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Windsor: not my kind of town

KC Crowell, Contributing Writer
Published: November 17, 2009

I’ve always hated Windsor, but never really understood why. Maybe it’s because I was raised in Healdsburg, where from childhood you are taught to form the “H” sign with their hands flashing it at any Dubtown rivals.

Maybe it’s because I dated a Windsor local for a long time and well… that didn’t work out so well. Perhaps its because I resent the fact that I have to drive through it’s stupid construction zone along 101 every day for work.

Whatever past reason I’ve had for wishing a freak nuclear accident to turn Wal-Mart into a trailer park and a devouring monster that will wipe Windsor’s sad suburban sprawl back to the stone age is now null and void. Now, I have an even better reason to hate Windsor. Windsor’s City Council has been waging war on certain “unsavory” businesses from opening.

Businesses that cause nothing but trouble and have never contributed anything to the functioning of a community, establishments like check cashing services, massage parlors, tanning salons, smoke shops and tattoo parlors. All in the name of maintaining a “family friendly” environment. I find this deeply troubling for many reasons.

Maybe this troubles me because I am a tattooed, check-casher who used to work at a massage parlor. I even occasionally enjoy a cigarette and have even dared to frequent a tanning salon.

What can I say, I’m a rebel. Up until this point I had no idea that my behavior and lifestyle were so offensive. “My type” should be banned from daylight and cast into the shadows with the rest of the scum.

Who knew my presence and participation in society was so thoroughly detrimental to family values? I feel like I should go call my mom and apologize for being such a bad influence on our family. According to the reasoning of Windsor’s City Council, it’s probably all my fault.

As I reflect upon the time I spent working in downtown Windsor and the residents and shopkeepers that I grew close to, I realize that their friendship was an elaborate illusion. As we were chatting, getting coffee and shooting the breeze about business downtown, I now realize that their smiles were likely superficial.

The whole time they were probably thinking, “Oh heavens, what a family unfriendly person. I hope my daughter never turns out like her.” Drama aside, it is easy to see how it’s a judgmental and ridiculous decision to ban businesses based on subjective opinions about who or what is “family friendly.”

However, in the realm of the Town Green development, which has struggled since groundbreaking to attract merchants, it seems downright stupid to ban any merchant that could potentially attract business. Every day that I went to work in the Town Green I would pass half finished buildings that didn’t have the funding to be completed.

When my mom was poking around at real estate, we were shown a Town Green condo by a real estate agent who dejectedly told us that they’d “take almost any offer, we’re just trying to break even.”

The life span for new shops is months. In September, the Town Green lost Green Grocer, a pioneering and important natural and organic food store. Green Grocer, opened by a French Laundry alum, offered locally grown produce and meats, and had a deli case that would make any foodie swoon.

If anyone was going to survive, it was them. I wonder if they would have done better had they been supplemented with the traffic created by other shops, like tattoo parlors and check cashing places.

I also get a kick out of the fact that while the City Council is banning types of businesses from opening based on arbitrary stereotypes, they continue to allow the existence of places that in my opinion are just as detrimental (if not more) to a “family friendly” environment.

Take Patterson’s Pub, for example. They contribute nothing but greasy, imitation pub food and stumbling drunks to the Town Green landscape. Or Powell’s Sweet Shop, which one can argue contributes to childhood obesity and gluttony.

The truth is you can take any one of the shops opened on the Town Green right now and spin it in a way to make it seem unsavory.

If anything positive can come out of this whole ridiculous debacle, it should make us all aware that it is possible for anyone to fall victim to the stereotypes and misconceptions of others.

It also should make us aware of what social sects we fall into and represent. Yes,I represent a young 20-something demographic. I also represent the demographic of someone who is pierced, tattooed and routinely walks around with wildly-colored hair. I am an aspiring journalist, a student and a restaurant worker. I occasionally visit tanning salons and smoke.

I am a daughter who is lovingly and unconditionally accepted by my family. And when asked if any of these things should influence where I spend my money or where I open a business, I think the answer is clearly no. I only wish the town of Windsor saw it that way.

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