Sunday in Petaluma. Going for a walk. Getting my sun in.

The future of city transportation is multi-modal

If your city has too many cars does it just dry up and blow away? No. People begin using alternatives to the single occupancy car. People walk, use bikes, ride a scooter, take public transit, or call Uber/Lyft. Want to see the not too distant future for getting around Petaluma? Take a quick look.

Day on the Petaluma River - 12th annual

A positive vision conversation

As a boy in the fifth grade we were in the cafeteria having lunch when our teacher Miss Ruhle sat down beside us. My friend Dan joked that lunchtime was his favorite part of the school day. The implication was that it wasn’t cool to like school. Even in fifth grade, we had begun to learn the manly art of becoming naysayers and cynics.

It wasn’t until I was in my 40’s that I began to do the work of waking up emotionally, letting go of hopelessness, opening up to possibility and beginning to trust life around me again. The teenage journey into manhood beat the childlike trust and belief in goodness out of me. In my early teen years, my strategy became one of just keeping my mouth shut. Very much like the Clint Eastwood cowboy movie character, stoicism and cynicism came hand in hand.

I enjoyed reading last week’s Argus Courier. Several steps forward towards a positive vision for the future were noted.

The Haystack transit oriented development project had just been approved, officials were looking at how to advance both the Caulfield and Rainier cross-town connectors, and money was committed towards planning for renovations to the decrepit downtown trestle. Will any or all of these projects actually get built anytime soon? Who knows? But the point is that, as a community, we continue to take the baby steps forward towards the solutions and away from the cynicism. Nicely done!

The Class of 2019 had just graduated. Skip Sommer recalled the time in 1850 when the population of Sonoma County quadrupled in only two years. Petaluma was the center of almost all trade then. Petaluma has not stopped growing since.

This week I am thrilled to read that we may be able to go hike in Lafferty Ranch in the foreseeable future. That’s a big win for a guy like me. There is a group of citizens working on local control of the river dredging issue. That’s an important topic for all of us. Glad to see small steps forward on these two topics as well.

I don’t know if there are many naysayers and cynics in our town or not. But I do notice their voices on the internet pages of Nextdoor and Facebook. Maybe it’s the remnants of the boyhood wound inside of me that has me be so quick to react to the voices of doom and gloom. But I have a personal commitment to contribute towards a positive vision community conversation.

And so that’s how I read this and last week’s newspaper, as a missive of positive steps forward by the community. I don’t know if any of the positive steps in the news will result in construction of the solutions anytime soon. But I do know that taking baby steps in the right direction beats cynicism and hopelessness every time.

"Haystack" between SMART and the Turning Basin will be reviewed by the Planning Commission Tuesday !

Last night, I went to a public informational meeting regarding the proposed Haystack project at Copeland Street, D Street, Weller Street and Washington Street. This project concept goes before the Planning Commission Tuesday May 28^th at 7:00pm. Four stories tall. A new transverse street from the Petaluma River Turning Basin towards the SMART train station. 178 residential units. 197 on-site parking spaces. 24,855 square feet of ground floor commercial such as store fronts and restaurant(s).

This proposal is notably different than the one that was presented to the public two years ago. The developer will “wait and see” whether these units become condos for sale or a large rental unit property.

Three “pocket parks” would be accessible to the public. Courtyard areas and rooftop garden areas for private, resident use.

I am not an expert for this project, just an interested citizen. The information in my video is short and brief. As you’ll see, I really think this is THE most important development project for Petaluma in recent years (and I’ve been paying attention to most of them.) If you want better information then go to the Planning Commission meeting notice on the Petaluma City Clerk website. Click on the “Agenda” button and read the staff report and associated documents.

If you want to comment on this project, you still have time to review this over the weekend and then show up at the Planning Commission meeting Tuesday.