I drove up Highway One Monday afternoon to the old Fort Bragg Grange building in Inglenook to meet the local resistance. The Grangers, officially The National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry, were in emergency conference to talk strategy in the building they had taken back basically by force. They did not let […]
I attended the open air walk and discussion out on the Georgia Pacific Mill site to hear Fort Bragg’s Development Director Marie Jones discourse on the project of “daylighting” the creeks. It was a brisk California foggy day, with a light wind and light rain falling. The land out there is tumbled from its industrial […]
The City Manager, in just over one month, has launched a focused assault on the long formulated and widely discussed community vision for the development of the Fort Bragg mill site. At the last city council meeting, the city received the stunning revelation that a contract had already been signed, and that money was in […]
The Georgia Pacific mill site is once again in play. 320 acres of the most beautiful coastal acreage in California or actually in the world has once again merited the attention of City Hall. In a new plan put forward by the city manager after secret consultations with the Coastal Commission and the State Department […]
I spent the morning talking to Fort Bragg’s development director, Marie Jones. She expressed a quiet dismay and gentle sympathy over the fate of my ship, which is after all a local landmark as well as my former home. We talked about her concerns with the accuracy of my articles; she made some good points. I tried to […]
When Olive was taken to the animal shelter in Ukiah thousands of people reached out to me. Every day I meet people who ask me about the dog. Folks that I do not really think of as readers of the AVA, but who may indeed read the fine little paper say hi. There are a […]
The insider’s club is on the march. The recent election was really about City Manager Linda Ruffing. The people of the City thought that they were voting to end Ruffing’s reign of deception. The good and honest people of Fort Bragg, after decades of patience, had become tired of her schemes to create policy by […]
I stopped by the Fort Bragg Advocate’s new offices last week to attend the goodbye party for Sharon DiMauro, the retiring publisher of our local paper, The Fort Bragg Advocate. I wanted to see who would show up to say goodbye and of course I got to eat cookies on her dime. She graciously took […]
The first I knew of it, on the last day of the year, about 11pm, in a gently falling rain, a Coast Guard HH 65 rescue helicopter pounded down the Noyo River headed for the ocean. It was flying low, meaning business. The Fish and Games, a fishing boat somewhat under thirty feet, had floundered. […]
The emergency room is a place that by definition you don’t want to go to. A week or so ago, I was stricken with food poisoning or something heinous and mysterious. I was taken (first time in one) in an ambulance to this place that stands for desperation. For those of you who want to […]
Over the weekend the rains were heavy. The Noyo River on which I live ran very high and strong. I thought it might be too much, but the raising water stopped short of overflowing the banks. Just. North of town however, the dam across Pudding Creek overflowed in a spectacular cataract clearly visible to the […]