Page 28 - Sonoma County Gazette Juy 2019

Larson Park In The Springs Has It All!
Bordering Sonoma Creek, Larson Park has multiple facilities for evryone!. Located in the neighborhood at 329 DeChene Avenue just 3-4 blocks off Hwy 12 at Lichtenberg Avenue, Larson Park provides recreational fun for all.
The Fourth of July is coming and I confess I don’t feel much like celebrating. A report in Esquire Magazine details that the refugees at the border are being detained in what amounts to concentration camps.
Any day—any time, there are a variety of activities....
Concentration camps were used long before Hitler, and are not to be confused with death camps, as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez pointed out in a tweet. But they’re still bad. To top it off, on June 18 the White House announced that sweeps of undocumented immigrants are about to begin.
Once the weather warmed the swimming hole at Larson became a favorite for children and young people in the area. At some point a concrete abutment was laid across Sonoma Creek that serves as a dam to create a swimming hole for kids and parents alike.*
Perhaps they will have begun by the time you read this. Some of us, who had helped organize networks to support our friends and neighbors wondered if sweeps threatened in 2017 had been simply threats. Maybe these are too. But
if not, something horrible is about to take place, families disrupted, midnight arrests, and people who live and work here thrust into concentration camps.
Picnic tables, tennis courts and pickleball courts are next to the Little League baseball diamond. Any afternoon one can find young folks engaged in soccer games, tennis or handball practice. As the Warriors came closer to the NBA finals the activity on the basketball court increased.
We thought, This can’t happen here.
In the morning the sound of “click- clack” from pickleball paddles is common. The children’s play area is always open.
It’s happening, and it’s horrid. Not only immigration but unconstrained climate change. Plans to bomb Iran’s nuclear plant. An illegal settlement in Palestine to be named Trump Heights. Starvation in Yemen. Poisonous fracked gas now called “Freedom Gas” in a recent DOE press release. And 5G cell phone networks on our horizon. And there’s more...
Dog walkers utilize the trails around the sports complex and Community Garden maintained by Alejandra Cervantes and Nuestra Voz. A bridge over Pequeño Creek leads to the fields at Flowery School. During school hours the gate is locked. Otherwise this is a recreational area
Here in Sonoma, the weather is lovely. The hills are turning brown. We’ve already had one red flag day warning of fire that started in Clearlake. But our county government is doing its level best to create a more effective warning system while urging precautions and preparedness.
that includes a track where long distant runners work out. The school district leaves the gate to the bicycle path open
Our City Council, turned progressive this year, has been moving forward. The minimum wage has been raised almost as much
as the North Bay Jobs for Justice demanded. Kudos to all the activists who showed up on this issue, and to Martin Bennett, who retired this month as Executive Director after a long career fighting for the rights of working people.
so runners and walkers may cross the school fields after the close of classes. Larson Park is a County facility utilized by residents near and far. Make a visit and enjoy yourself.
The City Council has also raised the Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) one percent to bolster up its new housing trust fund. It should bring in $350,000 to $400,000 a year, reports the Index-Tribune—not enough to build many houses, but the idea is to “support new housing initiatives,” whatever that means. It’s a step in the right direction, showing the Council is serious about its efforts to bring more affordable housing to Sonoma.
*Anyone with information about the construction of the concrete dam at Larson Park, please forward it to Tom at tvmsonoma@att.net.
Sustainable Sonoma is also augmenting its efforts to support affordable housing initiatives. The SuSo Council (of which I am a member) meets monthly with the intent of bringing together disparate sectors to talk about problems
we face in the Valley. Last month, we sponsored a lively panel discussion highlighting the need and the obstacles to producing more housing. On
June 27th, SuSo brought Tiffany Manuel to talk about how to communicate effectively with the public about housing. The problem is so huge elsewhere, that people’s eyes glaze over and they turn to Netflix for relief.
The Springs MAC meets at Springs Community Center
The Springs Community Center, formerly “The Grange,” will be the meeting location for the recently constituted Springs Municipal Advisory Council (MAC). MAC was created by Supervisor Susan Gorin earlier this year to provide an additional voice for residents in their relations with the County. To date three meetings have been held, March, April, and May. Information or minutes from those meetings is available on the County website (www.sonoma- county.org) but not reported generally in the press. A review of the minutes shows a body of people taking their jobs very seriously.
Perhaps her tips will help us talk about climate change. Talk about big! We are facing something for which we are unprepared. Because we don’t talk about it! Maybe the best thing we can do now is gather our friends and beloveds, do what we can to improve our communities, and share the bounty with which
we have been blessed while the world is catapulted into a crisis from which we may not be spared.
The Springs MAC will have met in June. It’s next calendared meetings are July 23 and August 27 at 6:30 p.m. For further information check the County website and hopefully the local press will begin publicizing dates, times, and subject of meetings. The County contact person is Ms. Elizabeth Hamon, 1st District Field Representative for Supervisor Susan Gorin (707-565-2241).
The future of the retired Sonoma Developmental Center, for example. The launch of the promised community process on June 15 was well attended. The state is funding this three-year process to create a Site Specific Plan. Of course
it retains the final say on what transpires, and that means the project has to be “financially sustainable.” Among the Plan’s goals, stated by Deputy Director
of Planning Milan Nevajda, is to “increase property values” and “expedite marketing to developers.” I’m particularly concerned about the first. I sure didn’t think we needed to raise property rates around here, but that’s the carrot that will be dangled before developers of the project. All of these new programs to spur real estate development have the same goal, including CASA and Opportunity Zones.
“Mobilize Sonoma” warns of danger to our community
from rail tankers in Schellville... Mobilize Sonoma, an organization founded to eliminate the danger of a liquid natural gas (LPG) explosion, warns that damage to the Sonoma Valley Sanitation District facilities in Schellville could impact everyone on sewer hookup in the Valley.
If tankers filled with LPG parked on SMART (Sonoma Marin Area Rapid Transit) owned tracks at 8th Street East and Hwy 121 could damage the sewage facilities nearby. In that event sewage services to 17,548 homes (30,000 people) in Sonoma Valley south of Glen Ellen could be in jeopardy. To view the force of LPG rail explosions search on the web at “LPG Railroad Bleve.”
In the draft plan proposed by the Coalition, there is not one word about climate change. The possibility that SDC and with it, the entire Sonoma Valley (the Springs, you will remember, is an Opportunity Zone) is destined to become an enclave for the well-to-do still hovers over our fate.
Let your City and County representatives know of your concerns. Ask for the removal of the tank cars in Schellville!!
28 - www.sonomacountygazette.com - 7/19
Plus, there will be a lot fewer immigrants to worry about, if the Boss means what he says about ICE raids.