Editorial

It’s exciting to see county planning commissioners stepping up to the plate this week to address the county’s booming vacation rental market.

It used to be that only weather nerds and hydrologists celebrated the new water year that began on October 1, but as we emerge from California’s fourth year of drought, I argue that we’re all weather nerds now – so Happy New Year.

My husband and 15-year-old daughter had an unforgettable experience last December that impacted our entire family. They were giving a ride to another girl on our daughter’s basketball team when conversation turned to Christmas plans.

Fasten your seatbelts. This week marks the official start of Election Year 2016, culminating next Nov. 8 with the election of a new U.S. President and Congress. Dozens of local elections also will be decided, along with the usual flash mob of statewide propositions.

This week’s newspaper includes our annual Harvest Edition. For the past several decades we have provided this extended coverage of the year’s growing season, the work and weather, the people and the crops and the other news that are part of the latest chapter of Sonoma County’s agricultural heritage.

The seasons are changing at this time of the year and some of the changes are more apparent than others. The sun is lower in the sky, mornings are cooler and Daylight Savings Time ends soon. October’s colors are spectacular and the foliage of the trees and vineyards are the most visible reminders of the changing days ahead.

Our editorials written here each week seek to refrain from making brash edicts or direct ultimatums. But this week we are making an exception.

Any farmer will tell you: it takes more than just a green thumb to run a farm. The skills required to succeed in agriculture extend beyond sowing seeds and harvesting. They must understand tractor maintenance and marketing, irrigation and bookkeeping. But a recent survey of North Bay farmers revealed an even more surprising array of oftentimes necessary skills: bartending, journalism, non-profit communications, realty, software engineering and more.

This is National Newspaper Week and this year’s theme is “power of the press.” That leads us to a list of very provocative questions about newspapers and their future. We hope all our readers will be interested in some of the answers.

Sometimes the world seems like an extra crazy place. It’s why we seek escape in comfortable places and pastimes like games or sports. But, nowadays even these can be challenging and confusing.