Since the Tubbs Fire, the Pandemic, the Glass Fire, and the unprecedented drought, Calistogans have shown a resilience, fortitude, and sense of community demonstrating that we are ready to meet these ongoing challenges well into the future. Some of these challenges will be simple, and some will be outside the span of our control. All of them will require concensus from the community. If elected to city council, I will always endeavor to find the best (maybe even creative) solutions based on the best scientific, social impact, fiscal availability, and city resource information available. I will work to ensure that all proposed solutions be based on facts, and that any proposed solution be able to be tested prior to implementation.
Fair and equitable water and sewer rates Fair and Equitable Water Conservation Policies City Safety: Fire Mitigation, Infrastructure, and Public Safety More Affordable and Market-Rate Housing Better Public Transportation Fairground Acquistion and Improvements Citywide Public Internet
I will also support the City to offer incentives for encouraging landscaping using drought tolerant and native plant replacing lawns and the like.
Kudos and hats off to the Calistoga Fire Department, Calistoga Police Department, and all the city officials, as well as CalFire. They did a spectacular job during the Tubbs and Grass Fire evacuations; and protecting our town. Also have to hand it to Mayor Canning for using the Fairgrounds as staging area for firefighters from all across the state. This experience taught us that greater interagency communications are necessary to effectively deploy firefighting resources. We need to take this cooperative approach a couple of steps further and do regular intelligence sharing with all the city councils and fire departments in Sonoma, Napa and Lake counties. We should also look into acquiring some type of autonomous public safety drones (check out this tidbit as https://flytnow.com/drone-fire-fighting/. I would also push for some kind of rebates/incentives for all building owners to have some kind of rooftop ember suppression system ready to deploy in case the fires. Extensive Fire Mitigation is already helping us lower insurance rates in CA!
I moved here because Solage hired my wife to run the HR department there. Most Calistogans that I’ve talked to believe that Solage did their development correctly by donating land for the Apartment complex on Brannan Street, which was facilitated by Calistoga Affordable Housing. This model was not followed by the Rosewood and Four Seasons acquisitions. Besides water, affordable and market-rate housing are primary infrastructure issues, which everyone (including every business) would benefit financially from. We’ve got to take the long term view on this, and not the short-term NIMBY perspective.
This ties in with housing. If people can’t afford to live here, then they’ll have to commute to work here. Gas prices are not going go down that much in the near future; and electric vehicles still aren’t quite there in terms of availability, affordability and range. There’s basically only two routes in and out, leading to traffic congestion (I’m all for a roundabout at the intersection of Foothill and Petrified Forest Road). When I first moved here there was a bus to Santa Rosa, but that hasn’t been active for over a decade. The VINE service is not frequent enough and takes over 3 times longer than if you drove it. In other words — not good enough. If we have adequate public transporation we will not have to devote so much space to parking. I will support working with the county to expanding our public transportation infrastructure to comply with better service and frequency, even across county lines.
This just goes without saying. Good for residents, visitors and businesses