Steve Falk is the Chief Executive Officer of Sonoma Media Investments, which includes; The Press Democrat, the Petaluma Argus-Courier, the Sonoma Index Tribune, the North Bay Business Journal, Sonoma County Gazette, La Prensa Sonoma and Sonoma Magazine. Under Falk’s leadership, The Press Democrat was awarded the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the devastating Northern California fires. He also headed a $34 million fund raising effort with Redwood Credit Union and Senator Mike McGuire for victims of the 2017 fires. Falk was the former publisher of the San Francisco Chronicle and served as president and chief executive of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce from 2005 to 2012. Before joining the Chamber in 2005, Falk had extensive experience in the newspaper industry. Born in Lancaster, PA, he began his newspaper career with Lancaster Newspapers. He worked for newspapers in New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania before joining Gannett Westchester Rockland Newspapers, NY, in 1982 where he planned and directed the startup of USA Today in the northern suburbs of New York City. He joined the San Francisco Chronicle in 1987 and held several key positions including circulation director and vice president/sales and marketing. In 1996 he was named President/CEO of the San Francisco Newspaper Agency, associate publisher in November 2000, and publisher and president of the San Francisco Chronicle in March 2003.
The Guest Speaker for our meeting on October 14, 2021, was Keith Woods, CEO of the North Coast Builders Exchange. Keith was introduced by Steve Amend, who has known Keith for many years. Keith’s career at the NCBE has spanned nearly 2 decades. He is a former President of the Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce and a frequent guest speaker everywhere. Keith presented his thoughts on Sonoma County’s recovery from the 2017 fires, which took place almost exactly 4 years ago.
Keith reminded us that almost 5,000 homes burned in Sonoma County, 3,000 in Santa Rosa alone. Almost 5% of available Sonoma County housing stock burned, as well as bridges, hotels, barns, and commercial structures. The fires burned hundreds of homes in Lake County, a high percentage of homes in Redwood Valley in Mendocino County, and another 500-600 homes in Napa County.
Many of these communities have made substantial recoveries. 90% of the homes Coffey Park have been rebuilt or are in the rebuild pipeline. The community, however, is very different. The pre-fire $400,000 - $500,000 homes have been replaced by $650,000 - $700,000 homes. 40% of the homes in Coffey Park were rentals, and most renters have gone elsewhere. Big developers offered homeowners 8-10 floor plans for production homes. Rebuild costs have generally been in the $250-300 per square foot range. The Fountaingrove area has not been as successful. Only 50-55% of the homes have been rebuilt. The homeowners were not organized and had to find their own architects, soil testers, and builders. Fountaingrove homeowners were generally underinsured and have had significant financial problems as a result. The homes were often built on large hillside lots, making rebuilding more difficult and therefore expensive. Many of the homeowners have downsized. Redwood Valley has had even more problems, with only 30-40% of the homes rebuilt. Napa County has been the most successful in rebuilding, with a larger pool of available contractors.
Keith attributes Coffey Park’s success to its organization. They brought in speakers, had seminars about insurance and contracting, and invited the NCBE to help educate owners about how to avoid scammer contractors, among other things. There have been, however, a number of fraudulent contractors and contractors with poor business sense. As an example, Keith mentioned a Central Valley contractor who brought their own workers. They did not truly understand the travel, per diem, and overtime costs. Their workers also quickly learned that they could make a lot more per hour working for local contractors. The Central Valley contractor was unable to meet its obligations to the people who contracted with them.
Keith’s key message was that Santa Rosa’s recovery has been phenomenal. He complemented local government agencies, who streamlined the permit process. He noted a key problem in contracting: For every 5 workers leaving the industry, only 1 worker will join. Keith’s main advice: (1) if you want to remodel do it now and (2) keep your homeowner’s insurance up to date!
Many thanks to Keith for the expert analysis and sage advice. And thank you for your many years of service to Sonoma County!
Click HERE to view Keith's presentation. It will be available watch for a short time.
On a regular basis, our resident photo pro Warren Smith, submits pictures of what is going on at the weekly meetings. You can always find the most recent pictures at the websites photo journal called "Meeting Sighting" Please note that all the meeting photos for the entire Rotary year are at this location with the most recent on the last page.
Thanks for all the great pictures Warren!Link to Meeting Sightings. The most recent are on the last page!
This weekend, my friends & I had the opportunity to travel to Austin, TX. We went on lots of adventures and saw plenty of interesting characters. On the last day of our visit, we decided to check out the historic Driskill Hotel in downtown. The energy was eerie. Standing at the base of a grand stairwell, I was overcome with a deep chill that radiated deep into my bones. We all felt a deep sense of sorrow in this elegant space & felt relieved when we left.
Driskill Hotel
This is not the first occasion I’ve felt a spirit‘s presence. The paranormal reigns supreme in Virginia City, NV and Lake Tahoe. An energy vortex with a sordid past. History definitely carries its weight and leaves a trail of energy in its wake.
Haunted Virginia city
For those of us in the conscious state, an apparition can present itself in various ways. My experiences include a sudden, drastic drop in temperature. A chill so extreme and inexplicable. My brother and mother in law have experienced orbs of light and the movement of objects. The scent of a lingering cigar or the cacophonous sound of a piano crashing down a flight of stairs is not uncommon.
These experiences give us such a deep fright, but deep down I know these spirits mean no harm. They have a story to share and seem desperate to communicate their tales. I’m sure it can get pretty lonely being a poltergeist. Once in awhile we all are in the presence of a Casper the friendly ghost.
What paranormal experiences have you encountered? How did you feel when they occurred? Frightened? Curious? Exhilaration?
Mary Banks experienced a Libra.... "Woo Woo" .... that may have involved ... her mother and ... a spirit animal...(Perhaps Jennifer has a special vision for Mary’s high 5...?) Steve Amend: Steve is heading to New York next week to visit his son and 4-year old grandson!
Max Bridges announced that he was in Forks, Washington, on the way to Olympia, Washington and then to Medford, Oregon. Max and Dee Dee traveled up Highway 101 until it met I-5 in Olympia and came back down I-5. Max reports that this trip was just to explore an area they had not previously explored! Peter Hoberg announced that since Max is in Washington Peter and Mary Banks have stepped up to pick Del up for the meeting. He is giving high fives for Del, Mary and Peter Banks.
Peter's high 5’s for Del, Mary & Peter Banks!
Scott Holder reports that he survived 8 days in a boat with his sister! Poor Scott; he had to struggle through that 8-day River Cruise on the Blue Danube and even had to get up at 3:30 a.m. to watch the Giants!
M.J. Girard is currently an on air personality on KOWSfm.com His “Roots of Rock” is broadcast every Sunday morning at 7 AM
Mexico was an outstanding change of pace from the usual routine, visited with dear friends and relatives, but now, back to reality!
This Sunday’s session will encompass the sounds of San Francisco, of which I am intimately familiar as a native son of “Baghdad of The Bay” as Herb Cain coined in his daily column in the Chronicle…in those days, the daily newspapers, the four television channels and AM radio were the only source of information and entertainment. How the times have changed!
The late ‘50’s and early ‘60’s saw the advent and slow demise of the “Beatnik Generation…” based in gothic style of drabness and despair. Dark coffee houses, cigarette smoke, someone reading their latest depressing poem, jazz and folk music performed live and on the local Bay Area AM radio stations. Darn glad that I was a youth during these years of transition, from darkness to lightness as the music took a great leap forward …based on an awakening of a desire to shine through and lift up the emotions of both the musicians and their followers. This new bent of music was loud and community based, often times played for free in the Golden Gate park, or in the new hip neighborhood of the Haight-Ashbury. Granted, the fuel for this transition was based on new optimism, the Space Race, near full employment and of course the availability of a variety of mind-altering substances.
In addition to the above, sleepy FM radio which heretofore broadcast mainly classical music, woke up to the new form of entertainment and began to change the destiny of the myriad of garage bands, now recording in newly established recording studios popping up in almost every district in the city.
Oftentimes called the “Liverpool” of the west coast, groups proliferated in abundance;
Jefferson Airplane, Moby Grape, Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, the Youngbloods, Blue Cheer, Steve Miller Band, Santana, Sly and the Family Stone, and the Beau Brummels whom I was in school with at Abraham Lincoln High School. Talk about “Boss” high school dances…
A chicken farmer went to the local bar …He sat next to a woman and ordered champagne. The woman said: “How strange, I also just ordered a glass of champagne.” – “What a coincidence” – said the farmer, who added: “It is a special day for me …I am celebrating …” “It is a special day for me too. I am also celebrating !” – said the woman. – “What are you celebrating:” – “My husband and I have been trying have a child for years, and today, my gynecologist told me that I was pregnant.” – “What a coincidence!” – said the man. – “I am a chicken farmer and for years all my hens were infertile, but now they are all set to lay fertilized eggs.” – “This is awesome,” – said the woman – “What did you do for your chickens to become fertile?” – “I used a different rooster ” _ he said. The woman smiled and said: “What a coincidence.”
Meet the winners of the 2020-21 Rotaract Outstanding Project Awards
The winners of the 2020-21 Rotaract Outstanding Project Awards were announced in April and celebrated during the virtual Rotaract Preconvention in June. Rotaract clubs and districts in 63 countries nominated a record 675 service projects, which were evaluated by RI staff and Rotaract Committee members on criteria including sustainability, community assessment, promotion, impact within Rotary’s areas of focus, involvement of multiple Rotaract clubs, and collaboration with Rotarians and local experts. Two projects were chosen as international awardees and six as regional awardees.
For more than 25 years, the Rotaract Outstanding Project Awards program has been an opportunity for Rotaract clubs to share their success with the global Rotary community and to inspire other clubs to develop sustainable and innovative projects. Because the nomination form is modeled after The Rotary Foundation’s global grant application, the process also helps prepare Rotaract clubs to apply for global grants, which they will be allowed to do starting 1 July. Learn more about Rotaract.
International award recipients
Single club: Rotaract Club of University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, for creating and sustaining Sri Lanka’s largest educational audiobook library, as well as designing audio-based vocational training lessons to benefit visually impaired students.
Multiclub: Rotaract clubs in Southeast Asia for their You Are Not Alone mental health initiative, which reached more than 50,000 people with an approach that included local outreach and virtual educational workshops on suicide, cyberbullying, trauma, and depression.
Rotaractors in Southeast Asia created digital posters to spread awareness of their multiclub mental health initiative.
Photo courtesy of You Are Not Alone (YANA) Southeast Asia Mental Health Initiative.
Regional award recipients
Africa: Rotaract Club of Kololo, Uganda, for empowering women from five communities by donating sewing machines, providing financial training, and creating an investment club to pool resources and savings.
Asia-Pacific: Rotaract Club of Zamboanga City West, Philippines, for a project that introduced hydroponic gardening to an association of women farmers to help them increase their food security and generate income.
An association of women farmers in the Philippines received hands-on training in hydroponic gardening from members of the Rotaract Club of Zamboanga City West.
Photo courtesy of the Rotaract Club of Zamboanga City West, Philippines.
Canada, Caribbean, and United States: Rotaract Club of Tortola, British Virgin Islands, for helping install in a local park an artificial tree that uses solar power to charge electronic devices, raising awareness of the benefits of alternative energy.
Central Asia, Europe, and Middle East: Rotaract Club of Tunis-Ennasr, Tunisia, for leading a nine-club project that collected donations of hair in order to provide customized wigs to children undergoing chemotherapy. In the process, the clubs highlighted the psychological impact of cancer and combated cultural myths about hair.
Latin America: Rotaract Club of Itabuna Universitários, Brazil, for supporting a neighborhood that had no access to drinking water or basic sanitation by distributing ceramic filters, educating residents about water treatment methods, and getting public health authorities involved.
South Asia: Rotaract Club of Islamabad, Bangladesh, for Project Beacon, in which members renovated a Rotary-sponsored school and provided tutoring, guidance, and educational materials to students facing challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This story originally appeared in the September 2021 issue of Rotary magazine.
Rotary Club of Santa Rosa Sunrise - Founded June 30, 1986
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