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‘PURPLE PIPE’ PROJECT TO DELIVER RECYCLED WATER TO LANDSCAPES
June 27, 2024
Healdsburg, California Healdsburg, California
Date, Date, 20202020
TREATED WASTEWATER TO BE DISTRIBUTED TO PARKS, CEMETERY FOR IRRIGATION By Christian Kallen
What Color Is Your Pipe?
Purple pipes are used so they are clearly distinguishable from regular water delivery systems, to avoid accidental mixing of drinkable water and treated wastewater. Recycled water is used in many places and for many uses around Sonoma County, according to the Sonoma Water Agency, at sonomawater.
Photo courtesy of Edge Esmeralda
Some of Healdsburg’s key streets are the scene of extensive road work these days as some two miles of purple pipe are installed to deliver treated, but not drinkable, water to irrigate city parks and other landscape areas. Work on the project began in June and is anticipated to continue the rest of the year. Though it’s been in the planning stage for some time, the City Council gave its approval to the $4.8 million project in March, awarding the contract to low-bidder Argonaut Constructors of Santa Rosa. The first stage of the project took place in midJune on Kinney Road, west of Highway 101 near Opperman & Son Inc. At about the same time the pipe was installed on Kennedy Lane just east of the freeway, from there turning up Healdsburg Avenue to University Avenue, and at the Memorial Bridge. This phase of construction is ongoing, and vehicle traffic is affected by work crews at present.
TECH THEATER An Edge Esmeralda event at the Raven on June 10 kicked off a ‘LabWeek’ full of programming that focused on the topics of ‘neurotech, biotech, mixed reality, AI and longevity.’
‘Techno Optimists’ Swarm Healdsburg WHAT LOCALS THOUGHT OF EDGE ESMERALDA, MYSTERIOUS ‘POPUP VILLAGE’ By Simone Wilson
Earlier this year, when Healdsburg resident and civic activist Richard Burg, 79, heard that a conference for techies and futurists called Edge Esmeralda was coming to town for the entire month of June, he was immediately skeptical. “I thought, ‘Oh, we’re being colonized,’” Burg said. Some called it a cult. Others, a scam. Many felt insulted by the idea of a group of outsiders coming here to tell us how to live. Now, the core crew of 200 or so Edge Esmeralda participants who walked, biked and boarded around town this month—plus hundreds of others who dropped in for shorter stints—are preparing to vacate their Healdsburg hotel rooms, or wherever else they found to crash. And plenty of locals are
left wondering what just happened, if anything at all. “I haven’t noticed any impact during my normal everyday activities,” said Healdsburg Mayor David Hagele. Jeff Kay, city manager, added: “Most days, I don’t even notice that they’re here.” The leaders of the two main organizations behind the event, Janine Leger of Edge City and Devon Zuegel of Esmeralda Land Company—both young women in their 30s—had hoped to create the feeling of a multi-generational college campus within Healdsburg’s existing grid. “This isn’t such crazy utopian thinking,” said Zuegel, who grew up in the Bay Area. “Basically, we’re just creating a little college campus. You can choose to attend the lectures. And if you choose not to, it just feels like your normal life. Only slightly more fun.” Zuegel and L eger ’s vision sold more seats than they expected—including 150 month-long tickets, costing upward of $2,000 each (with dinner most
nights), plus hundreds of other daily and weekly passes. More than 200 locals ended up buying in as well, for $200 each. The “decentralized” programming calendar, w he re any one w ith a ticket could add an event to the lineup, quickly filled out with 20-plus events per day. Most were held at a few central locations—like the CraftWork co-working space, the former Yoga on Center studio and local hotels where participants stayed. CraftWork owner Jim Heid, incoming chair of the Healdsburg Chamber of Commerce, said many businesses in town benefitted from selling space or services to Edge Esmeralda. But a few found the flexible scheduling style chaotic and frustrating— for instance, when organizers added or canceled a session last-minute. “We want to allow for spontaneity and serendipity,” Heid said. “But it shouldn’t happen at the expense, either human or financial, of some of the
businesses that are trying to be good hosts.”
Topics of Discussion
Some of the topics covered at TEDx-style talks and interactive meetings throughout the month seemed stranger than fiction—like using telepathy on animals or trying out a new “spiritual machine” that induces lucid dreaming. Other sessions were more akin to group therapy, focusing on the interpersonal aspects of workplaces and communities. Almost all centered around the principle of “techno optimism”: the belief that humans should harness the power of modern technology to better the world. If one looked closely enough, signs of foreign subcultures were visible around town. There were the nomadic cryptocurrency people in drapey clothing and toe-hugging footwear, some of whom attended a similar popup
city last year in Montenegro—dreamed up by Vitalik Buterin, the billionaire behind the Ethereum crypto brand, and organized in part by Edge City. Then there were the AI (artificial intelligence) people. Some wore little recorders around their necks that taped their daily interactions, Black Mirrorstyle. There were the gadget geeks: One shepherded a robot dog through the aisles of the Raven Theater; another rode a Honda Motocompacto scooter around the library. Perhaps most mysterious were the longevity people, hosting jargon-heavy “hackathons” in dogged pursuit of figuring out how to live forever. Healdsburg City Councilmember Chris Herrod said he barely noticed any of them. But for the sake of the local economy, he’s glad they were here—renting out venues, buying up hotel rooms and popping in and out of coffee and ➝ ‘Techno Optimists’, 7
➝ Pipe Project, 4
PRUNE PROMOTERS PICK THE PACKERS BASEBALL AND AGRICULTURE BOTH HAVE DEEP ROOTS IN HEALDSBURG Photo Courtesy of Healdsburg Museum
PRUNE HARVEST This colorized version of an archival
photo from the Healdsburg Museum shows Anna Bourdens picking prunes at the family ranch, near Skaggs Springs, in 1907.
By Christian Kallen
Old-timers in Healdsburg remember that, come harvest time, it wasn’t the smell of fermentation from winegrapes that wafted over town, with its promise of a better vintage, but another smell: that of sundrying prunes. “You could smell it everywhere—and you
either loved it or you hated it,” said a neighbor at a yard sale not long ago. He compared it to other seasonal agricultural smells, which one either loves or hates depending on how one makes a living. “It’s certainly our favorite of the agricultural smells,” Kelly Meza said with a laugh. She was with a six-person entourage from the California Prune Board, who visited Healdsburg on Saturday, June 15—National Prune Day—to celebrate the holiday with the local baseball team, the Prune Packers. That the California Prunes crew was in Healdsburg to recognize the day was no accident. The newly-formed Pacific Empire League, six teams of college-age baseball players, is a fertile ground for the cultivation of professional athletes, hoping at least for a tryout with a
major league team if not a place on the roster. At least so far, the Healdsburg Prune Packers are dominating the league. They are undefeated on the season, 16-0 as we go to press. Under 11-year coach Joey Gomes, the team won three straight league championships with the older, more established California Collegiate League. It proved successful enough for Healdsburg to spawn its own confederation of Northern California teams, to create what the new league’s president, Natalie Norman, likes to call “a powerhouse summer collegiate league.” The Prune people know it’s smart to back a winner.
Plum by Another Name
The prunes we value today are the product of the European Petit d’Agen plum, ➝ Prune Promoters, 5