologist and eye-care missionary Dr. Gary Barth has started a weekly open...






















