Yesterday I witnessed an act of compassion that lifted my heart and renewed my soul. A young couple pulled over to the curb in front of the local San Anselmo Coffee Roastery, jumped out and rushed over to help a senior lady whom they had just seen fall on the sidewalk.
Helping her to a seat in front of the Coffee Roastery, they brought her napkins to dab the blood from her mild shin wound.
The Coffee Roastery Manager, Janet, dropped everything and rushed out with an ice bag, gauze pads and her first aid kit to assist.
The young man, Thomas Kenton of Fairfax, whose mom is the Director of the San Anselmo Public Library, and his companion, Maryann Weber of San Rafael, and another young man, didn’t know her, yet did not hesitate to rush to her assistance.
Someone ran to the nearby Ross Valley Fire Department Firehouse to summon Battalion Chief Gavin Illingworth. He offered to get her to the hospital, yet said the Coffee Roastery Manager’s first aid was exactly what the others would do for her.
This kind act on the part of several strangers who pulled together out of their own lives and schedules to help a stranger in need, while safely wearing their masks, brings tears of gratitude to my eyes, knowing that during this time of “avoid, keep social distance, and stay separate”, the humane part of our humanity has not been entirely lost.
To find compassion, connection and community is necessary in order to feel really alive as we continue to heal the constant stress of living under the imminent threat of extinction—of our hopes and dreams, as well as our very lives.
I hope we are able to continue to find the compassion necessary to share quality of life.
Joy Appleby, West Marin
The Future of Local Climate Empowerment
There is a lot of well-intended talk about the Climate Crisis and with this comes pressure on City Halls everywhere to reduce GreenHouse Gas emissions. The new Federal administration is increasing its focus on policy activity nationwide. An encouraging alignment lies in the announcement from General Motors that they intend to stop making gas powered cars altogether in the near future. However, the real and immediate power to affect change is in the hands of local folks and one of the most effective actions we can take is to adopt clean energy technologies such as solar power.
It’s so easy to demand change from others but now is the time for personal action. We must embrace and undertake to make the switch to new clean energy technologies. Solar can be free to install and significantly helps reduce dependency on out of state oil and gas sources, which many people don’t realize that these are hidden in their PGE service.
There are approximately 20,000 residential roofs in Petaluma. Assuming that only half these homes have adequate sun exposure, this means there are 10,000 opportunities to make a dramatic difference in reducing our Petaluma greenhouse gases. City permitting numbers indicate that only about 2000 homes have solar. This means there are 8000 opportunities to adopt clean energy.
Let’s make 2021 the year Petaluma goes solar!
It has never been easier to adopt clean energy. Getting solar for your home has never been so affordable and there are so many options – from buying outright to leasing the equipment to simply paying for the energy that your solar system produces (with zero out of pocket). Truly, going solar can save you money while helping reduce greenhouse gases And for those who are able to pay for the solar system outright, electric bills will be gone – only a memory and no more worries about rate hikes.
And what about Federal tax credits? While these significantly reduce the cost of home solar projects, the credits will be decreasing every year. Another reason to make 2021 the year that Petaluma goes solar!
Take control of your power! PG&E power can and will continue to shut off power at random, sometimes without any notice. For peace of mind, installing energy storage technology is becoming standard practice thus further decreasing dependency on PG&E.
People are stepping up! Electric car owners are using their cars as battery backups for their homes. Also, tenants are telling their landlords they would like to have cleaner energy.
We can do this for our community, for our children and for the future of our planet and save money! Whether you do it yourself, hire a contractor or call a solar sales consultant – get on board and help create a Petaluma powered by the sun!
Kevin McDonnell, Petaluma City Council Member John Crowley, Community Organizer and Solar Consultant
Marin Open Studios has connected art lovers with local art makers each spring for nearly 30 years with self-guided tours of artist’s studios throughout the county.
Last year, the tours stopped in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, though Marin Open Studios continued supporting local artists with virtual shows and events online.
This spring, the tours are back on, as Marin Open Studios welcomes visitors to a special limited-run gallery, featuring work by many participating MOS artists, at 325 Town Center in Corte Madera from April 20 to May 11. Artists will then open their studios to the public over two weekends, May 1–2 and 8–9.
“It’s been like riding a bucking bronco since last March,” says Marin Open Studios co-founder and Sausalito-based artist Kay Carlson. “The community really rallied to help us. An absolutely essential ingredient to our success is our Philanthropist Angel, Peggy Haas. She began supporting Marin Open Studios as a founder 28 years ago, and Peggy continues to be our major supporter today.”
Carlson adds that other keys to the MOS longevity include the volunteer artists who take on the roles of Board members. This year, exhibiting artists Laura Culver, Jennifer Fearon, Joe Grenn and Shiva Pakdel brought their expertise to assist other Board members and help steer Marin Open Studios through the pandemic.
“We worked all-year-round to keep artists in front of the public as much as possible,” Carlson says.
Marin Open Studios also continued to support emerging and diverse artists, as it has through partnerships like the one with Canal Alliance mural artists, as well as with the new MC Arts Gallery in Marin City, directed by Oshalla Marcus, that helps bring scholarships and attention to their artists.
Marin Open Studios also partnered with renowned online auction platform Bidsquare for the first time this year to give the public a chance to bid on artwork from afar. That online auction features more than 150 works of art and is online now through April 24.
With the good news that restrictions are lifting in Marin County as Covid cases diminish and vaccines abound, Marin Open Studios is able to move forward with in-person events this year, beginning with the Town Center gallery show opening for socially distant visitors on April 20.
At the gallery, art enthusiasts will find the free, full-color Marin Open Studios Tour Guide, which is also available online and in selected stores and offices throughout Marin. The guide will highlight the 180 Marin County artists participating in this year’s open studios tours, including artists who are open only by appointment.
“The way that artists lead their lives is with creativity, and so planning their business ventures this year had to involve high creativity,” Carlson says. “Also, there are artists who have done a body of work in response to Covid, so it may be an interesting year to see art.”
Marin Open Studios presents a gallery at 325 Town Center in Corte Madera from April 20 to May 11. The self-guided Marin Open Studio tours take place Saturday and Sunday, May 1–2 and May 8–9, from 11am to 6pm each day. The artwork will also be available to view online at marinopenstudios.org.
At least one grey whale died this week in the San Francisco Bay Area after being struck by a boat, the Sausalito-based Marine Mammal Center said Friday.
The nonprofit, which focuses on the protection and rehabilitation of marine mammals, determined that one of two grey whales found dead Thursday near Marin County had been killed by blunt trauma due to being struck by a ship.
The whales were found separately at Angel Island State Park and Muir Beach, according to the Marine Mammal Center. A necropsy, or animal autopsy, on the whale found at Muir Beach determined it had bruising and hemorrhaging to muscles around the animal’s jaw and neck that are consistent with the blunt force trauma of a ship strike.
A necropsy of the whale found at Angel Island did not find any initial evidence of similar trauma, but the Marine Mammal Center intends to reexamine the whale in the future to fully confirm that the whale did not die due to human interaction.
According to the Marine Mammal Center, four grey whales have been found dead in the Bay Area since last Wednesday. The cause of death has been confirmed for only the whale found at Muir Beach.
“Our team hasn’t responded to this number of dead gray whales in such a short span since 2019 when we performed a startling 13 necropsies in the San Francisco Bay Area,” said Dr. Padraig Duignan, the Marine Mammal Center’s director of pathology.
“Gray whales are ocean sentinels due to their adaptability and foraging habits, meaning they have a lot to tell us about the health of the ocean, so to see the species continue to suffer with the added threats of human interaction is a major cause for concern,” Duignan said.
Since 2019, marine biologists in the Bay Area have noticed several grey whales with physical abnormalities during their annual migration to cool Arctic waters.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declared an Unusual Mortality Event for grey whales in 2019.
Since the NOAA’s last grey whale population assessment in 2015 and 2016, the agency has determined that nearly one quarter of grey whales migrating up the West Coast have died.
But that mortality rate could be even higher, according to the NOAA and Marine Mammal Center, because of observation limitations during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“It’s alarming to respond to four dead gray whales in just over a week because it really puts into perspective the current challenges faced by this species,” Duignan said.
Like every other writer I know, I’m the voice of my generation. Apparently, my voice just isn’t loud enough to overcome our collective screams of desperation. That said, I feel obligated to continue trying, partly because I have the rare privilege of being a writer with a day job, which is being a writer—but with some deadline panic to keep it interesting.
I’m a cockroach—less in the Gregor Samsa sense and more in the “I’ll outlive you in the nuclear holocaust” sense because, like most writers, I’m a survivor. I have an uncanny Gump-like facility for falling up. I attribute this to the millions of words I’ve piled to cushion my fall. If only my per-word rate was higher. There have been days when my motto could have been “Cogito ergo sum pauper sum scribere” which, if Google Translate is to be trusted, means roughly “I write therefore I’m broke.”
Now, I’ve reached that milestone in my career where, if I’m broke, I can always just write more. It’s Grammarly-aided-alchemy. My wheels, for example, were acquired through the transacting of words, ditto my clothes dryer and the clothes that go in it. This never ceases to amaze me, or bore the kids, when I point this out to them as if I’m sharing some lesson about work ethics when in fact I’m just bragging.
It wasn’t always like this. After my inner-child prodigy drowned in its own tears, I enjoyed a meteoric rise in the local media market—read: not falling on my ass during a protracted bout of newsroom attrition. But the white spaces in my writing resume are spackled with weird gigs like writing porn reviews in the naughty aughties—I quit before I even started, because I couldn’t commit to a pen name. I wrote stories under the pseudonym “Sophie Dover” for an L.A. weekly at the insistence of my editor for reasons she took to her grave; I was a food critic who faked food allergies to avoid eating exotic flora and fauna; I’ve written so much SEO web copy that a search bot once sent me a Valentine.
Throughout, I’ve been both championed and chewed by critics and cranks, though I’m convinced none could inflate or eviscerate my own ego as well as I can. Because I know where the lede is buried—it’s right here: If we don’t tell our stories, some other cockroach will.
More than 95 businesses and employment recruiters will be on hand for the North Bay Regional Job Fair, which gathers virtually for the first time this year. This virtual format is different from a traditional on-site job fair, where a lot of time is spent waiting in lines. Instead, the interactive platform has been designed so job seekers can network efficiently, entering one booth while maintaining ongoing conversations with others. Attendees are encouraged to dress for success and be prepared for interviews during the virtual fair on Thursday, April 8, from noon to 4pm. Free. Careerpointnorthbay.org/virtual-job-fair.
Virtual Fundraiser
It Takes Two
Beloved Bay Area vocalists Daniela (Dani) Innocenti Beem and Julie Ekoue-Totou have sung together for almost 30 years in various musical theater and concert performances. This month, the two performers pair up for a fundraising night of music to support the Novato Theater Company. “Dynamic Duet,” the company’s second virtual fundraiser of the year, will be a cabaret-style show featuring Beem and Ekoue-Totou singing their favorite songs with musical accompaniment by San Francisco-based actor and musical director Jake Gale. A surprise guest will appear on the show; you’ll have to watch to find out who on Saturday, April 10, at 7pm. Novatotheatercompany.org.
Distanced Exhibit
Standing Out
The ArtStanding Popup Gallery is a new series of outdoor events that came about last year in response to Covid-19, when social gatherings were suddenly off limits. The popup series utilizes the North Bay’s outdoor spots to host socially distant art shows. This month, the next ArtStanding open-air art exhibit sets up within the picturesque setting of Gundlach Bundschu Winery in Sonoma to feature work from over 30 Bay Area artists. Come for the art, stay for the wine and celebrate local Bay Area artists in a live setting. Sunday, April 11, 11am to 4:30pm. Reservations and masks required. Artstandingpopupgallery.com.
Virtual Event
Considering Muses
As part of a packed spring season of online events, the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts is igniting creative curiosity with ‘The Muse Hour.’ The series of insightful conversations features well-known journalists, musicians, comedians and others who sit down to talk about their process and perspectives on many topics. This week, the LBC welcomes Audie Cornish, co-host of NPR’s ‘All Things Considered,’ for a moderated talk about the current political climate and the latest social justice movements on Sunday, April 11, at 3pm. $10; free for LBC members. Lutherburbankcenter.org.
Virtual Classes
Life of Learning
The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at Sonoma State University celebrates 20 years of providing a wide range of educational offerings for adults who are 50 years old or older. This spring, the institute hosts a virtual schedule of classes in the arts, contemporary issues, food and wine, natural sciences, and social and political history. Older adults can choose between six-week, three-week and single-course offerings in subjects ranging from racial justice to rock-and-roll history, beginning Monday, April 12, and running through June 4, 2021. For information on classes and registration, go to olli.sonoma.edu or call 707.664.2691.
On March 25, Roseland School District held a board meeting on Zoom that was attended by many students and community members. Attendees were eager to voice their experiences and demand that the district prioritize the needs of its students of color and LGBTQIA+ students.
During public comment, other young people used their time for anti-LGBTQIA+ hate speech and racial slurs. Moderators allowed this to go on for over a minute. Students and parents were triggered. Later, the school board opted to shut down all public comment, preventing many who had waited hours to speak from being heard.
The RSD board did not record the meeting, so we are writing from our collective memory of what transpired.
That same week, someone vandalized murals at Brew Coffee and Beer, scribbling out ‘BLM’ and ‘Black Trans Lives Matter’.
White supremacy and hatred toward LGBTQIA+ people are alive in Sonoma County.
March 31 was Trans Day of Visibility, celebrating the lives and resiliency of transgender people.
But when hatred is neither addressed nor denounced, visibility is not safe.
We have recently provided LGBTQIA+ cultural awareness presentations to RSD classrooms and counselors. We value those opportunities, but systemic changes are only possible with commitment from those with the most power. We have offered training to district-level faculty, yet our offers have not been met with interest.
In a county with more than 40 school districts, it is difficult to enact change in our education system. We call upon all school district boards of Sonoma County to take proactive steps to keep marginalized students safe and centered in meetings between students and staff.
The following must happen to ensure students are safe:
That RSD detail a plan for keeping a public record of all board meetings, keeping public comments safe and open and denouncing hate speech and white supremacy
That every school district of Sonoma County to publicly illustrate their understanding of the marginalization and threats that make school less safe for students of color, Latinx, and LGBTQIA+ students
That school board members and district-level faculty to invest in LGBTQIA+ cultural humility trainings
Sincerely,
Concerned members of The LGBTQIA+ Coalition of the North Bay, including representatives from
Aging Gayfully
Face 2 Face
Lesbian Archives
Letter People
LGBTQ Connection
LGBTQI Timeline
North Bay LGBTQI Families
Out in the Vineyard
Positive Images LGBTQIA+ Center
Queer Resource Center at SRJC
Sonoma County Pride
The HUB at SSU
TransLatin@s
TRANSLIFE Conference
To have your topical essay considered for publication, write to us at op*****@pa********.com.
(The Pacific Sun) listed 385 voting categories for your “Vote! 2021 Best of Marin.”
Specifically, you have 28 categories to vote for under “Family.” In this category family members are listed as children and pets. What about the older folks that created the family to begin with? If you don’t consider elders part of the family category, I suggest a separate category of eldercare.
There is only one category which could specifically be correlated to older people and that is assisted living, which is under Health Care.
I am a fierce advocate for the older population and the very vulnerable elderly in our society. I am amazed and disappointed that 30 years after I began serving the older population, there is little to no value placed on this segment of our population, which is evidenced in your survey categories.
As the CEO and founder of a geriatric care management company, Aging Solutions, Inc., I see the trends toward recognizing which lives matter—and the older folks seem to be forgotten.
Most of the time, because of the work that we do to manage the care for elders, we see the systems writing people off because they’re old. That is evident in the health care systems, and I get it. However, I would like to see the Pacific Sun stand out as supportive and cognizant of the older population and their needs, and the fact that they also matter.
I have been thinking about preparing an awareness campaign at this point. There are many ways to do that, and I’d like to have a conversation about that, if you’re interested. Perhaps the Pacific Sun could think about these issues as well.
Maya Angelou once said, “You can’t really know where you are going until you know where you have been.”
This spring, several North Bay writers look back at the past with fiction, historical fiction, memoir and non-fiction literary works that tell stories of where we’ve been and where we are going.
Right Back Where We Started From
Petaluma-based essayist, journalist and short-fiction author Joy Lanzendorfer adds “novelist” to her list of accomplishments with her epic saga, Right Back Where We Started From. Available on May 4, the historical fiction novel is a multi-generational story that spans from the Gold Rush to World War II and centers on a protagonist who embodies America’s myths and harsh realities.
While the book is completely fiction, Lanzendorfer’s idea of tracing a family’s roots in writing came about from stories her grandfather told her father.
“At some point, he realized a lot of them were not true,” Lanzendorfer says. “It was this legacy of confusion.”
This legacy led Lanzendorfer to think about how family identity creates personal identity.
“And you could broaden that out to ‘American identity,’” she says. “If you believe myths about America, you may very well believe in things like Manifest Destiny.”
Thus, the novel’s main character, Sandra Sanborn, believes she deserves a life of fame and success. From a failed career in 1930s Hollywood, to prune-farming in Healdsburg, Sanborn experiences privilege, greed and failure in America.
The saga of the novel’s publication almost rivals the saga of its plot. Lanzendorfer initially completed the manuscript in 2012, but two national tragedies bearing her character’s name (Hurricane Sandy and the Sandy Hook massacre) kept publishers from picking up the book. Then, Lanzendorfer’s agent quit the business, and all hopes for publication seemed lost.
Six years later, Lanzendorfer’s new agent remembered reading the novel as an intern and gave the book a second chance. After making a few small edits, Lanzendorfer is ready for the world to read Right Back Where We Started From, and she launches the book with an online event hosted by Copperfield’s Books on May 6. (copperfieldsbooks.com)
Circus of the Sun
Mill Valley is home to many renowned artists and musicians, but the town is also home to a large population of excellent authors and writers.
Since 2012, John King—who writes under the name J.Macon King—his wife Perry Lucretia King and a staff of writers and reviewers including poetry editor Jeff Kaliss have promoted the local lit scene with the Mill Valley Literary Review, a biannual online publication featuring reviews of locally-written works, interviews with well-known authors and more.
“My wife Perry and I traditionally reserve Friday nights for creative brainstorming,” King says. “This was how we came up with creating Mill Valley Literary Review, reviving and producing The Rhubarb Revue theater, and a number of other endeavors which have continued. Our platforms have encouraged folks to explore and embrace their creativity, to shine on the stage or on the page.”
In addition to his work with the Mill Valley Literary Review, King’s debut novel, Circus of the Sun, is receiving attention from critics and local literary fans. Self-published in December of 2019 and available on Amazon.com, the historical fiction novel is set in San Francisco in 1979 and tells an ambitious and poetic story of love and creativity.
“I tried to make it as accurate a portrait as I could of 1979 San Francisco, and the entire changing scene there,” King says. “Going from hippies to yuppies, the rise of technology and so forth. Essentially, it’s about the creative art-and-music scene going on there.”
It’s a scene King became involved with as a musician and creative spirit after growing up in the Midwest and living in Hollywood.
“I was pretty much right in the forefront of all that,” King says. “It was an important and pivotal moment of time.”
Circus of the Sun explores this era through the eyes of 23-year-old Jack, a musician who falls in love with artist Bretta. Together, the two must face their haunted pasts to realize their creative dreams. At times racy and poignant, the novel reads like a memoir, and King deftly includes details that bring the book’s characters and events to life.
“More and more, retro seems to be in,” King says. “People are interested in what happened before, especially the younger generation that wants to know what it was like.” (millvalleylit.com)
Ruby
Sonoma-based artist and educator Cynthia Tarr—Sonoma’s 2019 Treasure Artist of the Year—is known in the North Bay for her work as the musical director of the Sonoma Community Center and the director of the Free Spirits Gospel Choir.
This spring, local readers will become familiar with Tarr as the author of Ruby, the first in a planned five-book series about the titular character’s adventures. The debut novel, released on March 1, features Ruby entangled in a wine country murder-mystery.
“I’ve always written,” Tarr says. “But, this is my first fiction book.”
Ruby’s character is imbued with a spiritual side that is drawn from Tarr’s own work as a holistic healer, and the book starts with Ruby receiving messages to help others.
“A voice starts to speak to her and says, ‘You could be of help,’” Tarr says. “Her first trip is to Sonoma—surprise, surprise!—and that’s this book. But there are four more books, and hopefully more where she travels all over the world.”
Tarr already wrote drafts of the series’ sequels, taking inspiration from her own travels in writing about Ruby’s travels.
“Some readers have said, in a funny way, Ruby is a superhero who steps into situations to help,” Tarr says. “It also includes a lot of romance and sexuality and adventure.”
Ruby gets its official book launch with a virtual reading on Saturday, April 10, at 7pm (zoom.us/j/84604846963). Tarr will introduce the book’s many colorful characters and speak with actor and published mystery writer Harley Jane Kozak. Ruby is available for order from Readers’ Books, Copperfields, Barnes & Noble and other bookstores.
The Union Hotel and its restaurant (seen here in the 1940s) are among the locations explored in “Occidental (Images of America),” which features photos and stories packed with local history.
Occidental (Images of America)
Ever since William “Dutch Bill” Howard—who was not Dutch and not named Bill—settled in West Sonoma County in 1849, the town of Occidental has been shaped by logging, railroads, generations of Italian and other European settlers, and the influx of hippies and artists.
Now, Union Hotel proprietor Barbara Gonnella, educator Mary Pozzi and author Bob Dougherty create a visual history of the town in the book, Occidental (Images of America).
“The Union is such a hub for history, I’m so grateful to have a lot of historic pictures and articles to honor those who have come before us,” Gonnella says.
Built in 1879, the Union Hotel and its restaurant have been in the family since 1925, and Gonnella says the upstairs contains a treasure chest of material she and her collaborators looked through. The book features many unpublished photographs from Gonnella’s and other private collections that tell the story of the region.
One of Gonnella’s favorites images in the book shows a horse watching a train go through the center of town in the late 1800s. Gonnella also loves the chapter in the book about the Union Hotel restaurant and a particular image of women working in the kitchens.
“It shows the generations of hardworking family members keeping the kitchens going,” Gonnella says. “The hotel has survived fires, pandemics and earthquakes, and I’m so proud it’s still here with a strong heartbeat.”
Released last September amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Occidental (Images of America) is getting a book release party courtesy of the Occidental Center for the Arts. The virtual event takes place on Sunday, April 11, at 4pm; and it will include a conversation between Gonnella and Sonoma County historian Gaye LeBaron about the many characters who’ve called Occidental home. (occidentalcenterforthearts.org)
A Fire Story (Updated and Expanded Edition)
On October 9, 2017, the Tubbs fire in Santa Rosa destroyed thousands of homes and structures, resulting in 44 fatalities and leaving many in town without a home or a single possession except what they carried with them as they ran from the flames.
Award-winning comics creator Brian Fies and his wife Karen were among those who lost everything, and Fies documented it all in A Fire Story, which began as a viral web comic in the early days after the Tubbs fire, and was published as a graphic novel in early 2019. This month, Fies revisits the story with the release of A Fire Story (Updated and Expanded Edition).
Available in paperback on April 20, the book includes 32 pages of all-new material, extending the story to include updates on the process of rebuilding their house, wrestling with insurance, wrangling with contractors, managing emotional fallout from the fire and facing threats of more wildfires.
“If a book merits it, my publisher Abrams tends to put out a paperback a year and a half later,” Fies says. “They decided to put out A Fire Story in paperback, and I talked to my editor and said, ‘A lot has happened since that book came out, can I have 16 more pages to write about it?’”
Fies’ editor agreed to 16 additional pages, then Fies had to evacuate from the Kincade fire in October of 2019.
“I called my editor back and said, ‘I’m going to need another 16 more pages, but I know how it’s going to end,’” Fies says.
Fies did not lose his house a second time in the Kincade fire, but the new material in A Fire Story both recounts his personal experiences after the Tubbs fire and speaks to what it means to live in a climate-changed world where natural disasters become a seasonal expectation.
“I didn’t feel that so strongly with the first release, because the Tubbs fire was the first fire Sonoma County had like that in 50 years,” Fies says. “By the time of the Kincade fire, well there had been a lot of fires like that and it struck me that those of us in Sonoma County who made it through those 2017 fires were early victims of living in a climate-changed world.” (brianfies.blogspot.com)
Nextdoor, a hyperlocal social media platform, connects you with your neighbors. That sounds friendly enough. Who doesn’t want to know their neighbors’ tips about a great new restaurant or where the wildflowers are currently blooming?
All you must do in return for this neighborly service is scroll by some ads and follow Nextdoor’s rules, including “be respectful, don’t discriminate and discuss important topics in the right way.”
Anyone who took a psych 101 class could tell you how that’s going to work out. Sometimes discussions on Nextdoor breed bad behavior and downright discontent between neighbors. This is not Mister Rogers’ neighborhood.
Bullies abound on social media, and Nextdoor is not immune from their vitriol. It might even be more susceptible to aggressors because people have skin in the game when it comes to their homes and neighborhoods. Emotional issues cause folks to dig in their heels, even when connecting with the guy down the street. Though Nextdoor members aren’t anonymous, people seem to feel freer expressing themselves from behind a computer screen.
Actually, not everyone on Nextdoor is identifiable. The platform requires a user to register under their name and address, yet it apparently doesn’t always confirm the information. Some people manage to register with a fake name and address, usually to antagonize others incognito.
Online provocateurs, whether using their true names or aliases, are called “trolls” in social media parlance. My neighborhood, Sausalito/Mill Valley, recently had a troll who went by Harriet Richards. That could be her real identity, but I couldn’t find any record of such a person in Sausalito. A talented agitator, she—or he—conspicuously joined Nextdoor just after the homeless tent encampment appeared in Sausalito. Harriet mostly harassed and insulted people who posted compassionate comments about the homeless, but folks living on the water also raised her ire.
A prolific poster, Harriet usually made several comments each day. Homeless people are sex offenders and lazy, she said. Positing ideas to get rid of homeless people in Sausalito, she said the city should remove their tents and put boulders on the property to prevent the campers from pitching their tents again. She called the houseboat community a floating trailer park, which is an interesting observation considering houseboats regularly sell for well over a million dollars. Don’t even get her started on the anchor-outs, who she said don’t deserve to live in Marin because they can’t afford it. Anyone with a differing point of view is an idiot, according to Harriet, and she never hesitated to taunt a neighbor.
After others on Nextdoor reported her rudeness, she was suspended from the platform for a few days. When she returned, her conduct remained unchanged, which resulted in users outing her for not using her real identity. Finally, after three months of toxic posts, Nextdoor booted her off permanently.
Nextdoor also kicked Robbie Powelson off the site. Powelson, who lives at the Sausalito homeless encampment, never posted anything to break the site’s rules. His offense is being homeless. According to Nextdoor, if you can’t provide a residential address, you can’t join the conversation.
“Our team is in the process of figuring out how best to support and engage our unhoused neighbors,” Nextdoor Communications Specialist Shannon Toliver wrote in an email. “While we’re unable to share specifics at this time, this is top of mind for us.”
It seems that a 10-year-old social media company that has figured out how to use artificial intelligence (AI) to monitor its members should be able to come up with a way to let a homeless person join the site.
As a privately held company in a relatively new market, Nextdoor is not governed by regulations. It makes its own rules, and at times seems to enforce them indiscriminately. For instance, racial issues appear to be a gray area.
I’ve seen more than one post describing a Black person in the neighborhood as suspicious without substantiating the claim. It may come as a surprise to some residents of upscale neighborhoods that Black people live there, too. So do other BIPOC folks.
In the Tam Valley neighborhood, Yunhee Yoo, an Asian woman, posted in March about her experience walking to a nearby park with her 7-year-old son and dog.
Two white men approached the mother and son on their walk and verbally assaulted them. The first man repeatedly cursed and referred to them as “you people.”
The second man aimed his iPhone in Yoo’s face. “You don’t belong here. I will call the police,” he yelled.
Yoo said she shared the information to let neighbors know that “racist attacks happen—even in Mill Valley.”
Many neighbors, horrified by the encounter, posted supportive comments to Yoo. Then, poof! The whole post disappeared. Nextdoor corporate removed it.
“It made absolutely no sense to remove it,” Yoo said. “It was so random. So arbitrary. I wrote Nextdoor and asked why. Rebecca [a Nextdoor corporate representative] wrote back, ‘Thank you for reaching out to us. Your post was deleted because of personal disputes, grievances and uncivil content. In the future, please refrain from trying to settle a score.’”
After Yoo’s post was removed, her husband, Axel Redemann, posted about Nextdoor corporate silencing those who have been targeted by hate. Again, neighbors rallied around the couple, this time posting negative comments about Nextdoor. The company responded by promptly closing the discussion.
Eventually, Nextdoor restored Yoo’s post, saying it didn’t violate any rules. An employee posted online that a combination of AI and human error removed it. I wonder whether Nextdoor would have reinstated the post if scores of neighbors hadn’t united around Yoo.
Given the presence of bullies and trolls, not to mention the discriminatory and Big Brother practices of Nextdoor corporate, why does anyone use the site? This week, a lost dog that jumped out of a car in Sausalito was found as a direct result of information posted on the site. Neighbors make helpful recommendations about everything from general contractors to physicians. While people struggle to schedule a Covid vaccination with the current shortage, folks share which drug stores just added more appointments.
Kristina Weber, a landscaper from Sausalito, joined Nextdoor because she received business referrals from it. She even met a few like-minded buddies on the site. However, she has also suffered the consequences of contributing to discussions about controversial issues.
“People gang up, and I have definitely been bullied, but I’ll absolutely stay on and continue to participate,” Weber said. “I’ve had some good experiences and met some amazing people on Nextdoor. Like anything in life, it’s about what you take out of it.”
San Rafael looks different today than it did 12 months ago.
While Fourth Street remained a fixture for socially-distant outdoor dining throughout 2020, many of San Rafael’s businesses and venues went dark as indoor gatherings were halted in the wake of Covid-19.
Now—with vaccines streaming into the North Bay—San Rafael is reopening, as several local music and arts destinations welcome back visitors for safe and distanced in-person experiences.
For many years, pottery was a hobby for Scott Reilly. The landscape company-owner put a few of his pots and pieces out at his office on Lincoln Avenue in San Rafael, but he never got much traffic with them.
Once the lease was up at Lincoln Avenue, Reilly moved to 846 Fourth St. After settling in, he realized he could turn the storefront into a studio.
Thus, Glaze & Confused Pottery Studio began attracting attention from passersby, who watched Reilly throwing clay on a wheel. Now, the studio is a full-fledged operation with memberships, classes, camps, a professional gallery and more.
“In the first two years, the landscape business supported the pottery, but then the studio started gaining traction right about the time the pandemic hit,” Reilly says.
The studio was able to stay open on a limited basis this past year, with social-distancing in place. Reilly also sold take-home ceramics kits for at-home artists. Even with the restrictions, Reilly says, people gravitated to the studio for an artistic outlet.
This month, Glaze & Confused returns to a full schedule of art-making and exhibiting. Memberships are available for beginning or advanced pottery crafters, and classes are available for hand-building and wheel-throwing. Kids camps will also return this summer.
Glaze & Confused is even expanding into live music on Thursdays and Fridays, when San Rafael’s Dining Under the Lights opens downtown Fourth Street for al fresco food and entertainment. This Friday, April 9, acoustic duo The Breedloves performs 6–9pm. (glazeandconfused.com)
Live music is also slowly, but surely, making its way back to San Rafael’s popular Terrapin Crossroads. While the venue continues to monitor the guidance of city and state health agencies, it also hosts ticketed dining events with live music in its adjoining Beach Park outdoor space.
On April 1, Grateful Dead bassist and venue co-owner Phil Lesh and several musical friends played at the Beach Park. Later this month, roots-rock outfit Midnight North—featuring Phil’s kid Grahame Lesh—will play on Sundays beginning April 18. Tickets to these shows are selling out fast, so act now to save your spot. (terrapincrossroads.net)
Movie mavens are flocking to the Smith Rafael Film Center since it began hosting in-person screenings again last month. Operated by the nonprofit California Film Institute, the theater is home to this year’s DocLands Documentary Film Festival, which will offer virtual screenings as well as a limited number of in-person screenings when it runs May 7–16. DocLands will feature 42 films from 10 countries and host an interactive industry forum to discuss the business and art of nonfiction filmmaking. (doclands.com)
Kindness During Covid
Yesterday I witnessed an act of compassion that lifted my heart and renewed my soul. A young couple pulled over to the curb in front of the local San Anselmo Coffee Roastery, jumped out and rushed over to help a senior lady whom they had just seen fall on the sidewalk.
Helping her to a seat in front...
Marin Open Studios has connected art lovers with local art makers each spring for nearly 30 years with self-guided tours of artist’s studios throughout the county.
Last year, the tours stopped in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, though Marin Open Studios continued supporting local artists with virtual shows and events online.
This spring, the tours are back on, as Marin...
Voice of a degeneration
Like every other writer I know, I’m the voice of my generation. Apparently, my voice just isn’t loud enough to overcome our collective screams of desperation. That said, I feel obligated to continue trying, partly because I have the rare privilege of being a writer with a day job, which is being a writer—but with some deadline...
Virtual Event
Get a Job
More than 95 businesses and employment recruiters will be on hand for the North Bay Regional Job Fair, which gathers virtually for the first time this year. This virtual format is different from a traditional on-site job fair, where a lot of time is spent waiting in lines. Instead, the interactive platform has been designed so...
By The LGBTQIA+ Coalition of the North Bay
On March 25, Roseland School District held a board meeting on Zoom that was attended by many students and community members. Attendees were eager to voice their experiences and demand that the district prioritize the needs of its students of color and LGBTQIA+ students.
During public comment, other young people used their...
(The Pacific Sun) listed 385 voting categories for your “Vote! 2021 Best of Marin.”
Specifically, you have 28 categories to vote for under “Family.” In this category family members are listed as children and pets. What about the older folks that created the family to begin with? If you don’t consider elders part of the family category, I suggest a...
Maya Angelou once said, “You can’t really know where you are going until you know where you have been.”
This spring, several North Bay writers look back at the past with fiction, historical fiction, memoir and non-fiction literary works that tell stories of where we’ve been and where we are going.
Right Back Where We Started From
Petaluma-based essayist, journalist and short-fiction...
San Rafael looks different today than it did 12 months ago.
While Fourth Street remained a fixture for socially-distant outdoor dining throughout 2020, many of San Rafael’s businesses and venues went dark as indoor gatherings were halted in the wake of Covid-19.
Now—with vaccines streaming into the North Bay—San Rafael is reopening, as several local music and arts destinations welcome back...
