When was it
that I started losing my memory? This seems to be a common question for those
of us at the half-century mark. My hopeful explanation is that I’ve got such an
interesting, thought-full life that my brain-bucket occasionally spills over.
For my fiftieth
birthday I was given one of those pocket digital recorders. I use it to
remember things, especially ideas that pop up when I’m pedaling to work. Here’s
a recent sample:
Well I woke up this morning, sat down and read the news.It hit me without warning, knocked me out of my size one-two shoes.Feel like I been drinking in a dozen dives, I got a case of the twelve bar blues. (Ouch!) Actually, I’m not blue to hear that Dan Tocchini of North American Cinemas has teamed up with Matt White’s Basin Street Properties to propose a state-of-the-art theater complex for downtown chickentown. This is very likely the proposal that will bring movies back to Petaluma. So… it looks as if that recent City Council campaign hit piece was wrong – a “vote against a new movie theater at the Outlet Mall” would not have been a vote against having a new movie theater in Petaluma. I hope voters will remember this, and disregard these sensational mailers in future elections. Where does that leave the Chelsea Factory Outlet Mall expansion? Perhaps it’s time to probe Chelsea’s interest in selling a part of their property to the City for playing fields. What if we could relocate the baseball fields from Kenilworth to this “Corona Reach” area, allowing the School District to bring in a higher price for the Kenilworth property? It would be a perfect use for floodplain. Where would the money come from? The County Open Space District may be getting ready to spend $15+ million on the Tolay Lake project. I encourage you to drive out and have a look (take Lakeville south to Papa’s Taverna, turn left on Cannon, drive to the end of the County road at the top of the ridge. The Tolay Lake Cardoza Ranch property is the big bowl valley to the east.) Then take a look at Corona Reach (get an up-close look by parking in back of the Payran Albertson’s and walking the path along the tracks up beyond the railroad trestle.) Ask yourself (and your County Supervisor) if we can have both for parks. If we can’t, which one would we rather have?
New idea:
the Petaluma General Plan Existing Conditions Report should reference the
latest State of the World report by the Worldwatch Institute (http://www.worldwatch.org/pubs/sow/2002/)
. It catalogues global issues that will set the context for Petaluma’s
development over the next twenty years. We can’t afford to ignore global
climate change, water shortages, and loss of farmland.
Can we *please* stop using our desire for the well being of our troops as a rationale for supporting an unjust, unsafe, unneeded war? Congressional Republicans putting the pro-war pro-Bush language in the recent support-our-troops resolution is another example of manipulative leaders hiding their ambitions behind the innocent (a mild version of what Saddam is doing with his human shields.) People who oppose the war, like Lynn Woolsey, were forced to sign onto the objectionable Iraq war language in order to avoid sending a demoralizing message to our soldiers. I support the yellow ribbon campaign, but I’d like to take it a step further. When the Iraq invasion began, I spent the day mulching and deer-proofing the several dozen oak saplings my family and I have grown from acorns. Let’s first plant new trees, and tend the recently planted trees, before we adorn trees with ribbons. The ribbons will come and go, but the trees will stay on as a living symbol of our commitment to a peaceful, ecologically sustainable world.
So, you
see, not all the news gives me the blues. And what’s the connection between all
these random ramblings? To quote radio wise man Scoop Nisker: “If you don’t
like the news, go out and make some of your own.”