Purple Haze

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Purple Haze

This week marks the 34th anniversary of the theatrical release of the David Bowie star vehicle Labyrinth. How better to commemorate the moment than by visiting Santa Rosa’s own local labyrinth and who better to send than a man whose namesake designed the labyrinth of classical mythology? 

Bees N Blooms, located on Petaluma Hill Road at the base of Taylor Mountain Park, is an 11-acre, certified organic farm that produces lavender and a variety of lavender products, from honey and wax from 10 colonies of honey bees, to cut flowers for arrangements, and pollinator-friendly plants and trees. It also has a labyrinth made of the bright purple aromatic plant.

“We were searching for a crop that was drought tolerant and good for the pollinators,” says Susan Kegley, who purchased the land and moved to Santa Rosa from Berkeley with her husband Geoff in 2016. Originally, the acreage was a hay field heavily grazed by cattle, which degraded the soil—but it was also a “blank canvas” for the Kegleys, who are avid gardeners. Soon after, Geoff suggested lavender as their crop-of-choice, and the notion to create a labyrinth from the genus followed.

“Were just kind of kidding with each other to start with, but I started looking around for designs and found a great design that we could do here and then we just decided to do it,” says Kegley. 

Their design is a modification of the labyrinth set into the floor stones of Chartres Cathedral in France. Instead of winding into a center with space for little more than a single person (the original design is thought to represent the solo experience of a religious pilgrimage), the Kegleys’ labyrinth leads to a spacious lawn. Once reached, the space can be used for events like weddings, corporate outings or even croquet.  

“We needed something that we could do with a backhoe,” Kegley says, pointing to the comfortably wide pathways within seven circles of lavender, each a different variety. All told, the  half-mile labyrinth contains more than 900 lavender plants.

Besides creating a pollinator heaven the Kegleys wanted to do “something that would be a good spot for the humans, too.” 

As advocates of sustainable and regenerative agriculture, the entire farm is in service to a diverse collection of pollinator and bird-friendly crops as well as a habitat for local wildlife, the aforementioned humans and the biosphere-at-large. In short, the Kegleys are stewards of the land—an apt next chapter following Susan’s’s previous career. She holds a Ph.D. in chemistry and founded the Pesticide Research Institute.

“I was doing work on pesticides and pollinators and had a research project going with commercial beekeepers, following them throughout the year, looking at different things that might be affecting their hives and impairing their performance and killing them off,” she recalls. 

She became a beekeeper, in part, to evaluate the scientific studies and the regulatory studies that the Environmental Protection Agency was doing on pesticides.

“It’s really easy to skew the results of a test,” says Kegley, who found herself smitten with the insect. “It’s fascinating and the bees continue to teach you something no matter how long you’ve been doing it. It’s just a source of continual wonder.”

As is the labyrinth—if this reporter wasn’t allowed to use a shortcut, he’d still be in it.

The public is invited to come harvest the lavender that comprises the labyrinth beginning this week as part of a “U-Cut Lavender experience.” Covid-19 protection protocols will be observed (masks, social-distancing, etc.). The experience is available during regular hours July 3, 5, 10, and 12. Reservations must be made online at beesnblooms.com.
Open from 10am to 3pm, Fridays and Saturdays, Bees N Blooms is located at 3883 Petaluma Hill Road, Santa Rosa. For more information, call 707.293.8293.

Mayor pledges review, increases police budget

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Mayor pledges review, increases police budget

On June 4, two hours into a Black Lives Matter rally in San Rafael, Mayor Gary Phillips stood at the top of City Hall steps. Below him, thousands of masked, sign-carrying citizens standing on Fifth Avenue fell momentarily silent as organizers handed Phillips a megaphone.

As Philips spoke, the crowd began to boo, a sound likely not too familiar to the 75-year-old man who has served as mayor of Marin County’s largest city for the past nine years.

Despite a progressive reputation, the Advancement Project California, a racial justice organization based in Los Angeles, currently ranks Marin County as the most racially disparate county in California. According to 2010–2014 Census data, 5.5 percent of Marin County’s white residents, who account for 62.1 percent of the county’s population, were living in poverty. By comparison, 28.1 percent of Black residents, who make up 5.9 percent of the county’s population, were living below the poverty line.

Those disparities were touched upon by organizers of the June 4 rally. After thousands of protestors assembled in Montecito Plaza and marched to City Hall, Black and Hispanic organizers and advocates passed a megaphone to deliver personalized messages relating to the movement.

Phillips’ suggestions, which skewed towards police reform rather than systemic change, were not popular with the crowd. Protestors shouted “No justice, no peace!” in response to the mayor’s expressed support of his police department, and after about five minutes in the face of a mixture of cheers and boos, Phillips passed off the megaphone.

In an interview after the speech, Phillips defended the police department’s track record, and said he’d make changes if necessary after further review of the department’s policies and procedures.

In the weeks since, Phillips formed a task force composed of government officials and community members to review existing policies.

However, Phillips and the city have seemingly not taken tangible steps towards the most prevalent theme of the June 4 protest: closer connections between different parts of the community and more support for public programs to support the city’s historically-marginalized residents.

During budget discussions, Phillips and Bishop voiced support for studying ways to remove some of the police departments’ responsibility.

For now, though, not much has changed. In a budget adopted June 15, SPRD funds are set to be slightly higher than in the previous year. Meanwhile, library hours and recreational programs will be reduced.

By Luca Evans

Twin City Tacos

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Twin City Tacos

I used to gauge the relative coolness of a town by the quality of a random cup of coffee. At the time, coffee seemed the perfect metonymy for any city as a whole—if the powers that be paid attention to it at the lowest rung of the spending threshold, it would follow, my thinking went, that the quality would persist all the way up. Fanciful? Yes, but useful when developing pat prejudices about a place. Now, instead of coffee, I use tacos—they’re about the same price these days, and they’re similarly everywhere. This is how I assessed my recent experiences in Corte Madera and Larkspur, Marin’s Twin Cities (so-named, I’ve been told, just to make Greenbrae feel left out). 

The astrological sign of today’s tacos would be Pisces (versus, say, the relatively common Taurus taco, or Scorpio if one’s feeling particularly adventurous). If the process described above is any indication, my approach is resolutely unscientific. Ditto how I located the fish tacos in either city. I used a random sampling of Google, Yelp and TripAdvisor acquired in furtive glances to my phone whilst driving (I’m kidding, I pulled over like a good citizen and you should, too).

Located at the Town Center Corte Madera mall, Pacific Catch West Coast Fish House proffers sustainable seafood with “Pacific flavors” and “West Coast style.” A regional chain with about 15 Bay Area locations, star offering amongst their fish tacos is the spice-rubbed grilled sea bass served with cabbage, cilantro, avocado-tomatillo salsa and lime crema. The fish is prepared unbreaded and attains a wonderful whisper of char when grilling. My companion called it “an entree in a tortilla.” Pacific Catch’s Traditional Baja taco, a crispy Alaskan cod number served with cabbage, cilantro, avocado-tomatillo salsa and jalapeño tartar, is likewise well-balanced, benefitting from its light battering and pleasant tartar sauce. A spritz of fresh lime brings out the brightness and complexity of the cod.

Meanwhile, longtime Larkspur favorite Burritoville, on the main drag next door to the Lark Theater, features a delightful pescado taco—snapper marinated with cilantro, lime and garlic, and lightly grilled. Served in a double corn tortilla akin to an authentic taco-truck experience, Burritoville’s pared-down preparation puts the spotlight on the fish, which accounts for the three-minute hold time when ordering—everybody wants one. Be patient, it’s worth it. 

Both stops observe Covid-19 protocols (including masks and gloves on the staff) and social distancing. Burritoville is in to-go mode and also offers delivery via DoorDash and UberEats.

Who’s Worried?

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It has been three months since Congress passed the bill that gave many $1,200, while leaving others out. There has been nothing to help with rents and mortgages or to help landlords, which means a HUGE housing crash when the economy opens up and 25 percent of us get eviction notices.

Is Congress worried about the homeless? No. Is Congress worried about families with an undocumented immigrant that didn’t get the check? No. What about starving students, most of which, it seems, did not get a check? Is Congress worried about them? No.

Well, what IS Congress worried about? They’re worried about renaming military bases named after Confederates, they’re worried about some story about Russian bounties, which even if it’s true, wouldn’t be anything new between the two countries. We’ve been fighting proxy wars, trying to use others to kill each other, for decades. And they’re worried about November. That’s right, elections. Rep. Anna Eshoo even has a bill that addresses microtargeting of political ads.

But if Members of Congress were REALLY worried about November (hint: it’s more profitable being the opposition party) they would want you, the voters, to see that they truly cared about you and your ability to survive this crisis. They would be fighting for Medicare For All and would be saying, over and over if they had to, that “we have to get the people some help.” If YOUR Representative and Senators aren’t doing THAT, I guess you know where they stand.

What can you do? Well, you can start by contacting your elected representatives and telling them what you want them to support. Demand they fight for you. And you can share this information and advise others to do the same. Will it make any difference? It depends on how many people contact them.

Jason Kishineff

American Canyon

No Holds Barred

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Karlene Navarro, Director of the Independent Office of Law Enforcement Review and Outreach (IOLERO), has now revealed herself to be an extension of the Sheriff’s Office public relations arm.

Navarro has given cover to Sheriff Mark Essick’s refusal last year to ban the carotid artery hold, a move she applauded, saying the hold needed more study.

In fact, the Community Advisory Council (CAC) of IOLERO spent a few years working on Use of Force policy recommendations after studying best practices around the country and meeting with members of the public. Those thoroughly researched recommendations were presented and rejected almost a year ago.

Last summer, Navarro told the members of the CAC that they would be terminated at the end of 2019 and scheduled no monthly meetings for the rest of their terms. The Board of Supervisors made her hold one more meeting. 

Navarro then created her own CAC, which has done little work according to their reports at their June 2nd meeting. Navarro recently recruited interns from SSU to work with the CAC, but a CAC member had to ask the status of that program. 

Now she says that their “research,” which had not begun on June 2nd and was to include studying the policies of 52 sheriff’s offices in the state, was completed in the next couple of days, was determined to support ending the carotid hold and was sent on to the Sheriff so that he could support banning the carotid hold, coincidentally, just as the state was enacting such a ban. We’re to believe that the work began on June 3rd and Essick accepted it in time to institute his ban on June 6th.

I’m not buying any of it.

Essick and Navarro have had their hands forced by public protest and are covering their tracks, but this hold should have been banned last year, before a sheriff’s deputy used it to kill David Ward. And all of it gives the lie to the word “independent” in IOLERO under Director Navarro.

Susan Collier Lamont lives in Santa Rosa.

Red, White, Blue—and Green

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Red, White, Blue—and Green

He doesn’t want me to use his real name. His employers might be unhappy to read about his adventures in the marijuana world, though he knows that weed is as American as cherry pie. Let’s call him “Jonathan Livingston Seagull,” or JLS.

What makes his story compelling to me is that he hated the cannabis culture that surrounded him all through his boyhood. Born in 1987, he has lived and worked, most recently as a landscaper, in Sonoma County. For much of that time he didn’t smoke pot, though his dad, who was a big-time grower, would leave pot, rolling papers and joints on the kitchen table for JLS to use at his leisure. Most teens would be in heaven. Not JLS. But enough from me.

Here’s JLS himself:

“My childhood smelled like pot. My dad grew bushy plants 10 to 12 feet tall. My decision not to use weed was a form of rebellion. I was a kind of plant: happy eating pizza and playing dungeons and dragons. It wasn’t until my dad moved away from Sonoma that I began to smoke. That was in my 20s. By then, I was greatly overweight. Marijuana helped me lose many pounds and get healthy, though recently my use has slowed. I no longer have to be stoned to enjoy a hike. I’ve always had a deeply ingrained work ethic. My European ancestors were peasants and farmers. Like them, and like my father, I have a green thumb. My birthday present when I was five was a shovel.”

Eighteen years later, JLS still uses a shovel to dig holes and plant trees on big estates. He drives a tractor, removes weeds from gardens and spends most of his days outdoors in the sun, the wind and the rain.

What he would like now more than anything else would be to own property in Sonoma County, but he can’t afford it. He’s critical of the fact that grapes are nearly everywhere, that agriculture here is dependent on one crop and that diversity in the fields is largely a thing of the past.

“When people ask me what I would like,” JLS says, “I tell them, ‘To live here 60 years ago when land was affordable and you could farm and make a living.’”

Meanwhile, he keeps his thumbs green, makes landscapes beautiful and earns enough money to pay the rent and buy food. Hey, he’s not in paradise, but it’s not too shabby a life, either. Happy Fourth of July, guy.

Jonah Raskin is the author of “Marijuanaland: Dispatches from an American War.”

Wine Country’s racist past

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Wine Country’s racist past

Sonoma, we need to talk.

We need to talk about the Hanging Tree.

We need to talk about the unofficial sundown law reported to have been on the city books until at least the ’60s–’70s.

We need to talk about how the history of the rape, torture and murder of children, women and men at the Barracks and Mission has been erased.

We need to talk about the statue of the murderer General Vallejo.

We need to talk about the middle school named after the rapist, torturer and murderer Jose Altimira.

We need to talk about the indigenous massacre sites that are all over this Valley, which are unnamed, uncared for and whose souls yearn to be acknowledged.

We need to talk about the lynchings that happened on our roads that have never been discussed.

We need to talk about how the great Dr. Maya Angelou once lived here but had to leave because of racism.

We need to talk about enslaved Black veteran John Grider of the Bear Flag Revolt party.

We need to talk about the unnamed, enslaved Black Americans in the Bear Flag party and their erasure from the plaza and the statue of Joseph Revere.

We need to talk about the racist Bear Flag Revolt reenactment.

We need to talk about the Chinese immigrants who built everything but were not allowed in town.

We need to talk about how the Bracero program cemented the generational conditions of socio-economic poverty and destitution that continue to haunt farmworkers in this Valley.

We need to talk about the good old boys.

We need to talk about historical landowners, their connections to white supremacy and how elected officials have been afraid to speak up.

We need to talk about the fact that the widespread use of the N-word at nearly every school is unchecked and undealt with by Sonoma Valley unified school district.

Sonoma, we need to talk.

Conversations are happening all over the country. Statues are coming down. Names are being changed. Statements of condemnation, letters of apology, resolutions, policy changes, are happening nationwide. Anyone can get on a mic and express support. Anyone can post an article or a hashtag. Anyone can put up a sign or wear a T-shirt.

Show us the tangible change.

Show us the truth and reconciliation commission. Show us the steering committee.

Show us that you can walk the talk.

D’mitra Smith is the chair of the Sonoma County Commission on Human Rights, and a co-founder of Save Your VI, the Sonoma County Black Coalition and Food for All – Comida para Todos.

Editor’s Note: This piece was originally posted on Facebook at 12:46pm, June 14, 2020, where it went viral days before local media outlets picked up the story.

Marin County Expands Virtual Mental Health Services Amid Covid-19

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Marin County Expands Virtual Mental Health Services Amid Covid-19

The ongoing outbreak of Covid-19 is stressful for many in Marin County and the state as new cases continue to be recorded and social distancing continues to be a way of life.

Coping with that stress can become difficult as the weeks stretch out into months, especially since experts agree that staying emotionally connected as a community is critical to maintaining mental health.

For providers of behavioral health services throughout Marin County, the public health emergency has affected demand for service as well as the means by which that service can be delivered.

In the wake of sheltering-in-place orders and social distance requirements, Marin County Behavioral Health and Recovery Services (BHRS), a division of the Marin County Health and Human Services Department, is expanding its mental health Internet and phone services–collectively called video telehealth.

“With the COVID-19 pandemic constantly evolving, it can be easy to feel overwhelmed, afraid, isolated, and hopeless, and it’s crucial to remember that taking care of our mental and emotional well-being is just as important as taking care of our physical health,” said Dr. Jei Africa, Director of BHRS, in a statement.

Africa notes that Marin BHRS saw an initial decrease in the number of mental health and substance abuse services at the beginning of the shelter-in-place order as people stayed home. However, the staff is now seeing a gradual increase in demand throughout many of its programs.

Additionally, health organizations throughout Marin have seen similar patterns with the need for increased telehealth services and higher demands for services.

In a joint statement, representatives from five major Marin health care providers recently outlined the ways in which the public health emergency has affected service.

At the same time that Marin County BHRS services shifted to telehealth and phone services to continue offering care while maintaining the health and safety of clients and staff in March, Marin Community Clinics moved to telehealth for psychotherapy, recovery services and other case management services. MCC also recently hired additional staff to respond to the increased demand for services.

MarinHealth continued to focus on providing safe access to behavioral healthcare at the pandemic’s outset. MarinHealth’s outpatient programs transitioned to telehealth on March 23, and remain completely virtual now.

Kaiser, Coastal Health Alliance, Sutter Health and Marin City Health and Wellness Center have also been providing behavioral health services over telephone and video visits to ensure the safety of the community and the staff during the pandemic.

As demand for mental health resources continue to rise, these Marin agencies and others are now organizing a virtual event for late July or August to come together and hear more about responses to the Covid-19 pandemic and what additional patterns are emerging for behavioral health needs in Marin.  The goal is to prepare for the emerging needs in Marin County and develop additional ways to support residents. 

Marin health officials note that anyone feeling overwhelmed with Covid-19 news can take steps individually to improve their mental health every day with small actions.

These activities include talking with friends, family and other personal support systems, exercising, eating balanced and healthy meals, taking a break from stressful tasks, making a list of things that one is grateful for, maintaining a routine and getting a good night’s sleep.

All of these steps can be helpful in boosting emotional health, though if anyone feels like they are in need of more assistance, BHRS is always open and regularly offers free online public workshops. Sessions range from suicide prevention conversations to support for suicide loss survivors to parenting support to a LGBTQ+ town hall. Any resident experiencing a mental health or substance use issue can call the 24-hour, confidential access line at 1-888-818-1115.

For more information on mental health resources in Marin, visit marinhhs.org/bhrs.

Blockbusted: Theaters Uncertain When to Go Back to the Movies

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Blockbusted: Theaters Uncertain When to Go Back to the Movies

The term “Blockbuster Movie” was invented 45 years ago, when Steven Spielberg’s Jaws (a movie about a deadly threat that shuts down a town) opened in theaters on June 20, 1975. Since then, movies and movie theaters have become as synonymous with summer as the beach or the county fair.

In those 45 years, movie theaters have persevered in the wake of competing forces such as the home video market of the ’80s and ’90s and the Internet Age, where Netflix attracts nearly 70 million subscribers in the U.S. alone. Now, movie theaters, like many other arts and entertainment industries, are struggling to overcome a worldwide pandemic that has kept them closed since March and which threatens to make this the first summer in nearly a half-century without movies.

“We’re all being subjected right now to this ongoing uncertainty that the state of California has when movie theaters can reopen,” says Dave Corkill, owner of Cinema West Inc.

Corkill has been in the theater business for almost as long as blockbusters have been around, and Cinema West’s locations in California currently include theaters in Sonoma County, Marin County, Contra Costa County and Alameda County, all of which are still in the process of trying to safely reopen even as Covid-19 cases continue to rise statewide.

“Contra Costa County just pushed back movie theater re-openings from July 1 to July 15,” Corkill says. “We just got word from Alameda County that they have no indication that movie theaters can reopen any time soon. We’re expecting Sonoma and Marin County to follow suit as they have in the past.”

In addition to navigating the various government agencies responsible for safely reopening the state, movie theaters are also dealing with a never-before-seen wave of Hollywood films being delayed by studios that don’t want their 200-million-dollar movies to play to empty houses. One such film is Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, which was originally slated to open in mid-July. The highly anticipated sci-fi thriller is now scheduled to be released on August 12.

“The distributors depend on a large number of movie theaters, particularly in California, Texas and New York—which are the biggest markets in the country—to reopen en masse so that they can get the kind of return on their new movies,” Corkill says. “It’s an ongoing and ever-evolving process at this point.”

With that in mind, Corkill says that at this time Cinema West is planning and preparing to reopen the theaters they will be allowed to on July 10, but he knows that is likely to change.

In light of the delayed release schedule, Corkill and other theater owners are also positioning themselves to screen classic movies in the first weeks they are open.

“But we know that can’t go on forever,” he says. “We’re hopeful that we’ll see the new movies soon and we’re hopeful that the public will embrace us once we do open.”

“We’re in a holding pattern,” says Allen Michaan, owner of Oakland’s historic Grand Lake Theatre. “We’re waiting for the future, we’re waiting for the day movies are released again and people go to the movies again. Whether that’s going to be weeks, months or a year I don’t know, we’re going to wait and see.”

Like many other theater owners, Michaan’s primary focus is on the safety and well-being of his staff and guests, and he says he will wait until both the industry and the government say it’s safe to reopen. He also says he’s fortunate to be able to continue making mortgage and other payments while the Grand Lake is closed.

“I used to own a lot of theaters, at one time I had 19 locations going at once in the Bay Area,” he says. “Had I had that kind of a company today, I would not have been able to weather this storm.”

While Michaan thinks that movies will come back, he is not so sure audiences will come flocking to the theaters.

“I think they will come back, but in my opinion people are not going to come flooding back to theaters, they are going to take a cautious wait-and-see attitude, but they’ll be back,” he says.

In the meantime, some movie theaters, including Rialto Cinemas, Lark Theater, Cameo Cinema in St. Helena and the Rafael Film Center in San Rafael, have taken to the internet to offer patrons online streaming rentals of both classic and contemporary films. Since the summer began, still other theaters have revived the Drive-In movie, with outdoor screenings popping up across the region at locations including the Alameda County Fairgrounds, the Bon Air Center in Marin County and the Cloverdale Citrus Fairgrounds in Northern Sonoma County.

Once movie theaters do reopen, there is a good chance things will look very different.

“We are meeting or exceeding the safety protocols that have been mandated,” says Neil Perlmutter, vice president of Santa Rosa Cinemas, which runs theaters in the North Bay as well as Central and Southern California. “There’s going to be social distance seating in the theaters, we’re going to ask that guests wear face coverings indoors, including the auditorium, except when eating or drinking. We’ll have the shields in place between staff and guests, we’ll have enhanced cleaning for all the common touch-points. We’ll probably have fewer show times to allow for more cleaning and to spread the show times out to help alleviate people being in the lobby at the same time.”

A month ago, Santa Rosa Cinemas was planning to reopen theaters in Sonoma County as early as July 1, though recent developments have pushed that timeline back to late July.

“Last week, New York came out and said they were going to hold off opening theaters until August at least because they wanted to get some data on transmission indoors,” Perlmutter says.

New York State’s decision is a major reason why Tenet and other high-profile releases like Disney’s live-action remake of Mulan were pushed back to August. Without new movies to screen, Perlmutter says opening in July was not economically viable.

“We can’t play just old movies for a month,” he says.

Still, Perlmutter will be screening some old movies this month as part of his ongoing CULT Film Series at the Roxy Stadium 14 in Santa Rosa. The classic underground film program will present three double-feature screenings every other week, starting with a screening of Jaws and Jaws 3-D (presented in RealD 3D) on Thursday, July 2 at 7pm. The series also screens a Richard Pryor double feature on Thursday, July 16, with Stir Crazy and Brewster’s Millions playing on the big screen. Finally, CULT will screen a pair of underrated horror gems, Tourist Trap and Puppet Master, on Thursday, July 30.

“It seems like there’s a lot of folks who are interested in coming back; we get comments all the time on our site from people who are legitimately mad at us for being closed,” Perlmutter says. “I think there’s a fundamental need for people to get out of their house.”

Protesters Push For San Rafael Police Reforms

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Protesters Push For San Rafael Police Reforms

By Luca Evans

On June 4, two hours into a Black Lives Matter rally in San Rafael, Mayor Gary Phillips stood at the top of City Hall steps. Below him, thousands of masked, sign-carrying citizens standing on Fifth Avenue fell momentarily silent as organizers handed Phillips a megaphone.

As Philips spoke, the crowd began to boo, a sound likely not too familiar to the 75-year-old man who has served as mayor of Marin County’s largest city for the past nine years.

Despite a progressive reputation, the Advancement Project California, a racial justice organization based in Los Angeles, currently ranks Marin County as the most racially disparate county in California. According to 2010–2014 Census data, 5.5 percent of Marin County’s white residents, who account for 62.1 percent of the county’s population, were living in poverty. By comparison, 28.1 percent of Black residents, who make up 5.9 percent of the county’s population, were living below the poverty line.

Those disparities were touched upon, both indirectly and directly, by organizers of the June 4 rally. After thousands of protestors assembled in Montecito Plaza and marched to City Hall in downtown San Rafael, Black and Hispanic organizers and advocates passed a megaphone to deliver personalized messages relating to the movement.

Phillips’ suggestions, which skewed towards police reform rather than systemic change, were not popular with the crowd. Protestors shouted “No justice, no peace!” in response to the mayor’s expressed support of his police department, and after about five minutes in the face of a mixture of cheers and boos, Phillips passed off the megaphone.

In an interview after the speech, Phillips defended the police department’s track record, and expressed he’d make a change if deemed necessary after further review of the San Rafael Police Department’s policies and procedures.

Chief of Police Diana Bishop has stated that her department conducts regular training in racial profiling, and has worn agency-wide body cameras since 2014. In the weeks since the protest, Phillips formed a task force composed of government officials and community members to review existing policies within San Rafael departments.

However, Phillips and the city have seemingly not taken tangible steps towards the most prevalent theme of the June 4 protest: closer connections between different parts of the community and more support for public programs that support the city’s historically-marginalized residents.

During budget discussions, Phillips and Bishop voiced support for studying ways to remove some of the police departments’ responsibility, according to the Marin Independent-Journal.

For now, though, not much has changed. In a budget adopted June 15, SPRD funds are set to be slightly higher than in the previous year. Meanwhile, library hours and recreational programs will be reduced.

Purple Haze

This week marks the 34th anniversary of the theatrical release of the David Bowie star vehicle Labyrinth. How better to commemorate the moment than by visiting Santa Rosa’s own local labyrinth and who better to send than a man whose namesake designed the labyrinth of classical mythology?  Bees N Blooms, located on Petaluma Hill Road at the base of Taylor...
Read more

Mayor pledges review, increases police budget

On June 4, two hours into a Black Lives Matter rally in San Rafael, Mayor Gary Phillips stood at the top of City Hall steps. Below him, thousands of masked, sign-carrying citizens standing on Fifth Avenue fell momentarily silent as organizers handed Phillips a megaphone. As Philips spoke, the crowd began to boo, a sound likely not too familiar to...
Read more

Twin City Tacos

I used to gauge the relative coolness of a town by the quality of a random cup of coffee. At the time, coffee seemed the perfect metonymy for any city as a whole—if the powers that be paid attention to it at the lowest rung of the spending threshold, it would follow, my thinking went, that the quality would...
Read more

Who’s Worried?

It has been three months since Congress passed the bill that gave many $1,200, while leaving others out. There has been nothing to help with rents and mortgages or to help landlords, which means a HUGE housing crash when the economy opens up and 25 percent of us get eviction notices. Is Congress worried about the homeless? No. Is Congress...
Read more

No Holds Barred

Karlene Navarro, Director of the Independent Office of Law Enforcement Review and Outreach (IOLERO), has now revealed herself to be an extension of the Sheriff’s Office public relations arm. Navarro has given cover to Sheriff Mark Essick’s refusal last year to ban the carotid artery hold, a move she applauded, saying the hold needed more study. In fact, the Community Advisory...
Read more

Red, White, Blue—and Green

He doesn’t want me to use his real name. His employers might be unhappy to read about his adventures in the marijuana world, though he knows that weed is as American as cherry pie. Let’s call him “Jonathan Livingston Seagull,” or JLS. What makes his story compelling to me is that he hated the cannabis culture that surrounded him all...
Read more

Wine Country’s racist past

Sonoma, we need to talk. We need to talk about the Hanging Tree. We need to talk about the unofficial sundown law reported to have been on the city books until at least the ’60s–’70s. We need to talk about how the history of the rape, torture and murder of children, women and men at the Barracks and Mission has been erased. We...
Read more

Marin County Expands Virtual Mental Health Services Amid Covid-19

The ongoing outbreak of Covid-19 is stressful for many in Marin County and the state as new cases continue to be recorded and social distancing continues to be a way of life. Coping with that stress can become difficult as the weeks stretch out into months, especially since experts agree that staying emotionally connected as a community is critical to...
Read more

Blockbusted: Theaters Uncertain When to Go Back to the Movies

The term “Blockbuster Movie” was invented 45 years ago, when Steven Spielberg’s Jaws (a movie about a deadly threat that shuts down a town) opened in theaters on June 20, 1975. Since then, movies and movie theaters have become as synonymous with summer as the beach or the county fair. In those 45 years, movie theaters have persevered in the...
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Protesters Push For San Rafael Police Reforms

By Luca Evans On June 4, two hours into a Black Lives Matter rally in San Rafael, Mayor Gary Phillips stood at the top of City Hall steps. Below him, thousands of masked, sign-carrying citizens standing on Fifth Avenue fell momentarily silent as organizers handed Phillips a megaphone. As Philips spoke, the crowd began to boo, a sound likely not too...
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