RoundUp: Wanna get away?
Southwest comes to our local airport, the Neckers wanna go to Canada, Woodmark protests, increasing the value of volunteer hours, the future of Copperfield's Books, and Maker Faire Bay Area coming up
Fly Southwest from Santa Rosa next year
Southwest Airlines will begin service in April at Charles M. Schulz - Sonoma County Airport. The airline will provide non-stop routes to San Diego, Burbank, Las Vegas and Denver, expanding the airport’s ability to offer connections for eastbound flights. Avelo Airlines ceased operations at the Sonoma County Airport in August. (announcement)
“Punctual, tidy” local couple seek adoption in Canada
If you were a reader of the Toronto Star, you might have seen the following letter to the editor:
Since immigrating to Canada from the United States has become more problematic lately, my wife and I are offering ourselves up for adoption to a willing Canadian couple. We are in our early 80s, so we are punctual, have good communication skills, in good physical condition for our age and have no bladder or other issues in that general area. We will keep our room tidy and will help with the dishes and clean the cat box. Just think of us as long term, mature and apologetic exchange students. Hoping to hear from our future mom and dad soon.
John and Lonna Necker, Sebastopol, California
Dear John and Lonna, you can’t leave Sebastopol and deprive us of your good humor.
Another protest at Woodmark at 10 am this morning
There will be another demonstration at Woodmark this morning at 10 am, protesting the eviction of almost all of the low-income individuals and families living there in order to move in farmworkers. The development was built for farmworkers, but when the developers failed to find any farmworkers—oh, come on, in Sonoma County?—they filled all the units with other low-income folks, who are now being evicted as a part of a government order. The residents’ protest this morning is in support of farmworkers, but they wonder why they’re paying for the developers’ mistake. Read about it here. These photos are from last Sunday’s protest.
How the Time Bank can help nonprofits attract more volunteers
David Gill is the administrative coordinator for the Sebastopol Area Time Bank (SATB), which Laura wrote about in January 2024. He has has been thinking about how the Sebastopol Area Time Bank can help nonprofits by attracting volunteers and rewarding people for volunteering. As he sees it, there are three ways that the Time Bank program benefits the community.
“Nonprofits have access to the Time Bank membership to post requests for things that the nonprofit needs, whether it be volunteers for an event or someone to help organize a set of shelves or whatever it might be,” said Gill.
“The volunteer who becomes a member of the time bank then can take the hours that that they receive for volunteering and use them to get the things that they need in their lives,” explained Gill. While many people volunteer out of the goodness of their heart, he said, it might help to have an additional incentive to get people to volunteer.
“The time bank is the third winner because the nonprofit and the volunteers both promote time banking in their communities and with their friends. As the time bank grows, we get more people with more skills and talents. We have no limit as to how much we can grow.”
Gill said that the SATB website, which launched a few years ago, has improved the onboarding process. “Someone can apply for a membership in the morning and be time banking at the end of the day,” he said. When the volunteer joins, they start with 10 hours in their account.
Gill gave an example using the Center for the Arts. When SebArts joins, they get 50 hours in their account and we keep replenishing their account. A person who volunteers for two hours at Sebastopol Center for the Arts would be able to claim two hours in time and talents from others in the time bank.”
He said SATB is able to manufacture hours. “We're like the United States government printing money,” he said. “Members get hours for doing service and they can trade them with others.”
Gill has been thinking about this problem for years, even before he came to work with SATB but “it's something that's even more important now, with nonprofits losing their funding.” He feels that the process is quite simple for nonprofits and for volunteers. He has tested it with the Sebastopol Center for the Arts and the Sebastopol Area Senior Center. “Everybody's got a role to play, and they've got their tasks, and the time bank has its tasks, and the volunteer just has to claim the hours and then hopefully spend them and reinvest them in the time bank. When they spend them, someone else gets them, and they get to spend them on things that they need. And that's what keeps us rolling.”
Sale of building concerns owner of Copperfield’s Books
The building that houses the Copperfield’s Books has been put up for sale. The co-owner of the local, independent bookstore, Paul Jaffe, believes that the prospective sale creates “uncertainty about the bookstore's ability to continue operating in its current location.” A press release offered some details.
"We've been here for 44 and a half years, and now we're not sure how Copperfield’s is going to continue operating in Sebastopol anymore,” said Jaffe.
"We don't know what a new landlord will want," Jaffe explained. "A new landlord could decide they already have a tenant and give Copperfield’s 30 days’ notice, or they could say they need to raise the rent even further to make their investment work."
Jaffe is actively exploring various solutions to ensure Copperfield’s can continue serving Sebastopol and the outlying community, including the possibility of a nonprofit entity purchasing the building to preserve the bookstore's presence downtown.
"We are committed to finding a solution, even something we might not have thought of,” Jaffe said. "We need someone who understands what this bookstore means to our community and wants to see that legacy continue for generations to come.”
In 2019, Jaffe started a GoFundme page to raise money to buy the building, as Laura reported in “Copperfield’s seeks community’s help to purchase building,” a Sonoma West Times and News story that is archived on the website for the Healdsburg Tribune.
Friday Night Football
The Healdsburg Tribune reported that the Healdsburg High forfeited its game against Santa Rosa on Friday night. The previous week, Healdsburg had to forfeit its game against Lower Lake because “there were too many injuries in the third quarter to safely continue play.” The roster had already been depleted following a series of suspensions. “I never had to do anything like that, it was a tough situation—but it was the only call,” said Coach Taylor Tappin, who is the third coach in three years at Healdsburg.
Locally, the Analy Tigers are 2-1 on the season after beating the Petaluma Trojans in a high-scoring, close game at Petaluma Friday night. Gus Morris of the Press Democrat wrote on X that quarterback Matthew Medina capped “a 12-play, 70-yard drive with a short keeper to put the Tigers on top 52-49 with 25 seconds left! What a game!” Analy’s next game is at home this Friday against Piner.
Luminarium comes to Maker Faire Bay Area on September 26-28
Luminarium is a “dazzling maze of winding paths and soaring domes where natural forms, Islamic architecture, Archimedean solids, and Gothic cathedrals meld into an inspiring mix of design and engineering.” It is the work of Architects of Air by Alan Parkinson from Nottingham, England. This will be the first time that the Luminarium will appear in the Bay Area. You’ll see the large, pneumatic sculpture near the entrance to Maker Faire Bay Area, which takes place at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo on September 26-28.
Visiting the Luminarium requires an add-on ticket for Maker Faire Bay Area. Space is limited. Tickets: bayarea.makerfaire.com.
This week’s AI Q&A: Consent fatigue
I wanted to learn about cookie banners that now appear on websites in your browser and if users find them as annoying and intrusive as I do. Cookies, if you don’t know, are like crumbs that you leave on a website that allow the website to track you and identify you when you return. I asked AI for answers.
Are people upset at the cookie banners that pop-up now on each web site in the browser?
Yes, many internet users find cookie banners annoying because they interrupt the browsing experience, are often confusing, and may not always provide a truly clear way to opt out of tracking. While the banners are required by privacy regulations like the EU’s GDPR, their implementation can be frustrating, with slow animations, confusing menus, or a lack of transparency about why cookies are being used.
While the banners were designed with good intentions—to give users control over their privacy—the implementation has led to widespread annoyance and "consent fatigue". Ultimately, while the intention was to empower users, the flawed implementation of cookie banners has created a poor and frustrating user experience for many.
Are there ways to avoid having to interact with annoying cookie banners?
The constant frustration has prompted browsers like Firefox to introduce built-in features to block cookie banners automatically. Users can also install browser extensions like "I still don't care about cookies" to eliminate the pop-ups.
Sebastopol Police Logs, September 1-7
The following are crimes excerpted from Sebastopol Police Department daily crime log entries and listed at the time the alleged violation was reported.
WEDNESDAY
10:21 a.m. Violation of probation (misdemeanor) at Gravenstein Highway North. Suspect arrested.
10:56 a.m. Possession of unlawful paraphernalia (misdemeanor) at Lynch Road. Resolution not reported.
12:23 p.m. Served misdemeanor and felony arrest warrants for an outside agency at Sebastopol Avenue. Suspect arrested.
THURSDAY
12:47 p.m. Driving with a suspended license and driving without a license at South Main Street. Suspect arrested.
FRIDAY
12:00 p.m. Inflicting corporal injury on a spouse or companion (felony) at Sebastopol Avenue. Suspect arrested.
6:05 p.m. Shoplifting, possession of alcohol by a minor and conspiring to commit a crime (misdemeanors) at Sebastopol Avenue. Suspect arrested.
6:05 p.m. Contributing to the delinquency of a minor (misdemeanor), possession of alcohol by a minor (misdemeanor) and violation of pre-trial release (felony) at Sebastopol Avenue. Suspect arrested.
6:05 p.m. Contributing to the delinquency of a minor (misdemeanor) at Sebastopol Avenue. Suspect arrested.
SUNDAY
9:08 p.m. Using offensive words in a public place and resisting a peace officer (misdemeanors) at Daniel Street. Pending further investigation.
OTHER POLICE ACTION
The Sebastopol Police Department also recorded 136 events requiring police action during the period, such as lost animals, assisting citizens, parking violations, foot patrol, traffic hazards and reckless driving.
I find it somewhat amusing that the folks who own the Copperfield building are asking for help from the community for funds. If I am not mistaken, they also have historically owned other buildings on the same side of Main Street. I have had friends who suffered from significant rent increases from them that ultimately made it virtually impossible to succeed financially. If my memory is correct, it is impossible to feel sorry for them now.
Why is a conversation with a chatbot being presented as news? I can get AI slop from anywhere on the Internet; I come here for local journalism. If you don't have enough stories to fill your word count, you know you can just post a shorter roundup, right? And if you want to post a story about browser cookies, you're a journalist—you should be able to research and write it yourself.
Did you even verify that the information was correct before you included it in this article? Because if you did, posting the text of your chatbot conversation still gives the impression that you did not. You're aware that LLMs are notorious for outputting fake answers that sound plausible to a layperson, right? I hope you're not using AI to generate any other text for the Sebastopol Times.