Savory Sonoma by Stephanie Hiller - July 2019

The Fourth of July is coming, and I confess I don’t feel much like celebrating.

A report in Esquire Magazine details that the refugees at the border are being detained in what amounts to concentration camps.

Concentration camps were used long before Hitler, and are not to be confused with death camps, as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez pointed out in a tweet. But they’re still bad.

To top it off, on June 18 the White House announced that sweeps of undocumented immigrants are about to begin. Perhaps they will have begun by the time you read this. Some of us, who had helped organize networks to support our friends and neighbors wondered if sweeps threatened in 2017 had been simply threats. Maybe these are too. But if not, something horrible is about to take place, families disrupted, midnight arrests, and people who live and work here thrust into concentration camps.

We thought, This can’t happen here.

It’s happening, and it’s horrid. Not only immigration but unconstrained climate change. Plans to bomb Iran’s nuclear plant. An illegal settlement in Palestine to be named Trump Heights. Starvation in Yemen. Poisonous fracked gas now called “Freedom Gas” in a recent DOE press release. And 5G cell phone networks on our horizon. And there’s more…

Here in Sonoma, the weather is lovely. The hills are turning brown. We’ve already had one red flag day warning of fire that started in Clearlake. But our county government is doing its level best to create a more effective warning system while urging precautions and preparedness.

For the effects of climate change, we are not prepared.

But aside from that, we continue to reside in paradise, though we know Paradise has not been spared.

Our City Council, turned progressive this year, has been moving forward. The minimum wage has been raised almost as much as the North Bay Jobs for Justice demanded. Kudos to all the activists who showed up on this issue, and to Martin Bennett, who retired this month as Executive Director after a long career fighting for the rights of working people.

The City Council has also raised the Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) one percent to bolster up its new housing trust fund. It should bring in $350,000 to $400,000 a year, reports the Index-Tribune — not enough to build many houses, but the idea is to “support new housing initiatives,” whatever that means. It’s a step in the right direction, showing the Council is serious about its efforts to bring more affordable housing to Sonoma.

The third of the council’s series on housing takes place tonight.

Sustainable Sonoma is also augmenting its efforts to support affordable housing initiatives.The SuSo Council (of which I am a member) meets monthly with the intent of bringing together disparate sectors to talk about problems we face in the Valley. Last month, we sponsored a lively panel discussion highlighting the need and the obstacles to producing more housing. On June 27th, SuSo brings Tiffany Manuel to talk about how to communicate effectively with the public about housing.

The problem is so huge, she has said elsewhere, that people’s eyes glaze over and they turn to Netflix for relief.

Perhaps her tips will help us talk about climate change. Talk about big! We are facing something for which we are unprepared. Because we don’t talk about it!

Maybe the best thing we can do now is gather our friends and beloveds, do what we can to improve our communities, and share the bounty with which we have been blessed while the world is catapulted into a crisis from which we may not be spared.

The future of the retired Sonoma Developmental Center, for example. The launch of the promised community process on June 15 was well attended. The state is funding this three-year process to create a Site Specific Plan. Of course it retains the final say on what transpires, and that means the project has to be “financially sustainable.” Among the Plan’s goals, stated by Deputy Director of Planning Milan Nevajda, is to “increase property values” and “expedite marketing to developers.” I’m particularly concerned about the first. I sure didn’t think we needed to raise property rates around here, but that’s the carrot that will be dangled before developers of the project. All of these new programs to spur real estate development have the same goal, including CASA and Opportunity Zones.

In the draft plan proposed by the Coalition, there is not one word about climate change.

The possibility that SDC and with it, the entire Sonoma Valley (the Springs, you will remember, is an Opportunity Zone) is destined to become an enclave for the well-to-do still hovers over our fate.

Plus, there will be a lot fewer immigrants to worry about, if the Boss means what he says about ICE raids.