Paulin Creek Is Dry
The neighbors, some of whom have been here longer than the 20 years I have, are fretting because Paulin Creek has gone dry for the first time in memory. So far this year, we have escaped wildfires in this area, but the anniversary of the 2017 Tubbs fire is a couple of days away. This summer has been cool — I have only worn shorts a couple of times — and we got a few sprinkles of rain in September, but the fire hazard does not abate until the first good rain. No rain is in the 10 day forecast.
As soon as he survived the recall election, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law:
S.B. 9 allows duplexes to be built in most neighborhoods across the state, including places where apartments have long been banned. It essentially ends single-family zoning, but with a modest shift: Under the bill, property owners can build up to three additional units on their land, allowing single-family homes to be transformed into as many as four units.
S.B. 10 reduces environmental rules on multifamily housing and makes it easier for cities to add high-density development.
It is true we need more moderate-income housing and new shelters to accommodate the homeless, increasing population density as water supply diminishes and wildfires become annual predicts a downtrend in quality of life for Sonoma County. The number of county residents who were shelterless became exacerbated after the Tubbs/Nuns fires in 2017, the Kincade fire in 2019 and the Glass fire last year (2020). I realize that the outlook is trending in the wrong direction.