s
s
Sections
Sections
Sections
Sections
Subscribe

About PeteGolis

This author has not yet filled in any details.
So far PeteGolis has created 115 blog entries.

Tax reforms? Good luck with that

California’s system of taxation has evolved into a monstrosity that is unreliable, disjointed, inequitable and destructive. There was a reason, after all,  that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders established a special commission to come up with a better way. But the tax reform panel recommendations expected this week will [...]

By | September 21st, 2009|1 Comment

The sad news about Sawyer’s News

When John Sawyer announced plans to close Sawyer’s News - a downtown mainstay for 64 years - folks lined up the usual suspects. Blame a bad economy, they said. Blame big-box stores and chains. Blame state tax laws that make cities dependent on sales tax revenues from big-box stores. Blame [...]

By | September 20th, 2009|4 Comments

Forty years later, meet The Beatles

I asked Facebook friends whether I should spring for one of the new Beatles box sets. Of course, they said, it’s only money. Well, no. At $299 (for the monaural package) and $260 (for stereo), it’s too much money. Instead, I bought four of the remastered CDs, all albums that [...]

By | September 17th, 2009|3 Comments

Mad as hell about most everything

Shades of the recent town hall meeting in Petaluma, the name-calling associated with the health care debate came to Congress on Wednesday night. “You lie,” Republican Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina shouted at the President of the United States. Embarrassed and fearful of the political fallout, the House GOP [...]

By | September 13th, 2009|6 Comments

Taking California back from the political insiders

It’s no surprise that Californians have a low opinion of state government. The latest poll results from the Public Policy Institute of California - read them here - only confirm what we have known for a long time: The government in Sacramento is dysfunctional, unaccountable and embarrassing. Only one in [...]

By | September 11th, 2009|3 Comments

Will books become old technology?

How about reading a book. . . on your phone? News stories in recent days have reported on people who do. So I'm reading  Malcolm Gladwell’s “The Outliers” on my iPhone.  Call it a test of whether it’s practical to read an entire book on a screen that measures 3.5 [...]

By | August 31st, 2009|0 Comments

Would you like fries with that?

Back in the day, if you told your Uncle Charlie that folks wanted to operate a hamburger restaurant in a nearby commercial area, he would have replied, “Well, that’s a nice thing. I like hamburgers.” And if you told him that he could buy a burger, fries and a coke [...]

By | August 30th, 2009|4 Comments

Going off the grid, Part II

In “Going cold turkey in Wyoming,” I wrote in July about the discomfort of going 24 hours without cell phone service or an Internet connection. Today, a better writer than I am, Timothy Eagan, writes about what he missed during his week-long “media fast.” The Pulitzer Prize winner calls the [...]

By | August 27th, 2009|0 Comments

Can council stay the course on downtown parking?

It’s encouraging news that the Santa Rosa City Council wants to take a more strategic approach to downtown parking and traffic. Staff Writer Paul Payne reported on Tuesday that the council will consider a new parking rate structure to help pay for downtown improvements and expanded transit services. Under a [...]

By | August 26th, 2009|1 Comment

Rearranging the deck chairs

While Sonoma County’s political insiders are busy plotting their next career move, this week’s New Yorker magazine offers a telling perspective for voters who have spent years supporting politicians who promised that education would be their No. 1 priority. “(California’s) public schools, once the nation’s best, are now among the [...]

By | August 25th, 2009|2 Comments