Our View: Tourists or locals?

So much emphasis is focused on tourism here in Sonoma Valley that sometimes it seems we locals get treated as an afterthought.
Fortunately, that’s not really true and we’re in the midst of several occasions this spring that emphasize the point.
Consider, for instance, the Farmers Market running on the Plaza from April to October. It includes a few businesses coming from outside the Valley but for the most part it is a wonderful gathering of local restaurants, local families and local entertainment, broadcast by the local radio station. Our Plaza is a remarkable treasure that many of us often take for granted. The Farmers Market is an easy opportunity to enjoy that great space.
Consider, too, the moving ceremony at the Veterans Memorial last week. Locals, honoring local heroes. It helps to know that among us are families of men and women who care so much about our community and our freedoms that they put themselves at risk to defend them.
Infineon Raceway, under Steve Page’s attentive care, also recognizes the importance of the local Sonoma community. The 23rd annual Wine Country Classic last weekend was a great example, with a wonderful display of gorgeous, historic cars right at the Plaza for locals to admire and to photograph. The car owners were happy to chat and show off their vehicles, and it was an easy way for local Sonoma residents to enjoy world-class racecars brought right in town brought to us
Those locals who ventured just 10 miles down Highway 121 to the raceway on Sunday enjoyed half-price tickets, free parking and admittance to the Wine Country Pavilion. In the garages, among the trailers and in the stands, we saw a lot of fellow Sonoma residents relishing the intimate experience, especially enjoyable in light of the throngs of outsiders who will descend on Sonoma, helping local businesses, during the NASCAR weekend coming up later this month
And graduations are the perhaps the most local of events – we’re thinking especially of tonight’s high school graduation ceremony, though the same feelings apply to the many ceremonies at other schools around the Valley. Surely tedious to an outsider, they are heart-warming, and tear-jerking, to us locals.
The parents in attendance can’t help reflecting on the days when these children were headed off to kindergarten. The dozen years ahead seemed so long then, but so short now. It seems hardly possible that these are the same children, now young adults, who believe they are ready to tackle the world and begin independent lives of their own.
But it’s not just the parents who are wistful. In our small community, many adults have been involved in the lives of these proud graduates. Among them are children we coached in soccer, read stories to in second grade, watched in Girl Scouts or Boy Scouts, or mentored at the Sun or the KSVY/SVTV operation. Graduations truly do give us locals a great sense of community.
It’s more than just a cliché that, “The children are our future.” The future is now, and judging from the happy faces of the graduates and their confident demeanor, it is, in our view, in good hands.