Page 41 - Sonoma County Gazette May 2020

Hello everyone, we are now over a month into “shelter in place” orders and I hope you are all still doing OK.
When will normalcy return? People are stressed out and getting more divided by the day. People are out of work and broke. On Nextdoor we have two camps. One being keep the lockdown and it’s better to be safe than sorry or 6 feet apart rather than 6 feet under. The other camp questions the need
I find that my life isn’t much different in many ways and yet quite changed in many others. I am doing just fine with it, finding that when one is in a great place to begin with sheltering in it really ain’t that bad. Please take what I say with some very large grains of salt in recognition that I do not have any kids at home to potentially drive me crazy, nor have I lost my job to leave me with too much time and not enough places to go. I hope ya’ll are managing as best you can, one day at a time safe in the knowledge that this too shall pass.
for these draconian measures and why we have created an economic crisis in response to a healthcare crisis.
I haven’t been to Santa Rosa in over a month and that has not been missed.
I definitely have felt the loss of the start to the baseball season, and the transition into playoff basketball. I have been spending more time than normal in my garden, which I love. I went into Sebastopol Hardware yesterday and
I stand in the middle as usual. Every action taken has consequences including unintended ones. How can it be that other countries have been able to handle this better and yet the richest and most powerful country on earth is currently shut down and is in the worst place?
I swear they were almost sold out of seeds, pretty crazy. I look forward to sharing the gardens abundance with all my friends and neighbors later in the year when we start producing all the wonderful fruits and veggies our extra time and energy has brought into the world.
South Korea appears to be the best example of how to handle the crisis. They did not shut down their economy. They heavily test their population with a WHO test that the US decided we weren’t interested in using and we would instead develop our own. While our Apple and Google try to develop an app that helps identify contacts of people with coronavirus, South Korea already has and uses that technology.
Hopefully by then we will be able to share space to partake in the abundance together around the dinner table or maybe even a picnic or outdoor concert (Peacetown - CANCELED for the entire season!) or sporting event (Giants or A’s – El Mo Football game).
During a national healthcare crisis, privacy issues take second place to saving lives. The apps tell you what seat you sat at a movie theater and who
sat around you. It tells you the same information for where you ate, where
you shopped, etc. This is done through cell phone technology and credit card transactions. Although names of infected people are not disclosed publicly, the government is able to contact those effected, test them, quarantine and isolate them. The people of South Korea feel a patriotic duty to help each other.
Speaking of outdoor pursuits and food the Occidental Community Farmers Market is getting set to start up on May 15th and will continue every Friday from 4pm to dusk. When I first heard about the early start I got quite excited (and still am). Unfortunately it does come with the trade-off that the market will end a few weeks early on October 9th. I’m not sure of the reasoning behind this decision and will report further when I have more information.
It will take some doing for Americans to all get on the same page with Big Brother following your every move.
I have been to the Sebastopol market recently and imagine it will be set up somewhat similarly. Until rules are relaxed or lifted the market will consist of farmers, plant vendors and prepared foods. No arts & crafts, no tabling from community organizations and no catering type fresh foods. This will allow for more space between booths to accommodate for social distancing of both vendors and attendees.
I am hoping businesses will be able to open at least on a limited basis sooner rather than later. We know what steps work. We know how to social distance. We can have more people telecommuting, we can have split days at work so only half the workforce shows up daily. We can limit the number of customers inside stores and restaurants. We can accept that there will be no large events or gatherings until we have a viable vaccine or most of us have developed immunity if that is possible.
At the Sebastopol market it has been another of the kinda same, kinda different things of our current world. Normal and nice to be outside, buying fresh and local. Strange and weird to try to adhere to the board game style tape lines on the ground to keep us spaced out and playing the people watching games of who’s got the most interesting mask, and do I know them?
Technology has worked pretty well so far as far as lessening the need for in person meetings, although Zoom has provided some entertainment along the way. We can determine what businesses and places are more or less a threat. There are meat packing plants with workers standing side by side in assembly lines, then there is the isolated beach. There are dense urban centers, crowded subways, and then there are quiet B&B’s in the woods. Why can’t we begin to open up our local economy again?
When the Occidental Center For The Arts is able to open up again we will have to check out the positive developments towards the new lobby for the performance center. They have recently had doors installed and sheetrock & painting done - bringing this new era for the OCA ever closer to reality.
On the local front: have our roads been repaved & repaired?
Check out their website for information on the May 16th Arts in Our Hearts Virtual Variety Show with special LIVE from HOME performamces. Clever creative people! Check out the online figure drawing course being provided. www.occidentalcenterforthearts.org
Has our Welcome to Monte Rio Vacation Wonderland sign been fixed? What efforts have been made to improve our unemployment rate which had been the highest in Sonoma County? Where are our grants and low interest loans to replace our septic systems? The SBA, through banks, has funded more loans in 14 days then they have in the last 14 years, and even this wasn’t enough. If businesses are not able to reopen, instead of helping businesses ramp back up the program will only supplement EDD. Then what?
Please do what you can to help others, whether it’s practicing social distancing or reaching out by supporting your neighbors and our local businesses. Together, we will get through this.
There was exciting news for us Occidentalites (and beyond)
in the April 8th edition of the Press Democrat in case you didnlt catch it. LandPaths was able to secure a $2.4 million dollar state grant towards the purchase of 373 acres of land adjoining their recently acquired Ocean Song Preserve. They have until the end of the year to come up with an additional $1.5 million to complete the purchase. This will create the opportunity for
I’m thinking it will be more difficult than ever to get any funding for any basic government services we still need here. What if the housing market is the next to be affected as people don’t have jobs? What about loss of property taxes and sales taxes? I hate to be pessimistic, but I don’t think it’s looking good. We really need to work together and get things moving forward and done. The future of our hamlet depends on it.
a parkland connection long dreamed of, linking Willow Creek State Park to Ocean Song to Pomo Canyon and Shell Beach. Yay! www.landpaths.org (December Gazette: LandPaths Purchases Ocean Song in Western Sonoma County: https:// www.sonomacountygazette.com/sonoma-county-news/landpaths-purchases-ocean-song)
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