Letters to the Editor 10-13-16

Library benefits
Editor: Sonoma County libraries benefit the entire community. The library provides free books, e-books, books on CDs, music CDs, movies on DVDs and streaming, computer and internet access, classes, adult and children’s programs, book clubs, homework clubs, tutoring and this past summer free summer lunch program.
Since 2011, library hours were cut by 25 percent, which was a hardship on many. Voting for Measure Y will add a one-eighth of a penny local sales tax, which adds up to a nickel on a $40 purchase. The sales tax would raise about $10 million a year to be spent only on the library system and would expire in 10 years. If approved it will restore library hours, expand book collections, expand services for students, seniors and the disabled and add additional staff. Please vote yes on Nov. 8 for Measure Y.
Lena Darcy
Healdsburg
Police briefs gone flat
Editor: Reading the Healdsburg Tribune every week for years has kept me up to date on happenings in town, local sporting conquests, and this week’s pics of homes I can’t afford. I am a happy customer except for one thing, my most favorite part of your paper, the police briefs, have gone flat with a “just the facts” presentation that leaves out all the fun little kooky, small town nuttiness that was so entertaining before. Where did you go, writer of the police briefs? Please come back.
Chris Saulsbury
Healdsburg
Change is necessary
Editor: It’s beyond time to loosen the restrictions on the Growth Management Ordinance. Measure M might have seemed like a good idea 16 years ago, but over time we have come to see that there have been unintentional and unfortunate consequences of our eagerness to restrict growth and housing. Change is going to happen, is happening, whether or not we like it. Change is inevitable and necessary. Sometimes we can guide these changes, and it is my hope that we can come together as a community and effect some of these ongoing shifts and transformations.  At the moment it seems to me we have locked out some of our brightest young (and not so young) people.
It appears that the opponents of  Measure R are the older and retired in our community, and largely have lived in homes they bought 20 or 30 or even 40 years ago. Some of these residents long for a past that might not have been as wonderful as they misremember. I would love our city to make room for young people and families, and get creative in housing so that we all can benefit from the energy and vitality that young minds can bring to Healdsburg. Let’s us old fogies step aside and permit the town to open up to more innovation; and let the visionaries among us be imaginative and inventive in housing and business. Besides, at some point, I myself would like to downsize and find live/work space closer to downtown where I could walk or bike to nearly everything. Think of the benefits of having fewer cars on the road. Please join me in voting yes on Measure R.
Barbara Médaille
Healdsburg
‘T’ not transparent
Editor: I am a Healdsburg family dentist and resident who is concerned about the deceptive tactics used by the proponents of Measure T. Supporters are saying this is about transparency, but if it is transparency they want, why have they fought so hard for a misleading, confusing ballot measure? Let’s call it as it is.
In 2014, opponents of fluoridation filed a petition to stop Healdsburg’s community water fluoridation program. It was a straightforward question on the ballot, “Do you want to continue fluoridating Healdsburg’s water?” Many in our community responded with concern, including pediatricians, dentists, dental hygienists, nurses, community leaders, public health advocates and elected officials. Healdsburg residents have had access to optimally fluoridated water for over 60 years, and generations have benefitted with stronger teeth and less dental disease. Healdsburg residents looked at their own health and that of their children and grandchildren and overwhelmingly voted to keep our water fluoridation program.
Now, just two years later, opponents are back, this time with an approach that misleads voters into thinking that this is about labeling fluoridation products so we know they are safe. However, what Measure T proponents don’t tell you is that there are established standardized processes for certifying the safety of products used in drinking water systems. They don’t tell you that the fluoridation products used in Healdsburg undergo the same rigorous testing for safety and effectiveness as all other drinking water products used throughout the U.S. And most importantly, they don’t tell you that “individual batch” testing and labeling required by Measure T is not required for any other food or water additive and intentionally designed to set a standard that cannot be met so that the moratorium would be imposed and never lifted.
As a dentist, I see the benefits of Healdsburg’s water fluoridation program daily in my practice. During the last campaign, we heard many residents say that they and their children have healthy teeth and fewer cavities than relatives who grew up in communities without access to optimally fluoridated water. What is also so important to recognize is that water fluoridation reaches all people-young and old, all income levels. It makes stronger teeth and less dental disease available to everyone. More than 25 million Californians and 200 million U.S. residents have access to the benefits of water fluoridation. Two years ago, Healdsburg voters overwhelmingly voiced their opinion on this issue, voting by a two-thirds majority to keep protecting the dental health of its residents. Please send a message to fluoridation opponents. Enough is enough. Vote no on Measure T.
Dr. Shawn Widick DDS
Healdsburg
How should I vote on R?
Editor: According to the “R matters” flyer being passed out, “… because we want to address Healdsburg’s future with solutions, not fear.” What do we have to fear? Is there a cataclysmic event facing us if this measure is not passed?
The core issue seems to be there are too many people everywhere competing for the same resources. They are putting pressures on all kinds of infrastructure. It is well known that both coasts are the most desirable places to live in our country. We have been fortunate to have lived in a very desirable place. Now to accommodate those who desire to move here we are being asked to vote to increase new construction by 130 percent more than our general plan.
The visible result will the increase in the number of cars parked on our streets, and the numbers of people in our town. This compaction will slowly erode our way of life here. It may be inevitable, but Measure R will speed it up. Is this a benefit to me?
We speak of young professionals unable to find housing in Healdsburg. Why is it a pressing need to make more available? What happens if we don’t? Have we reached the point where we cannot hire the critical people we need because they will not live out of town?
Building more implies these people will have saved the required down payments to purchase one of the new houses or apartments and make the monthly payments. Is this realistic? Who will subsidize those who have not saved and cannot make the required installments? In the coming drought years will we be able to continue having enough water to serve all of our needs for drinking and sanitation? Should I have a moral obligation to help provide more housing for those who desire to move here? I’m not sure I should.
I do have special compassion for those who have lived here in housing which has seen abrupt 40 percent rent increases to fatten out of area speculators. I would propose instead of Measure R, legislation to keep that kind of speculation from happening to longtime residents of good standing.
John Murphy
Healdsburg
Proven track record
Editor: Healdsburg has over 150 years of a proven track record with regard to sound city planning. The century and a half plus has seen tremendous progress with regard to a community committed to maintaining the original plots laid out by the founding fathers. With tremendous investment (public and private), the town square has been preserved, many building improvements (historic and new) have been undertaken, a ball park rehabilitated, streetscapes enhanced, environmental concerns addressed, energy efficiencies championed, a bridge saved – just to name a few. While we have not always agreed, we have come together to build consensus with compromises along the way.
It was thought that Parkland Farms was the demise of town. Before that it was Almond Way and “Bird Land,” before that perhaps the River Side, View and Bend developments. Without these our town would not be what it has become. We have become based on what we have beheld; a commitment to our core values. Healdsburg has made much progress and must continue to move forward. Geographically our town is constrained by natural resources – Fitch Mountain, the Russian River, Highway 101 and the valleys – Dry Creek, Alexander and Russian River. What little infill we have remaining must be used wisely to enhance our community and provide as much diversity as possible – diversity of business, housing and culture.
The gridlock in Washington must not become the gold standard of our town. Referendums and increased regulation will not solve our challenges. We need to provide our city leaders the opportunity to continue planning out Healdsburg. With a proven track record of over a century, I’m confident that we will continue to preserve our past while creating a bright future. Please join me in supporting, “We R Healdsburg” and vote yes on Measure R.
William K Seppi
Healdsburg
Hollowed out
Editor: Healdsburg’s community is being hollowed out. Our soccer teams struggle to find coaches, and for the girls teams, to have enough players. School enrollment is down, and community involvement in local charity from second-home owners is limited.
Healdsburg is a victim of its success. Our tourism industries are thriving, and we are consistently in the top-10 places to visit and to live. As a result, folks are buying up properties as second homes, rather than full-time residences. Those homes sit unoccupied, and our community – the families who live here – is shrinking as a result.
Followed to its logical conclusion, Healdsburg may become a weekday ghost town, largely vacant outside of the summer and the weekends, a playground for visitors, a dying community.
While additional housing is critical, it is only part of the solution. But, it is a critical part. To keep the vibrancy of our local community of residents, we need places for those residents to live, and the removal of housing stock as second dwellings must be offset by new homes if we are going to avoid shrinking away as a community.
While well-intentioned, the GMO is hurting our community. It doesn’t stop the transition to second homes we see throughout our community, nor the bulldozers that crush small older homes downtown to replace them with something new, large, and modern, elevating the cost even higher. (Exacerbating the problem of affordability, buyers snap up smaller older homes and demolish them to make way for a “McMansion remodel”, with the double-hit result of a largely vacant, but also very expensive new home, rather than a more affordable and occupied one.)
When we only allow ourselves to build 30 new homes each year, but at the same time 40 percent of home sales are sold as second dwellings, our community is hollowed out.
Finally, the GMO leaves as its only option the development of resorts and hotels, rather than reasonable quantities of housing, exacerbating our issue of housing availability and cost, sacrificing larger parcels that could be higher-density homes instead, and also fueling the demand for second homes, as Healdsburg becomes a place to vacation.
Holding on to the past, while imagining that Healdsburg will not be influenced by the outside world simply won’t work. To maintain our local, friendly, thriving community, we need more housing. Small houses, big houses, apartments, condos, live/work, affordable housing; it’s is all needed, if we are going to avoid our community being hollowed out, priced out, and vacant. This is why I’m voting yes on Measure R.
Dane Jasper
Healdsburg
Supports McCaffery
Editor: I am writing in support of Shaun McCaffery for City Council. I have lived in Healdsburg for 27 years, and I have known Shaun for just four years, but I have seen him in action, as council member and as mayor and as a fellow citizen, and I like what I see. He is a young man who understands, in the same way I do, the things that make Healdsburg strong and unique. He likes the small town way people know each other and interact and help each other, reach across race and class lines to make this place sound and vibrant. He is on more community action initiatives than you can count: creek cleanups, housing forums, water carnivals. He understands that city government is all about infrastructure: sewers and sidewalks, roads and utilities, the unglamorous necessities that the giants of the past and present city governments (Eddinger, Chambers and Ziedrich) championed.
Shaun knows that local politics is a joyous collision between your ideals and getting stuff done. He makes political decisions that show both a strong and fearless adherence to core principles as well as an awareness that this is a democracy and views other than one’s own must be acknowledged and taken into account. You don’t always get the whole thing.
When Shaun was the liaison between the city and the Healdsburg Library (governed by the Sonoma County Library, a Joint Powers Agency), the library was locked in a desperate but necessary battle to revamp its governing structure. Shaun did two things: he spent political capital to get the library what it needed, convincing other city council members of the core principle of equal service countywide; he talked library supporters into toning down their rhetoric and holding on to that one vital thing, and abandoning others that would threaten the deal. Shaun has both eyes on the prize and no blue skies. Vote for Shaun McCaffery.
Bo Simons
Healdsburg
Responses on ‘R’
Editor: Some responses to arguments I have read and heard from those opposed to Measure R.
“I would just prefer no more growth, period.” Change will occur regardless of whether Measure R passes or not. Our town is losing its middle, our youth, and many who work here cannot afford to live here. Full time residents are being replaced by second home owners. If you like this direction stick with the status quo. If not, vote for change and vote yes on R.
“Measure R will result in more large, expensive second homes.” Actually the reverse is true. Saggio Hills provides a good example of the unintended consequences of the GMO. The original project included several hundred homes of different types with limited retail around a small plaza. When the GMO was approved, it became impossible to finance due to the length of time it would take to build out with the limited annual allocations. It was sold to a developer that received approvals for a high end 120-room resort and 70 large expensive homes. Saggio Hills is a direct result of the current GMO which leads developers to bring forward projects with fewer, larger, more expensive homes and hospitality components.
“We should bring back a better GMO ordinance revision in 2018.” There are two large mixed use parcels that most likely will start going through the approval process next year. We can’t wait. Either they will be processed under the new Growth Regulation Ordinance (yes on Measure R) or the current GMO.
“The high cost of housing is not the result of the GMO and getting rid of it will not bring costs down.” I think in large part this is true, but it misses the point. When redevelopment districts were eliminated by the state we lost our principal funding source for affordable housing. We have to find new approaches. With Measure R 30 percent of the 70 dwelling units a year allowed will have to be affordable. This will generate 21 affordable units vs. the four created with the current GMO. While 17 additional affordable units a year is not a huge number, it will make a difference over time.
“I don’t trust our city council.” Why? Our city council asked the community how to spend Measure V tax dollars last year and followed through. They saved Memorial Bridge. It took a while but they changed the one-way at the post office back to two-way traffic. They support saving the Cerri building. We trust the council with a $70 million budget and management of our city. City councils tend to listen to their community. If they don’t we vote them out; democracy in action.
“According to the city’s Housing Element there is only room for 656 units; once these are built we will be done and it will put pressure on our UGB.” Table C-1 of the Housing Element only includes parcels with residential zoning. Much of our future housing will occur on mixed use designation or on underutilized sites such as old gas stations and industrial lots. Additionally, at some point we will surely prepare an area plan for the land on the east side of Memorial Bridge which includes over 200 acres. While we have capacity to add housing well into the future without threatening our UGB it is true that we have a limited supply of land; all the more reason to not waste it with big houses on big lots which is what our current GMO promotes.
“With three votes ‘they’ will be building McMansions in the community separators.” This is what an out-of-town paid ‘walker’ for no on R said to me. Measure R has nothing to do with building outside our UGB but the no on R campaign obviously gave their paid walkers false talking points to scare people. It is telling when a campaign resorts to these kinds of tactics. Don’t be mislead by no on R supporters, go the city’s website and read about the measures for yourself. Check the Press Democrat’s endorsement in their 10/6 issue to see why they support R.
Measure R is the culmination of over 25 public meetings over the past two years. It is our chance to try something different, instead of doing the same thing and hoping it will come out better. Let’s see it through. Vote yes on Measure R.
Alan Cohen
Healdsburg
Concerns about ‘T’
Editor: I am a registered dental assistant and have been a Healdsburg resident for 46 years. I am concerned about measure T on the November ballot. It is a measure that would remove fluoride from our city water system. I have been an RDA for 26 years and have worked in dentistry for 29 years. In all the 29 years of my career I have never witnessed one ill effect of water fluoridation. In fact, I have witnessed a steady decline in tooth decay and dental disease in our community’s children and adults.
Removing fluoride from our water supply in my opinion would have a negative effect on our citizens’ dental health. The residents of Healdsburg have benefited from water fluoridation for over 60 years. It does not matter what age, race or social economic level you are water fluoridation works for everyone.
The wording of the measure is a bit confusing. The anti-fluoridation movement is requesting a moratorium on adding fluoride to our water until it can be proven safe. The fact is it has been proven safe and effective in preventing tooth decay and dental disease. I ask all of our community, my family, friends and neighbors please do not give into fear mongering or insults and do not let this dental health benefit be taken from us. Please join me and vote no on measure T.
Leslie A. Teague RDA
Healdsburg