Grass is greener than you think
EDITOR: For those people who feel Healdsburg only caters to the wealthy; please, instead of complaining, band together, buy as much property as you can, build as many single-family dwellings as you can, and then list them for perhaps what one might pay for a house in Wisconsin or Minnesota. Or, you could put your homes on the market for those same midwestern prices, move and know that you have helped a young family who wanted to live in our dusty hamlet but couldn’t afford it.
For those who keep opposing tasting rooms; first of all, I don’t drink, but if a business wants to be able to pay the rent, and a tasting room helps pay the rent, who are we to attempt to squash a dream? By the way, if we didn’t have tasting rooms, what type of stores would you want in their place?
The reason the downtown found itself in disrepair is because the buildings started falling apart and some of the businesses who were there left to acquire larger stores. The businesses started small but as the community grew (probably before most of you who complained moved here) they needed more space to meet the requests of their customers and moved. We should applaud their efforts and congratulate their successes.
I can only go as far back as the 60s as far as living in Healdsburg is concerned. Do I miss 50 cent movies at the Aven, five cent suckers from Ben Franklin that lasted an hour, and fries and milkshakes from the truck stop after the football game? Sure, but I only made a bit over a dollar an hour and houses on Johnson Street were selling for eight to twenty thousand dollars. Our grass is very green.
Brent Mortensen
Healdsburg
