#15, June 15, 1999
After five months of
writing this column, I've decided to look back at my topics, to see what has
become of them, and to express my hopes and wishes for where they might go.
The new City Council
has been well behaved, as many predicted. I'm wishing the "nastiness
factor" will stay in permanent retreat.
The Phoenix Theater,
as we know it, is saved… at least for now. The sale to an office developer
crashed, and local hero Tom Gaffey is working on the foundations for a
sustainable youth-centric facility. I'm wishing the current owner donates the
property to Tom's cause. I'd also like to see some of the young Phoenix patrons
do a little bridge building with the nearby merchants, by devoting time to
downtown graffiti and litter removal.
Lafferty Ranch is
still off limits while the City armor-plates its Environmental Impact Report
(due to be re-released this month.) The neighbors rejected my offer of fence
mending. I'm hoping that someone who has their trust can open a dialogue
between them and the future park users, so they will see we are not their
enemies.
The biggest recent
transportation news, the April 30 Gas Out (a one-day gas purchase boycott), was
an understandable but misdirected response to the greedy global
"oiligarchy." I wish that next time, organizers would dig to the root
cause, and launch a 12 step plan to kick the car habit-- step onto a bike, a
bus, a carpool, a sidewalk…
Y2K is getting
closer, but our nation has been preoccupied with the President's sex and war
adventures. Nonetheless, local organizers are making progress with City and
community preparedness. I'm wishing that their Sustainable Petaluma movement
gets serious attention and support from the community mainstream.
The Petaluma Art
Center Project is moving ahead with plans for a cooperative local studio
gallery space under a new, non-profit organization. I wish them the perfect
location, and support for the arts that outlives the current economic boom. And long live Cinnabar Theater and the
spirit of Marvin Klebe!
Regarding special
interest politics: I've got a secret plan to help smoke out the local
clandestine campaign contributions, which I'll reveal in a later column (hint:
it involves the Web.)
More disturbing news
from the war front: while bomb threats shut down my son's school, I get an
email from Dr. Mary-Wynne Ashford, the
American co-president of the International Physicians for the Prevention of
Nuclear War (IPPNW.) She had recently met with Aleksander Arbatov, Deputy Chairman
of the Defense Committee of the Russian State Duma (Congress), who told her
US-Russian relations are at the "worst, most acute, most dangerous
juncture since the U.S.-Soviet Berlin and Cuban missile crises." IPPNW
co-founder Evgueni Chazov, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985, said our
assault on Yugoslavia has set nuclear disarmament efforts back 20 years. I'm
praying more people will take to the keyboards, phones, and streets to stop
this war machine.
I apologize if my
column on land ownership painted with too broad a brush. Between ecologically
wise land stewardship, and shortsighted, greed-driven land exploitation, there
is a wide spectrum of attitudes and actions. I hope my writing moves people
toward the bright side of that spectrum.
Supervisor Mike Kerns
holds our key to opening up the open space. He supported spending $2.6 million
of Open Space District funds to buy the 960 acre Waterfall Park land near
Occidental (hooray!) Now, I wish he'd pledge support for the City's modest
Lafferty Park, right here in his own neighborhood. For a small fraction of that
$2.6 million, the County could fix the road (and open the gate) to Lafferty's
spectacular 270 acres. Also, I'm wishing he'll fulfill his promise of support
for open space recreation by immediately appointing a new Petaluma
representative to the OSD's Citizens Advisory Board, one who will fight for,
rather than against, opening places like our mountaintop property.
I hope readers will
join me in working to make these wishes come true.