The top three priorities for the new City Council to address among readers responding to this week’s online poll were traffic and transportation; jobs and economic development, and the future of the tribal land south of Petaluma.
Traffic and transportation was the highest priority with 53 votes, while jobs and economic development was close behind with 47 votes. Tribal land received 24 votes. Behind that was, in descending order, environmental issues, parks and recreation, future of the Marin/Sonoma fairgrounds, and funding for nonprofits.
Here were some of the comments.
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“Control spending, focus on what’s essential, and solidify the city’s financial health to begin preparing for the next ‘rainy day.’ We’re always going to want more than we can afford.”
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“During a time in which environmental issues are becoming increasingly dangerous to ignore it is my hope that our town can and will do its part to protect our surrounding ecosystem: ‘Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.’ — Theodore Roosevelt.”
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“Each of these choices should be our city’s top goals. To me they are all very important issues that face Petaluma. Hopefully the City Council has the ability to multi-task and work on all these areas during the coming year.”
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“How about focusing more on quality of life rather than constant building and ‘growth.’ The growth in Petaluma is short-sighted and making Petaluma ugly. Buildings are continually going up (big box at that!), trees are continually coming down…and why is so much being built when there are so many vacancies? If this is what is considered progress, count me out.”
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“Jobs, jobs, jobs.”
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“More police should be number one; street repair should be number two; number three should be traffic enforcement.”
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“One top goal that is not listed that would be my number one pick: get rid of the mayor!”
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“Only voted for jobs on your list. I would like to see some of the police officer positions that were cut over the last few years returned. Other than that, encourage business and get Rainier built.”
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“Perhaps without the “power grabbing” majority we’ve had, the council can focus on what the people want instead of promoting an agenda.”
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“Roads, roads, roads. Redirect funds currently being wasted on, say, updating the trucks that the Public Works Department uses and fix the roads. This city functions more like a disfunctional large city than the little cow town it is.”
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“Scrap all the above and fix the roads. Everything else is second.”
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“Since they are going to be working on Highway 101 in Petaluma for the next few years, let Rainer be built finally, after the people of Petaluma voted on putting it in twice.”
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“Street paving and other roadway infrastructure, but not street grafitti commonly called bike lanes.”
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“The City Council should strive to bring the city out of the “stone age” and realize that it is part of the most progressive state in the country and as such endeavor to serve its citizens needs and not itself with ‘fashionable’ legislation that get media attention, restricts trade and personal freedoms while doing little else.”
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“They need to be focusing on the city’s finances and the ongoing decay of our infrastructure. Nothing else until those issues are properly addressed.”
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