- Let The Palace Plan Proceed
- Mike Geniella Responds
- Adverse Effects
- Don't Blame Police
- Life’s A Crap Shoot
- Here Comes The Sun
- Print Only
- Progressives Haven't Produced Results
- A Grand Jury Success Story
- Drop In The Cost Of Insulin
- Looking Forward
- Important Potter Valley Project Meeting Coming Up
- Teachers Need More Help
LET THE PALACE PLAN PROCEED
To the Editor:
Let me begin by expressing my love for the Palace Hotel—its architecture, beauty, and the countless memories it holds for me.
When I was growing up my father Robert, my grandfather Walter, and uncle Bert Sandkulla were the Palace barbers. The first location was on School St. next to the Ukiah Tour and Travel. The next spot was in the middle of the hotel down the winding hallway, and the last home of the barber shop was on State St. and was adorned with beautiful woodwork. I still remember the old chairs with my father’s leather strap he used for sharpening his shaving blades and the many colorful bottles of tonic that lined the shelves. As a child I spent many fun days exploring the hotel and playing on the old iron elevator. I swept up hair for quarters and knew all the staff by name. In later years I celebrated my proms there and attended many parties and dinners.
Sadly, the hotel I grew up in is no longer, the woodwork is gone, the bar is gone, the place is infested with rats, roaches and mold, gutted of all my fond memories.
I now own one of the many small businesses downtown that border the hotel. Over the last 30 years, we have seen several people try to save and rescue the hotel to no avail. In my opinion it is too far gone.
More recently there is a successful local businessman that is in escrow to purchase the hotel and has many amazing plans for its future, this would have a huge positive impact on our town. This businessman along with a group of investors was well on the way to securing a grant to demolish the hotel and resurrect it with architecture and paying homage to the grand hotel it once was. The plan was to be able to use as many of the original materials as possible.
Unfortunately, steps in a writer from the Ukiah Daily Journal poisoning the waters to stop these investors from retaining their grant.
People love the idea of saving the hotel, as do I, but unfortunately it is not economically feasible. Banks don’t want to lend the money to pour into this massive project, thus leaving the hotel in limbo once again as an eyesore and danger to our community. The pertinent question begs an answer: Why would anyone undermine a project with the potential to breathe new life into our town?
Leslie Bartolomei
Ukiah
MIKE GENIELLA RESPONDS
Editor,
Perhaps Leslie Bartolomei should be reminded of the old saying, “Don't shoot the messenger,” which advises against blaming the bearer of bad news.
I am the unidentified writer from the Ukiah Daily Journal she accuses of “poisoning the waters to stop these investors from retaining their grant.”
Instead, I am writing about the current application status for public funds to tear down the Palace Hotel.
The fate of the historic Palace Hotel is a divisive community topic. As a veteran journalist and resident with stories of personal experiences at the Palace, I am aware of the sharp differences of opinions about what to do with a three-story brick structure in severe decline. This issue has plagued the city of Ukiah for three decades.
There has been much discussion about who’s to blame and what to do. While I won't delve into that here, I find it crucial to address Bartolomei's apparent support of the proposed buyers' plan to use $6.6 million of taxpayer money to demolish the town’s premier historic landmark, a building listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Contrary to Bartolomei's claims, the “successful local businessman” she refers to is not in escrow or in the process of purchasing the hotel from the current owner, Jitu Ishwar. The potential buyers are a proposed new partnership, with majority control to be held by the Guidiville Rancheria. This deal is being orchestrated by tribal consultant Michael Derry, restauranteur Matt Talbert, and unidentified private investors. The public spokesman is Talbert, the owner of Lost Coast Restaurant, a business neighbor of Bartolomei’s shop on Standley Street. Deputy City Manager Shannon Riley, a staunch defender of the city’s handling of the current Palace situation, also owns a shop on the block.
Guidiville’s application for special state funding is under scrutiny. Guidiville, in its application for public money, claimed the Palace needed to be demolished so studies of possible ground contamination could be conducted.
However, the plan to use millions of dollars in taxpayer money to clear the Palace site for private development was derailed when local preservation advocates questioned the need to demolish the building. This prompted a state oversight agency to take a closer look. It declared that whatever contamination studies must be done at the Palace site can be accomplished without a teardown.
So, the grant is on hold and under state review.
Bartolomei asks, “Why would anyone undermine a project with the potential to breathe new life into our town?”
That question would be better put to Ishwar and his partners. Ishwar rejected proposals from two potential buyers with experience in tax credit and private financing for reconstructing buildings. Ishwar, intent on being “made whole” for his 2019 investment in the Palace, chose instead to deal on the side with Guidiville, Talbert, and the group in what a former court-appointed receiver of the Palace described as a “real estate play.”
Ishwar, Derry, Talbert, and others connected to the Guidiville proposal have repeatedly declined to answer questions about their plans or offer public explanations.
Mike Geniella
Ukiah
ADVERSE EFFECTS
Editor,
Has anyone noticed that recent laws seem to be only affecting the law abiding? I attempted to purchase some shotgun shells a while back and found I was unable to do so. I was told I hadn’t completed the correct forms nor paid a fee for a background check. I have been purchasing shotguns shells since I was 12 years old. I’m not prohibited from possessing firearms so why do I need to complete forms, pay fees and jump through these hoops to do something I have been doing for over four decades?
Every bill or legislative action has a legislative intent. Often that intent can be hard to find. However we should look closely. The reason I bring this up is that we are headed into the political season and as we prepare to cast votes for people and legislation, I am hopeful everyone will spend some time actually reading the text that our laws will be decided on. California has a long history of deceptive election tactics being used against our voters to sway them one direction or the other. A little bit of disinformation seems to go a long way. When we see bills and legislation which will have adverse effects on law abiding residents I think we have to look a little harder at what is happening.
We all remember the “Safe Schools And Neighborhoods Act” also known as Proposition 47. We all want safe schools and neighborhoods, therefore the bill passed. The legislative intent behind this bill was to reduce prison populations and had little or nothing to do with the descriptions provided in the summary. Biased ballot measure titles and summaries will undermine our democracy.
There is a way to reduce prison populations. However it will take time. We can reduce these populations through opportunity, education, and accountability. Sadly, these are three things we seem to continually struggle with in California. Continuing to criminalize behaviors of good people isn’t the direction we should be moving in, and I fear it will eventually become our undoing.
This has been a problem for many years and has gotten so bad that transparency advocates introduced a constitutional amendment (ACA 7) in 2019 that would remove the Legislature and the Attorney General from the process of providing ballot material content. Instead, this legislation proposed the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst Office (LAO) would be mandated the responsibility to write the circulating and pamphlet ballot label, title, and summary for all measures put before voters. In California, the LAO has a well-deserved reputation as a fair arbiter on matters of public policy.
ACA 7 was designed to address what multiple media sources have reported regarding the politicization of the ballot pamphlet process by the office of the Attorney General who, at that time, was Xavier Becerra. Sadly, and predictably, ACA 7 failed to make it out of the legislature where it was deemed to be a threat to entrenched political interests. Exactly why the amendment was proposed.
There have been many experiments conducted by researchers regarding informed minority vs an uninformed majority. Each time the results are clear, an informed group will always prevail over the uninformed. I am hopeful we will all do our best to be informed regarding the laws we are voting for. Some of these have been real doozies and we are seeing the results of legislation running roughshod over the law-abiding residents.
Sheriff Matt Kendall
Ukiah
DON'T BLAME POLICE
Editor,
"Police chases are killing more and more Americans. With lax rules, it's no accident." (Chronicle, March 5)
I'm dumbfounded by this story that essentially blames police officers for injuries and deaths caused by dangerous drivers fleeing from police cars.
The police don't cause these wrecks.
Negligent drivers do by refusing to pull over when they see police cars flashing red lights behind them.
These reckless people make the decision to evade police vehicles instead of pulling over and stopping, as required by law.
The police and other law enforcement personnel are just doing their jobs to prevent potential injuries and/or deaths.
Put the blame where it belongs -- on careless, self-serving drivers who flout traffic laws.
Catherine Shepard
Berkeley
LIFE’S A CRAP SHOOT
Editor,
I hope by now you are feeling better. 1 bet the Trumpists who read your paper, if there are any, are delighting in your throat issues saying it's just punishment for all your espousing of liberal, commie opinions all these years.
I say, life is a crap shoot, who gets what and when is anybody’s guess, and you got dealt a bad hand. I’ve always thought that the “best” kind of cancer to get would be bowel — just cut out the diseased portions and stitch the two ends together, providing you've caught it in time. As for you, you got a triple whammy, a cancer that affects speech, breathing and swallowing. You are a national treasure, Mr. Editor, and I hope the doctors can cure you and give you many more years,
About the headline in the March 6 AVA, Mr. Geniella used the word “suspended” which I’ve thought to mean a temporary cessation or interruption, accent on the word temporary. Does this mean there's a possibility that someone else might assume management of the paper? I know you'll publish “on line” but that won't help me get my weekly dose of news and fine, entertaining writing since I don’t have a computer in my house, it takes me usually two hours to read thru the AVA and I don’t intend to sit at a library monitor to do so, like so many, I lament the passing of so much print media.
And now I'd like to pose some questions that perhaps your readers might answer. First, what will happen to all those trillions of tons of concrete and rubble in Gaza? Where will it go? Eventually, Gaza will be re-built, by whom? And for what purpose? A seaside resort, or more land for Isreal to call home?
Now onto name changing. The birders want to change the names of 150 North American birds, reflecting the birds’ physical characteristics rather than the people who discovered them, they would dispense with Allen, Steller, Wilson and the like,shedding those honorific names for speckled, ruffled, white-winged, etc. So what about America? Our continent, north and south, is named for Amerigo Vespucci, can someone dig up dirt on him? Should we re-name ourselves LaLaland?
My thoughts are with you, Bruce, while you face this challenge. You have many friends and well-wishers. I am one of them,
Sincerely,
Louise Mariana
Albion
ED NOTE: Thank you, Louise. I can tell you your colleagues in nursing at Mission Bay and Marin General are right up to the gold standard you set at Coast Hospital.
HERE COMES THE SUN
AVA,
Under the conditions the Editor is showing positiveness. Hospitals are necessary for getting things under control and the sooner he gets back home, comfortable healing will occur. Nice post yesterday with the amazing North Pacific Steamship offering travel. (State room berth with meals.) To Eureka for 8 bucks. It costs more now to pay the toll just to cross the Golden Gate Bridge. Gotta like the “Sniffy Joe” diplomacy photo with Abe Lincoln looking on. And strong counter-point from Victoria Kelly's ‘My Grandfather was Collateral Damage from Oppenheimer's Genius.’
Jeff Goll
Willits
PRINT ONLY
Editor,
I am truly sorry to read about the end of the AVA print edition. I’ve been a subscriber for 30 (maybe 40) years. Maybe you could switch more of it to the Laytonville paper since Mr. Shields already republishes most of the Off The Record column, Tommy Wayne Kramer’s column, and even some of the letters addressed to the AVA.
I would subscribe to the online paper but I do not like to read online or scrolling through the cell phone. If I could find a way to print out the AVA so I can sit and read it, I’d be more than happy to do that. But looking at your web site, that seems impossible.
Anyway, I wish you a speedy return to good health and hopefully a continued future with some version of the AVA. Sadly for me, I doubt I will be seeing much of it.
Bear Kamoroff
Willits
PROGRESSIVES HAVEN'T PRODUCED RESULTS
Editor,
Regarding: "Voters make it clear: San Francisco can no longer be called a progressive city" (San Francisco, SFChronicle.com, March 6): Many voters have progressive goals but reject the actual performance of our professed "progressives."
The 2014 San Francisco Board of Education decision to not allow our students to have the option of taking algebra in eighth grade was done with the goal of equity, but it was a bad intervention and disadvantaged our children.
City voters are appalled that mentally ill people are left to live in the gutter. Voters are sick of not being able to assume that their car will not be broken into. They are dismayed that looting is rampant and that hard-working merchants are the victims.
Restorative justice is a valuable goal but persons repeatedly committing crimes hurt us all.
San Francisco voters are expressing frustration at the neglect of enforcing civilized behavior in one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
It really has nothing to do with being progressive-moderate-conservative.
It's time to fix the problems.
Dawn Isaacs
San Francisco
A GRAND JURY SUCCESS STORY
Editor,
My first service as a Grand Juror had just begun when a Supervisor, encountered at a political gathering, remarked that it was too bad the Grand Juries didn’t get their facts straight. Fair warning I guess.
We issued a report pointing out that, contrary to State law, policy and procedure, the County was siphoning funds into the General Fund from the Library’s meager coffers.
(At this time the Library’s sole finding source was its special district property allotment.) The BOS response was headlined in a bold banner headline: “Library report ‘mostly untrue’.”
Fortunately, many of the same jurors served the following year. So we re-did the report. Because Grand Jury proceedings are secret all information garnered from interviews must be discarded at the term’s end; documents may be retained.
We re-interviewed. This time, the BOS had to accept our facts and repaid the Library thousands of dollars. No banner headline in the UDJ this time, but the Grand Jury did receive the Robert Geiss Excellence in Reporting Award from the California Grand Juror’s Association for “special achievement in investigating and reporting.” The Award “recognizes grand jury reports that bring to the public’s attention matters of vital importance and thereby leads positive changes within their communities.” No headline in UDJ this time either.
It’s not only the County which doesn’t respond positively. Years ago, a Grand Jury noted that the City parking lot across the street from the Ukiah Library was never full, and respectfully requested that the few spots designated for Library patrons be moved close to the street. No change to date and it is such a simple improvement.
Linda Bailey
Ukiah
DROP IN THE COST OF INSULIN
Dear Editor,
Diabetes is awful. During my career as a staff nurse in long term care hospitals, I cared for a few diabetic patients. I administered their meds, did their treatments, and otherwise supervise their care. Most of us depend on our livers to keep the blood sugar level at the right point daily, but for patients with diabetes their livers are unable to do this naturally. This is where the drug Insulin is so important. Diabetic patients must often get an infusion of Insulin daily usually by means of an injection or “shot.”
Getting the correct amount of Insulin daily has not been cheap; until last year the drug has directly been paid for just by patients themselves, a majority of whom in the U.S. are African Americans. During the last year or so this high cost of Insulin has been reduced by the Biden Administration. Now the cost is no more than $15 thanks to the work of the Biden Administration and the support mostly of the Democrats in Congress. It is an improvement we should remember in choosing whom to vote for this November. I will be voting for Joe Biden.
Frank H. Baumgardner, III
Santa Rosa
LOOKING FORWARD
Editor,
I hope you are doing well and the worst of the ordeal is behind you. Kick cancer's ass!
Looking Forward to switching to AVA online! I’m trying to be upbeat because the AVA print edition has been one of the constants in my 27 years so far in The City!
Thanx for being the Editor since 1984! Healing energy to you and Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
David Svehla
San Francisco
IMPORTANT POTTER VALLEY PROJECT MEETING COMING UP
Editor,
The Mendocino County Farm Bureau (MCFB) would like to encourage the community to attend and participate in an upcoming local meeting regarding the Potter Valley Project.
The Eel-Russian Project Authority (ERPA) is a joint powers authority formed by a joint exercise of powers agreement between the County of Sonoma, Sonoma County Water Agency (Sonoma Water), and the Mendocino County Inland Water and Power Commission.
ERPA will have the power to negotiate with the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) as the utility moves ahead with plans to surrender operations of the Potter Valley Hydroelectric Project and to decommission the Scott and Cape Horn dams on the Eel River. The new authority will also have the legal capacity to own, construct and operate a new water diversion facility near the Cape Horn Dam.
ERPA will be meeting in Ukiah on March 19 from 3-5 p.m. in the Mendocino County Supervisors chambers with a zoom option also available. This meeting will include an update on discussions with Pacific Gas & Electric regarding the Potter Valley Project and an update on a grant application to United States Bureau of Reclamation.
The water supplied by the Potter Valley Project is used by more than 650,000 people downstream of Potter Valley for beneficial uses in Mendocino, Sonoma and Marin Counties. This is why it is important that the public attend this upcoming meeting and other forums regarding our shared water future.
For more information on ERPA’s efforts to maintain a water diversion, and the upcoming meeting materials, please visit https://www.eelrussianauthority.org/ or visit https://mendoiwpc.com/our-shared-water/ for more history on the Potter Valley Project.
Devon Boer, Executive Director, MCFB
Ukiah
TEACHERS NEED MORE HELP
Editor:
Americans blame our education system for many things, and in some cases it’s wholly justified.
The media have been frothing at the latest high-profile failure in our schools: New data reveal that only 32% of fourth graders are proficient as readers. Educators are toiling in an era of unprecedented challenges, and they’ve been excoriated for this alarming revelation. However, there’s more to this story.
Our public education compact, as it were, always has been predicated on parents taking an active role in supporting their children’s schoolwork. There are no shortcuts where this commitment is concerned.
What used to be an expectation now is an indicator of privilege. Between long commutes and a significant percentage of people who work multiple jobs, fewer parents have the luxury of time or resources to sit down and work with their kids. In addition, many parents lack the necessary language skills to assist with their kids’ assignments.
There’s only so much a single teacher can do with a classroom of 25-30 students, many of whom are English learners who never learned to read in their native languages. These students need far more support, and so do their teachers.
Mark Wardlaw
Santa Rosa
Be First to Comment