In living color

For its grand opening, Burgers & Vine, the restaurant filling the black hole that was the Plaza’s vacant northeastern corner, the crew hoisted a pirate flag atop the building. The city wants it to come down; B&V’s Codi Binkley says no. The council just emerged from the debate over a pink door at the neighboring ice cream shop, now they could be in for another appeal hearing, if Captain Binkley continues to fly the flag in the face of official protest. Agenda item R, no doubt… Jon Early contends that the flag has historic precedence. “Francis Drake, the first white man to grace the shores of Sonoma, was a well known pirate… for some stretch of time, he wasn’t ‘technically’ acting on behalf of England, but rather a wink-wink-nod-nod independent pirate out to harass the Spanish Fleet.”

Solution to the city’s most recent concerns: paint a new cell phone tower pink, put a pirate flag at the top and offer wine tastings at the base.

Before the fight over the pink door, there was a spat over the blue awning, at Coldwell Banker’s new Plaza location. Though it was the company’s official corporate blue, it was denied by the city’s Design Review panel, and a compromise (tan with a bit of blue) was worked out. But what about that same blue at the Coldwell Banker office when it was across the Square, for several years?…There’s talk of the city adopting an official color palette, to define the parameters once and for all. Shotsie Gorman, for one, doesn’t like the idea. “I don’t know why Benjamin Moore has the right to dictate the colors.”… Then there’s the physiological reality that because people’s photo receptors vary, what one person calls “pink” may have different physical properties than what another person calls “pink.” Or, as Martha Stewart might say, one woman’s Aegan Blue is another’s Sea Glass… It’s enough to hoist the white flag – or maybe something in an Eggshell?

Happy 95th birthday to Jessie Barbour, who will toast the occasion tonight (March 13) at Murphy’s Pub. “The Grande Dame of Temelec,” says Nancy Pharo, “will celebrate with those who love her, and there are many.” Cheers!

Chuck Bingaman and Gina Cuclis are the newest members of the Sonoma League for Historic Preservation’s Board of Directors. Bingaman, who is also the League’s treasurer, is a journalist. Cuclis was recruited for the board to bring to the League’s leadership the perspective of someone who lives in the Springs. The Sun’s Springs columnist, Cuclis served nine years on the City of Sonoma’s Planning Commission as the outside the city limit representative. Go make some history, you two.