Bad Vibes And Nostalgia
by Guy Wilson, Sonoma-West Times & News Columnist, 3-27-08
The adjective “vibrant” is used in ten different Northeast Area Plan postings on Sebastopol’s official web site. The context varies slightly with each usage, but the general point is that the Northeast Area of Sebastopol will become “vibrant” if the Northeast Area Plan is implemented.
“Vibrant, pedestrian-oriented area.” “Vibrant, mixed-use area.” “Vibrant community place.” “Vibrant downtown.” “Vibrant community atmosphere.” “Vibrant place.” “Vibrant character.” You get the vibe. Someone’s been eating a high-vibre diet here.
My dictionary defines “vibrant” as “pulsating with life, vigor, or activity.” With this definition presumably in mind, Northeast Area Plan proponents envision revitalizing Sebastopol’s old warehouse district over the next 15 to 20 years with the construction of 300 new housing units and an additional half million square feet or more dedicated to retail, government, parking, and other non-residential space.
Not everyone in Sebastopol, though, is picking up good vibrations from the proposed Northeast Area Plan. I have to say the Plan is not giving me excitations.
I like the vibes in Sebastopol exactly as they are today, including those in the Northeast Area. I like walking around in the so-called blighted area. It may not be trendy, but it is real. I see beauty and character in the old working structures, and wonder why they must be consigned to oblivion. I can’t imagine getting a charge out of replacing them with something new, especially when that something new will bring over 8,000 daily car trips, erect an urban sightline of four story buildings between the existing town center and the Laguna, and impose substantial new demands on our uncertain municipal water supply.
It is, of course, easier to predict the past than the future. I’ve lived in Sebastopol for 20 years now, which is the outer limit of time that will be required for the future development of the Northeast Area.
Sebastopol’s population has not increased much in the past 20 years, but the town has seen a fair amount of change, some of it welcomed and necessary, and some of it controversial and arguably unnecessary.
It seems odd in hindsight, but back in 1988 there were no hotels in town and no movie theatre. Now we have two first-rate hotels and a multi-screen cinema created from the ingenious conversion of an old industrial structure.
In the late ‘90s the outsized O’Reilly & Associates headquarters was built on an old apple orchard at the north end of town, after much local debate. The company seems to have done well ever since, but the sprawling business site seems underutilized.
Twenty years ago the town plaza was a parking lot. Across the street was a Tuttle Drug Store, later to become Food for Thought, and now the popular Whole Foods.
Twenty years ago there was no Screaming Mimi’s Ice Cream, Big O Tires, K&L Bistro, Incredible Records, French Garden Restaurant, Taco Bell, Curves for Women, Bradley Video, Starbucks, or Rite-Aid. What is now Pasta Bella was a Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet. Papas and Pollo was a hamburger stand called “So and So’s.”
Gone forever, unfortunately, are the old bowling alley at the south end of town where kids could have birthday parties without rolling a gutter ball (thanks to long sausage-like gutter cushions), and the Alley Oops on Main Street, where you could get snow cones and popcorn and eat them with your kids on a bench outside the store and watch the world go by. Gone but not forgotten is Carlson’s, the friendly downtown family department store featuring reasonably priced children’s clothing and shoes.
I’m overlooking dozens of local businesses that were created in the past two decades, and dozens that disappeared. Change is constant, of course, and not always for the better, or the worse. We don’t really know until we get there. I just wish I could get a better vibe from the Northeast Area Plan.
- Guy Wilson is a Sonoma West Times & News columnist