A Petaluma360 Blog

Drawn and Quartered

Steve Rustad illuminates issues and dissects politics

Rescue Old Adobe School District

I was a school board member for more than ten years, so I appreciate the struggles faced by California’s schools, large and small. Since between 80% and 90% of any school’s budget goes to teacher salaries and benefits, discussions about school-funding always influenced by opinions (pro and con) about teacher’s unions and the control they exert on California’s (dysfunctional) educational system. For better or worse, California is union shop. They only way around this is a school voucher program and,… Read More »

Sign of Perpetual Discord

Petaluma rejoices in the antics of its own, locally-grown, Three (Progressive) Stooges. This trio of lovable loons continually entertains a gullible constituency with fiscally insolvent fantasies of no-growth, anti-big-box, impossible-to-sustain, fair trade, living wage Utopianism.

In Petaluma, It’s Easy to Get the Straight Poop

When the issue of the Keller street garage’s plague of flying rats (aka, the dove of peace, squab, pigeons) resurfaced, hizzoner was contacted to comment. Giving da mayah any kind of public forum invites the world to view the most prominent symptom of our fair burg’s dysfunction. Suffice it to say that his contribution was highly relevant to the subject, in other words,  unadulterated poop.

Feral Gangs

Were the situation in this cartoon to become the case, I’m pretty sure that PETA would provide the perps with free legal support. The liberal media would resound with editorials blaming Republicans for that lack of opportunities for adolescent mammals. And the Occupy movement would redefine the 99% to include wildlife. Scratch that, it already does

Petaluma’s Undaunted Underpass-ion

The underlying philosophy behind the foot dragging and / or outright objection to building the Rainier crossing and, for that matter expanding 101, was something like “if we expand the existing roads or build new ones, civilization will overwhelm our precious utopia.” Translation: “It’s mine. You can’t have any.” Fast-forward: despite a narrow, congested 101 and no Rainier crossing, people still came to Petaluma, liked what the saw, and stayed. So the self-serving NIMBYs succeeded only in increasing the congestion… Read More »

Petaluma’s High Schools

Sonoma County’s schizophrenic attitude to weed, for that matter America’s “getaway closer” approach to drugs, has consequences. Most of them bad. And don’t give me that tired bushwah about medicinal marijuana. It’s just another excuse for smoking dope. Arsenic has medicinal uses too, but the average Joe shouldn’t take it just because it makes his hair shiny. Which, by the way, people did a couple hundred years ago. Shiny hair is a poor price to pay for an early death.… Read More »

Political Fumes

So an EIR projects that local air pollution will increase if Friedman’s Home Improvement comes to town. However, the scope of the report is so narrow that it doesn’t include the drop in pollution that would result from all the cars not driving to Rohnert Park for their home improvement needs. Hizzoner, ever eager to placate his no-growth base, trumpets this EIR factoid. Yet, you can bet, when it’s time to cut the ribbon on the store, he will brag how HE… Read More »