The Mayor Comes Calling

September 6th, 2024

The Mayor Comes Calling
September 6th, 2024

After dinner last night, I was out watering the front lawn and garden when the mayor of our town drove up to say hello. The mayor and I are both from Lincoln, Nebraska and are big University of Nebraska football fans.

The mayor is a nice guy. He’s about 6’4” and in pretty good shape. He was at the school across the street for parent/teacher night. The new school year started a week ago.

We talked football and how we were hopeful that the new quarterback and coach of the Cornhuskers were making a difference this year. The Nebraska team beat UTEP in the opener at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln. When that stadium is full, it becomes the third largest city in the state (and it is always a sellout crowd.)

Dave is a gregarious guy. He loves people and he loves Healdsburg. I asked him how things were going down at the City Council. Dave is currently running for his third term.

Dave told me that he spends most of his time there trying to hold back all the bat shit crazy stuff people want in town. He used the term “bat shit crazy.” He’s right.

Healdsburg has some crazy folks here who expect the City Council to save the world.

The latest brouhaha in town is over chain stores moving into the area outside of the Plaza. Chain stores are prohibited from the area immediately around the Plaza, but not in the whole town.

Healdsburg has a Safeway, CVS, Rite Aid, Starbucks, McDonald’s etc. but not in the Plaza.

The businesses in the Plaza don’t want the chain store competition anywhere near the Plaza and their fiefdom.

Dave explained to me that the purple area around the Plaza prohibits chain stores but the ordinance also encourages “businesses in the region” to do business in Healdsburg. So, what does “in the region” mean?

The marijuana growers in nearby Mendocino County are being put out of business with all the regulations. Do they count as a regional business that can put a store in Healdsburg?

And what is a chain store? How is that defined? Dave doesn’t want some warehouse in Los Angeles stamping a product “Healdsburg” and then being considered “regional.”

In any event, the local businessmen on the town square are throwing a hissy fit. They want the purple-zoned area of no chain stores expanded to the surrounding area. That is insane and bat shit crazy.

So there you go. Small-town politics in a nutshell.

TJM

PS: Dave is in the center of the photo of the City Council.