Letters to the Editor 9-3-15

In praise of tasting rooms
Editor: Recently we had company come to town without a specific list of wineries they wanted to visit. Instead of driving the usual hither and yon, they wanted to walk about town and visit tasting rooms.
I must confess that I had not visited one before as, like many from Healdsburg, I have ambivalent feelings about tasting rooms and their role in the loss of small shops that give our town a sense of character. However, after stopping in at four shops, I can truly say these establishments delighted me. The wait staff was without exception attentive, funny and extremely knowledgeable. Every effort was made to let us feel at home and welcome. There was not a trace of snobbishness. A bridal party, overseas travelers, locals and millennials from the city all mixed, chatted and had fun as a group.
I’m also pleased to see small wineries have a place to sell their products of which they can be justifiably proud. Now that they have gained the ability to sell directly all over the country, their futures are bright. But, because of this success they can afford to pay a much higher rent than those shops selling ice cream and books. Giving a property owner the right to rent to those who sell wine is a huge windfall that other shop owners do not enjoy and is extremely disruptive to rental rates. This is an unforeseen consequence of the decision to make Healdsburg a tourist destination and must be corrected.
The notion of profit sharing to introduce competitive balance has worked extremely well in baseball and could be a tool for resolving the disruptive effects of tasting rooms. One way this could work is for there to be a fee paid by the tasting room/landlord that would be then shared with other contiguous property owners. Landlords who accept this fee would agree not to unduly raise their rents. There are other examples of windfall profit sharing that can serve as models as well.
My point is we should be proud of, and celebrate, our wonderful small vintners and work together so that their success doesn’t kill the goose that laid the golden egg. It may be too late to make such a program work retroactively, but without something like this in place, there will be huge resistance to any more tasting rooms, to the detriment of us all.
Jay Beckwith
Healdsburg
Roundabout not practical
Editor: Last Thursday I was in Reno and would head to Healdsburg for a long weekend. Checked and saw an event was being held at the Sonoma County Raceway, gates opening at 8 a.m. Friday morning. I power napped Thursday evening and started my four hour drive at 2 a.m. to avoid the traffic jam that would occur on Highway 37 near the raceway.
A clear night sky on the eve of the Full Sturgeon Moon rewarded me. I shuffled between NPR stations while driving a near empty I-80. NPR was abuzz with New Orleans and Katrina, 10 years later. It got me thinking of what would be new in Healdsburg since I was last there. Somehow I hit on “a roundabout.” I must have been moonstruck.
I grew up on America’s “Last Frontier” in Alaska as its Territorial Days drifted to statehood. I strapped building materials to my floatplane to build a cabin 75 miles north of Anchorage on the shore of a lake accessible by airplanes on floats or skis and snow machines. Practicality is the rule out at the edge, where necessity trumps pipedreams. I’m practical, sort of.
On my moonlit drive I connected New Orleans to Healdsburg. Descendants of New Orleans’ founding fathers migrated to Healdsburg to populate its City Council. Three years short of three centuries ago some folks got to thinking – not thinking – there is this swamp up to seven feet below sea level. So in 1718 they named it New Orleans, surrounded it with levees and took their chances, eventually relying on pumps to keep things dry. Not practical.
Spin forward to the 21st Century and Healdsburg with its City Council seemingly descended from those Big Easy early settlers, possessing that early disregard of the practical.
Like a chick exiting its shell, the council began to flex and flap its wings of impracticality. One of the early wing flaps spawned the “one-way” decision on Foss Creek Circle. And what a flap that caused. The citizenry not only objected to the concept, but also knew if it was to be a one-way, the Council had it going the wrong one-way. Not practical.
The council got the wakeup call and reverted Foss Creek Circle to its two-way status, likely with not much expense other than the removal of egg from its collective face.
Soon, another chick was born to flap its wings as the Council “beautified” the town by replacing much needed parking with flower beds on the eve of a disastrous streak of drought. Much squawking by the citizens, as the project was just, well – not practical.
I was surprised at the coincidence of my roundabout mooning, to see it splayed across the front page of The Healdsburg Tribune. Big Easy descendants approved the $4 million roundabout.
A five-way intersection can be confusing, but it is controlled by signal lights. Now turn it into a free flow confusing circular circus, to be bisected by light rail traffic and used by motorized vehicles, pedestrians and bicyclists. What could possibly go wrong? Not practical.
With all these moving parts, the council should charge admission for those spectating the prospective chaos down at their roundabout. Vehicle drivers will figure things out. The dash of pedestrians added to the mix without “Walk” or “Don’t Walk” instructions place themselves in peril, to be sure. The bicyclists of Healdsburg seem to exempt themselves totally from that pesky need to obey traffic laws and signage, so they will continue their “me-first” mentality, do as they choose and defy traffic rules along with common sense. Not practical.
I’m a bicyclist, but I follow the rules, like operators of other road-use vehicles. And, I don’t buy the several-years-ago plea in this forum from a bicyclist who asserted, “Expecting bicyclists to stop and start at stop signs was just too ergonomically stressful to my knees.” Sheesh.
Can the roundabout. Use the $4 million to complete the missing ramps at the Mill Street-Highway 101 interchange by allowing northbound traffic to exit and southbound traffic to enter Highway 101, relieving pressure over at the five-way. Use the rest of the $4 million to enforce traffic violations by bicyclists. Practical.
Dave Dahlke
Healdsburg
History repeats?
Editor: And now from the people who brought you “Foss Creek Circle One Way,” –  “The Roundabout.”
Dallas Saunders
Healdsburg