Page 29 - Sonoma County Gazette 3-19

Sonoma Creek Overflows Its Creeksides Rain – 24.35” In Boyes Springs
By February 15! The mid-February
rains brought Sonoma Creek up several feet. The creek’s two channels became one as runoff from the hills in Warm Springs and Sugarloaf Mountain combined in Glen Ellen. The picture shows the forces of water at Larson Park in mid-month. At the same time in 2018 the year’s rainfall had been a mere 9.41”.
Variances at different places in the Valley and County. This year
rain levels have varied at different reporting stations in Sonoma Valley. Glen Ellen has greater rainfall than Boyes Springs and the City of Sonoma reports slightly more than Boyes as well. If one views the reporting from Bodega, the Russian River, and Sonoma you will find significant variances.
Will historians in the future be able to shed some light
Are these official rain collection reports? They are reports collected by residents in the areas where they live for CoCoRAHS—Coordinated Rain
Sustainable Sonoma is also working on housing. Its mission is to bring together people in the Valley from diverse sectors to address problems of common concern.
and Hail Studies—from Colorado State University. (cocorahs.org) Sonoma County has 156 reporting stations. California has 1,942 stations at the moment. A total of 70,950 separate stations exist across the USA, Canada, and the Bahamas.
Housing is not the only system straining to be fixed.
The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration and National Weather Service utilize the data collected from residents. For greater information and a wealth of weather data, maps, charts, and graphs visit www.cocorahs.org. Learn how to become a member. The only cost is $25 for a standard rain gauge used by all CoCoRahs reporters. CoCoRahs is a tremendous source for students, teachers, and interested weather persons. Having worked with CoCoRahs for over ten years I’ve found it a rewarding activity.
Martina works in California State prisons in a program for restorative justice, a process of bringing together victims with offenders who harmed them. The program is underwritten by the state’s Department of Corrections. She organized an event
at the First Congregational Church last month in which four victims of violent crime shared their stories. For me, the most moving story was told by a husband and wife. The husband was a police officer who was shot by a young man he had apprehended in a robbery. The man recovered, but his wife was totally traumatized by the event. Her feelings of safety were shattered. Finally, on the husband’s request, some 20 years after the incident, a meeting was held with the offender. Seeing the man, who had been in prison all this time, the trance of terror was broken. “She had been living with a monster in her head,” says Martina.
Important Message For Boyes Springs In LAT Article!
The Los Angeles Times (2/10/19) article, “Poor, elderly and too frail to escape:
Paradise fire killed the most vulnerable residents.”
The Paradise population was composed of many retired persons. Many
Most people who commit violent crimes were abused in childhood. Most are between the ages of 16 and 26 when the crime is committed. “What happens to them after that? They grow up.
of these lived in mobile homes that are fire prone. That is especially so if the mobile home is an older structure. The LAT reports that “an estimated 25 percent of Paradise area residents were 65 or older... That compares with 14 percent statewide.” The Times went on to report that “Of the 53 seniors ... identified as having died in the Camp fire, at least 22 lived in mobile or manufactured homes.”
“People are not just bad,” said Martina. “It’s not black and white. People can change.”
The Sonoma Springs Community is vulnerable to fires! The
In agreeing to meet the victim of their crime, offenders have to cope with the reality of what they have done. Martina tells about a young man who broke into a house to rob them. He had been in and out of prison and was addicted to drugs. The husband was home, and the thief, Peter, was arrested.
1923 Sonoma fires burned into the Springs. So did the 1964 fire. Last year the Springs were saved from burning by fast acting bull dozer drivers who cleared the brush on the back side of the ridges we view facing east. At the height of the fire this writer watched as a bulldozer cleared the back sides of the ridges above Calle Del Monte and Los Robles Drive. Without this assistance the fire could have swooped down canyon towards at least three mobile home parks.
During the victim-offender dialogue, Peter said, “When I met you—“
Here in the Springs we have six mobile home parks. The County F.D. and residents need to take special care to talk about entrances and exits available in a crisis. Neighbors should discuss exit strategies, especially with the aged or infirm. With the predictions that California wildfires will increase in number Sonomans living in fire prone areas need to be prepared for fire, earthquake, and evacuation.
In the end, Will and his wife helped Peter get his life together. He wrote a book about his experience, The Damage Done.
Potpourri: Spring is around the corner... When people living
in the Springs walk either solo or with their dogs, it is noteworthy how
many creatures are seen that abound in our community and nearby. A few observations: deer, wild turkeys, skunks (it’s mating season), possums, owls,
a myriad of birds from finches to robins and hawks, doves, pigeons, and buzzards, squirrels, rodents, wild geese, swans, a fox, raccoons, and.... Once it warms look for lizards and snakes... Have a pleasant stroll.
“It’s all the same, isn’t it?” she said with a smile.
on the chaos and confusion of our times?
Crises pelting toward us in such rapid succession we can barely get a grip on one before another comes along. Everywhere we turn, there’s a disaster, a war, a school shoot-out, a murder of a black youth by police, a revelation of sexual abuse.
Even in the slow, easy-going town of Sonoma, life has speeded up, rushing by faster than the traffic, which continues to increase with every passing weekend, slowed only by the arrival of an “atmospheric river.” And isn’t that a novel term for “big storm”? Media ingenuity certainly contributes to the spin we are in.
Here in the Valley we live in a bucolic environment we desperately want to protect with land trusts and urban growth boundaries while rising population rushes toward us in waves, needing housing that working people can afford, and equity. Some say the poor should live somewhere else, which is roughly equivalent to Marie Antoinette’s famous words, “Let them eat cake.”
But there are signs of progress. Our City Council voted February 20 to fund a housing study by Jim Reid of Urban Green, the consultant for Healdsburg’s Housing Action Plan. The Sonoma Valley Housing Group has been calling for housing for four years.
Perhaps the answers will have to come from us.
“The system is broken,” says Martina Schneider, referring to the criminal justice system. “We think that if we make people feel bad, they will do better.”
“A trial is not about justice. It’s about winning.”
The husband, Will, jumped up. “We didn’t just meet,” he said angrily. “You took away the thing that is most important to me, my ability to protect my family from people like you!”
Peter’s jaw dropped. He got it. He finally understood what he had done.
“We think that if we make people feel bad, they will do better, but what they really need is for someone to believe in them.”
Martina was at the protest on President’s Day in the Plaza put together by Lana Brewer and Indivisible to oppose the president’s declaration of a state of emergency to build a wall at the Mexican border.
Protests were held all over the country, followed by calls to representatives to support legislation to reverse the declaration.
Meanwhile, Lora Zaguilan of Petaluma called into being a Sonoma Hub for the Sunrise Movement, the youth movement that brought the Green New Deal forward.
The GND is the first serious national call to address climate change. Let’s support it! 3/19 - www.sonomacountygazette.com - 29