More Healdsburg Housing + Voting Rights + River Parking Solution

Good morning, crew! Here I am in your inbox again, ready to send you off into this sweltering Healdsburg Friday knowing everything you need to know about what's going on in town.

First, today's weather:

Brutally hot and sunny, with a calm wind in the afternoon. Excessive heat warning in effect. High: 99 Low: 58.

Here are the top stories in Healdsburg today:

1. Starting two years from now, over the following eight years, Healdsburg will reportedly be required to build 476 new housing units to help alleviate California's housing crisis — "or the state will come in and do it for them." That's more than a 200% increase from the previous eight-year period. Explore the details of this looming mandate in the Trib, including the portion of Healdsburg units required per income bracket. That is, if you can get through the wall of public-agency acronyms. (SoCoNews Healdsburg)
2. Having trouble finding river parking? You're not alone. The situation has gotten so bad that the county just introduced a $5-round-trip shuttle between Santa Rosa (Tom Schopflin Fields on Old Redwood Highway) and Forestville's Steelhead and Sunset Beaches. "Passengers can carry deflated rafts and tubes on the shuttle and blow them up at a free inflation station at Steelhead Beach," county officials say. Kinda perfect for floating from Steelhead to Sunset without having to do the whole park-a-car-at-each-end shuffle. (Patch Press Release Desk)
3. About that smoke plume last night: Firefighters were staging a 23-acre "prescribed burn" along River Road in Geyserville, in an attempt to clear out highly flammable invasive grasses. “We realize the timing of this prescribed burn is at the beginning of a heat wave," local fire chief Marshall Turbeville said beforehand. "We would not do this prescribed burn if we thought we could not conduct it safely." (Facebook)
4. Sonoma County officials are making strides toward expanding early voting, both mail-in and in-person. Under a plan currently in the public input phase, local voters "would also be able to vote at any vote center within the county, rather than a designated polling place." (KCBS)
5. By this time next year, if you get a new phone number in Healdsburg and environs, it likely won't start with "707." No word yet on what exactly the new three-digit code in town will be, though. This front-page PD story on the change is a delightful rabbit hole into the history of 707 pride. (Press Democrat; paywall)

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Healdsburg pic of the day:

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Today in Healdsburg:

• Free Summer Wrestling Camp at Healdsburg High School (9AM-12PM )
• Spring Music Series at Hotel Healdsburg: Dustin Saylor (6-8PM)
• Bugbee Project Live at Coyote Sonoma (6-8:30PM)
• Mamma Mia! at the Raven Theater (8-9:30PM)

Healdsburg Patch Notebook

• The mountain lion sightings are getting closer to home. As you surely heard, Petaluma was rocked by puma mania last week. Now, the Sonoma County Sheriff warns of a possible sighting in Windsor's Foothill Regional Park, around five miles southeast of Healdsburg. (Nixle)
• Don't you love reading whimsical travel dispatches from other cities about how everyone needs to visit the quaint and charming town of Healdsburg, CA? (Sacramento Magazine)
• There's reportedly been an outbreak of the COVID delta variant at Sonoma County's largest homeless shelter, the Sam Jones L. Hall shelter in Santa Rosa. (Press Democrat; paywall)
• Healdsburg Little League update! TLDR: Our boys are strugglin'. (SoCo News Healdsburg)
• This month's virtual book club book at the Healdsburg Library is "The Sympathizer," by Viet Thanh Nguyen. Here's how to snag a free copy, either physical or digital, before the discussion on Aug. 3. (Facebook)
• So this is what Healdsburg police badges and patches looked like in the '50s. We're smitten. (Facebook)
• The Healdsburg Museum is hoping to host an exhibit of 25 Pomo baskets from the Hearst collection "that are local to this area and have never been displayed here." A couple of Hearst reps reportedly came sniffing around the museum this week to inspect "the conditions under which the baskets would be displayed (temperature, light, relative humidity)." Fingers crossed! (Facebook)
• FYI, Healdsburg City Hall and the Community Development Center will be closed today, just as they are regularly on "alternating Fridays throughout the year." (City of Healdsburg)
• Gentle nudge: Tuesdays in the Plaza still needs around $35,000 in donations to keep running through the end of August, as scheduled. Donate here. (Give Lively)
• There's a seriously sweet-looking black cat with white spots on her tummy waiting for you to come adopt her at the Healdsburg animal shelter. She's described as "affectionate and outgoing," and she comes with the best cat name ever: Lunch Lady. (Humane Society of Sonoma County)
• The fancy restaurant scene of the Cleveland area is all abuzz, re: an upcoming visit from Healdsburg's own Susie Selby of Selby Winery. She's set to "guide" a five-course dinner at a local bistro, each course paired with a Sonoma County wine. School 'em, Susie. (Cleveland.com)
• Healdsburgians, along with all Californians, are being urged to cut back on electricity usage this evening, given the intense heat and the extra strain AC units will put on the power grid. Here's some more specific guidance. (California Independent System Operator)

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That's it for today. If you're into these newsletters and think some of your friends or neighbors might like them too, you can send them this link to subscribe. See you around!

— Simone Wilson

About me: I was born and raised in Healdsburg, CA, where I was the editor of the Healdsburg High School Hound's Bark. I have since worked as a local journalist for publications in San Diego, Los Angeles, New York City and the Middle East. I'm currently a senior product manager for Patch.

Have a news tip or suggestion for an upcoming Healdsburg Daily? You can email me at simone.wilson@patch.com.