Council meetings on TV
EDITOR: Access Healdsburg will be airing the Healdsburg City Council meeting video on Cable Channel 26 Monday through Friday at 7:30 p.m. The program will run until a new meeting is held and will be replaced on the Wednesday following the meeting. We also will have every meeting on our YouTube channel on demand. To find the video online, search under “Access Healdsburg” and all our videos will come up. I encourage everyone to subscribe to our channel to make the process much easier.
Access Healdsburg is working with city management to upgrade the internet connection between city hall and our control room to allow for the live streaming of the meeting. Until then, the live stream is on the city’s web page.
We also are adding a new program starting in September; the Classic Arts Showcase program will be aired on cable channel 27, replacing our long running NASA program. This will air continuously without interruption.
Mark Decker, Access Healdsburg
Coming together
EDITOR: As reported by member Bo Simons, The Chip Lyeth Paper Group contributing to Reach for Home in order to support Singletree to feed the Healdsburg homeless is a watershed event for us. Members Joe Norton, Tom Colbert, Peter Colbert and I are constantly aware of our Jesuit friends’ exhortation to “Be Men for Others.” Over the years since the Chip Lyeth Paper Group came together in 1985, each of us members has, by their individual professions and pro-bono activities, contributed to the wellbeing of our community. To my knowledge, this is the first time when we have come together as the Chip Lyeth Paper Group to improve the lot of our community. Member Max Dunn would be proud of us. Onward, upward and peace.
Bob Scavullo, Geyserville
Love thy neighbor, even on Facebook
EDITOR: What’s happening, Healdsburg? Judging from the comments on a Facebook group by a very similar name, one might think life for locals in our lovely town is characterized by closed-minded assumptions, mockery and hate.
I learned this firsthand earlier this month, when some of the real-live community members who participate in this virtual community turned on a local business — and on me — in a public forum.
The incident revolved around a real-news feature I had written for CNN about the soon-to-be-1-year-old Single Thread. The article was published earlier this month, and I took to the “What’s Happening Healdsburg” group to spread the word. I didn’t share the piece to stroke my ego or build my brand around town. I also wasn’t out there flacking for the restaurateurs. My mission was simple: To get people to recognize that this high-end restaurant at the intersection of North and Center has revolutionized fine dining and increasingly is considered America’s next iconic restaurant.
I thought I made my points clearly. In response, people on the Facebook group went full-on troll.
Most attacked the price (which I noted in both the story and the subsequent post is spendy and not for everyone). Others assailed the approach (which is inspired by Asian cultures and unlike anything any other restaurant is doing anywhere in the world). Still others just kvetched in general about change — pining for the old post office and the plaza without Hotel Healdsburg and the days when you always could find a parking spot around town.
Much of feedback dripped with judgment. And as if the top-level comments on the post weren’t hateful enough on their own, replies on the thread got downright ugly. Two members of our community called each other names unfit to print in this family paper. Another spread libelous statements about the owners. Someone even took a swipe at me.
The resulting dumpster fire was embarrassing. Mercifully, after a few days, the administrator turned off comments on the post. I believe the conversation must continue — not so much about Single Thread, but about how we treat each other, both online and in real life.
Are people entitled to their own opinions? Absolutely. And is Healdsburg changing before our very eyes? Yes, for better or for worse, it is. As these changes occur, the only way we’re going to keep any shred of decency in this town is if we practice decency toward each other every day. This doesn’t only mean smiling and waving at each other at the Creamery or in the Plaza. It means virtually smiling and waving at each other online, too.
We don’t have to agree about what’s happening in Healdsburg, neighbors. But let’s acknowledge that we’re in this together, embrace civility and discuss our shared future with empathy and respect.
Matt Villano, Healdsburg
Insult to injury
EDITOR: Regarding the Knights Bridge Winery project, Sonoma County has failed to look at the whole project, and in doing so has ignored the cumulative impacts, including negative effects to neighbor’s wells. Instead the developer’s fake water use numbers keep ever spiraling downward in an attempt to justify this winery project.
When the developer’s anticipated water usage data was first presented to the county in 2013, it reflected one set of numbers, and now four years later the water usage data reflects something quite different, now magically reduced. In the meantime the only thing that has changed is even more intensive water usage as the developer has replanted significant acres of new vineyard, added a 10-bed/10-bath guest lodge complete with a large recreational pool and all new landscaping.
To add insult to injury, the county is accepting the developer’s overall project water use calculations, in part by accepting the claim that the lodge’s water usage will be equivalent to “an average household of four.”
As the water uses have intensified, the development’s overall water usage calculations have gone down. How is that possible? As with fake news, so goes fake water to justify this winery project.
Craig M. Enyart, Knights Valley
