#39, April 5, 2000
Intriguing: a small canyon, cleft by a streambed, canopied
by live oaks, at the edge of Country Club Estates. I've passed by it a hundred
times; today I explore. I start off up the creek bank until the poison oak
thicket blocks my way. Right turn, then shunt up a few hundred feet of grassy
slope to emerge on a ridge overlooking Mountain View Avenue. Wow! I walk up the
ridge, and to my surprise it keeps going, through a large grove of grandmother
oaks, up another quarter mile to the top of the hill. From there, I can see to
distant horizons in nearly every direction.
What a happy discovery! I've lived in Petaluma for nineteen
years, and figured I knew where we kept the precious few good hiking places
around town. Wrong!
The next day, at sunset, I shared this find with some
younger relatives. I couldn't help but think how cool it will be when, with
some visionary local leadership, this trail connects to the Westridge Open
Space, then Putnam Park, then to parks and trails yet unnamed, ringing the
City. Maybe not in my lifetime, but someday, when casual walks with friends or
family have replaced some of the hours spent staring at a screen.
Don't underestimate the power of "the vision
thing". With the right perspective and attitude, we can achieve what we
never thought possible. But widening the range of opportunities requires
climbing up from the undergrowth of personal biases and "conventional
wisdom." There's room for improvement here; some public-minded folks
continue to take a narrow (and inaccurate) view of issues facing the City.
How can we blame the Council "New Majority" for
Army Corps overruns on the Payran flood fix, when the contract holding the City
accountable for Corp mismanagement originated with the "Old" Majority
and City Manager? One writer faults the New Majority for considering the use of
redevelopment funds to cover these overruns when they wouldn't use them for the
Rainier interchange development. But the Council's Rainier opponents made it
pretty clear they rejected Rainier because of flooding impacts, it's ephemeral
traffic relief, and it's $35 million cost. However, they did
identify and are pursuing alternative cross town traffic relief, at
Washington and at Corona.
And if anyone cares, the Lafferty slogan was actually
"Lafferty Ranch and a Regional Park", not "Lafferty and
Moon." Had there been visionary local leadership in 1991, our Open Space
District would have acquired Moon Ranch (using some of the sales tax dollars
collected from Petaluma) before Mr. Pfendler bought it and hiked up the price.
Perhaps Moon's new owner will be captured by the spirit of generosity that gave
new life to the Phoenix Theater, and re-open negotiations with the OSD.
Meanwhile, we would welcome some visionary leadership from Supervisor Kerns
regarding the several alternatives that in fact have been identified and
discussed, notably the Morelli, Beebe, and Galvin properties.
Speaking of money, the official City estimate of Lafferty
Park expenses incurred to date is closer to $400,000, not $600,000 (it seems inflated
newsprint rhetoric keeps inflating the price.) One of the last acts of the
"Old Majority" was to reject putting the Keep Lafferty initiative,
signed by 6,000 Petalumans, on the November 1996 ballot. Under state law, voter
approval of the project would have greatly reduced the risk of a successful
CEQA lawsuit from park opponents, allowing the City to pursue a more expedited
(and far less expensive) environmental review. Dang!
A few days ago, I told "New Majority" Council
Member Matt Maguire about my local open space discovery. He said the Estates
developer had originally proposed a fire road slicing up the side of the
canyon, a monstrosity with a ten foot retaining wall. Matt and Council Member
Jane Hamilton, exercising visionary leadership, forced renegotiation of the
developer's fire hazard mitigation, dropping the destructive road and picking
up funds to buy a new fire truck for the City.
Visionary leadership and fiscal responsibility can go
hand in hand, once you climb out of the undergrowth.
---------------------------------------
Pullquote: Visionary leadership and fiscal responsibility can
go hand in hand