Saying it is time for the county to walk it's own talk, the Sonoma County board of supervisors have agreed to consider relocating most county offices to downtown Santa Rosa. With deferred maintenance on its more than half-century-old campus estimated at a quarter billion dollars, county supervisors are pursuing decamping to a new location, walking distance from the downtown Santa Rosa Smart station. Supervisor Susan Gorin, who initially opposed, said she switched sides after considering the environmental consequences of retaining the current auto-dependent site. "Rarely does an elected body have the opportunity to make a decision that will change patterns of transportation, thinking,… read more

Though decisions won't be final before December, elected officials are moving forward with a strategy to ensure people, businesses and groups often overlooked get a fair share of $96 million in federal funds Sonoma County has or will receive. While the bulk of the money will reimburse county agencies for COVID-related spending, some is being reserved for direct aid to locals and their businesses. "Technical assistance will also be provided to community based organizations and businesses simply to apply for funds, and we will have a special targeted focus on small and grassroots organizations who historically have not applied for county funds," said Oscar Chavez with the county's Human… read more

Sonoma County's overall daily case rate has risen to three times where the county was a couple months ago. Case rates are more than four times higher among unvaccinated people. And new cases are disproportionately high among Latinx and Black residents, people living in congregate settings, as well as in younger people under 49, making up over 70 percent of new cases and some of the lowest vaccination numbers. Vaccine officer Dr. Urmila Shende emphasized how concerning this pattern is. “There continues to be a sense that young people, healthy people may not need the vaccine,” Shende said. “The truth is we have seen young people hospitalized with this Delta variant, which is something that… read more

Sonoma County, along with six other Bay Area counties, has gone back to recommending all people, vaccinated or not, wear masks indoors because of the highly transmissible delta variant. Sonoma County COVID-19 hospitalizations have more than doubled since spring. But since restrictions eased with the statewide June 15 reopening, residents are back to making their own decisions about masks. “It's totally normal now for me, like I go everywhere now with my mask just in case and I still wear it indoors,” said Petaluma resident and Jupiter food employee Connor Tamblyn. “And my wife's pregnant so we just are kind of keeping a protective bubble around her.” “Although I'm fully vaccinated I… read more

The pandemic hasn't slowed down Santa Rosa-based youth art organization ArtStart. In late March lead artists and young students painted a quarantine-themed mural in downtown Petaluma. And now the group is finishing up a second mural in a collaborative series with recycling company Recology. ArtStart's creative director Jennifer Tatum says working together was key. “It feels really good to do a project that you see so many hands on it,” Tattum says. The mural in Santa Rosa is about 30 feet tall and 200 feet wide and displays California wildflowers coming to life, with intricate shadows and bright colors. And Recology employees painted each flower themselves, at home. Starting in October… read more

A local coalition called North Bay Jobs with Justice is leading the campaign for farmworker safety and respect during wildfires. And it started with intensive interviews with farmworkers about their needs. “As an organization, this work is worker driven, based on the experiences, lived realities and testimonies of farmworkers throughout Sonoma County,” said lead organizer Omar Paz. “We are hoping to start with raising awareness, and building power amongst these workers so that they feel connected to their own community, which they've been sacrificing their own bodies for to no benefit to them.” Farmworker leader Anayeli Guzman interviewed 10 workers about their experiences and concerns… read more

In a dramatic shift, Pacific Gas & Electric Company has announced a new effort to bury powerlines underground in coming years. The company said, since 2018, it has completed demonstration projects aimed at converting overhead power lines to underground in high fire-threat areas of Sonoma counties. PG&E also said it completed undergrounding eight miles of power lines in the Larkfield Estates and Mark West Estates communities. But other than those claims, few details accompanied today's announcement. It's unclear when work will start, where exactly it will be done or when it will be completed. But whenever that is, the number of fires sparked by PG&E equipment and number of pre-emptive… read more

Sonoma County is a tourist destination for people from all over. But it's also a place with unpredictable, severe weather and a lack of affordable, permanent housing. "People are increasingly being priced out," Supervisor Lynda Hopkins said. "We are increasingly seeing the most affordable homes being snapped up for one-hundred or two-hundred dollars over asking price. The home is flipped and sometimes a long-term tenant is displaced." In 2016, the board adopted an ordinance to regulate vacation rentals in unincorporated Sonoma County. Then in December 2020, the county put a temporary cap on vacation rentals in parts of Sonoma Valley and the Russian River. This week the board discussed… read more

A multi-million-dollar revolving loan fund for housing construction will likely move a bit closer to reality Tuesday evening, as Santa Rosa officials work on finalizing agreements. If all goes smoothly, over the next four or so years, the funds should speed delivery of 400-500 housing units to Santa Rosa and elsewhere in Sonoma County. Tuesday, Santa Rosa councilmembers were to consider transferring $10 million dollars in proceeds from a PG&E settlement to the recently-created Renewal Enterprise District...or RED. County officials are close to committing an equal amount. According to Michelle Whitman, the district's executive director, developers face serious hurdles when seeking financing… read more

Pacific Gas and Electric has abruptly changed course and will remove logs burnt and cut down in 2019 and 2020 in Sonoma county. The giant Northern California utility has had an on-again, off-again policy concerning wildfire-damaged trees cut down by itself or its contractors. After the 2017 and '18 fires it hauled the cut logs away. After the 2019 and 2020 fires they were were cut down but left. Following months of pressure, PGE is once again hauling them away. Johannes Hoevertsz is director of transportation and public works for the County of Sonoma. He told KRCB he's been fielding questions and complaints from concerned and frustrated landowners...and describes the change as a 'very good… read more

A new phase of a wetlands restoration project is set to get underway at Sears Point in August. The 1,000 acre project, fallowed grazing land once eyed for a casino, is instead creating habitat for shorebirds, a refuge for salmon smolts and other fish, along with protecting surrounding low-lying areas from flooding. The levee was breached in 2015. Thursday evening, Peter Baye, a Coastal Ecologist and Botanist consulting for the Sonoma Land Trust, which is behind the project, said changing bay conditions and lessons from previous restoration work are helping shape the project. Baye said over the last quarter century, a slow shift occurred, with more sediment washing out the Golden Gate than… read more

COVID numbers have doubled in Sonoma County this month and this week there has been a reported outbreak at Santa Rosa's Samuel Jones Hall Homeless Shelter, where over half the residents tested positive and almost half of those were fully vaccinated. KRCB's Tessa Paoli talks with UC Berkeley infectious disease and vaccine expert Dr. John Swartzberg to understand how breakthrough infections happen: read more

More than 70 residents of Santa Rosa's Coffey Park neighborhood asked the council to spend the $27 million PG&E settlement money fixing streets damaged in the fire. Because FEMA denied the city's request to repair damaged sidewalks, these funds would take the burden off homeowners. "Can you please honor what we all went through together by doing your part to complete the fire recovery efforts in our community," Coffey Park resident Jessica DePrimo said. "We should not have to be living with the visual memory of road scars, some of which are from our vehicles melting into our streets," said resident and fire survivor Constance Frederick. "It's all a constant reminder that my family should… read more

The campaign fliers keep landing in local mailboxes, but unlike the gubernatorial recall, there aren't dozens of colorful characters angling to seize the office of county district attorney. "Interestingly enough the deadline for the district attorney candidate filing has already passed, and we had no candidates file," said Deva Proto, Sonoma County Clerk-Recorder, Assessor and Registrar of Voters. "So, there will just be a space for a write-in candidate." For votes to be tallied, such hopefuls must file as official write-in candidates. The period to do so opens Monday and runs through the end of August. The recall effort against county District Attorney Jill Ravitch is being largely funded… read more

One of the most glaring lessons from the Tubbs Fire was the failure to warn those in its path. Concerned that blanket alerts would cause massive traffic jams, officials hesitated. The results were tragic. Much work has been done in the close to four years since, but issues remain. Living three and a half miles up a dead end road between Sugar Loaf Ridge and St Helena Rd, Gary Liess figured he might be on his own in a major wildfire. Following 2017s Tubbs Fire, he became more vigilant; removing brush, creating defensible space. One evening last year, as the Glass Fire burned out of control over the ridge to the east, a neighbor, who'd been assessing the distant flames from his motorcycle,… read more

Tulio Flores is a Latino artist based in San Jose. He used the time during the pandemic to focus and paint. Fores works with a wide range of mixed media and his commitment to working with a range of materials make his canvas a limitless place of imagination. He channels life lessons and daily stress into his art. His exhibit, Dualidad, will be in the SJCC Art Gallery through November 1st. Northern California Public Media spoke with the artist about his inspirations, his Mexican heritage and influences, as well the experience of being a working artist in the Bay Area. Watch the Video Profile: https://norcalpublicmedia.org/video/art-and-culture/new-tuliosmall read more

Even as firefighters fan out across California to battle new blazes, crews are still working in areas burnt in last year's fires. Along Mill Creek Road west of Healdsburg, where the Walbridge fire left devastation, there's also plenty of frustration, bordering on anger, among property owners. KRCB's Marc Albert has more... read more

As local fire prevention and mitigation efforts race against collective fear of a season of flame, members of the Sonoma County environmental community are calling for priorities to be reassessed. After a century of fire suppression, authorities have slowly shifted forest management practices. It's largely acknowledged that past practices served more to delay, rather than avoid a natural process. Now the bill is due. As state and regional fire agencies race to pivot forest management practices, some, like Maya Khlosa, a wildlife biologist and toxicologist affiliated with the Sonoma Climate Activist Network said some of the old mistakes are being repeated. Forest thinning, a term she says… read more

North Bay Jobs With Justice is a growing coalition of 32 labor and community organizations working on economic, racial and climate justice. The group is circulating a public call to enhance protections for farmworkers ahead of late summer harvests and the looming threat of wildfire. "People are working in smoke, in unhealthy air, near fires, in evacuation zones in extreme heat," Executive Director Max Bell Alper said. "They are working in difficult situations and don’t feel that they are being properly compensated, so farm workers are asking to be respected and compensated fairly for the risks they are taking." Alper says the petition, based on a hundred surveys of farmworkers' experiences… read more

Sonoma County's current case rate is fluctuating between five and six cases per 100,0000 residents, increasing from four on June 15. And Health Officer Dr. Sundari Mase says unvaccinated, young people make up the majority of new cases. "Yes I'm concerned because we are seeing an increase in cases," Mase said. "Are we at a peak? I'm not sure yet, especially because we just had the fourth of July long weekend." The rise in COVID hospitalizations also continue, with 44 COVID patients in the hospital and 13 in the ICU, numbers the county hasn't seen since February. But 100 percent of the patients in the ICU and 92 percent of COVID patients in the hospital are unvaccinated. Mase said the highly… read more

Sonoma County and the Russian River Confluence launched a revitalization project to improve the health of the river this summer. The idea is to collaborate with organizations, businesses, residents and visitors to all be good stewards of the beloved river. District 5 Field Representative Elise Weiland says the program was granted $160,000 from the state after the 2019 flood. The program was inspired by the long-standing Keep Tahoe Blue organization. "That concept of creating an iconic image and tagline that provides a pride of place, and at the same time expresses the vulnerability of the river so that people want to care for it, rather than just trash it," Weiland said. Weiland said now is… read more

Countywide, there are currently 33 COVID-19 patients in the hospital. The average number of COVID hospitalization rates has almost doubled from last week. And so have the number of patients admitted to the ICU. “For a week or two it was really quiet,” said Dr. Gary Green, medical director of infection control at Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital. “And then just as of last weekend, we had a number of patients come into the hospital and had to be admitted because they needed oxygen support.” Green saw the recent uptick in hospitalizations. “We went from one person in the hospital to seven, and that was just over a weekend, and so that was quite a bit,” Green said. “We also noticed that in… read more

Nationwide outrage following the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis Police didn't occur in a vacuum. Dozens of questionable deaths at the hands of authorities had primed the pump for a reaction last summer that played out in cities across the US. A new documentary sheds light on one such case, the 2013 shooting of 13 year-old Andy Lopez in Santa Rosa. Ron Rogers, a former prosecutor turned filmmaker produced and directed the 30 minute film, which will air in coming weeks on KRCB and KPJK ahead of a possible national screening on PBS. The film airs Thursday July 15 at 10 PM on KRCB-TV and Saturday at 10 pm on KPJK-TV read more

Locally, the announcement a bit of a surprise, but not entirely out of the blue. Officials say the money helps fund crucially needed work, and arrived just in time. Sonoma County officials weren't exactly astounded by Wednesday's announcement. They had, after all applied for the grant, but nevertheless it comes as very welcome news. Sonoma County spokesman Matt Brown says there are good reasons President Biden singled Sonoma County out. "He said that we had been through wildfires before, we know from experience what to do and how to manage future fires and he said we were receiving the first grant from this new FEMA program." The funds will help the county make a bigger dent in a seemingly… read more