THE LATEST BUG to throw Mendocino County grape growers into a tiz is the European grapevine moth (EGVM). According to the USDA, 100,959 adult moths were found in California in 2010, including 36 in Mendocino County. In 2011, only 143 were found statewide, a 99.9 percent reduction over the previous year.

NONE OF THE YURP moths were found in Mendocino County last year, meaning the Hopland area escaped a quarantine and Ukiah may have its lifted. A quarantine means all “movement and handling of grapes” is strictly regulated. To battle the moths, growers and their Ag Department helpers, put up 2,000 traps in vineyard areas along with “pheromone confusion” traps, which emit the scent that female moths use to attract male moths. And, in a couple of instances, vineyards were sprayed.

A DECADE or so ago the Glassy Wing Sharpshooter allegedly menaced the vineyards. We advertised for mating pairs of the ravenous little beasties hoping to retard the conversion of Mendocino County’s hills and dales to grapes, but no one seemed to have any for sale and, as it turned out, they were also invisible in the vineyards (although lots of taxpayer dollars were wasted looking for them).

LA DI DAH propaganda aside, the wine industry is a chemically dependent, industrial enterprise heavily reliant on cheap immigrant labor, for whom, the labor that is, the industry assumes virtually no responsibility. The wine biz is often a major tax write-off for mostly wealthy people who seem to get major thrills holding their wine glasses up to their cocaine-numbed nostrils. The industry also gets a lot of tax-funded assistance from Ag departments and grape gofers at places like UC Extension in Hopland.

CALIFORNIA’S Secretary of State, Debra Bowen, has given no explanation for omitting two of the four Peace and Freedom Party presidential candidates from the primary ballot, but here’s the explanation: it’s all part of an ongoing effort to exclude third parties from the Corporate Two Party Super Bowl every two and four years. Peace and Freedom Party State Chair C.T. Weber of Sacramento P&F calls the latest assault on what’s left of our fragged democracy “unlawful,” and the omitted candidates are protesting the decision.

IN THE CANDIDATE’S LIST announced Monday night, Bowen included Stewart Alexander and Rocky Anderson on the ballot, but Peta Lindsay and Stephen Durham — the socialist candidates — were left off.  Weber was unable to get an explanation for the omission when he went to the Secretary of State’s Sacramento office the next  day.

IT DOESN’T TAKE lots of computers

To count the glassy-winged sharpshooters

The numbers are so low

That even McGourty would know

That it’s better to count the polluters

Ramiro Hernandez Farias

From behind the glass partition in Yuba County Jail’s basement visiting room, Ramiro Hernandez Farias speaks matter-of-factly about the incredible ordeal to which he has been subjected by both Mexican drug cartel paramilitaries and the Mendocino County branch of the US drug war.

Farias, 28, has never been charged with a crime. Yet, for more than six months, he has been confined within a prison cage in the small, economically depressed town of Marysville, on the northern end of California’s Central Valley. He finally departs on February 14th, only to attend a hearing in San Francisco where an immigration judge will determine if he is allowed to remain in the United States – or whether he must return to his native Mexico. If he’s sent back, he will likely be tortured and killed by one of the country’s most violent drug cartels, La Familia Michoacán.

While reciting the events that have led to his harrowing predicament, Farias’ otherwise calm and measured voice becomes tinged with sadness, perhaps also some resignation, as he discusses the fate of his wife, Flor, and their six-year-old son, Eric.

“I think all the time about my family,” he says through an interpreter. “They’re suffering a lot economically, and also emotionally because of the distance between us.”

Until this past July 21st, the family lived together in a small Ukiah home off of South State St. Flor, a US citizen, attended classes at Mendocino College and looked after the couple’s domestic life, including raising Erik. Ramiro put in long hours as a landscaper and laborer for Saul’s Vineyard Contracting of Ukiah, as well as for Rosewood Vineyards in Redwood Valley, owned for more than a quarter century by Tia and Troy Satterwhite. His former bosses have praised his hard work and friendly disposition, with the Satterwhites calling him “pleasant to be around and more than willing to lend a hand if you needed one.”

In a tragic irony, Farias was arrested as part of “Operation Full Court Press,” the much-ballyhooed regional program targeting large-scale marijuana cultivation on public lands, the main target ostensibly being Mexican drug cartels. Yet, Farias has also gone remarkably far out of his way to avoid associating with the cartels, having fled to the US when La Familia’s forerunner, Los Zetas, invaded his hometown of Tumbiscatio, Michoacán in 2003-04. What is more, he was not involved in marijuana cultivation whatsoever at the time of his arrest.

Farias’ crime was simply being an undocumented person in the wrong place at the wrong time, caught in the nexus between the US’ vast drug war and its growing criminalization of undocumented people, Latinos in particular.

Farias’s Detention

Farias comes from a large, tight-knit family in which he is the oldest surviving male – on both his and his wife’s side. Most of the family now lives in Ukiah, with some members living in Los Angeles. On this particular day, Farias accompanied his sister Antonia, 21, and her husband, Galdino, 24, on a day trip. It was Antonia’s lone day-off from her six-day-a-week work schedule in Santa Rosa. Being that she was seven months pregnant, Antonia was seeking some much-needed exercise and stress relief.

Farias decided to accompany his sister on a daytrip to the chaparral-covered slopes of Cow Mountain Recreation Area, the sprawling recreational expanse that stretches out high above Ukiah to its west and Clear Lake to its east.

Cow Mountain resides on a large tract of BLM land, which made it a heavily patrolled area during Full Court Press. It seems that many of the federal agents involved were not on the hunt for pot grows per se, however, but rather for virtually anyone they could find with brown skin. While Farias and his family were enjoying their hike, a BLM agent was closely studying who was traversing the roads leading to the facility, his attentive gaze matched by that of an ICE agent riding shotgun.

Antonia recalls that quite a few people hanging out on Cow Mountain that day, but no other Latinos. As soon as they drove past the ranger’s vehicle, the siren lights went on and they were pulled over. The BLM ranger explained that the small decorative item hanging from the rearview mirror constituted a traffic violation, being that it obstructed the driver’s view. It was precisely the sort of petty traffic stop pretext with which countless Latino drivers are all too familiar, which some of them translate into the catch-all term DWB — Driving While Brown.

After asking to see Galdino’s driver’s license, the ranger wasted no time in asking everyone if they are legal US residents. Farias volunteered that he was not. Before long, the feds had cuffed him and sat him down on the ground, to the side of the vehicle in which he was a passenger.

“I thought that nothing was going to happen, because there was no reason for anything to happen – we were doing nothing wrong,” he recalls. That was before he realized the man accompanying the ranger was part of ICE. “I began to think that probably I was going to have problems, and possibly have to return to my country.”

At that point, the ICE agent started asking Farias about his family. He asked if Farias’ wife was in the country legally, whether she was working. There were other questions about his wife and son, clearly implying that some harm may befall them if Farias didn’t cooperate.

“I got very worried thinking about what will happen to my family, because they’re dependent on me,” Farias says.

The traffic stop persisted for an hour and a half. During most of that time, the feds’ interrogation targeted Antonia and Galdino.

“They were asking me in front of my husband if [Ramiro and Galdino] were doing anything illegal,” says Antonia, who speaks English fluently and has recently become a legally-recognized US resident. “Then when I said they weren’t, they took me into their car and one guy was asking me the same things a bunch of times again to try to make me say they were. They tried to make me tell them that they were doing something illegal there, but they weren’t. Even when I said they weren’t, [the agents] tried to make me say they were.”

Finally, they let the married couple go, but not before the ICE agent threatened Antonia that he would see her “soon.” They said they could have taken me too, but I was pregnant at that time,” she says. “I was in the process of getting my residence then.” The traumatic incident has left her afraid to go out in public for fear of further harassment by immigration authorities and local police.

Farias was taken to Mendocino County Jail in Ukiah, where he remained for four days. Three more ICE agents met him at the jail. During his first two days there, he was interrogated three different times.

Most of their questions focused on marijuana. Could he tell them about his involvement in marijuana growing? Can he give them the names of growers he’s worked with? In not so many words, the ICE agent offered to allow him to stay in the country if he provided the information they sought.

“I didn’t have any of that information, so I couldn’t give it to them,” Farias notes.

Initially, he was detained in a room with seven other people, five of whom he recalls as being undocumented Latinos. Two of them were also interrogated by ICE about marijuana cultivation. In his final two days in Ukiah, he was moved to the isolation of his own cell. On the morning of the 25th, he was driven to ICE’s detention facility in San Francisco, which has as its stated purpose making “certain through the enforcement of U.S. immigration laws that all removable aliens depart the United States.”

As an immigrant justice advocate with Multifaith Voices for Peace and Justice quipped, “’Removable aliens’! Is that anything like removable tape? So handy!”

At various points, Farias’ interrogators asked him to sign legal documents written in English, which most likely contained pledges to go back to Mexico and never return to the US. He says he refused to sign them without seeing a judge and attorney first. He soon found himself on a van headed to Oakland along with 15 other so-called “removable aliens,” then on another bus up to the jail in Yuba County, which has a contract with ICE to house roughly 150 immigrants at a given time.

Unfortunately for Farias, he was deported once before, in 2004, while attempting to cross the border in Arizona. That means the government doesn’t have to place him before an immigration judge. Rather, they can reinstate the previous judge’s removal order, then ship him back without letting him see a judge. The only difference in his case was that an ICE asylum officer ruled that he does, in fact, have a reasonable fear of being tortured by the La Familia cartel. His fate will be determined on Feb. 14, at a hearing on Withholding of Removal and Convention Against Torture in San Francisco.

Full Court Press’ Main Target – Growers or Immigrants?

“Operation Full Court Press” rolled into action during three weeks this past July and August, executed by platoons of sheriff’s deputies, DEA agents, BLM rangers, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, and 23 other local, state and federal agencies. They descended on the so-called Emerald Hexagon” — Colusa, Glenn, Lake, Mendocino, Tehama and Trinity Counties – with the stated objective of eradicating large marijuana grows on public lands. In this relatively brief period, the more than 400 law enforcement personnel involved destroyed more than 400,000 cannabis plants and arrested around 150 people.

Many public officials labeled the operation a straightforward effort to combat drug cartels, particularly federal officials. Sheriff Tom Allman and other local architects of the program have stopped short of making those claims. Allman has framed the matter in more provincial terms, albeit admirable ones: “Are public lands public, or have they been turned into private lands because the rest of us are too afraid to go there?” he asked at a meeting of Garberville’s Rotary Luncheon this past September.

Another widely supported goal of the program was to undo the vast environmental harm the grows are causing, including the removal of 12 river dams at various grow sites (the biggest and most harmful dams, such as those erected by the Army Corps of Engineers, of course being politically untouchable).

But many of the other agencies involved assume they were fighting drug cartels. To take only one example, in an October 5th press release, the Sacramento Air Unit of the San Diego Air and Marine branch of US Border Patrol – which customarily patrols the border via elaborate choppers – straightforwardly announced that Full Court Press’ purpose was to combat “a vast network of clandestine marijuana gardens that were being cultivated on behalf of Mexican drug trafficking organizations.”

The extent to which Mexican nationals truly control the public lands grows in Mendo and surrounding counties remains an open question. Full Court Press arrest data that has come to light has been confusing and contradictory. Initially, it was announced that 132 people had been arrested as part of the program, of whom only 14 were foreign nationals. Presumably, most of the rest were white caucasians. Later, Ronald Brooks of the Drug Enforcement Agency reported virtually the opposite: of 131 suspects arrested during the operation, all but 11 were foreign nationals.

The latter data appears to be closer to the truth. The Anderson Valley Advertiser is conducting its own analysis of Operation Full Court Press arrest statistics, though we have only obtained information concerning cases under the jurisdiction of the Eastern District of California in Sacramento as of this writing. Out of 29 Operation Full Court Press cases there, 12 involve individuals charged with various marijuana cultivation offenses. All of these individuals have Hispanic surnames.

The other 17 defendants have been charged with immigration violations. It is not clear how many in the latter group were involved in marijuana cultivation, or whether they were simply detained by virtue of being an undocumented person in the wrong place at the wrong time, as with Farias. We intend to finish compiling the arrest data in time for next week’s issue.

Clearly, though, the combination of ICE’s involvement and most other agencies’ explicit targeting of Mexican cartels has led to intensive racial profiling, and thus to lengthy detentions of people merely for being undocumented. In addition to Farias, the AVA is currently aware – based on extremely limited information – of two other long-time Mendocino County residents arrested during Operation Full Court, but who are not demonstrably involved in marijuana cultivation.

One of these, Victor Palominos Aparicio of Ukiah, was deported to Mexico at the end of January. Another, Ruben Leon has been held without charges since his arrest, as with Farias.

Amazingly, ICE’s stated policy not to issue detainers except in cases involving criminal activity. A draft of ICE’s immigrant detention policy dated September 23, 2009 states that “immigration officers shall issue detainers [i.e., arrest undocumented people] only after a [local law enforcement agency] has exercised its independent authority to arrest the alien for a criminal violation.”

Yet, in glaring contradiction to policy, roughly 40 percent of the approximately 32,000 people housed at any given time in US immigration detention facilities in the US have not been charged with a crime. Although ICE claims to target violent criminals and sex offenders only, just one third of those it has detained have been convicted of felonies.

Emily Tucker, director of policy and advocacy at Detention Watch based in Washington, DC., notes that ICE’s written policy and de facto policy are often entirely different.“There are two separate issues: ICE’s stated priority of deporting quote-unquote ‘criminals,’ and then there’s how someone comes to ICE’s attention in the first place,” she says. “ICE officers in field not living up to immigration priorities.

She adds, “They’re also relying increasingly on local law enforcement, and we know there is terrible racial profiling happening across the country. Police stop people ostensibly for a traffic violation, then use that as a pretense to investigate someone’s immigration status.”

While the Obama administration has announced immigration reform as a part of its domestic policy agenda, it nevertheless set a new record for deportations in a single year in 2011, removing nearly 400,000 undocumented immigrants according to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement data.

Farias’s Defense

Because they are not permitted public attorneys, people in Farias’ predicament must rely on lawyers willing to work pro bono, or else they receive no representation at all. One tireless attorney who represents several undocumented people at a given time is Rick Coshnear of Santa Rosa, a member of the Committee for Immigrant Rights of Sonoma County who even conducted a well-publicized hunger strike last year to demand that Sonoma County – where local police refer arrestees to ICE to a vastly disproportionate extent – end its collaboration with federal immigration authorities, except in cases involving major crimes.

Coshnear is attempting to demonstrate that Farias merits political asylum under the International Convention Against Torture. It is an uphill battle, however. It is exceptionally rare for Mexican immigrants who have been targeted by cartels to receive asylum status.

To receive asylum, an individual has to show not only fear of persecution, but that is based on one of five protected grounds: race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group. There are a lot of people who can show a reasonable fear of torture and violence in Mexico, but they can’t show that it would be based on those criteria.

The ICE asylum officer who interviewed Farias did note in a written statement that “[Farias] presented testimony that was believable, consistent, and sufficiently detailed. Therefore, he was found to be credible,” even though the officer did not find that Farias reasonable fear was on one of the five protected grounds.

As part of the defense, Coshnear has solicited letters of support from various people who have close knowledge of Farias’ character or of his detention’s impact on his family. One of these, Cristina Cruz, is a primary care counselor at Mendocino Community Health Clinic in Ukiah. She explained in a letter to immigration authorities dated December 22, 2011,

“[Farias' son] Erik has been able to be in touch with his father through telephone calls; however, Erik misses him terribly and continues to beg him to come back home. Mrs. Lopez reported Erik was having a hard time concentrating at school and had a sad demeanor… Children tend to blame themselves for their parents’ acts. Erik associated doing something bad that pushed his father to leave him… The lasting psychological trauma such as loss of interest, inability to concentrate, and sadness, typical of depression, impair Erik’s ability to function socially, academically, and personally.”

Coshnear notes that he is handling more and more drug cartel cases. “For me, it’s a minority of cases, but it’s growing as the cartels in Mexico become more and more dominant in Mexican life.”

Drug Cartels

In looking at Farias’ harrowing history involving drug cartels, it helps to take a step back. If Mexican drug cartels are now prominent in Mendocino County’s cannabis industry, how did they gain their foothold here? How, in fact, did they become so dominant in Mexico?

While there is a border between the US and Mexico, the drug wars in the two nations are entirely connected – a fact highlighted tragically in Ramiro Hernandez Farias’ case. As an example, La Familia Michoacán is a splinter organization of the more widely known Los Zetas organization, which was largely a creation of the Reagan-era Latin American counter-insurgency campaigns of the ’80s.

As of the mid-1980s, Mexico was home to a small national distribution for marijuana and heroin. The role of drug violence in Mexican life was relatively small. At around that time, the US acted to shut off the flow of cocaine from Colombia and Peru into Miami. Given Mexico’s 2,000-mile border with the United States, the drug trafficking syndicates responded by relocating their transportation hubs there, making for a greatly improved flow of illicit substances to El Norte.

The Reagan administration at the same time was dead-set on exporting its moralistic notion of combating the drug trade through military means. Mexico initiated its own drug war, in large part as a way of catering to US demands. If the point of this program was, in fact, actually to halt drug trafficking, it backfired in spectacular fashion. One of Mexico’s first drug czars, José de Jesús Gutiérrez Rebollo, was convicted while still in office of aiding the drug lord Amado Carrillo Fuentes.

Meanwhile, the US’ infamous School of the Americas counter-insurgency training facility at Fort Benning, GA, trained an elite commando unit of 31 individuals to locate and apprehend drug dealers. Their main target was supposed to be the infamous Gulf Cartel led by Cardenas Osiel, who bought the entire commando group wholesale – all 30 of them. Thus, the US-trained anti-narcotics specialists became the backbone of Los Zetas, long considered Mexico’s most violent cartel and enforcement group.

La Familia Michoacán, the organization that targeted Ramiro Hernandez Farias’ family, and which may now target Farias again if he is shipped back to Mexico, is a splinter group of Los Zetas. It first gained national attention in September 2006, when some of its members stepped into a crowded nightclub and rolled five severed heads onto the dance floor.

Following is a letter from Ramiro Hernandez Farias’ older sister, Maria, 41, who also lives in Ukiah, to the immigration authorities who oversee her brother’s case:

I, Maria Hernandez, am writing this letter on behalf of my brother, Ramiro Hernandez. I beg that my brother not be deported to Mexico since my entire family and I have been directly threatened by the gang known as “Zetas” who dominate the state of Michoacán.

We are originally from the small town of Tumbiscatio, Michoacan. However, we can no longer return to our home town because as of July of 2005 the “Zetas” began their reign of terror. It was at this time when rumors began to circulate that the gang began to threaten, kidnap, and kill people in other small towns in our area. Then in August 2005 at around 12:00 p.m. we saw approximately 35 trucks full of armored men coming towards our town. However, only ten entered into our town and began to terrorize us. The other trucks went to other small towns nearby to commit the same crimes.

They began entering each home pointing their weapons at us, tying us up and covering our mouths. They would scream at the small children who began crying to be quiet. Next to my home I owned a small store. They stole everything. They also took many of our personal belongings. They also stole my 1998 Ford pickup.

My brother, Andres, and his wife, Angelica Rubio, who at the time lived across the street from me suffered the same thing. The Zetas entered their homes, tied them up and threatened them.

This horrible ordeal lasted until approximately 4:00 p.m. I was able to see when the other trucks began to return from the other small towns. I saw one dead body covered up in one of their pickups and I also saw a severely injured person literally trying to hold his intestines in place. They cut him open. He later died from his wounds.

A neighbor of mine, Julian Ortiz, was kidnapped. We thought they were going to kill him. Fortunately, he was found four days later wandering in the mountains, beaten by the Zetas.

We no longer felt safe, we could not sleep. My two sons, Diego, who was 10 years old at the time and Carlos, who was seven years old at the time suffered much trauma. So three days later we decided to leave to Uruapan, Michoacan and we haven’t returned since. We left almost everything behind.

At this time we have no family members living in Tumbiscatio because of the threats and trauma that we suffered. The following year, in 2006, my uncle, Hipolito Farias was kidnapped and told that he had to join the Zetas. Since he refused, they released him, but as punishment they cut off three toes from one foot and two from the other foot. Then in March 2011 my brother, Jose, was also kidnapped by the Zeta. We had to pay the ransom for his release.

The Zetas have control of our land. Those neighbors who have braved to stay in Tumbiscatio are always living in fear and have to follow their instructions to stay alive. They cannot complain to the authorities for fear of retaliation and death because many of them work for the Zetas.

It should also be noted that my brother’s wife, Flor Jessica Lopez, who used to live in Tumbiscatio has also been impacted by violence. While living in Tumbiscatio her father was murdered in August 2003. The guilty party was never found. The police put no effort into looking for those responsible. So she and her family decided to leave Tumbiscatio for fear that if they stayed they could also have been killed. They have not returned since. My sister-in-law, Flor, fears for her life. Should she be forced to return to Tumbiscatio with her husband, Ramiro, she would suffer emotionally. This would create a great hardship for Ramiro.

Therefore, I beg that my brother, Ramiro, not be deported to Mexico. Please allow him to stay in the United States. I pray that he be shown leniency. I am not saying that he deserves anything but I ask that mercy be shown to my brother and his wife and that he be given the privilege to live in the United States.

Sincerely, Maria Hernandez

ICE Special Agent Jennifer Holman, who supervised the agency’s involvement in Operation Full Court Press, did not respond to requests for comment as of press time.

Part II of this story will appear next week. For information on supporting Ramiro Hernandez Farias, e-mail Rick Coshnear at rlcoshnear@gmail.com. Thanks to Lucy, Orion, Agustin, and Lucy for their various help with this story.

What’s driving the Stacey Surge? Lots of things. The Federal Elections Commission’s website isn’t currently reporting the most recent itemized list of her contributors — the latest item on the list is from Sept. 30 — but a quick look at this earlier breakdown is interesting. It accounts for $236,710 of the $433,000 in itemizable contributions that she’s now reporting.

San Francisco high society figure and political queenmaker Susie Tompkins Buell maxed out her Lawson contributions early, giving $5,000 to the campaign. People with the last name of “Lawson” gave a total of $21,000. And there are lots and lots of contributions from Silicon Valley executives and people associated with high finance nationwide.

But there’s another sector of the economy that’s showing a clear preference for Lawson: Big New Age. Lawson herself, as has been previously noted, is something of a player in the Witchy World of Woo-Woo, with a specialty in the intersection of the New Age and management theory. Her fellow wooers have been digging deep to teleport one of their own to Capitol Hill. A couple of hours of research ties at least 15% of her available itemized contributions to this area of her life.

Start with the $10,000 she received from the family of George Zimmer, he of Men’s Wearhouse fame. As a recent Santa Rosa Press Democrat story reported, Lawson and Zimmer are both on the board of the Petaluma-based Institute of Noetic Science, which conducts research into telekinesis and other mind-over-matter affairs. Lawson herself conducted a “teleseminar” for the Institute in 2007, and currently serves as its research committee chair.

Lawson’s campaign picked up an additional $2,000 from William Sechrest, the Institute’s chairman.

People associated with the Pennsylvania-based Pillai Center for Mind Science have also given generously. The man himself — Dr. Baskaran Pillai — chipped in the maximum $5,000. The family of Dr. Vish Iyer — like Lawson herself, a director of the Pillai-related Tripura Foundation — were good for another $10,000. Beth DesMarais of the astrology-based Pillai spinoff Astroved kicked in $550. Sonja Benkovich of Vaaak Sounds, a company that runs the main Pillai website, gave $500.

Up in Wisconsin, the family of Jim Walsh of the HESA Institute (“Human Energy Systems Alliance”) gave $6,000. And back at the astral center of the New Age, Michael Murphy, former chairman of the Esalen Institute, gave another $5,000.

Strangely enough, though, Lawson’s own videos promoting her New Ageish work have mostly disappeared from the Internet. She once ran a YouTube channel called “StaceyTV,” but the videos in that channel are almost all gone. A site called “SpiriTube” has preserved the links, and also offers descriptions of the videos:

• Stacey Lawson talks about the yogic teaching “You Become As You Think” and about what both scientist and mystics are learning about the power of the mind.

• How To Be Happy, Love More and Create a Great Life. In this video, Stacey Lawson interviews best-selling author Byron Katie on how Love can dissolve our stories and bring us face-to-face with Reality.

Mike.

At 6’3” and 195 pounds, Mike was the perfect picture of a man in fine physical health. An optimistic attitude about life, exceptional mental and physical strength and the kind of man that always made you feel good about yourself and just happy to be alive. A kind, sensitive man who radiated a positive and rewarding energy to those individuals who were fortunate enough to meet him. If you were introduced to him, he’d always shake your hand, you never forgot his firm yet very warm, sincere handshake, like no other. Driving around Anderson Valley in his White ’63 Chevy, people said he reminded them of Clint Eastwood in the movie “Bridges of Madison County.” A real fine country gentleman with a gentle disposition and one of the few people I know who actually sincerely listened to whatever you wanted to talk about.

Little did many Valley residents know that this fine strapping gentleman had been diagnosed with cancer 21 years previous and, with a strong, determined mind to match his body, had beaten the odds with no obvious visible signs of the disease. Many a time he told me that he was convinced that his regular vigorous Tennis exercise program was the main reason he felt he had kept his cancer at bay all those years. His never ending quest to play everyone in the Valley at least once was sometimes overshadowed by his determination to beat everyone at least once as well.

Everyone who ever played tennis with Mike knew that he was the first person on the court in the morning, sometimes sweeping up the newly windswept sand on the courts or cutting back the berry vines that grew through the fence and, most importantly, making sure the net was the correct height for play when his formidable opponents arrived. He was always determined to do his best with the courts available at Anderson Valley High School to mitigate any excuses for losing a match.

It is therefore debatable that anybody had as close a relationship with tennis in Anderson Valley and with the maintenance of the courts at the High School than Mike had. Except for his close personal friends, hardly anyone who played tennis with him knew of his 20 year-old victory over cancer. Nobody, except for maybe his wife Maureen, knew of the pivotal role tennis played in his life both in the Valley and elsewhere. Everyone who played tennis with Mike, whether an adversary or partner, played tennis like they played against everyone else, and that’s that way Mike wanted it. There were no excuses! Not health, age, height, weight, gender, socioeconomic, race, national origin, disability, religion, or education. Not many a day was too cold, or too hot! If you won, you won, and if you lost, you lost. You did your best, beaten fair and square and with Mike, there was no mercy either!

Mike used to say that the most wonderful thing about tennis is that anyone can play. That the cost of entry to Tennis was merely a tennis racket and a can of balls. To be in such a beautiful setting like Anderson Valley, well, we in the valley can all relate to this wonderful experience, even not playing tennis. I can remember more than a handful of occasions while playing tennis when Mike would make me stop for a moment and look around. The trees blanketing the north slopes and the meadows flowing over the south slopes, the cool crisp mornings and the gentle afternoon breezes. The blue sky, the clean fresh air and the wonderful human beings who make up the community of Anderson Valley. If you knew Mike, you’d always hear him say, “Isn’t this wonderful,” and I for one still hear him and would like to share his story and his wish for Anderson Valley with you.

When Mike informed me that his cancer had returned for what he felt was the last time, he expressed how he loved Anderson Valley, the natural beauty, the people here, and playing tennis at the High School in Boonville. For the first time he also revealed to me that he had always felt the condition of tennis courts was the single most important aspect that took away from the enjoyment of the game in such a perfect setting, that in his entire lifetime he had not played on courts that were in such disrepair.

“It’s the most beautiful scenic location I’ve ever played tennis, but the tennis courts are in such bad shape I think they may actually be affecting the outcome of a game, and they’re only getting worse,” he said. “When I go, I will set aside a fund to hopefully restore the courts to their original condition so that children growing up here can be as fortunate as I was to learn to play tennis on a flat surface, without ruts and bumps and grooves.” He went on, “I’m going to leave some money for the courts, but you cannot tell anyone about it until I’m gone. This is such a beautiful valley and playing on proper tennis courts would be such a wonderful experience for children and adults alike and such an asset for all in Anderson Valley.”

Mike was right! Mike is still right, and he’s backed it up with his own personal savings. Why not have decent and proper tennis courts for this community? Why not provide a place for our children where they can share and learn all that comes from such a wonderful game? Why shouldn’t tennis players feel that they were playing each other on a level playing field (no pun intended)? Why not that when a person or team won, it was because they were at that time and place, better than the other and an irregular ball bounce didn’t affect the outcome of the game? And why not provide children of the valley an outlet for their bounding youthful energy, enthusiasm, optimism, interest and excitement?

Why not? As we all know like just about everything else, it’s about the money. I am delighted to inform you that the process has already begun! Mike brought more tennis players out of hiding and some good ones too! There are times when you may have to wait for a court on the weekends in summer and since Mike’s passing, several players have now committed to joining the United States Tennis Association (USTA) and forming an Anderson Valley Tennis Team to play other towns and cities. For those interested in competitive tennis, the players and alternates thus far are: David Ballantine , Camille Corby, J.R. Collins, Tina Walter, Clive Silverman, Rich Ferguson, Peter Gordon, Jeannie Collins, Arnaud Weyrich

If you would like to try-out for one of the remaining spots available on the Anderson Valley Tennis team, please contact David Ballantine.

Several discussions have also taken place to coach and assist in the development of our youth playing tennis in the valley through the possible formation of the (AVTA) Anderson Valley Tennis Association. As Mike would often say, the children in this valley need something they can latch on to, something that can motivate them to exercise not only their bodies but their minds. Tennis not only helps keep us in shape and healthy, but also teaches coordination, patience, inspiration, personal satisfaction, persistence, perseverance, selflessness and teamwork in an intimate social environment. If you believe like the rest of us, these attributes form an integral part of an individual’s character which transcends to a better and closer community. Done right, these courts will probably last our lifetime. With the formation of the AVTA, the USTA has graciously offered to donate tennis rackets and balls to all who wish to learn or play tennis and cannot afford them.

We all know there are a multitude of fine causes in the Valley and we all receive their solicitations every year. These causes, worthy as they are, require annual donations to continue to survive year after year. What differentiates this cause from all the others is that not only is it self-sustaining, but a one-time event, a single call to action, a one-time tax deductible donation that provides the donor with the satisfaction knowing that the cause has been completed and will probably outlast the donor’s lifetime.

A gracious grant from Mike and Maureen Bowman has planted the seed to begin the restoration of all three Tennis Courts in Anderson Valley, for Anderson Valley Junior High and for Anderson Valley High School.

Many valley residents have already watered this seed and recently a donor has offered up to $45,000 in matching funds and I just received a call while writing this from a local winery pledging $6,000. We are already almost there and would like to begin this project before the 2012 summer season. If this valley has the motivation and wherewithal that Mike believed it had, we should receive donations to match the $45,000 to make this a reality this summer.

Here are the details for your tax deductible contribution:

For Credit Cards or PayPal

Select “Donor Advised Fund” from dropdown menu

See: Bowman Family Fund – Grants recommended by Maureen Bowman.

Select “Donate to this fund now”

For Checks

Payable to: Community Foundation of Mendocino County

Reference Bowman Family Fund in the MEMO section

290 South State Street, Ukiah, CA 95482. 468-9882

Besides asking for your hard earned money and with or without the tennis courts restored, I encourage anyone looking for a new experience, a game, a challenge, a dynamic social interaction or just plain exercise, won’t you come play with us?

Contact:

Clive Silverman, clive@hughes.net . 895-2024

David Ballantine, dballantine@msn.com, 895-2583

1980 … 21.3%,
1985 … 18.5%,
1990 … 21.0%,
1995 … 24.5%,
2000 … 25.2%,
2004 … 32.6%,
2008 … 36%

2008 being the year the Big Ponz took a Big Bounce, Zero-Tax Filers are undoubtedly now an even larger percentage of the population because more and more people simply don’t have the money to pay up even if they were inclined to. 2008, incidentally, was the last year these stats were released.

A SICK BAT recently found in the Ukiah area has tested positive for rabies.  It is the first animal testing positive in Mendocino County since 2008.  Rabies is a viral disease that affects the central nervous system.  The virus is usually passed to humans via the bite of a rabid animal.  Occasionally rabies can be transmitted if the saliva of an infected animal gets into a fresh scratch, break in the skin, or contact with eyes, mouth or nose.

STEVE SPARKS reminds us: ” These Valley Old-Timers have spent many, many years in Anderson Valley, their whole lives in some cases, and they will all be taking part in the A.V. Historical Society’s Roundtable Discussion entitled “Anderson Valley in the 30’s and 40’s” this Sunday, February 12th. This free event will be at The Grange on Hwy 128 beginning at 1.30pm and everyone is welcome to attend what will surely not only be a fascinating afternoon of old Valley stories and memories but also a unique piece of history in the making…Clyde Price Jr., Ben Van Zandt, Catherine Nobles (Sinott), Donna Cox (Reilly), Dick McAbee, Johnnie Pinoli, Berna McAbee (Walker), Eileen Brown (Pronsolino), Wes Smoot, Marian McAbee (Crosby), Gloria Ornbaun (Abbott), Pat Hulbert, Eva Pardini (Holcomb), Janese Brunton (June).”

THE GREENWOOD Creek Bridge at Elk, age 56, is being replaced. The new bridge, which will include a walkway, will be finished, CalTrans says, in the fall 2014 and cost $20.5 million.

SLOW LEARNER. I first ate at Original Joe’s in 1962, and soon after downed my second seminal Frisco meal at what to me was another upscale joint around the corner called Polo’s on Mason. The two restaurants were just about identical and, as a starving student, I couldn’t afford them very often, cheap as they were. Mostly, I ate at a four-table Chinatown place on Jackson where you could get two pork chops and gravy on a big plate of rice and cabbage for under a dollar. If I timed that meal at about noon, I was good for the day. But I left my heart at Joe’s. For many years Joe’s was the only place I looked forward to for a meal out. There was the pugnacious Puerto Rican chef behind the sit down counter and a gentlemanly Croatian waiter who always seemed to be there. All the waiters, even the Americans, were old world gentlemanly in their tuxedos and old world manners, but the two people I remember most vividly were the menacing chef and the unperturbable Croat, as natural an aristocrat as you could find. As a kid of twenty-one or so I always sat at the counter where the Puerto Rican, one of three or four multi-ethnic chefs always on duty, randomly ambushed fellow workers and select male patrons — only the males — with sudden barrages of insults  and bawdy remarks. He put on quite a show, and must have permanently estranged lots of customers who might put up with him once but never again. He asked me once, “How you doin’ with the girls? You know any young ones who want to meet a real man?” Another time I’d come in after some kind of demo still wearing a button that said something provocatively mawkish, like, “Love One Another.” The Chef asked me if I was a communist. I tried an evasively nuanced reply, “Well,” I began, “do you mean in the small ‘c’ sense…..” He cut me off. “You think I have time for your bullshit?” He didn’t have time for anybody’s bullshit, what with the non-stop demands of his job, but he certainly managed to keep up his bullshit, which he aimed scattershot at everyone within range, including people coming through the nearby door. He was also a great one for looming up in your face with a big roast knife in one hand like he was about to fly over the counter at you if you so much as lifted an eyebrow at him. He got his work done, though, and messing around like that probably helped him make his shift go faster. That guy was there for years, and for years the menu didn’t change. They say it still hasn’t changed, but you’d have to fight your way through North Beach’s shoals of trendo-groove-o’s and tourists to find out, and when you get inside you aren’t unlikely to be fake-menaced by a knife-wielding chef. Customers at the Old Joe’s were regular working people heavy on Chronicle reporters, cops, show biz people from up on Geary, gamblers, and older people who lived in the neighborhood. My daughter called it a “time warp,” and would chastize me, “Not everyone is as tolerant of aberrant behavior as you are.” (Embrace the asylum, I say. Embrace it!) The old Joe’s was always busy, but lots of people refused to go there “because of the neighborhood,” which, then and now, can be unnerving, especially for unescorted women and even the escorted ones if they happen to draw the attentions of a terminal. The prison writer Dannie Martin, a bank robber, who lived for a while across the street in a federal half-way house, told me, “I see more crime just looking out my window every day than I saw ten years in the joint.” Taylor near Market got progressively wilder over the four decades I ate at Joe’s, especially in the crack years. But Joe’s let all kinds of sketchy people in to eat so long as they behaved themselves. Then there was a fire and Joe’s closed for a long time before re-opening a couple of weeks ago in North Beach. Sketchy people are unlikely to get in the new place. It’s designed like a funnel. You’ve got to get through the small end to get inside to the big end, and it’s already jammed with the instant nostalgics, the people who never went to the old Joe’s “because of the neighborhood” but now say, “I loved that place.” Yearning for the old Joe’s, and like a fool somehow assuming the new Joe’s would be a replica of the old Joe’s, I tried to get in Saturday afternoon about 4. “We don’t serve dinner until 5,” a black-clad young person chirped as four more metro-sexuals bobbed their heads in back-up. The old Joe’s you could get most of the menu any time day or night, 11pm to 4am. I looked around at the new Joe’s, and not to be a reverse snob about it, except for the door handles, Joe’s was gone. It was all shiny and all shiny people and, taken whole, about as diverse as the Redwood Room at the Clift. I walked around the corner to Cafe Sport on Green where the food is always good and the Mexican waiters slick their hair back to look like the Italians who own the place. I don’t think it’s changed since the day it opened.

THE KIDS who go to school on the bus

Should put up a pretty big fuss

If bus budgets are cut

It’d hit the kids in the gut

While the educrats say, Don’t cut us

“Buy on the fringe and wait. Buy land near a growing city! Buy real estate when other people want to sell. Hold what you buy!” — John Jacob Astor, real estate speculator-cum-fur trader and global opium trafficker.

* * *

Throughout much of the North Bay and North Coast, real estate values closely correlate with the value of wine. In recent decades, the wine industry’s relentless development of “raw land” — as industrial agriculturists refer to forests, prairies, savannahs, meadows, deserts, or any other landbase not yet totally subsumed by the industrial economy — into vineyards has markedly driven up regional property prices. The industry has further impacted real estate values via its integration with the real estate economy as a whole. More than any other artifact or image, it is the vineyard and wine glass that have come to epitomize the “Good Life” of Northern California for a global market of real estate investors, vacation-takers, and home buyers. The political and business establishment tout wine’s economic impact in triumphalist terms, virtually never exploring the dark sides of gentrification and growing inequality.

With the 2007-8 collapse of the real estate market, and the attendant decline of pricey “premium” wine brands, new forms of predatory real estate capital have emerged to prey on the “distressed assets” that now pervade the suburbs, exurbs, and countryside. “Distressed” is a financial sector euphemism for assets that have lost significant value due to the fact that the middle class has been gutted by foreclosures, high unemployment, loss of savings and other factors. Most often, of course, those who are truly distressed by this state of affairs are families or individuals who can no longer afford to pay bills, save, or even survive, let alone purchase the growing inventory of foreclosed homes that have glutted the market.

To understand how this development ties into the fate of this area’s wine industry, it helps to recount the rise and recent fall of one of the wine industry’s largest speculative entities of the last decade, Premier Pacific Vineyards (PPV).

William Hill’s Forte

The first person to hit upon the full potential of wine’s value as a speculative real estate asset was one of PPV’s two co-chairman, William Hill, whose greatest forte across his four-decade career has been to feed the same venture capital and institutional investor capital that had provided the impetus for the Bay Area’s housing/commercial real estate and high tech sectors into a vortex of constant land speculation in the mountain regions of Napa, Sonoma, and Mendocino counties.

Hill was a sandy blond haired recent alumnus of Stanford Graduate School of Business in the early 1970s when he ventured forth from his job as Bay Area real estate investment adviser to scout raw land for grapevines in Napa Valley. His initial foray as a vineyard developer was on a steep slope in the Mayacamas Mountains range above Calistoga, a property he named “Diamond Mountain,” where his crews cleared 120 forested acres to install Cabernet and Chardonnay grapes. In 1978, he sold the property (“flipped” it) to one of the world’s largest corporations, Coca-Cola. The pattern repeated itself numerous times over the years, with Hill developing and flipping vineyard estates to institutional investors or large corporations.

The frenetic pace of regional vineyard development reached its statistical zenith in the late-1990s. Such was Hill’s ambition in this period that he partnered with a Willits lumber tycoon named Rich Padula in a preposterous scheme to clear-cut 5,000 acres of redwood forest on a 20,000 parcel in the Gualala River watershed, just outside of Annapolis. Admittedly, this was a more restrained proposal than the 10,000-acre conversion of forest to grapes Padula originally put forward. Hill soon withdrew from the plan.

Waiting in the wings was one of California’s leading real estate investment specialists, Richard Wollack, who previously chaired the country’s largest so-called “limited partnership” investment firm, Liquidity Fund of Emeryville. Limited partnerships involve investors who have limited legal liability and are not involved in day-to-day management of the project. It’s an open secret within the financial sector that they often exist for the primary purpose of steering investors’ money into tax shelters, with those who operate them commonly known as “shelter packagers.” As one of the United States’ leading shelter packagers, Wollack had formed extensive ties to investors throughout the country.

Hill and Wollack formed a company called Premier Pacific Vineyards, initially with the goal of raising $85 million in $1 million increments from pension and other funds around the world. Their plan was to follow the same pattern as Hill had pursued throughout his career, except now on an even grander scale: buy land, clear it, flatten it, and install a vineyard, then sell to the highest bidder. The model was predicated on the idea that demand for high-end wine would continue to grow, and that the purchasing power of prospective upper-middle class wine drinkers would continue to expand.

In 2002, Wollack, a noted Democratic Party fundraiser and insider, landed the first of two $100 million investments from CalPERS (California Public Employees Retirement System). It was the first time CalPERS had ever invested in an agricultural venture. With this infusion of public cash, they purchased Rich Padula’s 20,000-acre parcel in the Gualala River watershed for $28.5 million, quickly pledging to clear the 1,700 acres of redwoods to install grapes. In keeping with the tendency of the most environmentally destructive corporations to attempt to recast their image via sophisticated public relations, PPV christened the project as “Preservation Ranch,” then promised to set aside part of the property as a conservation easement much of which they would “sustainably log.”

Premier Pacific also wasted little time in developing 18 new vineyards (from “raw land”), as well as purchasing some existing acreage. Three of these vineyards are in Anderson Valley. The company at one point claimed to own the largest vineyard portfolio in the country with acreage in Washington and Oregon, and holdings running up California’s coastal zones from Santa Barbara to the valley this fine publication calls home.

Pension Booze Revisited

In March 2010, we published a piece in the AVA called “Richard (Blum) Ellis’ North Coast Pension Booze,” in which we described the political economy underlying some of the most ecologically destructive vineyard projects in Sonoma and Mendocino Counties CalPERS and CalSTRS (California State Teachers Retirement Sytem) have become piggy banks for politically-connected private equity firms. A whopping 54% of the roughly $191 billion in CALPERS’ coffers were staked to the private equity market at that particular moment. In many cases, wealthy financiers who have given enormous sums of money to both the Democratic and Republican Parties — mostly the Democrats, who typically wield greatest power in Sacramento — are landing hundreds of millions in pension investments for their companies and pet projects.

In the article, we analyzed two extremely wealthy regional wine corporations. Premier Pacific Vineyards was one. The other was the parent company of Duckhorn Vineyards (owner of Anderson Valley’s Goldeneye Winery franchise), Global Investment Partners (GI Partners for short)

As we noted, GI Parners was an investment partnership of some of the most sophisticated players in the global real estate game. Its $26 million in seed money came courtesy of the world’s largest real estate brokerage firm, CB Richard Ellis (CBRE), which is owned by the private equity firm operated by Richard Blum — the billionaire husband of US Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA). As we examined in the series for the AVA two years ago, Blum is a consummate Democratic Party insider. His various companies have often secured eyebrow-raising investments from CalPERS.

Other initial investors in GI Partners included none other than Goldman Sachs, as well as John Paulson, a hedge fund manager who notoriously reaped billions by short-selling predatory housing loans in 2007. It didn’t take long for GI Partners to beef up on public pension money. By 2011, it ranked as California’s eighth largest private equity firm, with a whopping 69% of its roughly $6 billion coming from either CalPERS or CalSTRS.

CBRE’s sponsorship of GI Partners brought important connections. GI Partners co-founder Richard Magnuson was a managing director at CBRE. The firm’s other co-founders and current directors came from CBRE, Nomura, Vulcan Capital, and other top-tier corporations and private equity groups. To date, GI Partners has invested several billion in real estate. Its investment in Duckhorn counts for $250 million of its overall portfolio.

Of course, wealthy corporations — private equity firms included — have backed the wine industry’s expansion in numerous other instances. Institutional investors such as Prudential and John Hancock are large investors in vineyards, with wealthy individual investors who don’t buy vineyards of their own participate through private-equity investments, or through the public markets via real estate investment trusts.

To take just one example, the world’s largest private equity firm, TPG Capital of San Francisco (which is slightly larger than the second- and third-ranked Goldman Sachs Capital Partners and Carlyle Group), provided the bulk of the start-up financing for one of Wine Country’s largest outfits, Silverado Premium Properties of Napa and Sonoma, which owns 10,000 vineyard acres throughout California.

PPV’s Feats of Engineering

Not only did William Hill succeed in expanding the frontiers of wine industry funding, but he was also establishing entirely new frontiers of vineyard engineering, which would replicated by the biggest wine corporations such as Kendall-Jackson and E&J Gallo in the following years. Nearly every one of In each case, the vineyards were located in rocky soil high up on mountain benchlands or steep slopes, in climates that Hill and other observers considered to yield the highest caliber of grapes possible.

In 1980, for example, he undertook what was certainly the most audacious vineyard development in Northern California up to that point, on a 1300-acre property in a remote area of Napa called Atlas Peak. As James Conaway, author of Napa: Story of an American Eden, put it, “There wasn’t enough water on Atlas Peak for the rattlesnakes.” So Hill’s crews excavated some massive reservoir, one of them holding a whopping 960-acre feet (a typical large vineyard pond is 49-acre feet), to store water for irrigation and frost protection. They dynamited the hardpan soils and ripped them up with D-10 Caterpillars, using a six foot plow.

The property cost roughly $30 million in 1980 dollars to develop ($81.9 million adjusted for inflation). Hill’s primary investor was the multi-national firm Whitebread PLC, owner of the United Kingdom’s largest hotel brand, Premier Inn, as well as of the world’s second largest international coffee shop chain other than Starbucks, Costa Coffee. The impact of this property on nearby land values was in itself staggering.

All of these successes fed Hill’s manic pursuit of new mountain vineyard frontiers. Each development translating into greater riches for him and for his growing network of venture capital funders in the Bay Area and beyond. By 1990, he had secured access to enough capital to be developing four-five of these mountain vineyard parcels simultaneously.

One of these was way up on Peachland Road in Anderson Valley. One of the few people not employed by Hill who observed the development was a Division of Water Rights officer, who noted to this publication that he hadn’t seen destruction on such that scale since his involvement in the US military’s strafing of Laos during the Indochina wars of the early-1970s. Hill sold the property in a package deal to the British conglomerate Allied Lyons, again taking his profits and reinvesting them in still more mountain vineyard estates. This was the template for Premier Pacific Vineyards’ various ecological rampages, with Preservation Ranch as its crown jewel.

The project would involve clear-cutting forest, removing the trees’ stumps and root systems in their entirety, flattening out hilltops with massive bulldozers, and chemically sterilizing the land (basically creating an ecological deadzone), as well as drilling deep wells, installing large water reservoirs, and putting a large new straw into an already badly damaged watershed. It would involve a gravel mining operation, roughly 80 miles of fencing and 90 miles of road.

Recognizing that the success of the proposal was dependent on their ability to create a regional housing market in this remote area of the northern Sonoma Coast, Hill, Wollack, and company also at one point proposed to construct 116 luxury vineyard estate homes on the parcel.

As the Great Recession unfolded, however, the market for premium wines collapsed. “In 2008 with the economic hardships surrounding us, the foul mood of the US taxpayer, and resultant inventory bulge ensuing from slack retail sales, many thought the luxury good business was dead,” reads the Silicon Valley Bank’s 2011-2012 State of the Wine Industry Report. “Gone were the vestiges of conspicuous consumption and public celebrations.”

Vineyard lands acquired or created in the late 1990s and 2000s at sky-high prices have been unable to produce crops capable of fetching prices that equal high returns on earlier boom-time investments. Premier Pacific Vineyards banked on perpetual expansion of the market and lost. The same ecologically destructive — and thus capital-intensive — methods that characterized William Hill’s career heretofore have finally stopped paying him dividends.

“[PPV's] vineyards are first-class,” Mark Freund, Senior Relationship Manager at Silicon Valley Bank, told Financial Advisor magazine in a story published last week, “but the cost was above and beyond what anybody else had ever spent. They were dynamiting out stone to get these vineyards in.”

Throughout Sonoma and Mendocino Counties, big plans for expansion of winegrape plantations deeper into the woods and higher into the hills have become stalled. The economic downturn has undermined the political power of the wine industry.

Last week, Sonoma County’s new agricultural commissioner (and former Mendo Ag Commissioner), Tony Linegar, proposed a moratorium on new forest-to-vineyard conversions in the county (of which there are several on the table), with backing from a fragile coalition of the Board of Supervisors. Even many leaders of the regional wine industry quietly favor this proposal, which would help protect them from a market glut. The proposal’s fate is being decided at a meeting Tuesday as the AVA goes to press.

For its part, Premier Pacific Vineyards has all but gone belly-up. The company’s value declined 40% in a single year, prompting CalPERS to withdraw its funding from the project. To open the year, PPV laid off the majority of its work force. It then announced it was hiring none other than GI Partners to manage its remaining assets, “Preservation Ranch” included. Reportedly, the company is now looking to sell “Preservation Ranch.”

From Vineyards to Suburbs

At almost exactly the same time GI Partners took over management of Premier Pacific Vineyards’ numerous tracts, it announced it was buying up thousands of foreclosed homes in the Bay Area and beyond. Its agent in this process is the Oakland-based Waypoint Real Estate Group. Founded in 2008 by a pair of wunderkind entrepreneurs — one is a former NFL kicker for the New Orleans Saints football team, the other a mechanical and software engineer — Waypoint specializes in purchasing foreclosed homes and turning them into rental properties.

The misfortune of thousands of homeowners, in the absence of any kind of homeowner bailout by the government, is their prize. Of course, Waypoint spins this activity as a benevolent one: “The Waypoint solution centers on buying distressed single-family houses, renovating them, and then leasing them to residents via innovative leasing programs which are designed to provide a path to future home ownership for the residents.” Waypoint’s site also contends that it “currently owns and manages nearly 1,000 homes in California, and is poised to begin an aggressive national expansion program in 2012.”Many of these homes are the foreclosure epicenters of Contra Costa, Alameda, and Solano Counties, with others are in southern California. GI Partners recently injected $250 million into Waypoint, the beginning of an effort go on a national home-buying spree while residential real estate prices remain low.

According to GI Partners managing director Richard Magnuson, another $750 million will be invested into Waypoint if the initial quarter-billion meets certain returns. Most of this money, of course, comes courtesy of CALPERS and CALSTRS, not to mention the Florida State Board of Administration and the Teachers Retirement System for the State of Illinois. Although GI Partners is legally a private equity group, the actual equity it is investing comes largely from the same taxpayers as a group that the federal government neglected to bailout when the crisis began.

Waypoint’s executives have a variety of backgrounds related to the current business of grabbing land at deflated prices. One of Waypoint’s founder, Colin Wiel, the engineer, is a principle investor and executive of Rainforest Capital, a private equity group that has bought 10,000 acres of Panamanian forestlands. Rainforest Capital plans to build an “eco-hospitality community development,” called “Junglewood” in the forest. Additionally, the company is logging tropical hardwood, supposedly in a “sustainable” manner. Deforested lands will then be converted into carbon credit assets and sold to investors seeking to offset their emissions.

It’s no surprise then to see private equity firms active in the premium wine grape game now shifting serious capital into foreclosed homes. After all, as William Hill and Richard Wollack recognized long ago, as goes the wine industry now that this region has become Wine Country, so go real estate values. PPV’s new property manager, GI Partners — owner of Duckhorn and the Goldeneye Winery — is leading the pack in this transition from monopolizing high-value agricultural holdings in the boom market of the 2000s to monopolizing low-value rental housing in the current mega-bust.

In Sonoma County, the number of property foreclosures went from virtually none in 2006 to 4,771 in 2009 and 3,333 in 2011. The regional wine country’s foreclosure rate is statistically greater than the national average. It remains to be seen if the “Preservation Ranch” land’s current reprieve will hold out, or if it will be gobbled up by an investment entity hunting for distressed assets. One thing is clear, however. As predatory entities like GI Partners continue to expand, so will their land grab throughout the region.

***

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But first, the Board had to pick two of three applicants for the two open seats on the Retirement Board.

The root of Mr. Zimmerer’s difficulties arise from Mendocino County’s inexplicable re-zone of his busy acre in Redwood Valley, literal feet from the old Northwestern Pacific Railroad tracks and just across the street from Redwood Valley’s industrial park.

Because the Anderson Valley community has responded with an outpouring of concern and offers to help avoid park closure, HWC thinks its proposal is feasible. Realistically, implementing it will be a big push, and there are significant hurdles to overcome along the way before July 1, when the targeted parks are slated to close. Being thrown into competition with a private concessionaire wanting to manage a bundle of five parks adds another level of complexity.

Assembly Member Jared Huffman and his staffers at the Water, Parks, and Wildlife Committee seem to have been the first to become aware of the item that would authorize DPR to post the Requests for Proposal (RFP) from concession operators. They immediately sent a letter to the Public Works Board and DPR outlining some concerns. Here are some excerpts from Huffman’s letter, dated January 9, 2012:

While I understand concession contracts are appropriate in many instances and provide a legitimate service in a number of parks currently, I believe that issuing RFPs at this time for concession contracts in parks where negotiations are currently under way for proposed operating agreements under AB 42 is premature and inappropriate for all of the following reasons:

If the DPR issues an RFP and accepts a concession contract with a for-profit company to operate just the campground in a park, this could take away the main revenue source for the nonprofit group to operate and maintain the entire park, including day use areas, picnic grounds, trails, and other natural and cultural resources, in addition to the campground. As a result, the nonprofit may be forced to withdraw their proposal, and the state could end up with a campground operated by a private company for a profit, while the rest of the park is unmanaged and allowed to deteriorate. Issuing RFPs for concession contracts for campgrounds in parks that will no longer be operated by the state may therefore be contrary to the state’s public trust interest in protecting the entire park. It is also inconsistent with AB 42, which provides that all of the revenue raised in the park shall remain in the unit for support of the park.

Issuing RFPs for concession contract proposals without prior notice to the nonprofit groups who have expressed interest in and been in the process of negotiating operating agreements with the state under AB 42 could undermine the public’s trust in the government process. Groups who have been working with the DPR in good faith may legitimately feel blindsided and that the state is disregarding the concerted efforts that have already been undertaken in local communities to develop partnerships and gather resources.

RFPs that are soliciting proposals for concessions for bundled parks may not be feasible for nonprofit groups who have the capacity to operate one or perhaps two parks on the closure list but not 5 or 6. By their very nature, such proposals could exclude nonprofit groups from competing. Alternatively, if for-profit companies are allowed to cherry pick only those parks that they believe will earn them a profit, this will further undermine the ability of the nonprofit community to put together viable proposals to operate parks for the benefit of the public.

Huffman concludes by asking DPR to “put on hold plans to issue RFPs for concession contracts for parks on the closure list until negotiations over any pending proposals for nonprofit operating agreements are finalized.”

On Friday, January 13, State Senator Noreen Evans, who was supposed to have been notified about the Public Works Board item but was not, issued a blistering release, which included:

It’s like they’re offering our State Parks up for sale to the highest bidder,” said Senator Evans who has six of the eleven parks in her district. “To learn that Parks is soliciting bids from for-profit private entities for concessions while they negotiate with local non-profits to keep parks as a community treasures is horrifying. Local non-profits will not be able to manage parks if their largest source of revenue is given away to concessionaires. According to the Department of Finance’s 20-Day Notification Letter, these concessionaires would pay the state up to 3% of their revenues — a pittance — on what should be the best source of revenues to keep all of our State Parks open. If this is all the state would receive, it’s a gift of public resources to private entities.

Evans followed up with a constituent e-mail along similar lines.

Community groups with proposals for the bundled parks also weighed in. In response to all the uproar, the staff of the Public Works Board (PWB) pulled the item off the January 19 agenda on the morning of the hearing. Park advocates discovered the change either in transit or after arrival in the Capitol, but no one was complaining. Most were simply relieved to get a reprieve. The item has since been put on the agenda for a special PWB meeting now scheduled for February 1.

DPR is operating so short of staff that non-profits have been having a hard time finding someone willing to discuss their proposals. To add to the confusion, the District Superintendent of the Russian River District, who was the supposed contact point for Anderson Valley’s community group, stated in an e-mail to the representative of the Hendy Woods Community that DPR could not discuss their proposal because of the pending RFP for concessionaires. An inquiry to Assembly Member Huffman’s office yielded the information that this assertion contradicted what DPR was saying in Sacramento.

On January 13, DPR Director Ruth Coleman issued a letter attempting to clarify DPR’s positions. The letter concludes:

“State Parks hopes that these … statements refute concerns that (1) Parks has a preference for concessions over operating agreements — we do not, (2) non-profits need to participate in the RFP process rather than discussing operating agreements — they do not, and, (3) Parks has already chosen particular partnership approaches for certain parks — we have not. State Parks looks forward to working with all potential partners to best serve California’s citizens and best protect the resources of the State Park System.”

Here’s a quick review of how we got to this point. Back in March 2011 after closed door negotiating sessions with Governor Brown, the legislative budget committee, with no public hearings on the matter, sent a budget to the Legislature, which then approved it, directing the DPR to cut $22 million from its budget over two years and to implement the cuts by closing parks. DPR had three weeks to come up with a park closure list. A small group of Parks Department bureaucrats met behind closed doors with no oversight or feedback from the public, and came up with the list of 70 parks that would close on July 1, 2012. Then they destroyed their notes. Most of the decision-makers had never set foot in most of the parks slated for closure. Communities have been scrambling to respond ever since. Parks are facing the most fundamental management shift in their history, yet the public has had no say in the matter whatsoever.

Now communities are confronted with a situation that Senator Noreen Evans characterizes as DPR “offering our State Parks up for sale to the highest bidder.” Who among us really wants our beloved community parks to become “units” in a large for-profit management scheme? Yet, most DPR staffers will tell you they are taking this step to avoid park closures.

Mendocino County is hardest hit among all counties in the state, and Assembly District 1 is the location of fully 21.4% of all parks on the closure list. One of the central ironies of this situation is the composition of the Assembly Budget Committee that sent the bad parks deal to the Legislature for ratification. Among its senior members is Wes Chesbro, the Assembly Representative for District 1.

There is only one thing that can actually fix the situation Mendocino County’s state parks find themselves in: Money — a sum of money that has been characterized by many as amounting to a “rounding error” in the overall state budget picture. State Representatives, if they made it a priority, could find savings elsewhere in the budget and restore some of the money to the Parks budget to avoid park closures. Most people agree that keeping parks open keeps local economies moving and sends more tax monies to the state General Fund than would ever be saved by closing parks. If someone in Sacramento would seriously advocate for this financially sensible approach, it could result in the proverbial “win-win” for local economies and the state budget.

Such an approach would not mean the end of community involvement. Now that community groups are mobilized, they would still want to stay engaged to help make our parks the best public assets they can be. That level of engagement, in partnership with the Parks Department, wouldn’t require the commitment of scarce resources that groups are now mobilizing out of necessity. It would seem to be a sensible approach. Until that idea gains support in Sacramento, community-based organizations will continue to move forward with proposals, the state will likely issue Requests for Proposals from private concessionaires, and the weeks will tick on until, on July 1, we will see what has happened to our once great State Park system.

McCOWEN HAS GIVEN NOTICE that he intends to run more efficient meetings, but if the above discussion is any indication it looks like the same old aimless drift will prevail. But he has instituted a couple of modest reforms. The minutes and routine Board appointments have been added to the Consent Calendar. And Proclamations are approved automatically unless someone objects, which ends the confusion over whether they are being pulled from the Consent Calendar or not, or being presented and voted on, or voted on and presented, etcetera. After a year of the inept, and relentlessly self-centered Smith at the helm, McCowen is clearly a step forward.

BURIED DEEP IN THE CEO’S REPORT last week was an update on the consolidation of the County workforce. Staff is finally moving out of the Affinito building and into the County owned Avila Center. The County has been paying Affinito more than $25,000. monthly for his barn-like structure on South Franklin Street. The preposterous deal with Affinito was engineered by Supervisor Smith’s equivalently inept predecessor, Patti Campbell. For reasons known only to her, Supervisor Smith fought the move out of the Affinito building, delaying it for about six months. Supervisors Pinches and McCowen have been pushing for over a year to consolidate into County-owned buildings to get out from under expensive lease payments to private parties. Overall, the moves are expected to save $1 million dollars annually.

ACCORDING TO THE CEO’S REPORT, Supervisor Smith will have to give up her personal office in the Avila Center to avoid forcing two Fort Bragg-based employees into a round-trip to Willits every day. Unlike Smith, the employees would not be paid for driving back and forth to work. The report notes that “General Services and Executive Office staff are working with the Fourth District Supervisor to explore options including a home office, a virtual office utilizing the Fourth District’s county-owned laptop, or leased space.”  Smith is already paid a communications allowance for a home office, has a fully equipped office on Low Gap, enjoys a County-issued laptop, and is the only Supervisor to have a district office. (Which she seldom visits, incidentally.)  Given her lame duck status, Smith should work out of her home office for the coming year, not milk the taxpayers for another leased office, but…..

THIS JUST IN: RUMORS that Supervisor Kendall Smith had refused to give up her office space in Fort Bragg, thus forcing two employees to commute to Willits, were put to rest last week when Board Chair John McCowen conspicuously thanked Supervisor Smith for relinquishing her office in the Avila Center. The Avila Center is crowded-to-overflowing because Coast welfare services have  moved from Dominic Affinito’s $28,000 a month building across the street into the older and smaller Avila Center. McCowen may have made the formal “thank you” at last week’s board meeting to convince the notoriously self-centered Smith that she better giver up her seldom-used space rather than suffer more grumbling from her fellow supervisors and many County workers based in Fort Bragg, many of whom already feel trapped between an unsympathetic leadership and bumbling SEIU representation. The County loses experienced but estranged workers every month now to other counties or early retirement.

SEIU IS VOTING THIS WEEK on whether to reach agreement for a 10% pay cut or stay with the 12.5% cut imposed by the County back in November. SEIU was set to vote the first week in January, but the SEIU honchos put the brakes on so they could “educate” the membership on what the vote meant, as if the membership could not figure out for themselves that it was better to have an agreement and an extra 2.5% in pay, or no agreement with the 12.5% cut.

THE SEIU LEADERSHIP seems to prefer no agreement and the 12.5% cut. It could be as simple as not wanting to be seen as giving in to CEO Carmel Angelo, the former director of the Health and Human Services Agency, where most of the SEIU employees are concentrated. As HHSA Director, Angelo made long overdue changes to increase accountability and productivity, consolidated managerial positions and brought forward layoffs to balance the budget.

IF SEIU VOTES IN FAVOR OF THE AGREEMENT it will go to the Board of Supervisors for routine approval on January 24th and will take effect the first pay period in February. Without agreement, SEIU members will be stuck with the 12.5% cut for at least a year, longer if no subsequent agreement can be reached. SEIU could have had an agreement for 10% at any time in the last year, but the leadership parlayed their dislike of the CEO into an unnecessary 12.5% cut for the last three months.

IN RESPONSE TO FEDERAL THREATS the County is expected to junk its innovative 9.31 permit program that allowed marijuana growers to get a permit from the Sheriff to grow up to 99 marijuana plants in return for an inspection from the Sheriff, compliance with a lengthy list of conditions and payment of several thousand dollars in permit fees. The federal threat was apparently delivered in person on January 3rd. The Board discussed the the matter in Closed Session under “threat of litigation” at its meeting last week. The County issued a press release the day after their meeting saying that County Counsel would be bringing forward amendments to the program on January 24th to comply with the federal threat and a recent court case that said local jurisdictions could regulate marijuana but not permit it.

BAY AREA NARCOTICS ENFORCEMENT OFFICIALS who were briefed on the federal threat say the County was told they had two weeks to shut down the program or “suffer the consequences.” Those “consequences” could have resulted in the arrests of local officials including Sheriff Allman. The U. S. Attorney’s office is said to have been meticulously assembling a case against the County — a perennial federal target — in preparation for the takedown of the program. It’s no secret that the federal narcs were chomping at the bit during last year’s “Operation Full Court Press” when they were flying over Sheriff- approved 99 plant gardens on their way to eradicate devil weed in the Mendocino National Forest. It seems likely that the permit program and the fees that went with it will be a casualty of the federal pushback, but just what shape the overall changes will take remains to be seen.

BRANCHES RESTAURANT, the overbuilt Marin style eatery that was incongruously set down on Airport Park Boulevard (across from Wal Mart) has closed its doors, throwing 65 people out of work. The restaurant received mixed reviews from the beginning with some people praising the food and upscale ambiance, and others complaining of long waits and indifferent service. But in the end it was probably the debt service on the over the top construction costs that did it in. By contrast, the Asian Grand Buffet seems right at home in a strip mall on South Orchard Avenue. The all you can eat buffet style restaurant features several dozen entrees plus numerous side dishes and seems to have captured the remnants of the old all you can eat Fjord’s Smorgette crowd. But for Frisco-quality Chinese food, the Asian Village on South State Street remains as good a Chinese restaurant as there is in Northern California.

GAS WARS HAVE COME TO UKIAH with a new station on Talmage Road on the east side of the freeway that opened with the lowest prices in town. Everyone else has been forced to drop their prices to keep market share. Prices seem to have stabilized for the time being, but the new station is still the cheapest. And we have proof once again, if any were needed, that the predatory fuel giants will charge whatever the market will bear as long as they can get away with it.

Norman Solomon, courtesy Osama Al-Eryani via Flickr.

The 2012 election is shaping up to be of critical importance for the North Coast. If the political pundits and media talking heads are correct, 2012 will be yet another year of political gridlock and economic stagnation. At the center of this dilemma are elected professional politicians determined to hang on to their power. For the North Coast the stakes could not be higher. Budgets are shrinking at the county and city level. More jobs are threatened. Without tax reform and fresh approaches to entrenched economic and structural problems, the North Coast will not be positioned to reverse these trends. The upcoming June primary and the November election provide the best opportunity to overcome the obstacles to a better future for the North Coast.

With this picture in mind, Norman Solomon, Democratic candidate for the newly drawn 2nd U.S. Congressional District, agreed to be interviewed. In fairness to the other announced candidates, at their request they will be extended the courtesy of an interview.

AVA: Mr. Solomon, there is a famous quote that says ”All political parties die at last of swallowing their own lies.” (Garnett, Life of Emerson) You have made much of your not being a professional politician and of the need for real change in the way we do politics. How would you describe the current Democratic nomination process that is heavily influenced by the current political elite of the North Coast? And, do you believe that the Democratic Party has indeed been swallowing its own rhetoric without substance?

I’ll begin by quoting the great abolitionist Frederick Douglass: ”Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.” I’d add that it’s not enough to demand; we have to organize, effectively. The Occupy movement is a step in that direction, but we need to become more methodical — at the grassroots — for basic progressive change. That’s threatening to political elites, but it’s enlivening to people who yearn for a society that reveres and nurtures life instead of Wall Street.

With an open seat and no incumbent, this race for Congress is a free-for-all. Ultimately, our new congressperson will be a Democrat, but the question is: What kind of Democrat? Anyone who googles my name and ”Democratic Party” will find many years of articles and activism challenging the corporate allegiances of party leadership. There are plenty of progressive Democrats — and Greens and ”decline to state” voters and others — who are fed up with the extreme corporate plunder, environmental degradation and perpetual war that have dominated this century.

The same Martin Luther King Jr. who condemned ”the madness of militarism” warned against what he called ”the paralysis of analysis.” He had the insight that we must go forward with principled struggles and take risks in the process. That’s why I’m so excited to be part of a campaign that has already drawn in thousands of active participants. There’s a base of progressives — many of them Democrats — now on the cusp of taking the power initiative away from economic elites. When genuinely mobilized, grassroots can defeat Astroturf.

We’ve had way too much rhetoric with scant substance. Lofty rhetoric doesn’t feed people, pay their rent, provide healthcare or education, and it doesn’t prevent foreclosures or end endless wars. Only we — ”we the people” — can do that. And we must.

AVA: Given that your campaign is based on making real change, how do you see the role of the Federal Government in being a force for good in the economic life of the North Coast? What specific areas of funding do you envision as the focal points of economic revival for the North Coast?

I was co-chair for the Commission on a Green New Deal. It was built on promoting a green economy in Northern California. I think that there is a huge opportunity for creating jobs and revitalizing the economic life of Northern California by creating an economic, social and physical infrastructure that takes on the challenges we face — including resource depletion, climate change and the ongoing refusal of politicians in Washington to fund the vital programs we need to move ahead.

Getting a jump on the creation of the post-fossil-fuel economy will lessen the impact of climate change and create cutting-edge, well-paid jobs that can position Northern California to become a leader of the future economy. I have visited and support the solarization project at the Mendocino Transit Authority, which is moving public transportation from fossil fuels to solar energy. Such projects offer new models for positive transformation while reducing the threats of climate change and resource depletion.

The Mill Site in Fort Bragg is another wonderful opportunity for a job-generating development. I fully support the creation of the Noyo Center for Science and Education on that site. It will be a research facility to look at the ecosystem from the headwaters to the sea. It can be a research engine for moving from the extraction economy to the restoration economy, rebuilding our forest habitats for the benefit of both our communities and the environment.

This is the kind of local science that can only be done on the North Coast, and the kind of project that will multiply jobs into the future. The land is being acquired and the plans are drawn up. The City of Fort Bragg just needs construction funds to get this project going, and that is the type of stimulus the federal government should provide. I intend to fight for that kind of funding.

I also know it’s vital to reformulate the overall federal budget. We have to defund the perpetual war machine as well as make sure that everyone, including the top 1%, pays their fair share in taxes. That can give us the federal funds we need to jump-start programs to move us toward a sustainable economy that nurtures both the community and the environment, from local food security to a pollution-free environment and a stable climate.

It’s also essential to fight for vast increases in multi-year funding for education and job training with the goal of full employment. The federal government is the only government entity that can engage in the necessary magnitude of public investment — that’s the only way we got the New Deal, and that’s the only way we can get a meaningful Green New Deal. I’ve been endorsed by Congressman John Conyers (a fellow co-chair of the national Healthcare Not Warfare campaign), who has introduced a bill to commit the federal government to full employment while imposing a one-quarter of 1% transaction tax on Wall Street that would raise $150 billion a year.

We also need a much larger, sustained federal commitment to healthcare for all. One vital step is expanded multi-year funding of Federally Qualified Health Centers. Because of community dedication, such clinics are literally lifelines on the Mendocino Coast, in Anderson Valley and many other places on the North Coast. But the federal funding is fragile. We’ve got to fight for federal funding that’s stable and adequate.

AVA: In recent years one obstacle to growth on the North Coast has been the failure to re-establish a viable rail link to the major trans-shipment hubs of the Bay Area. Without such a rail link, the opportunity for attracting manufacturing, improving access to markets for agriculture, and reducing truck traffic along the 101 corridor are perennially frustrated. What is the proper role of Congress is providing funding and stimulus for a North Coast rail link?

Railroads are highly fuel-efficient, and when done right they can be an environmentally friendly alternative to other options. The federal government played a big role in funding the initial railroads in this country, and I think it should do so again. But this time, instead of providing subsidies that benefit wealthy private investors, these new programs should be funded to benefit the public good. On the North Coast, public investment from the feds has to pay for well-planned rail projects that are really shaped by the insights, knowledge and values of people who live in the region. Frankly, a rail link concocted from Washington, DC, without local and public decision-making on the North Coast would be problematic. People in this region have to be the ones who decide how the federal funding can best be spent.

I’d also add that when DC planners are looking at spending $100 billion for high-speed rail, they need to be reminded that — for a small fraction of that money — we could have much-improved rail here on the North Coast. Such an investment could more than pay for itself in increased economic activity generating additional tax revenue.

AVA: In recent years various proposals for developing wave generated electricity off the North Coast, such as at the old Georgia Pacific property in Fort Bragg, have come and gone. Do you see a future for wave generated electricity on the North Coast?

Wave energy has great potential, but it has to be a proven and safe technology for our fisheries, other wildlife and overall environment before it’s implemented on the Northern California Coast. I support the establishment of a small testing facility to figure out which of the myriad wave technologies would have the least impact on the fisheries and environment of the North Coast. Private energy providers that may have a financial conflict of interest regarding concerns for the fisheries and environment, however, should not be entrusted to perform these tests.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is in the process of taking over jurisdiction for implementation of this technology. As a Congressman, I would fight to make sure the process of implementing wave energy technology is fully responsive to concerns about the fisheries and environment while promoting the long-term public good of the North Coast. If FERC can’t really provide this important function, then authority over wave energy should be overseen by a more transparent and responsive public agency that allows thorough public input into the process.

AVA: Of course, every new technology brings with it unanticipated challenges. With respect to wave generated electricity, some are concerned that it will interfere with fishing. Given that the fish stocks are already imperiled, do you see an opportunity here to insure benefits both to the need for green energy sources and helping to maintain and enhance the North Coast fisheries? 

I think that it’s important to establish a collaborative process in developing wave energy. It should be possible to identify technologies and implement them at a scale that will be safe for the environment and the fisheries. But, again, these can only be implemented with the full participation of advocates for fisheries and the public.

AVA: On a related note, should wave energy generated electricity receive support and funding from the federal and state governments, would one component of the initiative be to provide for a new, underground transmission system, one that may rely on the existing railroad right-of-way, as opposed to overhead transmission lines?

Energy transmission is an important part of our future, but much energy is lost in the transmission process. Decentralized energy production is the model for the future. So long-distance energy transmission should largely be avoided, and wave energy should be scaled to local needs.

That said, if it comes to pass that we have a single wave generator facility, we should be mindful of the negative impacts of overheard power lines. Certainly, if there’s a need to move energy long distances, it is safer and healthier to move it underground. Utilizing railroad right of ways may be a good way to make that happen.

AVA: Besides concerns for expanding and integrating transportation to boost the North Coast economy, there is a long-standing frustration with the current administration which came to power in 2008 promising to insure access to high speed internet service to rural communities. What would you do to promote universal access to high speed internet and broadband service to the North Coast?

I share this frustration. We need real investments, not just rhetoric, to expand rural broadband Internet access; there are many parallels with the federal government’s far-reaching rural electrification programs in the past century. Broadband Internet is fast becoming a necessity for most people who want to carry on a productive life in the economy of the future, and the government has a responsibility to make sure that infrastructure is in place for everyone. We must end the ”digital divide” — and the public should not be ripped off by financing a system that ends up benefitting privately held mega-corporations like Comcast. We should only fund public agencies that return the benefits to the people of the North Coast.

Question: Calls for more nuclear power plants and drilling for oil and natural gas off the California Coast are certain to be renewed in the next Congress. Given the recent nuclear disaster at Fukushima and the continuing reality of oil spills throughout the oil and gas industry, how do you see your role as a member of Congress for energy policy?

The cleanest kilowatt is the one we don’t use. More than 30 years ago, when I was working on shutting down nuclear power plants and spending time in jail for nonviolent civil disobedience in the antinuclear movement, we were already reading Amory Lovins and other visionaries. The most important — and most overlooked — concept in sane energy policy is ”conservation.”

I am categorically opposed to nuclear power, and just as categorically opposed to offshore oil drilling as well as fracking and other corporate-driven assaults on our wondrous natural world.

Our campaign for Congress has taken out a full-page newspaper ad stating my unequivocal insistence on closing nuclear power plants now. We don’t need nuclear power, certainly not in this state where two nuclear plants are located on coastline earthquake faults.

We not only must promote conservation — we also need to expose and end the billions of dollars in federal subsidies to the nuclear, coal and oil industries. In Congress, I intend to give voice, author legislation and rally support for these goals.

Question: One of the most immediate concerns on the North Coast is the impending closing of many of our State Parks. Park Closures will mean to the loss of jobs, both for those who directly support the park system and to the local economies that depend heavily on tourism. What can and should the federal government do to help alleviate this situation?

The devastating closure of parks along the North Coast is a tragedy for the local economy, the people of California and all of the visitors to these parks from around the world. The implementation of this policy points out the failure of both the California legislature and the state budgetary process. It’s notable that so many of these parks are in rural areas that are politically weak in the decision-making process — a fact highlighting the reality that the North Coast needs elected officials who are willing to fight the power structures on behalf of the people and environment of the North Coast.

As with so many other state responsibilities that are being left to twist in the wind via diminished funding, the state parks are too precious to be allowed to die the death of a thousand cuts. The federal government needs to step in and provide funding when needed to avert the disasters of closures — which is exactly what I’ll fight for in Congress.

Question: One thing that is at the heart of every concern raised in this interview has centered on the need for job growth. Without serious initiatives to expand into new areas for economic growth, the North Coast will continue to suffer long term under employment and dependence upon a narrow range of opportunities for meaningful job opportunities. The North Coast needs to expand opportunities for local agriculture, restoration of the fisheries, better forest and timber management, a green energy infrastructure, and the need for leading edge technology manufacturing facilities. Do you see a role for the federal government in establishing basic research facilities, with a practical solutions focus, on the North Coast?

From the outset of this campaign, and in my work for the Green New Deal commission, I’ve been an enthusiastic advocate for recognizing the enduring significance of what the New Deal did for workers and our entire society during the Great Depression. It’s telling that a good number of the state parks that are now being closed — and have provided so much benefit over the years — were built by New Deal programs. For the future, we need a Green New Deal that will build the green infrastructure of the future, from broadband Internet to solar transportation to a decentralized energy and food system that will guarantee a safe, secure and healthy future on the North Coast.

Specifically for the North Coast, I intend to work in Congress to fund local research facilities that would focus on sustainable resource management (fish, timber, agriculture) and how our rural communities can thrive in the next several decades. Faraway research centers in Davis or Scripps cannot provide the focus or stimulus that locally sited research centers can provide.

Question: In this race, you have declined to take corporate PAC money to fund your campaign. Since the current political climate is one in which corporations and special interest groups have become the major source of campaign finance, how can you mount a successful campaign without accepting such donations?

We’re in the process of doing it. Our campaign is interwoven with a wide range of progressive social movements. Already, many hundreds of people are actively involved as volunteers — with idealism, generosity and hard work. The Solomon for Congress campaign (www.SolomonForCongress.com) has already raised several hundred thousand dollars. Grassroots can defeat Astroturf, and our campaign is mega-grassroots.

By the way, the latest poll in this race has me just 5 points behind the corporate-backed frontrunner, Jared Huffman. Meanwhile, our campaign’s momentum is accelerating.

AVA: Would you briefly summarize the reasons why you believe that you are the right candidate to represent the new 2nd US Congressional District?

For the last four decades, I’ve worked as a policy researcher, writer, activist and organizer — as part of progressive social movements. I’ve learned how to build coalitions while challenging the entrenched power of Wall Street and the military-industrial complex. I stand on principle, and I know the difference between workable compromise and capitulation. I know what it’s like to live paycheck-to-paycheck. I’m campaigning the same way I’ll serve in Congress — meeting with and listening to people all over the North Coast, not attending fancy corporate fundraisers. I’ll fight for Main Street — and against Wall Street — because that’s who I am and that’s what I believe in. I can effectively occupy Congress for the 99%.

Norman Solomon’s campaign website is SolomonForCongress.com.

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