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COUNCIL VOTES TO ALLOW DRINKS AT CINEMA SMALL BUSINESSES TO BENEFIT FROM WINE SALES, LOW PARKING FEES By Christian Kallen
HUMANITARIAN Immigration rights attorney Bernice Espinoza is the recipient of this year's Spirit of Wetzel Award,
from the Healthcare Foundation of Northern Sonoma.
Healthcare Foundation Honors Hernandez, Espinoza DRY CREEK KITCHEN TO FETE 2022 WETZEL AWARDEES By Christian Kallen
Herman J. Hernandez, the founder and former director of Los Cien, and activist, poet and attorney Bernice Espinoza are the latest recipients of Wetzel Awards, named for longtime generous friends of healthcare Maggie and Harry Wetzel. “The memory of the Wetzels lives on through award honorees who exemplify humanitarian leadership values in action on a daily basis, with an impact on our community that is truly beyond measure,” said Kim Bender, executive director of the Healthcare Foundation of
Northern Sonoma County. Wetzel Community Leadership Award recipient Hernandez was born in San Francisco, grew up in the Mission and has lived in Guerneville for the past 52 years. “We were the first Latino business in Guerneville in 1973. My dad and I were the first Latino realtors in Sonoma County,” Hernandez told the Health Care Foundation. Los Cien, founded in 2009, liaisons between the Latino community and the wider community by helping to create dialogue and common understanding, cultivating current and future leadership through education, civic engagement, and conducting educational and charitable activities. Spirit of Wetzel recipient Espinoza has a long personal history as an
activist, dating from the time in high school when a teacher suggested she become a civil rights lawyer. “I asked, what is that? She taught me about the Civil Rights Movement and I thought, yeah, that’s definitely what I want.” While a law student at UC Berkeley, she met Alegria de la Cruz, who is now the director of Sonoma County’s Equity Office. Espinoza wound up in Sonoma County as well, and the two would become the ad hoc Spanish-speaking public information officers for the Emergency Operations Center during the Tubbs Fire. Her current role is as a deportation defense attorney in coordination with Healdsburg Corazón. The annual Wetzel Community Leadership Award to Hernandez, and the Spirit of Wetzel
Photo courtesy of Los Cien
➝ Council Votes, 6
Photo courtesy of Healthcare Foundation
Acting with unusual alacrity, City of Healdsburg staff whipped together a new city policy governing the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages in movie theaters in the downtown area—preemptively approving a proposal from AVFilms, which has yet to come to terms on their downtown Palace Cinema location. The exception for theaters or auditoriums with live audiences to purchase and consume alcohol was necessary because in 2017, the council voted to limit alcoholic beverage businesses to one per block face in the Downtown Commercial zone. That measure was seen as a way to control the number of tasting rooms in the core downtown business district. But for businesses such as a movie theater, serving a glass of wine or a beer with the show has become increasingly common, almost de rigueur for such venues. At the Raven Theater just a block away on North Street, such beverages are available at nearly every performance, theatrical, musical or film; and at the now-closed Raven Film Center on Center Street, beer and wine sales had been a part of their operations for several years before they closed in 2020. The difference is that the proposed location of the Plaza Cinema Center would straddle two downtown zones, the Downtown Commercial (DC) zone where limited use is permitted at one per block face, and in the Plaza Retail (PR) zone where it’s subject to a conditional use permit. “The current code does not allow for uses in which alcohol would be ancillary
LEADERSHIP Herman J. Hernandez, the founder and former director of Los Cien is the Wetzel Community Leadership Award recipient. Award to Espinoza, will be presented at a celebratory breakfast reception and ceremony, to be held at Healdsburg’s Dry Creek Kitchen (DCK) on Thursday, Nov. 3, at 8:30am.
A limited number of tickets are available for $55 at hfnsc.ejoinme.org/ wetzel22-tickets. More information is available at healthcarefoundation.
‘PAINTED LADY’ BECOMES THE LATEST BELLE OF HEALDSBURG
The price is reported as $659,091 “per key,” according to the San Francisco Business Times. Per key is a representation of how many units are available for rental; in this case, 11. However that’s a bit misleading: Though it is only permitted for 11 rentals, there are a total of 15 rooms, several of which can be combined into suites. There are also 18 bathrooms and 11 fireplaces, a common living room, dining room and family room. It finally closed on Sept. 27 after months of negotiation, including a period where it was in escrow for another buyer. It was listed in February for just shy of $8 million. Vertice has become a force in Healdsburg over the last few years. They also own the upscale dining and inn Single Thread ➝ Painted Lady, 4
LUXURY HOSPITALITY DEVELOPER VERTICE PAYS $7.25 MILLION By Christian Kallen
Photo by Christian Kallen
RECORD 68 Front St., Healdsburg, as it stands in October 2022—much renovated and
expanded from the former home of Isabelle Simi Haigh—which just sold for $7.25 million.
A signature piece of Healdsburg history became a record-setting piece of real estate when the River Belle Inn on Front Street sold to luxury hospitality developer Vertice for $7.25 million, effective last month.