Jeff Pelline's Sierra Foothills Report

“Bring Trader Joe’s to Grass Valley!” reads a Facebook page that popped up this month.

“As much as I love our local suppliers, I just cannot afford to feed my family at those prices! Please come, please come, please come!” one of 227 fans writes.

“We should have a Trader Joe’s and not a Walgreen’s,” writes another.

Well, whether you like it or not, our demographics — an aging and declining population — are more suited to drug stores. It’s what happens when you fail to diversify your economy beyond “boom-and-bust” real estate and construction.

Over in Auburn, meanwhile, Trader Joe’s appears more serious about opening a store. The grocery chain has negotiated a lease, though it still hasn’t been signed, my sources said this week.

Auburn residents have their own Facebook page — with 1,091 members. “Far better to have a TJ’s than a WalMart,” said one resident. “Stop the Bohemia development!”

The “flatlanders” are marching into Auburn:

•Costco is scouting out locations there, but no deal is imminent.

•Max’s Diner, a longtime Bay Area restaurant chain, will open next to the Holiday Inn Express in July.

•The relatively new Home Depot and Dutch Bros. Coffee, a fast-growing Oregon franchise, are busy.

Meanwhile, can you hear that sucking sound in western Nevada County?

“Enough is enough: Open the gold mine!” writes the co-owner of B&C Hardware, as I wrote previously.

What else though? For starters we can support the independent grocery stores here that offer organic and local produce. This includes SPD Markets, Briar Patch Market and California Organics, among others.

In our county, tax receipts from agriculture-related businesses are growing — bucking a trend of overall decline.

We need to work harder to diversify our economy beyond the mainstay businesses that got us here. It will require us to embrace change, however — something we don’t do very well.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 5 Comments »

No word in the local press, but there will be no Democrats table alongside the Republican and Libertarian ones at Thursday’s county-wide candidate forum sponsored by the Tea Party Patriots, The Union and KNCO.

Individual members may attend or not as they see fit. Some are objecting to what they see as more of a rally and fundraiser for Tea Party supported candidates such as Barry Pruett for clerk-recorder and Sue Horne for assessor. Others will go.

“It was a tough decision,” Margaret Joehnck, the county’s Democratic Committee’s Executive Board Chair, told me on Tuesday. “The committee didn’t want to make it look like we were in support of the Tea Party’s agenda.

“I know the Tea Party is working to be a sincere watchdog group, but that isn’t how they come across.”

Joehnck said the Democratic Party should have been involved in the beginning to help organize the event, along with Republicans and Libertarians — a true bi-partisan effort. She also said KVMR and yubanet.com should have been invited to participate, not just The Union and KNCO. NCTV wasn’t invited either.

She expressed hope that one day that might happen here. Nevada County voted for Barack Obama for President and Charlie Brown for Congress in the last general election — both Democrats.

Joehnck said she was informed by organizers there will be an empty table at the event anyway, with the Democrats sign on it. She was not very pleased about that.

“There will be some tables out in the lobby for any literature you might want to bring,” according to an email from Elaine Meckler of the Tea Party. “There will be voter registration tables in the lobby that will be set up by the Republicans, Democrats and Libertarians.”

A journalism perspective on The Union and KNCO co-sponsoring the event with the Tea Party is here.

The Nevada County Candidates Forum will be held at 6 p.m. on Thursday, April 1, at the Grass Valley Veterans Memorial Hall at 255 S. Auburn St.

Each candidate gets up to two minutes for an opening statement. Each candidate will be asked three questions and their answers are limited to 90 seconds. There will be two minutes between races to get candidates on and off the stage.

Assessor, 6:05 p.m. — Sue Horne, Rolf Kleinhans

Auditor-Controller, 6:22 — Marcia Salter

Clerk-Recorder, 6:31 — Gregory Diaz, Barry Pruett

District Attorney, 6:48 — Clifford Newell

N.C. Council, 6:58 — Sally Harris, Duane Strauser

N.C. Sheriff, 7:22 — Keith Royal

Super of Schools, 7:32 — Holly Hermansen

Superior Court Judge, 7:41 — Candace Heidelberger

Supervisor, Dist 4, 7:50 — Hank Weston

Supervisor, Dist 3, 8:00 — John Spencer, Terry Lamphier

Treasurer-Tax Collector, 8:17 — Darlene Woo, Tina Vernon, Rick Nolle, Dai Meagher

Filed under: Uncategorized | 5 Comments »

I wrote last month that Republican Senate candidate Carly Fiornia’s “demon sheep” ad attacking opponent Tom Campbell had caused an uproar.

Since then Fiorina has released a second video video slamming Barbara Boxer, the evil, full-of-hot-air blimp. It created a buzz at the California Republican Party’s convention in Santa Clara earlier this month.

“The Fiorina camp ushered in this strange new era with two viral campaign spots that are seen by some political observers as pure genius — and by others as completely bonkers,” writes PoliticsDaily.com

So far the demon sheep ad has been viewed more than 742,000 times on You Tube.

The ad directed at Boxer is here:

Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

Food awareness is booming, now more than ever. More people want to know where their food is coming from, how it’s grown and how it’s transported.

Farmers markets are popping up all over. In the foothills and Sierra, we have farmers markets in Auburn, Truckee, Tahoe City, Grass Valley and more recently, Nevada City. In Auburn, the market is open year-round, not just in summer.

Expanding on the trend, two foothill food devotees have written a cookbook that shows you how to eat nutritious, locally grown food year-round. Called Placer County Real Food from Farmers Markets, its mantra is simple: “Healthy soil. Healthy food. Healthy people.”

“This cookbook shows that if you go out to farmers markets, you can enjoy real food every week of the year,” says Joanne Neft, founder of the Foothill Market and co-author with local Chef Laura Kenny.

One of the barriers to eating seasonally is that we can have everything all the time, which is how America eats from the supermarket, Joanne explains. Eating locally, which means seasonally as well, is about feasting on foods as they come and go.

“This book is a witness to the seasons progressing bit by bit, week by week,” Joanne says. “When there are surpluses, there is freezing, drying and canning foods.”

A similar cookbook could be written for every region in the country, highlighting what we can eat during the year in a particular food-shed, according to Joanne and Laura.

Placer County Real Food’s recipes are based on both women’s experience from shopping at the Foothill Farmers Market and cooking meals from what they found fresh for a full year. More than 300 guests dined with them at family-style dinners, providing feedback.

Local farmers can benefit from year-round farm to table cooking too.

They make the majority of their incomes between May and October. If the farmers could sell more during winter, they could afford to grow morefresh, local food year-round.

Placer County Real Food (from In Season Publishing in Loomis) will be sold at produce and book stores throughout the region. The book debuts in April at Blue Goose Produce, located in the historic Blue Goose fruit packing shed in the quaint foothill town of Loomis.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

“I never took any journalism or photography,” Nevada City photographer Bob Lickter, who died this weekend, told me recently. “But I did take a creative reading class my first year of college where they taught us how to read a real paper.”

Bob thanked me for running his photographs here: In their original form and unfiltered. “You can use these if you want a little journalistic artistic flair,” he told me. For his generation, Bob was as “Web-centric” as you could get — always looking for the ideal photo gallery. It was a pleasure to work with him.

In his emails, Bob openly expressed concern about the direction of journalism — mostly around here but also elsewhere.

•He cited the journalist who is a “shrewd and manipulating business man” rather than “a newsman.” Bob said he wasn’t comfortable with editors who sat on chamber boards.

•The “grip-and-grin” journalism photographs that are becoming all too prevalent. He didn’t think it was fair to the audience.

•The election forum this week sponsored by the Tea Party Patriots and our two local media. He felt this also was a conflict.

I will hang onto Bob’s emails, because they are a reminder that residents here do care about quality, credibility and honor when it comes to the craft of journalism. You don’t have to go to journalism school to get that.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

My wife noticed this ad placement on page 3 of the Sierra Sun in Truckee on the weekend. A four-color ad for the new Ritz-Carlton in Truckee, right next to a smaller one for medical marijuana evaluations. The world is changing. From a business perspective, as more newspapers accept medical marijuana ads, they probably will want to educate their traditional advertisers about their policies for ad placement — if they have any. I would be very sensitive about that.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

More and more “mom and pop” merchants in the foothills are turning to Facebook for marketing — building social networks and clientele.

In small, rural communities such as ours social networking is an ideal marketing tool, bypassing more traditional (and costly) avenues.

“The most obvious benefits are increased customer loyalty and engagement. Less obvious but just as important: Your business will gain exposure not through your own advertisements, but through folks who’ve already been patrons,” according to an article on Mashable.

By logging onto a merchant’s Facebook page, you can “get the scoop” — and merchants can get the word out:

•First reported here, more details of a wine bar and events center coming to downtown Grass Valley — the biggest so far — are coming out on Facebook. “Targeting sometime in May for soft opening and June for official opening (all depends when the various permits are granted),” Solune writes.

•Ike’s Quarter Cafe in Nevada City has introduced its new logo on Facebook (pictured here). T-shirts are coming next, according to Ike’s Facebook page.

•Summer Thymes announced on Facebook that is was opening an outlet at BookTown @ 134 S. Auburn St. “We are very excited about being a part of downtown Grass Valley,” the page read. Culture Shock Yogurt did the same in announcing it would open a second location in Brunswick Basin.

The same is true in Auburn. Lone Buffalo Vineyards, for example, turned to Facebook to announce this year’s release of its award-winning Zinfandel wine called “Thunder Beast.”

The merchants use Facebook to communicate with each other too. For example, Karin Sinclair of Sinclair Family Farms in Penryn posted a story to her Facebook page from the Fresno Bee: “Are Valley family farms a dying breed”?

All told, it shows how Facebook can be used for business, not just socializing — and it’s happening.

Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

Here’s a video introducing “Sacramento Connect,” the Sacramento Bee’s Web 2.0 venture that launches from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday. It’s a noble attempt to create a community-wide website and bloggers network of independent voices. From our neck of the woods, the launch partners include yubanet.com, the Nevada City Advocate, Jeff Pelline’s blog and SierraCulture.com. So put on your “best Sunday clothes,” a Kevlar tie and brush your hair — we’re going to introduce ourselves to more readers outside the “cul de sac” we call home. Will this “water down” this blog? No. The more views, the merrier. After all, it’s why Al Gore “invented” the Internet. LOL.

Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

Longtime Nevada City photographer Bob Lickter — who has contributed photos to this blog and other local publications —died in his sleep Saturday morning, his daughter Kate Lickter of Santa Cruz confirmed on Sunday.

Kate, who answered the phone at Bob’s house, said his death was “totally unexpected” and a memorial is planned for next Saturday with more details to come. Bob was 68 years old.

“Bob has the largest and best collection of photos of us our cute little town that anyone will ever have,” wrote Dave “Sparky” Parker on his Facebook page. “Our journey over the last 30 years will always be priceless to me. May you rest in peace Robert ‘Bob’ Lickter, 1942 – 2010.” (This photo of Bob is by Dave, from a photo journey last week in the town of Washington).

“Wow. You really never know what life is going to offer next,” wrote Judi Funk on Dave’s page. “He will be missed dearly.”

Bob was always very interested in the opportunities for “new media” and “citizen journalism” that the Internet has created in our area and elsewhere.

“Very cool technique for displaying a lot of photos without distracting from copy,” he wrote to me in one recent email, pointing to a uniquely designed photo gallery from the Washington Post about the Chilean earthquake.

Bob had just sent me this link to his photos from the Google rally in Nevada City.

Last weekend, I ran Bob’s photos from a peace rally in downtown Nevada City.

Last month, I ran this photo from Manzinar, to coincide with the local production of “Snow Falling on Cedars.” (scroll to the bottom). Some other examples from earlier this year are here and here

This is Bob’s site at mountainlight.org.

Here’s one of Bob’s photos from the recent Google rally, a real “slice of life” from Nevada City:

Filed under: Uncategorized | 7 Comments »

Grass Valley and Nevada City figure prominently in the Spring issue of Sierra FoodWineArt magazine — the biggest issue yet — which is being released this week. This includes an exclusive food, wine and art guide to the Amgen bike race in May as it winds through the foothills. Highlights of this issue are here. You can read a digital version of the magazine by clicking on the “click here to read the Spring issue” icon here. Or go directly to the issue here. We also have a cool chart of local seasonal produce in the foothills from Wendy Van Wagner’s “In the Kitchen” in Nevada City (page 10). SierraCulture.com will be promoted on sacbee.com’s new “Sacramento Connect” website that launches this week — a network of blogs and websites that includes yubanet.com, the Nevada City Advocate and Jeff Pelline’s blog — all foothills publications. The Internet has opened the door to a new media age in our region, providing expanded choice and distribution channels.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 4 Comments »