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Health & Fitness

Napa Greens Have Arrived

Napa local and the Green party need to be heard

Note: For a longer version of this article see:

http://www.napablogger.com/napablogger/2012/10/napa-greens-have-arrived.html

The local Green Party has suddenly appeared on the stage in
local politics, and they are starting to get a lot of attention. The key
members of the Greens are also generally the members of Napa Local, the group
that protested the addition of Starbucks downtown, and has attempted in vain to
get the City Council to agendize a discussion of some type of chain store
ordinance. They also appear to be the core group of those involved with the
occupy movement.

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What's interesting to me about all this is how much bitter
vitriol they have attracted, including the Downtown Merchants association.
Frankly, I was shocked by how rudely they were treated in city council meetings
by the Downtown Merchants. The developers and business people in town do not
like this group and they have had no reluctance in letting their feelings be
known. Others in Napa have treated them with condescension as well. The truth
is, their concerns have never been honestly responded to, only dismissed.

Who are the Greens and why have they attracted so much
negative attention? Their leaders include Alex Shantz, a St. Helena high school
graduate now attending Napa Valley College,  Alex Pader, who although he is a Democrat has been supportive of Napa Local's goal's, and is a recent college grad who is running for city council. There is Julio Soriano, an artist who is creating a
strong reputation for his art work locally and also a Napa Valley College
student. There are others as well, Erica Martenson is one who is leading the
local effort to pass Prop 37, the GMO labeling initiative on November's ballot.

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Although there are a few older lefties who are involved, they
are generally a younger group of college students or recent grads. They are
rebelling against what they see as a world that has been handed to them that is
not working for them. I couldn't help thinking as I sat in meetings where the
topic of Napa Local came up, that this is a generation gap and that the older
people "just don't get it".

After all, what do young college grads now have to look
forward to? Over 50% of recent college grads are either unemployed or
underemployed, by far the worst in recent history. What they have to look
forward to is working in a big chain store with low wages, poor benefits, and
no future. Why in the world would they be angry at the idea of chain stores? It's
a bit obvious.

The truth is that the older generation has failed them
badly. They are saddled with massive debts run up by their elders, a
deteriorating economy where middle class wages are shrinking away, employment
in increasingly massive chain businesses that continually shrink wages in favor
of competitive pricing, and all the profit increasingly goes to a smaller and
smaller wealthy elite.

Most of them have nothing to look forward to except bagging
groceries or making lattes til they are 35. How can you think about marriage
and raising a family in your twenties like the older generation was easily able
to do? Why should they shut up?

You may not agree with their politics, so why should you
care? Because they are an important voice in the community speaking a truth
that few others really seem willing to look at.

You should care because their concerns have also become a
concern even in the Napa wine industry, our bread and butter. Wine is a high
end business, but retail chain distribution of wine has become a threat to
profit margins.

Recently Paul Franson wrote about this in the Napa Register,
reporting on a wine industry financial seminar. I quote several paragraphs:

http://napavalleyregister.com/news/local/chain-stores-are-biggest-movers-of-wine-these-days/article_3b72e146-0a96-11e2-a90d-001a4bcf887a.html

The challenge to producers and specialty sellers will be
to prevent wine from becoming such a commodity as to erode profits if it’s sold
at some retailers for less money, said Trone, who launched Total Wines in 1991
with his brother David.

“We don’t want it to become the electronics business, where
there’s just no profit margin anymore,” he told the wine symposium audience
Tuesday.

A declining profit margin in other food and beverage segments
has made wine an increasingly attractive target to national grocery and
drugstore companies, according to Danny Brager, a wine industry analyst for the
Nielsen Co."

All of this is happening because of international and chain businesses, the model is low prices but low prices mean low profit margins mean continually reducing wages and benefits for employees. This pattern is a major driver of the continuing erosion of the middle class.

Stop and think what will happen if Costco, the largest wine retailer in the country, comes to Napa. I bought some Heitz cabthere for $20 a bottle one time. I have never ever seen it anywhere else for less than $40. That lack of profit has to impact somewhere. Not only will Costco suck up business from other wine retailers in Napa, it may also take business from tasting rooms and wineries themselves.

When the county calculates the tax benefit of having the Costco as part of the Napa Pipe plan, they are not adding in the loss of tax benefit from other retailers in the county, and that has to be significant.

And now of course I am obligated to say that doesn't mean I am a socialist or an anti colonial Kenyan. I don't know what the answer is, but first we have to admit there is a problem before we figure out what to do about it, and the loudest voice in Napa that is trying to wake people up to this keeps getting shouted down.

The Greens, Napa Local, Occupy Napa, that loose knit group of individuals are trying to draw your attention to something important, even if you don't agree with their policy prescriptions. They are onto something, and a lot of it is based on
emotion, based on rejection of the status quo. That is usually where big
changes start. We would do well to listen, because they are our future.

 

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