Letters to the Editor 6-27-13

A new era
Editor: I hope you made it to Friday evening’s Sunset Solstice Celebration, a kickoff event for Citizens for Responsible Access.
A diverse group of over 100 elected officials, community supporters and volunteers came together to organize and celebrate the formation of this new group.
We ushered in “a new era in cannabis policy,” which has at its core environmental protection, so the venue was perfect: The Great Blue Heron Hall at the Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation.
We watched an incredible sunset to the west while, to the east, the super moon rose over the Laguna. Inside, our community’s leaders discussed sound cannabis policy in beautiful Sonoma County.
While our mission includes other objectives — public safety, fiscal responsibility, patients’ rights, education —ensuring the preservation and protection of our land, our water, our air and their inhabitants will be our most lasting effect.
Legalization is on that moonrise horizon, but what happens in the interim is most important. It’s important for patients who count on safe and affordable access to medical cannabis, a responsibility of local government per our state constitution. It’s important to communities and law enforcement as we figure out how to use our limited public resources effectively.
This interim period is most important to Mother Earth, the “interest group” with the most to lose. When forced indoors, greenhouse gas emissions skyrocket. When regulations are impossibly expensive to abide, otherwise compliant cultivators throw in the trowel, leaving the ethically-challenged at the helm.
Sound policy encourages compliance, ensures safety and welcomes education. With sound policy, patients benefit, communities benefit and our environment, including our beloved Laguna de Santa Rosa, benefits.
Thank you to those who contributed time, money and energy into making the event, and this organization, a success. Learn more at citizensforresponsibleaccess.org.
Angie Monette
Executive Director
Citizens for Responsible Access
Good choice
Editor: Kudos to Robert Jacob, Sarah Gurney and Patrick Slayter for their vision, wisdom and courage in voting to allow Sebastopol residents and businesses to participate in Sonoma Clean Power. This will finally give us a real choice of energy providers, while allowing those who want to remain customers of the Monopoly to do so.
For those of us concerned about our children’s futures, this represents the single most significant step our region can take to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. The expected 33 percent of our electricity coming from renewable sources is just the beginning. We actually have the potential to double that figure from sources within Sonoma County.
For those of us who want to increase our resiliency, strengthen our local economy and create good jobs, this represents a potential reinvestment of $180 million a year in our local economy that is now leaving the area.
For property owners this means the possibility of earning money from photovoltaic installations on rooftops and parking lots.
But for all of us it means a greater say in the important decisions that impact our lives and those who will come after us.
I regret that Michael Kyes and John Eder did not vote in support of this choice, but I am proud of all those members of our community who made their voices heard and of the Council majority who showed real leadership.
Larry Robinson
Sebastopol
Doesn’t add up
Editor: While I admire the intent of Sonoma Clean Power, I question its wisdom. According to the article (“Sebastopol council ready to join county power agency,” June 20), it might remove 74,000 cars over a 20 year period or 3,700 a year or just barely 10.1 cars per day. This at a cost estimated at the low end to be $3 million, or about $150,000 a year not counting interest and assuming no overruns or buying of power, which gets it down to $412 a day to remove 10 cars or about $40 per car removed. That seems high to me. The aim is good but the cost is not and it is ideology leading to debt that does not result in a good deal for the tax payer.
David Cyprium
Sebastopol
Throwing money away
Editor: Linda Johnson’s right on the mark.
Throwing away $20,000 on a chi-chi, precious outfit like CittaSlow is a waste. Sebastopol has plenty of problems to deal with right now — the ugly Barlow industrial shopping center, covering 14 football fields; the appalling deserted car dealerships with chain link fencing, graffitti and boarded up windows right downtown; the highway 12/116 intersection mess; the soon-to-be deserted buildings housing the Village Bakery, Taylor Maid, Aubergine, (all part of the aforementioned metal, glass and asphalt covered Barlow), and the deteriorating conditions at Ives Park. All of these demand immediate attention. Instead of throwing money at some ephemeral, elitist organization with a fancy name, spend the money on problems confronting us now. If the Slow City people want bucks, let them run some fundraisers and get their own dollars. Maybe the members of Slow City should pony up their own budget instead of making some pretentious claim because they think they are “visionaries.”
Ed LaFrance
Sebastopol
Cittaslow priorities
Editor: Have you read Cittaslow’s priorities? As we believed in 2010 when our town earned the coveted designation, we think you’ll be pleasantly surprised to see how perfectly these priorities capture the spirit of Sebastopol:
• Supporting locally made products and agriculture;
• Celebrating our history and culture;
• Welcoming visitors and embracing neighbors;
• Integrating technologies for improved well-being;
• Protecting the health of the environment;
• Developing community-friendly infrastructure (walk ways, bike paths, open space, gathering places and parks).
In other countries, “Slow City” members have a Department of Cittaslow in the mayor’s office. Some even include the priorities in zoning and General Plans. Our sister Cittaslow city, Fairfax, created a new City Commission.
In Sebastopol, to minimize expense to the City and harness engaged volunteers, we instead formed a steering committee that intends to build a grassroots nonprofit organization to fill needed gaps and build bridges. It does not replicate or replace existing organizations. Rather, Cittaslow Sebastopol will enable our community organizations to fulfill on their own missions via synergistic, rather than competitive, relationships.
What makes Cittaslow unique is its broad scope — Cittaslow Sebastopol can work on projects for economic vitality, as well as projects pertaining to our history and culture, beautification of our town, creation of bike lanes, or supporting democracy and community input.
We are proud to be the Council liaisons to Cittaslow Sebastopol and to support this worthy effort as it grows through the start-up phase. With a strong and sustainable base, much like Sebstopol World Friends and the Sebastopol Entrepreneur Project, there is no doubt that this initial investment will be returned, many times, to Sebastopol in coming years.
We encourage you to visit www.CittaslowSebastopol.org to learn firsthand how Cittaslow Sebastopol has already supported our community.
Vice Mayor Robert Jacob
Councilmember Sarah Glade Gurney
Student loan interest
Editor: I am a single father who lives in Sebastopol. I have two amazing children; one currently in college, the other looking into masters degree programs, paying off her student loans while interning at NATO and moonlighting at a pizza restaurant.
I raised my children to be financially responsible and accountable for their actions. Both have a very passionate attitude towards their career goals and have taken on student loans as a means to see their dreams through. If you can please help me spread the word so this action can be effective in educating folks so we can have a collective voice to help others to understand what is happening in Congress regarding doubling student loan interest rates.
Student debt in this country has already reached crisis levels, with Americans owing over $1 trillion in student debt, and students graduating with an average of $26,000 in college loans. But it could get even worse.
Congress is on the verge of letting student loan interest rates double. If we let that happen, we’ll lose our best opportunity to provide relief for millions of students and graduates being crushed by student loan debt and miss our chance to have a real national conversation about what investing in students might look like.
But it isn’t too late to stop student loan interest rates from doubling on July 1 and turn the tide on the student debt crisis.
On June 27, thousands of MoveOn members are hitting the pavement and taking action to send a strong message to Congress: On July 1, don’t double student loan rates. We’ll hold events outside congressional offices and on college campuses and use creative tactics to make sure Congress, the media, and everyone hears this message.
Timothy Lane
Sebastopol