Sonoma County Gazette April 2017

APRIL 2017
OxyContin:
EARTH DAY EVENTS & Opportunities ~ 55
Nurturing Nature & the Arts ~ 31
Stealing Young EASTER EGG HUNTS across the County ~ 59 Lives ~ 8
Pernicious
Neighbor
to Neighbor
Homelessness & Housing for All
By Angela Conte
In August of 2016, Sonoma County
declared a homeless emergency. 1 Since then there have been two well-attended summits on homelessness put on by the City of Santa Rosa and the County of Sonoma. Cries for immediate solutions include rent control, and zoning & code variances for auxiliary dwelling units that allow for tiny homes, granny units and mobile home parking to rapidly alleviate the lack of affordable living units in the county. There are also dozens of community groups and organizations, both public and private agencies, working on housing the most vulnerable people we see every day on our streets. Housing the homeless, and affordable workforce housing development for all are two interconnected, but very different, issues and until we understand their differences, we won’t be able to collaborate as a community to make the kind of changes needed to solve either problem.
The county’s declaration of a homeless emergency is a formal act to focus attention on the unsheltered human beings in our communities and is part of Sonoma County’s 2015
NEiGHBOR cont’d on page 10
Pesticides
Hiding in
Plain Sight
By Megan Kaun
What’s yellow and orange and dead
all over?
Bright orange streaks pop from the
verdant Sonoma County landscape this spring. These are poisoned plants, treated by glyphosate. If you are like me, you may have overlooked this phenomenon, but once you know, it is impossible to ignore.
Glyphosate, the active ingredient in products like RoundUp®, is the chemical of choice for weed control. Originally promoted for its safety compared to other pesticides, increasing evidence links glyphosate to cancer and other significant health issues. However, these dangers are largely unrecognized by its users and the general public. In fact, the County of Sonoma alone sprayed over 3,800 gallons of glyphosate-based pesticides in public spaces in 2015; from Spring Lake in Santa Rosa to Sunset Beach in Guerneville.
For a long time, I didn’t notice the dead orange weeds along the sidewalks, nor did I think about how they might be a ecting my family’s health and local wildlife. I avoided
PESTICIDES cont’d on page 12
The EVERYTHING to DO Calendar: pgs 52 - 71
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