Quotable Sebastopol
The wit, wisdom and worries found in and around Sebastopol in 2022.
Our 2022 retrospective features quotes and the quoted from articles published in Sebastopol Times this year.
It’s a kind of pilgrimage. I just think there's something about this—that it’s just the right thing for me to do. …Part of it is in the head as well as the body because it's all about strategy: how to avoid walking up the street that you can walk down.
– Katherine McNeil - These Boots are Made for Walking
What I discovered is it's easier to come up with a new idea and put that idea into practice initially. What's much harder is to stay true to that idea and ethos and keep it going. Keep the main crux and kernel of what you were doing solid and have it continue to grow and grow and last over time. It's a different thing to manage than it is to create.
– Cloud Moss, music event producer behind the Celtic Festival and Kate Wolf Festival - How Cloud Brought Us Music Festivals
The years of the Celtic Festival, of which I attended every one, dancing all the time, were blessed times indeed, as were memories of Kate Wolf festivals when our children were young. Thank you Cloud, Kim Caruso, and all collaborators.
– Diana Badger in comments – How Cloud Brought Us Music Festivals
Start your remarks with your conclusion or request, then explain how you got there. Then summarize.
– Sarah Glade Gurney - Sarah Rules
I can’t think of a time when three seats on the council turned over all at once.
– Larry McLaughlin, City Manager - Final Election Results Usher in Historic Turnover
(The Bell Clock) has got a big 20-inch speaker and a 20-inch clock below it and a little house, and it looks like a cupola. And my idea was to broadcast sounds on a regular basis into the public sphere.
– Jim Wheaton - Secular Bells
(Rolin Smith) was a beautiful and wise soul and one of the only true free spirits I've ever encountered. He will be missed greatly.
– Rosalyn Fay - Apple Basket
In a word, I think the condition of the soccer fields at Ragle is ‘unsafe’.
– Bodhi Nadler, WESCO United President - Soccer Fields Among Improvements at Ragle
When I moved here 20 years ago, I picked this community because I felt comfortable here. Now, I’ve had to disengage.
– Kellie Noe, on leaving the school board after 15 years - Shadows linger as high school board looks forward to new chapter.
No one has my energy.
– Mary Munat - Faces of West County
I often disagree with my colleagues and I often disagree with staff but I never think that they're corrupt. There's a difference between having a difference of opinion about policy or even a difference of opinion about how people are executing on their job, but that's not the same as being corrupt...We need to be mindful of the service that all of our staff provides, even when we disagree with them. They all work really hard.
– Una Glass, City Council member - Sebastopol City Council takes stand against surveillance state.
A skeleton is just the bare bones of what each one of us has inside of us. And it makes the perfect communication vehicle for satire, or for making a statement about how maybe we all end up in the same place and therefore we should try to get along.
– Jim Nikas - Worshiping at the Altar de Posada
Work together.
– Sarah Glade Gurney - Sarah Rules
When you see that small a margin of victory and defeat, it tells me that things aren't clear, in terms of where folks are at and where the city's going. I think you had candidates searching for issues. I think the city's been in a pretty good place in general.
– Dennis Rosatti - What does an election this close tell us?
I’m not so good at politics. I don’t know who is better, and I don’t really study the issues so much. It doesn’t really matter to me who the leader is. I just have to work hard either way.
– Trang Nguyen, owner, Bella Capela Salon - Faces of West County
When we vote our ballot is kept secret. Why then do so many of my fellow citizens feel like they need to blab to everyone who they're voting for?
– Michael Carnacchi – Letters to the Editor
It’s the bitter end of election season – and, boy, I do mean bitter. There have been the usual accusations of stolen or vandalized lawn signs, wild rumors and harsh rhetoric aplenty, and judging from people I’ve talked with, the anxiety level of voters over who they should vote for for the Sebastopol City Council has never been higher.
– Laura Hagar Rush - Turn Down the Rancor
I'm never depressed. I'm always optimistic. It’s a personality characteristic that can be a little annoying because I see the humor absolutely everywhere – and there are times that that makes people think I’m taking things too lightly. That’s not the case, but I do see the humor in most things.
– Larry McLaughlin, City Manager - Sebastopol City Manager Announces Retirement
There's a pecking order on those committees, right? So you're a new council member on those committees. You're not getting the chair or the vice chair position. So there's a pecking order that I think as a new council member I found very frustrating, to be fair. But now I'm the oldest council member at six years.
– Neysa Hinton, now Mayor of Sebastopol - Straight Talk
My daughter, my 14 year old who's biracial, had some really tough interactions in middle school where she was called the N-word and kids were just throwing around lots of racial slurs, not really understanding what they even meant, and the school really didn't know how to deal with it. And I have to say, these are teachers who I really like and have tremendous respect for, and administrators, principal and superintendent who are really good people, so this is not a matter of people being bad; it's a matter of people not having training.
– Lewis Buchner, new WCUHSD trustee - On Running for School Board
When the war broke out in Ukraine, I had some experience as far as going overseas and working refugee camps and so on. I just felt like I had to do something. I couldn't sit around, watch the suffering that was going on. So I went to Poland in March. …I would wait at the refugee reception center and we would announce that I had a car. I had a rental car, this SUV and room for four passengers and then wait for a family to come looking for a ride. And once that occurred, I would take them in my car. It was about a three-hour drive from the border to Kraków.
- John Namkung, how he volunteered in Ukraine which led to him bringing a Ukrainian family to Sonoma County - John Namkung and Lone Pine Ukrainian Family Aid
VOTES FOR WOMEN
Suffragists Helen Hurlbut of California and Elizabeth Upham Yates of Maine spoke here, the former Janssen’s Hall, for the 1896 suffrage campaign.
– text of new historical marker downtown, the only one of its kind in California, researched by Mary Dodgion of West County Museum - When Suffragists Met
We’re more connected in the world today than ever before. We share so much with each other that will impact our survival. I share a vision of a more cooperative world with many others. The tools we have today will help us get there. I’m trying to help facilitate that. Yet, I think people overlook the power of their own agency.
– Daniel Swid, Faces of West County
It’s a hot mess.
– Source, on the standoff between the owners of Redwood Marketplace and CVS - Deadwood Marketplace
We have one large property in town (that I won’t specify) that is ideal for a transition (or partial transition) to housing. There is a large and mostly unused parking lot, several empty commercial spaces, and signalized traffic control at the site entry and exit points. It is a great location for dense housing; close to schools, shopping and transit. The issue with this is that it is privately owned by more than one entity and there is little-to-no incentive for the owners to consider investing many millions of dollars in the construction of housing.
– Patrick Slayter, outgoing Mayor of Sebastopol, answering Ken Foley’s questions, this one about using commercial space or buildings to address the need for housing.
I think that we could incentivize people to come downtown more if we put a little more love and care into our square and our streets and tidy them up and make them look a little more neat.
– Jill McLewis, future elected City Council member - Sebastopol City Council Candidates Forum
(The Depot Street parklet) almost has become like a little mini plaza. Many cities around the world have been doing similar things. They're reassessing how much land is devoted to cars.
– Paul Fritz, architect, on Sebastopol’s Covid-era Parklets
As a Sebastopolian, I love parklets.
– Maraline “Mimi” Olsen, Screamin’ Mimi’s - Parklets are popular but there are problems
Making good places for people is what our community needs more of, these kind of outdoor places where people see each other and be seen. Human beings are very social. We like to see where other human beings are.
– Paul Fritz, architect, on Sebastopol’s Covid-era Parklets
(The future of the Sebastopol Fire Department) is a big issue because we're gonna have to pay more no matter what we do. If we were to consolidate with Gold Ridge, we would have to bring our tax base up to match theirs, so that all the tax is the same. Or if we hire a new chief and we run our own department, we're going to probably have to-- the fire department's been underfunded for years because we don't have enough money to fund a full police department and a full fire department and run our city. We just don't have the tax revenue.
– Neysa Hinton, on Sebastopol Fire Department - Straight Talk
An artist, to me, is one who learns, practices, strives until the necessary techniques are so well integrated into how one does one’s art, it moves into another realm. It becomes possible to focus, explore and make unique solutions and creations.
– Nicole Ours, local artist and co-chair of the Sonoma County Art Trails, who passed away earlier this year – Good News, Sand News and and Hot Sand
The Board prioritized having safe, clean, dry classrooms (Roofing) along with modernizing existing HVAC systems and adding AC to all classrooms.
– Jennie Bruneman, Director of Facilities at WSCUHSD, on improvements at Analy High School - $45M in Upgrades Coming to Analy Campus
And we do (the Harvest Cafe), as many senior centers do around the country, to have a place that is fairly affordable, especially for people on fixed incomes, to socialize and meet new friends. Oftentimes when people aren't in the workplace anymore, they really don't know how to go out and make friends, if you will, or just have a place to go where they know they can do this and it's not gonna break their bank account.
– Joan Churchill, Executive Director, Sebastopol Area Senior Center - The New Old and The Old Old
I cannot tell you how heartened and how wonderful it is to hear your voices of support for more housing in Sebastopol. So often we hear hesitation … or something much worse and so to have the direct neighbors, who will be sharing their driveway and sharing the neighborhood, show that kind of support … I say ‘Thank you and thank you.’
- Patrick Slayter, then Mayor of Sebastopol, in appreciation of the neighbors of a proposed housing development organized by Habitat for Humanity - Recap of City Council Meeting
Some of the glaring priorities (at Analy) are the reestablishing of positive culture and rebuilding relationships through what was the consolidation and how that affected everybody in our community and then obviously addressing some of our racial discrimination issues and then taking a look at our budget and making sure that we balance it out.
- Chris Meredith, new Superintendent of WSCUHSD - Analy Returns with New Superintendent
It's one of the things that people have been very most appreciative of. I mean, besides getting off the street, getting in a place where they're not harassed by the cops, where they're not being told to move. They've just been able to relax and have a good shower. And porta-potties - I can't overemphasize what a difference that makes for people.
- Adrian Lauby, Sonoma Applied Village Services which runs Horizon Shine. Town Hall highlight efforts against homelessness
The key to the success of our efforts to address homelessness here in Sebastopol is, from my perspective, collaboration. The issues we face have affected all facets of our community - the unhoused of course, but also the community at large. To implement solutions we all had to work together, knowing that finding solutions would improve the quality of life for our entire community. That’s the most impressive “take away” for me - our ability and willingness, as a small town, to be open to solutions and to work together to achieve them.
- Diana Rich, City Council Member, Town Hall highlight efforts against homelessness
When we are courageous, it has something to do with the heart. And poetry most often arises from the heart. These days we need courage in almost every part of our lives. We have to be brave in facing the uncertain future of the climate. We have to be brave about the possibility of fire. We have to be brave to protect others who are more vulnerable. It takes courage to apologize, and it takes courage to try again when we fail. We see leaders who are courageous, and we witness courage around us every day in tiny moments we hardly notice. If we/you look for them, what will we see?
Elizabeth Herron, Sonoma County’s New Poet Laureate, Being Brave
(People’s Music store) has an intrinsic value that doesn't really translate to financial value. We've talked about selling the store, but the bottom line is the store doesn't make any money. But it's not about money. Really what the store does is more about the interaction with people.
- Alex Bryant, owner - People’s Music closing after 50 years
I'd have all of the teachers stand up and introduce themselves. The first guy stood up and said, ‘Hi, my name is Mike. I HATE electric cars. My boss told me if I didn't take this class, he'd fire me. And now I can't do my race cars anymore. I have to do these electric cars.’ By the end of the class, Mike was the most engaged student. He was helping all the other students. Mike was adamantly against electric cars, but then he realized that it was a lot of fun and it was really something that would be good for the students.
- Peter Oliver, on his Electric Car Kit for Schools
The entire fallacy that we can engineer and tech our way out is untenable. We ride our human powered vehicle to show that the tech is already here. We don't have to wait for anything other than behavioral change. That's why we advocate that people add their voices to your state level bike advocacy groups.
- Robert van de Walle of The Humpbacks of Notre Dame, a 4-person, 500-pound kinetic bike sculpture that won the Kinetic Grand Championships in Arcata - Team Pineapple Takes A Victory Lap
We are not here to preach doom and gloom; we are here to preach possibility."
- Kenna Lee of the Climate Action Committee, December 20th City Council Recap
This year I have worked on a number of wedding garments for clients who had initially planned a 2020 wedding. This is in addition to all of the newly scheduled weddings this year. It's been very busy!
- Shannon Marshall, owner, Sonoma County Sewing Company - SoCo SewCo
I’m excited about what’s in front of me right now, like sitting with you here, or walking dogs tomorrow morning. I try to be focused on the immediate stuff.
Thanks for the "quotes" issue. My take away is how this spectrum of comments as a collection is a great civics lesson ... diverse, informative, and very useful in bringing me up to speed on the fabric of Sebastopol's issues, accomplishments and challenges and the varied few who represent and encourage so many of the varied silent and unengaged.