Letters from Sonoma County Gazette readers in print and online - January 2021

Comment on an online article or send your letter to the editor to editor@sonomacountygazette.com

Gratitudes Indeed!

Gratitudes, indeed! First, I want to thank Vesta Copestakes for her 20 years of invaluable, compassionate, selfless service in providing Sonoma County with this amazing community resource in the Gazette newspaper.

Also, many thanks to Elaine B. Holtz for her commitment, energy, and kindness in writing her Santa Rosa column in this paper, and broadcasting on KBBF. Leslie Graves is a wonderful community organizer and event promoter, and I know she’ll be a great columnist. I realized that in the nearly 10 years I’ve lived in Sonoma County, most of the organizations, farms, and local small businesses that I’ve come to know and love, are those I learned about through the Gazette. I consistently turn to this publication for accurate and factual information, whether about elections, COVID-19, climate change, and local events that may be of interest - all the more amazing that it’s free!

I read your November issue, filled with gratitude for people like Evan Wiig, whose front-page article went far in setting the record straight on the benefits of Measure P, which thankfully passed (protesting for social justice throughout these last few months, I’m also grateful for the tireless organizing work of Love & Light, who did so much to get this measure passed and improve Sonoma County police oversight).

Welcome to you, Amie. I’m sure Vesta would not have entrusted handing over her labor of love, unless she believed you were the best candidate for the job. Best of luck to you, and I look forward to many more years of helpful resources for, and from, our incredibly diverse community in Sonoma County!

~ Irene Barnard Santa Rosa

Requested coverage

Could the Gazette do an in-depth piece on the background status of the groundwater ‘survey’? It’s an extremely complex and confusing situation and I’d venture most well owners really don’t understand the situation very well, beyond the obvious fact that groundwater is limited and some users take a tremendous amount.

This is a big issue that affects all of us more and more as growth continues and water gets scarcer.

Thank you. I think most people in West Co. who have wells are confused by the websites. There is a massive NextDoor discussion in which a few people seem to know a lot more than most of us. Maybe one or two of those people would like to work on an article with you.

Here are a few things I personally want to understand better: 1. What is the likely outcome of the groundwater survey process?

2. Is it going to treat/tax/assess ag and developers the same way it does individual property owners? There is overwhelming expectation that these monied interests will get special treatment and ordinary people will be taxed more and more.

3. How does the ‘right to farm’ act affect what ag is allowed to do with water (not to mention pesticides)?

Thanks for considering this. There is really no bigger ongoing issue for us than water. ~ Nancy Hair

Support for Measure B

Over the past two decades, housing costs have skyrocketed, supply for renters and buyers alike has become scarce, the number of visitors has increased, and towns like Bodega Bay and Guerneville have become pressed to keep up with the municipal services needed to keep our region safe. West Sonoma County, with its incredible coastal views and recreation opportunities, amazing boutique wineries, and a culture that just magnetizes visitors to our area, is in need of some TLC.

Our once all volunteer public safety fire and rescue agencies are breaking at the seams, with call volume increases under a heavy tourist burden. Our schools have experienced declining enrollment for two decades as housing prices shot up, partly from second home purchases by people wanting to live in our vacation area, and supply for family homes has turned over into temporary vacation rentals like VRBO and Airbnb.

Taxing tourists fairly seems to me like a great way to fund services where tourism is creating a demand and burden. We must educate our kids to be able to work, advance, and keep up in this expensive region. We must also pay for the fire and rescue services that are so necessary to save lives with paramedic support, and prevent small brush fires from growing into uncontrollable wildfires. Taxing tourists on overnight

stays seems like a real win-win: the visitor and the local reap the rewards of better services, and we create a better educated and skilled workforce to fill the jobs needed to serve the tourist economy. Join me in voting Yes on Measure B.

~ Denny Rosatti Camp Meeker, Sebastopol

Support for tourist-supported tax

Thank you. I knew that tourists draw from our local emergency services, but using 80% of Bodega’s emergency response makes tourism a scourge. Even though people can be billed for services they use, without additional equipment and personnel, emergency services are less available to the residents.

In general, I am for any tax or fees that result in tourists supporting the general well being of the communities in which they vacation.

Thank you, Supervisor Hopkins, for planning and doing something to support the Fire Protection Districts and for using that existing infrastructure to include local education in an attempt to save our schools.

~ Mary Beth Smith

Mmm...cheese

I love Joe Matos cheese! I owned a cheese shop and I’ll never forget ordering from them for the first time, there was only a voice message with ordering instructions. I found it odd but ordered as instructed, and sure enough a few days later the wheel arrived with a hand written bill! Old school and great cheese.

Thank you!

~ Jeff Smoot

Vaccines: Just do it.

I’m a resident of Sebastopol, and have been for six years. I live here with my wife and two girls who are three and six years old. After 26 months (or whatever, I lost count a while ago) in lockdown, stay-at-home, quarantine, etc.

we’re finally seeing a light at the end of the tunnel.

Vaccines are literally IN Sonoma County so can I just take a moment to say - THANK THE BLEEPING LORD! Hang on though, we’re not out of the woods yet. Next hurdle: anti-vaxxers. In case you don’t know what those are, they’re people who think they’re know more than scientists, even though the only formal training they have is in “The Spiritual Healing Arts and Mega-Reiki.”

(Okay I made that up...) What amazes me is here in Sonoma County, by all measures a pretty progressive-minded county in California, a mostly progressive state, that in my own community I hear, “Woah, let’s hang on a minute with this vaccine thing...”

or “I’ll never get the vaccine because it’s LITERALLY liquid cancer and I’m pretty sure it will make you stupid.” Slight exaggeration - or is it? It’s like West County got so “woke,” so enlightened and in touch with our bodies and the earth and universe and stuff that we think we know better than the people who have actually studied all that stuff. It’s like we sailed too far and ended up back on the other side of the planet completely, the planet of Fox Newsesque denialism, where, when we FINALLY have some hope in sight, some of us are going to mess it up by simply choosing to not be vaccinated because we think after a hundred years of vaccines keeping people alive, now they’re somehow........... not? At this point - 19.2 Million infected and 333 thousand dead here in the US, choosing not to vaccinate isn’t just dumb, it’s irresponsible and selfish.

Just to be clear - if you’re anti-vaccine, you’re anti-science. You’re fall into the same bucket as Trump and other climate change deniers who are able to make their own reality when science has the actual answer right in front of them. I hope for all our sakes (and sanity - especially for parents who just want to get the hell away for our kids for a f***ing hour) that when your number gets called, you’ll trust that big pharmaceutical companies aren’t the only ones who have a stake in this vaccine being effective - at this point it’s our obligation, duty, and privilege to get vaccinated.

Don’t mess this up for all of us. When your number gets called, just get the f***ing vaccine and *maybe* we can get on with our lives. :)

~ Jason Windsor, Sebastopol