I am thinking of buying a home at Southgate and my family and I were wondering what the people who live there feel about the treatment plant that is down the road. What is the impact? Is there an obnoxious smell? Please let me know.
Posts: 9 | Location: Petaluma | Registered: 13 September 2008
I used to work near the Kaiser and there are interesting smells around there. Manure in spring, commercial pastry bakery during business hours, and once in a while the poultry processing plant emanates steam from the feather plucking process. I also got really bad hay fever when working outside since it's surrounded by hay fields. You get use to it after a few years.
Dunno if there's a "smell" near Southgate (unless the asphalt plant goes in) but the development itself sure stinks. If this kind of tract homes with no yards, no trees, no character, high walls and a proximity to Petaluma's only gang activity - a completely barren non-neighborhood that was usurped from pristine pastureland - appeals to you... well, I recommend Rohnert Park. We're gonna burn Southgate down.
Originally posted by Mr. Korpi: Dunno if there's a "smell" near Southgate (unless the asphalt plant goes in) but the development itself sure stinks. If this kind of tract homes with no yards, no trees, no character, high walls and a proximity to Petaluma's only gang activity - a completely barren non-neighborhood that was usurped from pristine pastureland - appeals to you... well, I recommend Rohnert Park. We're gonna burn Southgate down.
hmmmmm, interesting mr. korpi. where do you live? wherever it is, your home/your neighborhood was once "pristine pastureland" and because of your home it now isn't! and only gang activity...are you serious? i recall several gang happenings over the past year throughout town and yes ONE was near southgate but there were more that were in other areas than southgate.
so, you are going to burn it down.....great, that would make gang activity look minor. the hypocrisy flowing from you is very thick.
Just returned from Kaiser and the smell outside was absolutely horrible. I mentioned this to a staff member at Kaiser and she said it was coming from the treatment plant. They were told that within a few weeks, the awful smell will go away. I guess we'll just have to wait and see...
yes...speaking of thick.....you did not mention where you live? could it be that you live in something that was once called (or still is) hideous suburban blight? you have yours, don't let anyone else have theirs and if they get it.....trash it. there are what, 100 families living in southgate and may just like it. to each his own. but it is easy to trash on others when you can hide behind a screen name right. so where/what do you live again?
oh, and i'm always aware, whether i'm out by southgate or anywhere else in town. no one place is a haven for gang activity as you suggest. it can be everywhere so i'm always aware, thanks for your concern though.
FWIW: I live in Petaluma. THE Petaluma. Close to downtown. In a house built long before the freeway and the hideous suburban blight. Before Southgate, when one drove out to Sonoma one would see open pastures and skies clear to Sonoma Mountain. Now all one sees is walled-in cookie cutter monster homes with no yards, no trees... no soul. This was squeezed in at the very last corner of the city limits with NO public input. Let's hope the new city council will approve a charter that will never let this happen again.
Oh...wow, excuse me.....i had no idea you lived in THE petaluma. you must know everything then. yeah right, give me a break. as i said earlier, the hypocrisy flowing from you is very thick. the house you live in, what was there before it was built? i doubt it was an asphalt parking lot or a run down quarry. i'm sure it was a pristine pasture or something of the like. of course it was yet you criticize. i'm continuously amazed at how folks don't want others / criticize others for the same things they themselves are/have done.
oh, and the NO public input. are you serious. did that project not go to a PUBLICLY NOTICED planning commission, PUBLICLY NOTICED city council and a PUBLICLY NOTICED sparc. hmmmmmm, three PUBLICLY NOTICED PUBLIC HEARINGS.....THREE and you say there was no public input.
the more you speak the less credible your words become.
Originally posted by Mr. Korpi: FWIW: I live in Petaluma. THE Petaluma. Close to downtown. In a house built long before the freeway and the hideous suburban blight. Before Southgate, when one drove out to Sonoma one would see open pastures and skies clear to Sonoma Mountain. Now all one sees is walled-in cookie cutter monster homes with no yards, no trees... no soul. This was squeezed in at the very last corner of the city limits with NO public input. Let's hope the new city council will approve a charter that will never let this happen again.
There was plenty of opportunity for public input. And, if you didn't care for Southgate, there was ample opportunity to make your voice heard during the General Plan Process (I'll bet SCM thinks THAT process took w-a-y too long )
I think the most effective way for someone to make their case in those processes is not to go for the sensational sound bites of an extreme point of view but to recognize that one person's voice is one of many... and there are almost always opposing views. Finding some common ground is a much better way to be listened to. Not just heard.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Listening to both sides of a story will convince you that there is more to a story than both sides." ~ Frank Tyger
We did voice our opinions on Southgate AND Magnolia, but apparently we were merely a very vocal minority who had to bow to the tyranny of an ignorant and complacent majority.
And if you can't tell the difference between prefab housing tracts and an organically-grown communities then I doubt I can explain it to you. But try this: if you surrounded, say, Graton or Penngrove with suburban sprawl, would these new housing tracts still be Graton or Penngrove just because of their proximity? I'm guessing you think the answer is yes.
And if so there's little hope of my getting an anti-sprawl message across whether I use inflammatory OR conciliatory language. I'm not trying to make friends or run for office here - I'm pointing out blight and unsustainable development practices. Because obviously, some people can't see it when it's right in front of their faces.
I can see that you've had at least a couple of bad experiences with the public process. Haven't we all. Calling people that don't agree with you "ignorant and complacent" is probably not going to win them over to your way of thinking. Heck, they may agree with some of what you say and become a valuable ally working it from another angle if you went about it another way. The difference between hearing and listening.
I hope I'm still reasonably optomistic in 20 years. Sometimes it's a battle, I have to admit.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Listening to both sides of a story will convince you that there is more to a story than both sides." ~ Frank Tyger
Until 3 years ago, we lived on the East Side...very near the Lakeville Business Park. I used to walk my dog over there (near Kaiser) every night for many years. Now that we we've moved to the West Side, I'm not over there as much....which has caused me to become diSTINKly aware of the new odor. The recent stench in that area is absolutely the smell of raw sewage coming from the new water treatment plant, and I only hope this is due to it being new & untested. I was/am looking forward to the new hiking trails associated with the plant...but I can't imagine hiking for miles inside a cloud of...uh....gasses....
as i've said before, very well said whole_story, very well said.
mr. korpi, are all people who disagree with you ignorant and complacent? i have to say, it is very unfortunate that just because people have a different opinion than you or dissagree with you then they are called names. it is very sad and unfortunate that folks use these forums to do such things, call people names and slam them/and or their homes simply because they disagree or because you dislike the location or the look of their house. there are many things around town that i dislike (for whatever reason, the look, the location, what the sell, etc.) but to criticize would be unfair and just plain hypocritical.
this city, the 'progressive' city council set an urban growth boundary so yes, everything w/in it IS petaluma. if penngrove and/or graton set a ugb then, yes, i would say everything in it was part of that town. it is not black/white, there is always much more too it than that. southgate is w/in the ugb, it is w/in the zoning that was set for it. it went through a public process, the full process that it should have gone through. maybe the outcome wasn't to your pleasing therefore you criticize the process. again, very unfortunate. things don't go your way and the names, criticisms and accusations fly. too bad.
i can most certainly see what is right in front of my face but just because i don't choose to look through YOUR glasses doesn't make me blind. i'll continue to use the word.....it is very unfortunate that you choose to look at issues through only your glasses and not looking at things as others may see it. you don't seem to be open to the fact that others may simply have different views than yours and you attack those folks. very, very sad and pathetic.
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