February 18th, 2010 01:10pm
Deer (Creek) Hunting Season is Now Open
by Steve.Rustad
The soap opera that accompanied the Regency Center project is finally winding down. Hopefully someday soon the sales tax revenue from the Target and the other stores will begin to replenish the City’s empty bank account. Next up – Deer Creek Plaza. One can only hope that the Guardians of Camelot, or is it Brigadoon, will judge this next project on its merits and not on whether it mirrors their fixation with some ideal Utopian future and/or Petaluma’s mythical past.
We all know the maxim, “Be careful what you ask for because you may get it.” Well, it looked as if the no-growth contingent in P-Town has achieved their goal. Growth of any kind was stalled or flat-out killed. Then the chickens (how appropriate) came home to roost. An economic downturn coupled with diminished City revenues has forced some difficult decisions. Cherished features of Petaluma have been trimmed or eliminated. Even core Civic services such as Police and Fire protection are threatened. I applaud Mr. Glass and Ms. Torliatt for finally succumbing to reality and supporting the Regency development. Maybe they saw that their beloved town is slowly dying or perhaps they realized that not every voter shares the same desire to preserve Petaluma in amber. It’s a biological fact that organisms either grow or die. Nature abhors stasis. To live is to grow and (dare I say it), to change.
The City Council Majority is nothing if not predictable. Even though Mayor Pam and Councilperson Glass are running for new office – and presumably would like to demonstrate to the voters some behavior other than ritual obfuscation, hibitual dissembling, and rigid a adherence to hidebound liberal orthodoxy – they still can’t resist further attempts to stymie the Regency Center project. Other other hand, perhaps the majority of local voters really want robot progressives in all elected positions. If so, right on, guys.
Personally, I appreciate men and women with vision and the means and determination to persue their visions. And I’m grateful when those visions are aimed at enhancing the place where I live. So I raise a virtual toast to Don Green and the White family, among others, for their dogged efforts to make Petaluma a better and more productive place to live and work despite of the equally dogged efforts of NIMBY’s, BANANAS and the ever-regressive “progressives” to keep River City frozen in amber. Even though this recession has temporarily undermined many of their efforts, I believe that time will bear out the value of their vision to you, me and perhaps to even all of those who’ve worked so hard to oppose them.
The Argus thought that my characterization of the cranky NIMBY with the double standard wasn’t a fair depiction of the opposition to the Dutra Asphalt plant. Personally, I see someone who looks like this guy participating in almost every public protest in our fair burg.
Turns out that Progressives in power behave no better than the so-called “evil” Conservatives they replaced. From Washington, DC to Petaluma BC (our idyllic town is seriously mired in the past) you see politicians smearing their enemies and ignoring or glossing over their friend’s calumnies all in the name of political payback. Call it politics as usual, but don’t pretend that anyone calling him- or herself a Progressive makes them in anyway superior to any other brand of politician, or human being, for that matter.