Sunday RoundUp: Clearing the air
How smoky was it really? Plus Porchfest finds a new home, SW100 grant deadline coming up and more
This week’s unexpectedly smoky skies and unhealthy air were quite a scare. They were also a reminder of unpredictable fires in the not-so-distant past as well as the active fires in the Pacific Northwest and the more distant lands of France and Spain.
As Laura reported in two stories on July 30th, the Woodside fire at the coast generated a lot of smoke that the wind pushed into Sebastopol, the Sonoma Valley and Marin. KRON’s Chief Meteorologist, Jeff Ranieri, showed off-the-charts bad air quality readings of 1,485 in the 7 pm broadcast.
There’s no question that the air quality was at a hazardous level, but I was curious about the number — the 1485 reading. I wrote to Tim Dye of TD Environmental Services in Petaluma who is an expert in air quality monitoring, and who was involved in the launch of airnow.gov. He has also done work comparing consumer-grade air quality monitors, such as PurpleAir, and the accuracy of their sensor data against the professional-grade monitoring systems that are used by government.
What did he think of the 1,485 reading for the air in Sebastopol? “It looks like those numbers are way too high. I suspect they're coming from actual PurpleAir (devices), which without corrections can over report by sometimes 50+ percent,” he replied. “Based on the AirNow data, the peak appears to have been an AQI 430 — Hazardous — on July 30 at 6:00 pm,” he added. Again, this is a really high number on AirNow, whose AQI chart goes to 400. So the reading was still off the charts.
Dye recommends following the EPA's fire and smoke map (fire.airnow.gov). “This resource incorporates the PurpleAir data but calibrates or corrects it to make it comparable to the official government stations and then plots both the air sensors and the reference monitors together,” he said.
Fortunately, by Saturday, the air above us cleared and AQI readings had dropped to 50 or below, which is considered good. The forecast is that AQI will remain at the good level into next week. It makes one appreciate breathing fresh air and seeing blue skies again.
Return of the Porch
By Kavya Krishnamurthy
Porchfest Sebastopol finds a new neighborhood host
The creator of Porchfest Sebastopol, Greg “Ceni” Ceniceroz, has announced that this year’s Porchfest venue will once again be, in the spirit of the event, on neighborhood porches. Sebastopol’s third annual Porchfest will take place on Sept. 12 on the porches and driveways of homes in Belmont Terrace, that little north-end neighborhood behind the Sebastopol Community Church.
Last year’s Porchfest, dubbed “Hardly Porchfest,” took place in Ives Park after some High Street neighbors, who didn’t appreciate the crowds, loud music, or, to be fair, the concertgoers peeing in the bushes, nixed the event.
For this year’s event, the Porchfest Sebastopol board surveyed various neighborhoods with an interest in hosting the event. Belmont Terrace, which is home to two Porchfest board members, “jumped out with a lot of enthusiasm,” Ceniceroz said. “And there was just so much enthusiasm, we ran with that for this year because I think that Porchfest belongs on the porches.”
With support from the Belmont Terrace Water District, the Community Church, and eight homeowners that want music on their porches, Porchfest 2026 will have nine stages, one of which—a DJ set— will be in the Community Church parking lot.
The Porchfest board has hosted at least five meetings to address neighborhood concerns and questions. “We had lots of questions about ‘How can I participate? What can I do? Can I have a big sale?’ Some of the questions were about event insurance. One question was about county permits.”
They’ve applied for a permit to close some of the streets for the day so that there is less through-traffic from non-locals. Residents and locals will still be able to use the streets. “We’ll have lots of volunteers at the closures, and we’ll have volunteers walking around the whole day.”
Porchfest is a nonprofit, and the event will be run almost entirely by volunteers. The only paid workers are the sound engineers.
Porchfest Sebastopol 2026 will feature almost entirely bands based in Sebastopol or Santa Rosa. So far, their lineup includes 50 artists, listed below.
The event will take place on Saturday, Sept. 12, from 12 pm to 6 pm. It is free for the public. Cenizeroz promises “a rip-roaring fun day of community building and free local music.”
Grant applications for SW100 are due Aug. 10 — and there’s still time to join to vote for your favorite applicants
Sebastopol West 100 (SW100), a giving circle focused on Sebastopol and West County, opened its annual grant application window on July 20. Applications are due August 10. This is the program’s second year. Last year the group handed out giant cardboard checks, totaling $295,000, to eight nonprofits in West County. The winners included Food For Thought ($100,000), the Sebastopol Area Senior Center ($50,000), Sebastopol Community Cultural Center ($50,000) and five others who were awarded $15,000 to $25,000.
SW100 is at it again this year, and their goal, according to co-founder Craig Litwin, is to give away even more money this year. Over the last two years, the group has raised more than $750,000. They’re hoping to hit a million before the year is out. They’ve also added Hessel to the list of towns/areas they serve.
SW100’s giving circle is a fun concept: Annual membership is $1,300, which can be contributed in one payment or spread out monthly. Some members give much more, but all members have the same direct say in where funds are awarded. Last year the group got 77 grant applications. Its grant committee winnowed that down to 16. The membership then voted on which of those organizations would be the final winners.
If you join SW100 before Sept. 20, you can help choose this year’s winners, which will be announced at a big party on Oct. 20.
Litwin said SW100 is having a couple of upcoming get-togethers for members and those interested in becoming members. They’ll be at the upcoming Senior Center Open House on Wednesday, Aug. 19, 4 pm to 6 pm. They’re also co-sponsoring a film at the Rialto on Sept. 3, called “Join or Die,” a documentary based on social scientist Robert Putnam’s book, “Bowling Alone,” on how declining community engagement contributed to America’s civic unravelling. They’re also planning to have a big party for members on Sept. 17 at the Sebastopol Community Cultural Center.
Learn more at SW100.org.
Um, that’s not what we meant…
On Tuesday morning, we posted a story called “Are you ready for the Gravenstein Apple Fair?” Alas, on some readers’ phones, the title got cut off so that it read like so:
No news is bad news
I (Dale) was up in the mountains in the northernmost part of California last weekend. I picked up a local regional weekly paper for $2 at the market. While I was happy to see a newspaper, I was so disappointed in how little news it contained. There was very little actual reporting and a whole lot of advertising, mostly grocery store circulars. It seemed more like a remnant of what a newspaper should be.
In its place, I found The Plumas Sun, which publishes daily but only online. The Plumas Sun was formed as a non-profit by a community group after the newspapers that covered Lassen and Plumas counties went dark in 2023. They started publishing online the same month that the century-old print newspaper closed.
From their About page:
The prospect of no local news was unimaginable to many of us who believe accurate information is a cornerstone of democracy. We quickly gathered a core group of local citizens and began discussing an alternative to the information void we were facing. By the last week of July we had a name, a website, a fiscal sponsor and an editorial team. The Plumas Sun is a collaboration of local residents and organizations working together to inform, educate and engage with the public across all communities of Plumas County, California.
Not having local news is “unimaginable.” The good news is that these newspaper revival efforts are happening in communities across America, and it’s happening right here in Sebastopol with Sebastopol Times, which started in April 2022 after our local paper ceased operation.
Through the direct financial support of those who value local news and the small, dedicated team that produces it, we are able to sustain an organization that informs, educates and engages citizens of Sebastopol and West County. The good news is you get to know what’s going on in your own community.
If you are not a paid subscriber to Sebastopol Times, isn’t this good news reason enough for you to join others in supporting this essential, independent service that we still call a newspaper?
Richard Paul Caruso, Ph.D.
Richard was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1943. His mother, Agatina Caltabiano, and father, Paul Emanuel Caruso, had immigrated from Sicily, Italy, and fell in love at a masquerade ball in New York. At age eight, he moved across the country to live with his sister Gloria in Beverly Hills, California, where he discovered a love…
The week of July 27 to Aug. 1
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