The poor Springs. Borrowing a famous dictum about Mexico – “so far from God, so close to the United States”– we might say of this large unincorporated area where over 60 percent of the Valley resides, “so far from Santa Rosa, so close to Sonoma.”... Continue
Editorials
This editorial in favor of extending the hospital parcel tax originally ran in February, but the argument, and our support, remain strong for the June 6 special election. Our local Sonoma Valley Hospital continues to need financial support from the public. This support comes in... Continue
Perhaps it's a false dichotomy, this notion of Sonoma Valley as either Heaven or Hell, but Americans, after all, gravitate towards dichotomies: winners and losers, good and evil, villains and heroes, beauty and ugliness. Here in Sonoma Valley, however, the dichotomy is real, as clearly... Continue
All of us, without exception, had or have a mother. The miracle of birth is the miracle of motherhood, and we humans have been wrestling with that mystery for as long was we've had self-awareness. The archeological evidence of our obsession with fertility, birth and... Continue
Unless you've got a secret hide-away on Mars, this planet is all you've got, and all that any of us has got. Given that fact, the Earth has given us, meaning human beings, a grand opportunity that's also an enormous responsibility, namely "don't screw things up.”... Continue
One of the common refrains we hear around town is that "things are changing." Some say this with enthusiasm, while others sound mournful and discouraged. What some call "progress" others call "failure." What's missed by both sides of this argument is their agreement; things are... Continue
Local government was constituted to serve the interests of the citizens, interests expressed by democratically elected representatives. Those elected are legislative policy makers; the actual day-to-day work of government is performed by government employees. The money required to pay these employees is generated through taxes,... Continue
NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) is a pejorative term used to describe neighbors who don’t want change. In public land use policy just about any proposed project or changed use is going to generate public opinion against it. This is to be expected. All... Continue
The proliferation of social media - Facebook, Twitter and the like - has unleashed a torrent of opinion from tens of millions of people daily. Sorting through all the information that comes our way each day is impossible; no sooner have we read one article... Continue
Last year The Sun provided some perspective on the "Potconomy," the coming of the legalization of marijuana. In that article, we noted that one pot dispensary in the City of Sebastopol contributes $250,000/yr. in sales taxes to that city's coffers, and that the City of... Continue