Letters to the Argus

EDITOR: Since the beginning of January Petaluma has been on a crackdown on code enforcement for specific businesses. We are witnessing a specific targeting and harassment situation.

Our efforts began in January, when the building department and code enforcement agency began hand measuring bars/restaurants downtown and changing their occupancy. We have a timeline of emails showing that we have done everything they have legally asked of us to address these issues. We had a 100% pass fire inspection; we paid architects to draft up the correct occupancy for our business and still the city either ignores us or passes the buck off to multiple agencies to keep our occupancy and business in a constant state of suffering, without any explanation.

In a town where the minimum wage is $3.38 higher than Manhattan, where we have one of the highest city and county taxes in California and the country, we are flat out struggling to maintain staff. We have had to lay off over 10 employees and more cuts are coming. The response we have received for legal clarification or explanation either never arrives or comes weeks later, after requesting any response over and over.

Currently, if every bar and restaurant would be held to the same guidelines as McNears, the Mystic, the Hideaway and Jamison's Roaring Donkey, every business in town would be out of business by these crippling guidelines and practices. We have approached the mayor and city council and still we are getting nowhere, with no explanation as to why.

We hope this story interests you in some way as this does feel like a systematic attack on local business and jobs and no one seems to care. We need the help of the public and their recommendations for the best way to navigate this heinous attack. I'd like to believe that Petaluma is better than this. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Brain Tatko and Greg Johnson

Owners of the Roaring Donkey

EDITOR: I’m writing to express my grave concern at the speed cars and vehicles are driving on Jefferson Street in our Midtown neighborhood.

We live on Jefferson Street between Vallejo and Payran, and every day starting at noon, our street becomes a drag strip. Students leaving San Antonio High School turn right onto Jefferson Street from Vallejo, and gunning their engines, race as fast as they can to the stop sign at Payran. With squealing tires, they then take off left and right down Payran at terrifying speeds.

This happens every single day that school is in session.

As neighbors, we have repeatedly called the Petaluma Police Department, as well as the administration at San Antonio High School, asking for help with this issue, but so far nothing has been done to address it.

And it's not just students. Cars, commercial vehicles and trucks use Jefferson Street as a connector to Payran on a daily basis, and it's making our neighborhood a dangerous place for children, the elderly, cyclists, pedestrians, and for all of us neighbors to live.

As neighbors, we’re at a breaking point with this. This past Saturday, our friend and neighbor was struck by a car in the crosswalk at Jefferson and Vallejo while holding the hand of a 5-year-old child. Our neighbor threw her arms around the child to protect him as the car struck them, knocking them both down. The child was taken to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital by ambulance, and both he and our neighbor are bruised, injured and traumatized by the accident.

My question is this — do we need to wait until a pedestrian, cyclist or neighbor is killed on Jefferson Street before action is taken to control this situation?

Matt Fabiano

Petaluma

EDITOR: David Templeton's balanced and informative article about the Cinnabar Theater made me understand and appreciate both sides of the opera controversy.

As an award-winning playwright who has had plays produced throughout California, Chicago, New York and the UK, I wondered if I had dropped anchor in a cultural backwater when I moved here from Los Angeles exactly 25 years ago this month. After all, I was leaving an exciting and thriving theater community, which has more live theater than in New York, thanks to the lure of films and TV.

I needn't have worried as I discovered the Cinnabar pretty quickly, and their plays (most recently, "Three Tall Women" and "Misery"), are just as professionally done as anything I've seen in L.A. or New York.

By 1998, I had seen only one opera in my life. That was "Madama Butterfly" at L.A.'s Greek Theatre sometime in the '70s, starring Dorothy Kirsten. The orchestra, costumes and sets were excellent… but a plump, Caucasian woman in her mid-60s sadly does not make the best Madama Butterfly. That experience made me an opera hater.

However, the Cinnabar surprised me with its extraordinary productions of "Carmen," "The Marriage of Figaro" and "La Traviota," all directed by Elly Lichenstein. During intermission and sometimes before the performance, I met folks from Marin and Napa counties, San Francisco and Vacaville who expressed their admiration for and gratitude to the Cinnabar for satisfying their opera fix at un-San Francisco prices.

Yes, opera is expensive, but can we afford to let it go the way of Clover Ice Cream? It's one of the things that makes Petaluma Petaluma.

Bob Canning

Petaluma

Send letter to publisher Emily Charrier at [email protected].