Some Walls

Published in edited form in the Foothills Sun-Gazette, March 20, 2013.

"If there's any hope

for love at all,

some walls, some walls

must fall."

                     Randy Sharp

     Tulare County's own Randy Sharp was in Lindsay on Saturday, providing a lovely, homey concert at our community theater.  Making a living as a songwriter most of his career, he sang a long, engaging list of his works.  His clear, sweet voice carried his words and melodies, backed up by his dynamic guitar playing.  He's a thinker and a lover, and the night out was pure pleasure.

     He taught me something as I sat there taking in his music.  The theater's house lights were fully on:  apparently there's no rheostat, no way to dim them.  They're either on or off, and Randy preferred the less glamorous full light because he felt he could better communicate with his audience that way than sitting there alone in the spotlight, talking and singing to the dark.

     Sometimes writing this column is like that:  very solo, no way to see the audience until the concert's over.  The paper comes out, the house lights come back on, and then I get to wonder how it went.  If I didn't have my job at the market, I wouldn't get to hear the applause.  For years I wrote thinking no one was listening.

    Recently I've heard some boos, even caught a couple of rotten tomatoes.  That's ok, at least we're communicating.  Anyone who wants to hear my rebuttal to their arguments will have to look below at the entry preceding this one, however, because I'm not wasting any more trees on those words.  What they're really complaining about is that I've been keeping the house lights up on this city's activities, and they prefer working behind the scenes, then performing in the spotlight where the flaws are hidden.

     Take Bill Zigler's most recent folly, promoting a Dollar General store downtown on the site of the beautiful, historic Central California Citrus Exchange building.  Last September the Council directed Zigler to look elsewhere for this project:  three of the five, including Mayor Murray, were dead set against that location and the proposed demolition of the building.  Regardless, in January Zigler came back with a re-designed Spanish-style store front on the same site and the pronouncement that the Exchange building does not have historical significance.  And just in case someone might still want to restore it, they had an inspection report done that supposedly showed the building is in such poor condition that it would be financially prohibitive to save it.

     This plan has so many planning flaws, not to mention potential economic impacts, that I called in some reinforcements.  While they worked on the legal requirements of CEQA (the California Environmental Quality Act that governs all planning proposals,) I went to work researching the historical significance of the Exchange building and examining Ziglers historial and inspection reports.  Zigler's historical survey was done by his young assistant planner who knows nothing, apparently, of the importance of Sunkist Growers to this community, and the inspection does not estimate even one red cent of potential repair expense.  Those "studies" are just walls thrown up to protect a project even Mayor Murray did not want.

     It appears to me that Mr. Zigler, once again, is serving special interests at the community's expense.  The city attorney appears to be in on the game plan:  her advice to Council to close the public hearing on this project even before bringing it to a vote was another wall thrown up to keep out any new evidence on the adequacy of Zigler's environmental documents.  That is what the Council has been told it is voting on, and the inadequacy of those documents is what we are showing.

     A brave Council would re-open the public hearing and investigate the real motivations behind Zigler's plan before proceding, lest we become saddled with more of Zigler's Follies.  If there's any hope for love at all, some walls - these walls - must fall.
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Trudy Wischemann is a writer who thinks more truth can be found in words attached to music than in words alone.  You can send her your thoughts on the Dollar General plan % P.O. Box 1374, Lindsay CA  93247 - or leave a response here!