The City of Sonoma adopted its Mobile Home Rent Control Ordinance in 1992, revised it in 1998 and again in 2016. The ordinance regulates rent increases and rental prices after a home comes out of vacancy while providing a fair profit for park owners. The... Continue

When the City of Sonoma succumbed to the perceived threat of litigation due to non-district-based elections for City Council, it was hoped district-based elections would help residents feel, and actually be, better represented. Ironically, for mobile home residents, it’s not the case. The convergence of... Continue

As we gather and celebrate our country’s Declaration of Independence this year, we mark 250 years of an experiment in democracy. Our history is filled with irony. Many of our founders enslaved others, the right to vote was limited to men only, the native people... Continue

On January 16 of this year the Pride flag was unceremoniously taken down from the flag pole at Sonoma Valley High School by a unilateral action of David Bell, the President of the School Board. Abusing the authority of his position on the Board, Bell... Continue

Sonoma Valley has some of the finest agricultural land in the world, and it has fed people for thousands of years. Today, agriculture remains a mainstay of our economy and lifestyle, and no better expression of the latter exists than our local farmers markets.  Many... Continue

Bring up the budget hearings of the Sonoma City Council with an average resident of Sonoma and their eyes glaze over. Hundreds of pages long, few people have the time or interest to wade through charts and tables filled with columns of numbers. And yet,... Continue

The Civil war did not end in 1868. Instead, it became a simmering ideological conflict that continues to this very day. The recent Supreme Court gutting of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is the South’s latest victory, the continuing unwinding of a progressive process... Continue