Page 4 - Sonoma County Gazette January 2016

LETTERS cont’d from page 3
At the hearing, 2 supervisors (Rabbitt and Carillo) stated they had a real “dilemma” and “trouble making up their minds” but, had to vote against the expansion, while 2 other Board members (Gorin and Gore) stated “ good planning and great looking building”, but found the proposed project “Incompatible” with the neighborhood. Only Supervisor Zane approved the project and was outraged at her colleague’s votes.
to work there. You would have also seen that they do valuable work, and contrary to exploiting children, have done a fantastic job of nourishing and protecting a very vulnerable population. If you think that exposing children to the arts “does more harm than good”, than iI am sorry that you have such a narrow view of education.
interview with NPR in September 2015 that “ aging is a necessary attribute to wisdom in life” and that “we all have to embrace aging”.
In addition, this project of expansion met all the county regulations and codes with height, size, safety, traffic, parking, noise, water...etc. This project was approved unanimously in June 2015 by the PRMD staff with a favorable 5 out 5 vote by the Sonoma County Commissioners!!
This particular neighborhood, where a large amount of residents seem elderly themselves, has oversized homes on large parcels some bigger and taller than the proposed project! Incompatibility? Here’s what’s incompatible: that seniors needing a care home must live in a warehousing facility with no human amenities in an institutional environment. That is incompatible with life.
My husband and I conduct arts workshops for disadvantaged children in Sonoma County and for the last six years in Asia as well. The purpose of my article was to encourage more people, especially in their retirement years, to look for ways that they can “give back” as a volunteer, and incorporate that into their travel plans.
The commissioners concluded that there were no valid objections presented and that the “not in my backyard” attitude was not a valid objection and that neighbors needed to realize they can no longer live in a bubble when the rest of the county is in crisis. After all of this and even stating, “we understand the needs...” the board voted 4 out of 5 AGAINST the project, listening to the incredible resistance of the neighborhood to accept compassionate senior housing in their community. Perhaps some neighborhoods are exempt from our county wide problems...perhaps some “privileged “areas in the county would not like to be bothered, and would prefer not to “see” our problems in their neighborhood...perhaps the Board feels there are the “haves and the have-nots”, and clearly some areas are the “haves”!!
Has our collective xenophobia now come to include aging? How can care homes for seniors be cast as “ incompatible “ with our neighborhoods? By regarding them as businesses in a residential neighborhood! Well, I suppose the care of all these seniors could instead be paid for through the County general fund? The same general fund that can’t even pay county- employed in-home caregivers a living wage?
Yes, let’s create some more unfunded mandates. Let’s ship all of our seniors over to the county-run facility so we don’t have a “ business “ in the neighborhood! Running a private senior care facility is no more a business than PG&E or Comcast supplying electricity or phone service to the community. It is no more a business than a paving company hired to replace the roads, or a landscape company, or a fence builder, or an appliance repair person, or a house painter. And yes, these services all require that money changes hands because there are costs involved, salaries to be paid, and an owner who also needs to make a living. For that matter, is renting an extra room in your house a business? What about renting the whole house out? How about a vacation rental?
Deborah Huth
I enjoyed your review of “Creed”. It`s well-written and I especially congratulate you on never once mentioning race .
G.J. Pell
Homelessness and Our
Community
We need facilities in neighborhoods, not only in institutions. As Marianne McBride, president and CEO of the non profit Council on Aging said: “the goal is total cultural changes around the aging and that this change needs to happen in EVERY neighborhood and on EVERY block”!!
Kudos on “Creed”
I am open to any questions you might have to have a better understanding of the situation, but I hope you will consider publicizing this very unfortunate event.
Any part of the population that disturbs the quality of life in a community is a problem. You can label it gang, drug activity, violent crime or homeless if effects the people that live in the community it is a problem. The drug activity and homeless are the problems in our community. They affect tourism, property values and public safety and Fire Department medical services.
Alain Serkissian, Administrator Mirabel Lodge,
Premiere Assisted Living Community
AgainstVoluntourism
Children are not tourist attractions. Since the advent of so- called voluntourism, the number of “orphanages” and similar businesses has quadrupled. This has become big business in Cambodia. In addition, a foreigner showing up for a week or so and supposedly “teaching” something to these children often does more harm than good. Children form connections and then the foreigner leaves, stupidly thinking that he/she has “helped”.
Our county is doing the best they can to deal with the problem on a human and environmental level but the majority of the citizens that live in this community have had enough and want to create a balance. I am not saying that all homeless are committing crimes but we need to help the ones that want to help them selves and deal with rest that drink, drug, hoard and again affect the quality of life in our beautiful community.
This is nothing more than a money- making racket that uses unfortunate children for profit and is indeed a kind of trafficking.
Mark Emmett
There is a new initiative called, “Sonoma County Transgenic ContaminationPreventionOrdinance.” Signatures are being gathered around the county by committed volunteers to place this initiative on the November 2016 ballot.
4 - www.sonomacountygazette.com - 1/16
LETTERS cont’d on page 5
A concerned citizen
GMO Free Sonoma County
Response to Letter to the editor:
While I applaud your concern over a serious and all too real situation in Cambodia, you do a grave disservice by lumping all volunteer work in the same category. If you had looked at the website of Anjali House (anjali-house. com) before jumping to judgement, you would have seen that they are neither an “orphanage” nor do they have a scheme of charging volunteers
This ordinance would: 1) Protect the health of Sonoma County from the increased herbicide use inherent in the cultivation of GMO crops. 2) Protect