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OPEN MIC: COMMITMENT TO EQUAL ENFORCEMENT IS CHIEF’S MESSAGE
December 12, 2024 Date, Date, 20202020
POLITICAL CONCERNS SHOULDN’T AFFECT LAW ENFORCEMENT By Matt Jenkins
➝ Political Concerns, 4
Photo by Garrett Rowland
As Healdsburg’s Chief of Police, I am proud to lead a department dedicated to the safety and wellbeing of every member of our community, regardless of their immigration status or national origin. I write today to reaffirm the policies and values that guide our approach to immigration enforcement, ensuring that all individuals feel safe and respected when interacting with members of the Healdsburg Police Department. The Healdsburg Police Department’s policy is clear: We are committed to the equal enforcement of the law and the equal service of all community members. Trust between law enforcement and the community is essential for effective policing. When individuals fear that calling the police could lead to questions about their immigration status or potential deportation, crimes go unreported, cooperation in investigations wanes and public safety suffers. Our officers are trained to avoid inquiries about immigration status. Officers do not engage in immigration enforcement, nor do they detain individuals based solely on federal immigration violations. This approach aligns with the California Values Act, which prohibits local resources from being used for federal immigration enforcement. Under this law, officers cannot
EXTERIOR The subtly lit, neo-Italianate building at the corner of Center and North streets in Healdsburg houses Singlethread, one of the world’s best
restaurants, according to La Liste.
Is This America’s Best Restaurant? ‘LA LISTE’ NAMES WORLD’S 9 BEST, INCLUDES SINGLETHREAD By Christian Kallen
Ever since it opened in 2018, SingleThread Farm-Restaurant-Inn has accumulated recognition, plaudits and even stars, of the Michelin variety. The restaurantfarm—co-founder Katrina Connaughton runs the Dry Creek farm, Kyle Connaughton the Healdsburg restaurant—has made a rapid if not unprecedented rise in the world of haute cuisine since the business opened in 2016. As Healdsburg’s celebrity has grown, so too has SingleThread’s. Now the destination restaurant at the corner of Center and North streets has attained a new honor: It’s been named as one of the World’s Best Restaurants, sharing the honor with one other U.S. restaurant, La Bernardin
their global journey. They combined their talents and passions with the creation of SingleThread, which opened in 2016. The restaurant earned two Michelin stars within months, and its third in 2024. The restaurant and a five-room hotel are in a modern Italianate building at 131 North St., on the site of the former post office that was destroyed by fire in 2010. SingleThread is not however a community gathering place, as the post office was; its prices are quite high, either for dining ($600 for a 10-course tasting menu, wine flights extra) or residence ($1600/night). Access to the restaurant is through a key-coded, unmarked door, and smoked windows and potted plants preserve the diners’ privacy from passing pedestrians. But Connaughton puts Healdsburg front and center in his success, saying that to see Healdsburg “next to these Old World
in New York City, and seven more establishments on the global shortlist. Other Best Restaurants include Guy Savoy in Paris, Cheval Blanc in Basel and Matsukawa in Tokyo. A second restaurant in France, La Vague d’Or in St. Tropez, was also named, as well as L’Enclume in the U.K., Lung King Heen in Beijing and Schwarzwaldstube in Germany. The incursion of Asian cuisine into the global list has been growing ever since Iron Chef hit cable in 1993. Kyle Connaughton’s own culinary education began in an established Japanese restaurant in Los Angeles; he trained as a sushi chef and worked in Hokkaido, Beverly Hills and an exhaustive list of kitchens in other locations.
Combining Passions
Meanwhile Katrina Connaughton studied sustainable agriculture during
KILLING FOR A VIEW: ARBORICIDE ALLEGED FITCH MOUNTAIN NEIGHBORS AT ODDS OVER 60-FOOT OAK By Christian Kallen
Photo by Christian Kallen
FENCES John Petrick in his backyard with the dying oak
tree behind him, clearly rooted on his side of the fence. Petrick believes a neighbor poisoned the tree to improve his view from Sunset Drive on Fitch Mountain.
A couple of months ago, John Petrick and his wife, allergist Dr. Maria Petrick, noticed a branch on their 60-foot oak tree was dying. They called a neighborhood arborist to remove it before it fell onto their house on Sunset Drive, on the edge of Healdsburg city limits near Fitch Mountain.
cities famous for gastronomy, like Paris, Tokyo, and Geneva, gives us an incredible amount of pride for the work we have been doing for our guests these past eight years. We wouldn’t have imagined when opening we could have achieved this type of recognition, so it’s both humbling and exciting for the future.” La Liste is a privately owned ranking guide founded in 2015, whose grades are compiled by data-processing algorithms from a number of other services and media. By issuing its selection, La Liste claims to be “consolidating its position as an authority in international gastronomic assessment. This year, nine excellent establishments in seven countries share first place, illustrating the richness and diversity of the world’s haute gastronomy.”
Vertice Sides
The Connaughtons co-own the restaurant-farm-inn
As the dying branch was removed, in early November, the tree worker climbed down from the ladder and, according to John Petrick, asked them if they were trying to kill the tree. “A strange question I thought, since it was obvious we were just having a branch removed,” Petrick said later. “He then pointed out drilled holes on the side of the trunk facing our neighbor’s house, originating just over the height of the fence. These holes were overflowing with, according to our tree expert, a form of herbicide intended to poison and ultimately kill the tree.” T h e Pe t r i c k s w e r e shocked. The arborist showed them a photo he had taken—two holes had been drilled into the trunk, and a bluish fluid had seeped out and was clearly damaging the tree. The tree was on the north side of their property, on their
with Tony Greenberg, CEO of Vertice Hospitality. In the past several years, Vertice has made other investments in Healdsburg, including buying the remodeled River Belle Inn on Front Street, former home of wine doyenne Isabelle Simi Haigh. It purchased the historic building in 2022 for a reported $7.25 million, and while for the past two years Vertice maintained it, it recently stopped taking bookings for after the first of the year. Though there has been no announcement, real estate sources suggest that Vertice plans to embark on a considerable renovation, and plans are to reopen by the end of 2025. In May, the Healdsburg City Council issued a proclamation recognizing SingleThread for “receiving its three Michelin Stars (and Keys, for their hospitality at the Inn) and for their Contributions to the Community.”
side of a redwood fence. And a ladder was seen leaning onto the tree from their neighbor’s backyard. The blue fluid was apparently a compound called “copper green,” sometimes used as a “tree hardener,” but which prevents photosynthesis and, thus, can kill a living tree. The investigating police officer concluded it was “a copper naphthalene and hydrocarbon solvent.” Both houses face south from the shoulder of Fitch Mountain, looking toward a miles-long view of what used to be called Sotoyome Valley extending to Santa Rosa and beyond, toward distant hills in Marin County. It’s an exceptional view, and John Petrick is fond of saying they have the smallest house in the neighborhood, but the best view. While the Petricks’ view was unimpeded, the 60-foot oak at least partially ➝ Tree Poisoning, 4