The basic building block for influencing local elected officials is the neighborhood, says organizer Jim Diers, because people tend to be most involved and active closest to their homes.

 What defines a neighborhood? Jim Diers, author of Neighbor Power, Building Community the Seattle Way, says there are some basic characteristics that tend to be self-selecting, and common almost everywhere.

Neighborhood Watch programs are among the best known and most widespread applications of the idea that neighbors can benefit from looking out for one another.  Diers sees that as a small step in the right direction, but advocates taking thing much further.

Jim Diers will be the keynote speaker at the Santa Rosa Neighbors Summit Friday evening in the Santa Rosa City Council chambers. Events begin with a free meeting and presentation by neighborhood organizer Jim Diers on Friday evening, Aug. 20, 7-8:30 pm, followed by the working Neighborhood Summit on Saturday  Aug. 21, 9:30 am to 2:30 in the Finley Community Center on West College at Stony Point.

The federal health care bill, passed earlier this year, will also boost the fiscal well-begin of community clinics in Sonoma County, as well as the patients they serve.

Mary Szecsey, Executive Director of the five West County Health Centers,  explains that the local clinics, and many of their counterparts across the county, have helped pioneer and refine the concept known as a “medical home” for patients.

This approach, developed in considerable part out of necessity, has proven to be both efficacious and cost-effective, Szecsey adds, which is why it is being more widely adopted.

A power struggle in Windsor is pitting homeowners against PG&E, whose engineers have concluded that the best place for a new electrical substation lies in the town’s south center area. The people already living nearby think that’s a very bad idea.

Homeowner Rosemary Olson describes the reaction she got when she shared the PG&E substation plans with an electrical analyst who has no connection to the project.

Another issue with potential health impact, says Dr. Wayne Freenman, is exposure to the constant electro-magnetic fields that would be present at the substation.

Flood, droughts and rising sea levels and other effects of global climate change are already displacing millions of people around the world, a situation documented in the new film, Climate Refugees.

Documentary filmmaker Michael Nash first screened Climate Refugees at the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen last winter. The film made its domestic debut at Sundance.  And even as he hopes for US commercial distribution to kick in later this fall, Nash says he is fielding requests for showings from a growing number of governmental and church groups.

Climate Refugees is meant to be apolitical, at least in the partisan sense, says Nash (right). And even if the issue he spotlights may be new to many viewers, he observes that it has been building for years.

Nash has said his starting point for making this filnm was a desire to show “the human face of climate change.”  In doing so, he learned that one doesn’t need to go very far to find it.

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2ULoJYTsrM

A change at the Santa Rosa Farmer’s Market that begins on Saturday may help some lower income households enjoy healthier menus.

To make the introduction of the food stamp program at the Santa Rosa Farmer’s Market this Saturday more festive, manager Paula Downing says several special events will be part of their day.

Mary Kelley, manager of the Healdsburg Farmers Markets (they have two each week), observes that the few food stamp users who have begun to shop there are going through some serious changes in their shopping and food preparation practices.

Locations, dates and times forall the many  Sonoma County Farmers' Markets can be found here.

Follow this link for information about the Food Stamp program in Sonoma County