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TheHealdsburg HealdsburgTribune Tribune The Enterprise & Scimitar Enterprise & Scimitar
Visit www.healdsburgtribune.com for daily updates on local news views1865 –February 2, 2023 www.healdsburgtribune.com for daily updates on local news andand views Our 158th year,Visit Number 5 Healdsburg, California
Our 155th year, Number 00© ur 155th year, Number 00©
FUNDS ARE AVAILABLE FOR ARTS, EDUCATION ACTIVITIES
Healdsburg, California Healdsburg, California
Date, Date, 20202020
TOURISM DISTRICT READY TO SHARE ‘BED TAX’ REVENUE WITH LOCAL GROUPS
Photo by Christian Kallen
The Healdsburg Tourism Improvement District (HTID) has begun their 10th year of funding for arts, cultural and educational activities that put “heads in beds” in local hotels and inns. By supporting such activities, the HTID hopes not only to increase Healdsburg’s appeal to out-of-town visitors but to add to the very funds that support the events, the annual bed tax receipts. There are 31 lodging properties in the HTID within the city limits, and all of them pay a 2% annual assessment, which funds HTID’s activities promoting tourism to Healdsburg. Total funding for the grants over the past three years has averaged $117,000 annually. The list of programs that have received HTID grants is a veritable playbill of Healdsburg public events: Corazón Healdsburg, the Alexander Valley Film Festival, Healdsburg Jazz Festival, Healdsburg Center for the Arts, Tuesday Concerts in the Plaza, the Healdsburg Museum, Dia De Los Muertos events, the Fourth of July Parade and Duck Dash, and more. The grants are processed by a Destination Development Advisory Subcommittee, which includes a representative from the Healdsburg City Council. For the past several years, Evelyn Mitchell has been appointed to fulfill that role. “The committee looks for events that meet both the community ➝ Tourism Grants, 9
READY TO RAIL Gene Amato Masonry finishes work on the SMART rail crossing at Windsor Road's roundabout, with the town depot in the background.
SMART Train Plans Roll Forward COURT RULING OPENING FLOODGATES TO BUILDING SMART SERVICE TO WINDSOR, HEALDSBURG AND BEYOND By Christian Kallen
Sonoma Marin Area Transit Service (SMART) moving forward toward its long-held goal of providing commuter rail service from the San Francisco Bay to northern Sonoma County, as promised since 2002. One of the knottiest challenges it has faced is the rail’s northward
expansion, including service to Healdsburg and beyond. A recent court ruling and other positive financial signs, however, suggest the ambitious transit link may be headed for success sooner rather than later, or never. There are indications that the financial constraints on the ambitious regional rail service are loosening. The biggest roadblock was a lawsuit brought by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. That legal action prevented the state from spending money it had already collected on regional transportation improvements. The association said the regional
measure passed in 2017 should have required twothirds vote to be valid; it only received a 55% majority. Making it apparent which side of the lawsuit he stood on, state Sen. Mike McGuire said in a Jan. 30 email message, “The California Supreme Court recently issued a unanimous decision to toss out a ridiculous lawsuit that attempted to silence the voice of Bay Area voters on Regional Measure 3.” McGuire’s Senate District 2 extends from San Francisco Bay to the Oregon border along the coast, and fully includes SMART’s current service area. The State Supreme
Court voted unanimously to dismiss a lawsuit from the Taxpayers Association that challenged the voter-approved Regional Measure 3 (RM3). That 2017 ballot measure was designed to help solve Bay Area-wide congestion problems by using BART bridge toll increases to fund construction of area highway and transit improvements. Voters in eight Bay Area counties, including Sonoma, voted in the June 2018 primary election. While the measure was in litigation, BART raised their bridge tolls anyway, to $7 last year, with another dollar hike scheduled for 2025. Revenue the toll hike raised was
placed into escrow, pending the outcome of the suit. The actual distribution of the accumulated $4.45 billion is expected to begin soon, now that the court has rejected the appeal. “The funding has been delayed due to litigation up until the Supreme Court’s recent ruling, which was a big dose of common sense,” McGuire’s message said. The money can be used not only for the longawaited commuter rail into north county, but several other key North Bay transportation objectives as well. These include improvements to Highway 37 drainage in
CONVERTED MOTEL GIVES UNHOUSED A ROOF OVER THEIR HEADS
visit to Sonoma County. All were on hand for the Jan. 26 official opening of L&M Village on Healdsburg Avenue, a former motel converted by Reach for Home with state funds from Project Homekey. There were also several residents of the village, an interim housing program that began taking guests just before Thanksgiving, 2022. Their participation ranged from available and voluble to unavailable and invisible, the black shades of their rooms drawn against the afternoon light and dozens of curious visitors. A sidewalk construction project was still underway on Healdsburg Avenue beneath the mid-century motel sign when the afternoon event began, so guests were directed toward a makeshift entrance off Exchange Avenue. Two
ALL-STAR RIBBON CUTTING FOR CONVERSION OF L&M MOTEL TO INTERIM HOUSING VILLAGE Photo by Christian Kallen
RIBBON CUTTING Healdsburg Mayor Ariel Kelley scissors the ribbon at the L&M Village
on Jan. 26, encouraged by Supervisor James Gore. From left: Reach for Home ED Margaret Sluyk, City Councilmembers Chris Herrod and Ron Edwards, Kelley, Gore and City Manager Jeff Kay. Obscured is Healdsburg's housing director Stephen Sotomayor.
By Christian Kallen
There were city staff of every level, four of five city council members, one current and one past county supervisor, and the state director of the California Department of Housing and Community Development—making his first
➝ SMART Rail, 2
➝ L&M Village, 4