Jeff Pelline's Sierra Foothills Report

Earlier today, I soft pedaled it at Sierra FoodWineArt magazine about Willie Nelson coming to town, because it’s a broader, more genteel audience. Journalists sometimes do that, tailoring their message to the crowd — just like performers.

But — just between us Sierra Foothills Report enthusiasts — American music icon Willie Nelson is expected to come to Grass Valley this summer, performing in the annual benefit concert for the Bear Yuba Land Trust (formerly the Nevada County Land Trust) at the Nevada County Fairgrounds. It’s going to be a blast.

I expect a formal press release next month. This is a big coup for the Bear Yuba Land Trust and The Center for the Arts, which is handling the concert, and the Fairgrounds, now under Sandy Woods, an innovator.

I’m proud and appreciative of all of them! Julie Baker has done a “bang up job” revitalizing The Center. For us, Willie’s appearance is on a par with landing the Amgen Bike Race, as Nevada City did in the recent past.

Now that’s out-of-the-way, let’s get down to the bigger picture: It is time to get more serious about building a new performing arts center in our town or expand existing ones — an “on again, off again” effort over the years.

We continue to land a lot of major-league talent nowadays: Kris Kristofferson and Judy Collins (The Center for the Arts) and the Vienna Boys’ Choir and world-class pianist Garrick Ohlsson (InConcert Sierra) and Gregory Vajda’s Music in the Mountains performances, among others. We are unique in the Sierra Foothills in this respect — at least when it comes to the breadth and depth of performers.

We also have award-winning community theater, including Sierra Stages, the Community Asian Theatre of the Sierra (CATS), LeGacy Productions and others. The Del Oro Theatre broadcasts live performances from the Met Opera and London’s National Theatre.

To be sure, the county fairgrounds is ideal for a Willie Nelson concert. It also will help reinvigorate and raise visibility for the fairgrounds — just when it is facing state cutbacks.

But landing another world-class talent should cause our community to revisit the need for a bigger venue to handle our ever-increasing performing arts business. The arts are a big “economic engine,” helping the lodging, dining and shopping sectors of our economy with visitors.

An effort to build a larger concert venue at The Center’s downtown location (700-1000 seats) stalled last year because of the economic downturn, public funding (including redevelopment funds), lack of awareness of the arts’ economic power, and other factors.

This included a minimal $1 million effort to upgrade The Center. (We at Sierra FoodWineArt magazine contributed what we could afford to the cause). More substantial renovations brought the proposed figure as high as $14 million for a more ambitious plan.

Several years ago, a movement was quietly growing in the county to build a full-scale performing arts center.

A committee of performing-arts groups was formed and a survey was funded by Nevada City residents LaVonne and the late Frank Amaral, well-known for their support of the arts. Their contributions helped build the Amaral Family Center, a classical music venue at the county fairgrounds.

It came at the same time that Sierra College pulled back from plans to build such a center at its Grass Valley campus — and built a gym.

Now that the arts community has proven its mettle in landing world-class talent, it’s time for the community to step up and help support a full-scale performing arts center.

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And get this: Willie Nelson’s tour bus, which could roll into town this summer, runs on biodiesel. More signs of “purple” politics invading our county!

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Reprinted from Sierra FoodWineArt magazine’s companion website, SierraCulture.com:

American music icon Willie Nelson may perform in Grass Valley this summer, Sierra FoodWineArt magazine (SierraCulture.com) has learned.

It would be Nelson’s first appearance in the Sierra Foothills, an up-and-coming venue for big-time country music talent.

“I should have details soon for public release,” said a member of Nelson’s staff, declining to elaborate.

Nelson would be a natural for a performance sponsored by The Center for the Arts in Grass Valley this summer, such as the annual benefit concert for the Bear Yuba Land Trust. The Nevada County Fairgrounds would be a good venue.

The Center has been booking big-name talent such as Kris Kristofferson (who has a home in Truckee and is a personal friend of Nelson’s).

Nelson’s son, Lukas Nelson and “The Promise of the Real,” is coming to The Center for the Arts on June 7.

Nelson performs in California now and then. He has a show at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga, in Santa Clara County, on Sept. 13 — a repeat venue.

Nelson is widely recognized as an American icon. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1993, and he received the Kennedy Center Honors in 1998.

We’re big fans of Willie Nelson. We’ve seen him perform in Saratoga, at the Mountain Winery, as well as San Rafael.

Sierra FoodWineArt is a free quarterly magazine distributed throughout the Sierra, the foothills, Sacramento, Reno, Butte, Sutter and Yuba counties.

The magazine’s website is promoted on SacBee.com and some of its articles are republished in the Bee’s print edition.

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“The national housing market is shrouded in uncertainty. But in California, there are glimmers of stability,” according to CNN.

“Home prices are rising in virtually every corner of the state. They’ve climbed for nine consecutive months, and in July posted a 10.4% gain year-over-year. That puts the state’s median price at $315,000 — nearly twice the national median of $183,000.

“And the news is even better in coastal cities.

“San Francisco posted the biggest gain of any U.S. metro over the past year, rising 14.3%. The median price there is now more than $607,000. Meanwhile, San Diego has climbed 11.2% (median price: $389,000) and Los Angeles jumped 9.2% (median price: $345,000).

“Meanwhile, Florida, Arizona and Nevada — California’s erstwhile bubble-state partners — continue to struggle. So where is the Golden State’s strength coming from?

“‘I think it comes from the fact that prices went down so far and so quick,’ said Lesley Appleton-Young, California Association of Realtors’ chief economist. ‘That left a lot of people here saying, ‘Wow, affordable California housing.’”

The rest of the article is here.

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The Judicial Council endorsed a cost-cutting direction for court construction statewide, including the reassessment of the courthouse in Nevada City and 12 other projects, as well as further construction budget trimming on 24 projects.

A “renovation” option will now be explored for the Nevada City courthouse, the council said.

The council approved recommendations from the Court Facilities Working Group that are expected to yield significant, long-term savings throughout the $5 billion program.

Thirteen projects, with a current combined project cost of $1.1 billion, will be reassessed for significant savings options, including downsizing square footage, undertaking renovations instead of new construction, evaluating lease options, and using lower-cost construction methods where feasible. The reassessment timeline will vary for each project.

Imperial–New El Centro Family Courthouse, Inyo–New Inyo County Courthouse, Kern–New Delano Courthouse, Kern–New Mojave Courthouse, Los Angeles–New Eastlake Juvenile Courthouse, Los Angeles–New Glendale Courthouse, Los Angeles–New Santa Clarita Courthouse, Los Angeles–New Southeast Los Angeles Courthouse, Mendocino–New Ukiah Courthouse, Monterey–New South Monterey County Courthouse, Nevada–New Nevada City Courthouse, Riverside–New Hemet Courthouse, and Santa Barbara–New Santa Barbara Criminal Courthouse.

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If the county board of supervisors goes ahead and passes an ordinance regulating marijuana cultivation on residential property on May 8, as expected, the chances are good that it will go to a public vote anyway.

Perhaps that’s OK, because it will be a chance to gauge community-wide opinion on marijuana cultivation — an underpinning of our county economy. (“Yes, Virginia,” the objections are about more than just growing marijuana for medical uses). Prop. 215, passed in 1996, further opened the door to our ever-growing marijuana economy.

Butte County’s medical marijuana cultivation law will be up for a referendum vote during the June 5 primary election.

“On May 24, after a series of hugely crowded, passionate, often angry hearings, the (Butte) supervisors adopted the ordinance,” as CalPotNews.com reports. “Opponents to the ordinance immediately started a petition drive and by early August the county clerk-recorder’s office certified enough signatures had been collected to quality the measure for the ballot.”

Likewise, a “hugely crowded, passionate, often angry hearing” occurred at the Rood Center on Tuesday. (We watched some of it on NCTV). Some of the crowd was uncivil at times too, forcing Board Chairman Ted Owens to gently bang the gavel and address the group.

You can expect a petition drive to protest whatever is passed on May 8 despite this “cooling off period” on the issue. And just like Butte County, our ordinance likely will go to a public vote.

Unruly, disrespectful behavior in public discourse is unfortunate, because it just causes further polarization — but that’s nothing new in our community.

Marijuana cultivation in residential neighborhoods should be guided by respect and the Golden Rule — just like any other neighborhood activity. But nowadays our society is more guided by self-centered behavior.

It’s a sign of the times: An ever-growing mindset of “do unto others before they do unto you.” Sometimes the voting process helps bring civility back to public decision-making. In the ballot booth, each person can quietly decide in private without the noisy rhetoric.

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