Columns

"I am an affordable housing advocate, but Measure O and its aftermath are riddled with issues. I see it as a huge, uncertain affordability experiment, not a plan..." So writes a long-time Healdsburg resident about the city's plan to create an exclusion zone from the Growth Management Ordinance...

By the quirk of this season’s holiday calendar, we recently made a visit to Washington, D.C., our nation’s capital, while visiting family and friends in nearby Maryland. The visit offered us a chance to affirm that our Republic, in all its manifestations of power, laws and democratic institutions was still standing in upright position and not collapsing under the weight of the current impeachment turmoil. After listening for a week as our highest elected officials ranted, raved and foamed at their mouths during the Congressional hearings, we half expected to see the U.S. Capitol’s dome smoldering in black smoke.

The following snippets of history are drawn from the pages of the Healdsburg Tribune, the Healdsburg Enterprise and the Sotoyome Scimitar, and are prepared by the volunteers at the Healdsburg Museum & Historical Society. Admission is always free at the museum, open Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Last Wednesday, the Windsor Town Council on a 4-1 vote accepted $2 million in affordable housing monies from developer Bob Bisno in return for withdrawing the condition that he provide 77 apartment units with rents limited to median income tenants for a 10-year period.

In a democracy, the government serves the people; the people do not serve the government. Because there is no accountability without transparency, the California Constitution guarantees that “the meetings of public bodies” shall be “open to public scrutiny.” The Brown Act, California’s open meetings law...