In my last article, I argued that Napa had become too dependent on tourism, and that along with other factors such as the loss of the great wine leadership we had here, has hurt the spirit of community. People feel disconnected from each other and there is a noticeable lack of a spirit of belonging that we used to have.
Having been here over a year now, I think it is worse than I realized. It shows in no one thing, but in a series of things that I have noticed over this last year. All perhaps small in and of themselves, but telling none the less.
First, I noticed that when the Register had an article about a new hotel or any tourist related business coming on line, there would be a string of nasty comments about it on social media. Only 2-3 would support it, typically the same people over and over. I was told by one local official that the boo birds were just your usual malcontents on social media. Maybe, ok.
But more telling than that is there seems to be no official discussion or even informal real discussion going on of what are the problems with tourism/tasting rooms, and how can we mitigate it? No real adult level dialogue about what the issues are and how can we manage it better? Or if there is, I am not seeing it.
I’ve been making a point to meet with as many people as I can to talk one on one, and people who are unhappy with the tourism don’t say so out loud until I draw it out of them. They tell me it doesn’t work to openly criticize tourism so they basically hide it. Instead what we have are one battle after the next over individual projects. Sniping on Nextdoor. Law suits.
The pro business people seem embattled and unhappy, and like not enough is being done to support business by the general population and government. They seem flabbergasted by the constant push back they get. They are in a crisis because wine sales and tourism are down. They want help.
La Colline, Sattui Castle, new winery on Mt. Veeder where you can barely drive down the road and there is practically no water, every winery project that comes along now an environmental group automatically objects to the water use. But I see no letters of objection to Sattui’s flagrant breach of their permit, yet when I talk to people they express outrage and the sense that the county has failed to properly enforce regulations. I point out that none of them have written a comment letter or spoken up. No reaction. I detect a lot of apathy, people feel like it is no use, there is a strong sense of giving up here.
Then I saw that Lori Wear, long time downtown business owner and a graduate of Leadership Napa Valley, had a feature article on her in the Register because she had decided to move to Italy. One comment of hers was telling, that the “community had collapsed” in Napa.
I read the Generations housing report that the county had commissioned last year. They report that the county is losing people, people are moving out, about 1000 a year. Why? It would be more except American Canyon is gaining people due to building new apartments that people who work outside the county are moving into because it is close to the freeway. Not a good sign with either of those facts.
The Napa Register. It used to be THE source of communication about the community when I left in 2015. Now it seems like it is a shell of it’s former self, and no one is really communicating there. I have left comments on articles that I thought were important to the community, no other comments. When I wrote articles there in the 00’s I used to sometimes get 240 comments in 24 hours. 4500 unique page views by 9 the next morning after it posted. We had huge discussions there about the community. Now, nada. Crickets. Apathy?
Former Yountville mayor John Dunbar and former county Supervisor Alfredo Pedroza are doing a podcast together on youtube about issues facing the county, it’s an excellent source of valuable insight of up to the minute issues facing us.
Today I see some of the episodes have 60-70 views after a few months, some below 50. Only one has over 200. Even that, for as important of information as this is for Napa, is not good. As I mentioned, I got 4500 views A DAY for my napablogger column back when. More apathy, and I might add their views are very important, go watch it now, even if you disagree with them.
Things like this and more have added up to me feeling the sense that somehow the strong sense of community that used to be here is, if not entirely broken, is fragmented. Nobody is really happy with things, the wine industry pro business people seem angry that they are not getting more support in a truly difficult environment, the environmentalists and slow growth types feel that much has been lost and not enough is being done to protect us.
What’s underneath all this is a loss of the sense of belonging, it’s not really about traffic, or water, or even too many hotels although that all matters, what really fuels people’s discontent is that lack of connection, lack of community, lack of sense that we are all in this together working on a community wide basis for something that we all believe in and can be proud of and proud to be a part of.
That is the one thing that both those who hate tourism and the business owners who think they are not getting the support they deserve have in common, disconnection from a shared community of purpose.
Now I am sure there are those who feel things are going great and all what I am saying is suspect and at the least does not apply to them. And I say, good for you. But for many, my perception is that it is not.
Yes, whether another hotel, more use of ground water, etc is important but that is not what is really firing a lot of discord. Those issues are amplified by the fact that people feel disconnected, that their idea of what Napa is about is not being upheld by the community and it has changed in ways that they feel they don’t belong. Something is just not working and it is alienating.
So, what do I propose? Not more or less hotels, not more or less law suits over water. We need a new core value to rally around, for core principles, like the ag preserve which was much more than a zoning law, it made a community.
I suggest the idea of community preservation, as opposed to agricultural preservation. Community preservation would include ag preservation, and it would also include tourism/business/farming/wineries and perhaps most importantly it would include the quality of life for locals and workers who live here. We need a new formation of a balancing of interests because the lay of the land has changed so much and the old formulation is just not working.
In order to understand what that means it is important to face what has been lost.
Community is the recognition that we live in a place, a place that is a shared space with others. Community means having a respect for that place and the impact that each of us has on each other and the greater entity that is “Napa Valley”.
After covid and the intentional upramping of mass tourism the sense of community has been badly damaged here. It’s time to work on healing it. Over my next several blogs I will be addressing my idea of community preservation.
Next up? Part 3 What’s wrong (and right) with tourism