George Rebane

(This appeared on NC Media Watch on 7 April 2006)

If I had my druthers, I’d like western Nevada County to grow into what a lot of folks call a ‘balanced community’.  We all have differences in what we consider balanced, my own vision is something close to Simi Valley in Ventura County, a town Jo Ann and I helped to become a model city in the seventies with residential areas, parks, shopping, businesses, and populated by people of all colors living in marbled neighborhoods.  From recent visits there we are happy to report that growth has been kinder to it than many California towns with a favored youth.  But residing in the armpit of the San Fernando Valley ten minutes away, its future now looks uncertain.

Our Jeff Ackerman recently called for such growth in his 21mar06 editorial which, because of an unfortunate choice of a word or two, left many people seeing him as yet another social engineering import to these forests and hills.  My own consternation to his editorial was blogged in ‘Planned Color In My Back Yard?’ on NC Media Watch. Jeff responded to the piece with a kind email and followed up with his clarifying 28mar06 editorial that, to my mind, tilted The Union toward a more level political stance.

The rest of this piece can be read here.