Livability or profitability: What do we value in Healdsburg?

“What’s in the way, IS the way,” our beloved, long-time Healdsburg yoga teacher, Deb Karish, shared this with our Zoom yoga class in July 2020. As I hinged forward toward my strong, out-stretched right leg, I took that all-important, deep inhale and an even longer exhale. With each yoga class, my ability to bend from my hips, to hinge over my leg, slowly yet so surely, became less of a strain. This concept may be applied figuratively in our town of Healdsburg.

Being an active, engaged citizen, on Zoom Democracy, in the affluent city of Healdsburg gives me pause.

What is in the way, Healdsburg? Why don’t we prioritize livability over profitability? Why do we keep seeing the results of climate crisis, experiencing extreme floods, wildfires and annual droughts, yet miss the message?

Climate action is long overdue. Social inequity climbs.

Losing our local, small businesses, declining public school enrollment, and disappearing middle class housing, to rent or buy, while the insidious, mono-culture luxury tourism thrives in a town population of fewer than 12,000 with a thousand, and more to come, hotel rooms: a six-thousand dollar hotel room? Five hundred dollars for a single dinner? Hundred dollar bottles of wine?

Sonoma County knows fractional luxury home sales, such as Pacaso, are just one of the results of the “successful” luxury marketing. Ironically, the residents of our town actually fund this cause! Healdsburg’s Chamber of Commerce is awarded an annual contract paid for from tax dollars. This year the taxpayers of our town will grant more than $100,000 to create advertisements and attract travel writers to feature our “Small Town with World Class Charm” for wealthy tourists–all over the world. They once wrote about Healdsburg as a beautiful small town to live, now it is advertised as a beautiful town to visit. Healdsburg often feels like a more inviting place to be a wealthy visitor than a full-time resident.

Healdsburg is a result of a myopic view of economic growth. One long-time, land-holding, “successful” real estate broker explained it to me: there are three characteristics of economic vitality: 1) scarcity 2) exclusivity and 3) building density. The first two are crystal clear, but the last one describes the “brains” who continue to market superfluous, over-the-top wine country “experiences” rooted, not in soil, but greed and gluttony.

Healdsburg began a housing element process, again, required by the state of California, in January of 2022, and is required to “identify and analyze existing and projected housing needs in order to preserve, improve, and develop housing for all economic segments of the community.” It makes no sense to treat or view all building as equal or even needed.

While the city of Healdsburg IS hitting its state-mandated targets for building housing units, the myth persists that we need to build McMansions and luxury hotel rooms and cater to the ultra-wealthy to be prosperous. Absurd. What our city needs is economic diversification, not more low-paying hospitality jobs. With our severe water insecurity, Healdsburg’s Urban Water Management Plan, another state-mandated plan, was submitted during this past summer’s restrictive and scary, long, dry summer. But the plan inadequately addresses the impacts of climate change. Why are we building non-essential housing when we are uncertain about our Upper Russian River water source?

Healdsburg incentivizes ADU’s (accessory dwelling units) but we see these “granny units” are used for pool houses or wine guest weekends, not as rental units for our local, vital workforce. Middle-income workers cannot find rental units or for sale properties in this extreme market of luxury tourism. Unbridled capitalism fosters these extremes. Healdsburg is an escalated, expensive real estate market.

The word ecology comes from the Greek etymology: “house study.” Healdsburg is my home. As much as I encounter obstacles and formidable opposition in my quest to maintain our town livable and inclusive, I see it is easier to make money, yet it is far more interesting, more engaging to manifest a clearer vision.