Hoping for better times in 2010
John Ryan, owner of the Sweet Spot Pub and Lounge in downtown Santa Rosa, had to lay off most of his bartending help because of the economic downturn. He and his wife Lila are doing most of the bartending and frequently need to watch daughter Ella, 19 months, while at work.
JOHN BURGESS / The Press DemocratPublished: Thursday, December 31, 2009 at 3:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, December 31, 2009 at 9:05 p.m.
The struggle to keep the Sweet Spot Pub and Lounge in downtown Santa Rosa open long enough to mark its fifth anniversary later this month has its proprieters, John and Lila Ryan, keeping alert for the ephemeral “buzz” that 2010 will be a better year.
“Ever since last Halloween, there have good, hopeful signs that things are coming out of the dark period that the economy has been in for the last couple years,” said John Ryan, pausing between hauling kegs into his Fourth Street pub. “Our hope is that the buzz continues through the rest of the year.”
It is the sputtering, stalled economy that has bedeviled workers, business owners, companies and public agencies across the North Coast as they weathered the downturn of 2009. Yet, there is a sense that 2010 can
“Other than managing to stay open in 2010, my hope is that things improve so I can return to my career in documentary film production,” said Lila Ryan.
She said those dreams have been put on hold while the Ryans, like other local restaurant and tavern operators, dealt with dwindling numbers of customers reluctant to spend money on eating out. The Ryans have cut their meal prices, doubled the length of happy-hour discounts on beer and took turns behind the bar and in the kitchen.
John Ryan said his family is sacrificing time and energy in anticipation that a lift in the economy will benefit them.
“Now, people are out looking for deals and for comfort food, so when things get better, we hope they will remember us,” John Ryan said.
Hopes for a better economy in 2010 extend into the animal kingdom as well.
At Sonoma County’s animal shelter, animal care director Amy Cooper considered the fate of yapping, meowing inmates that otherwise would be homeless.
Cooper hopes the economy turns around because she sees what happens when people turn in pets that have become a burden on their family budgets.
“We have a vulture, a pig, a mama pit bull who just gave birth to 14 — count’em, 14 — puppies,” Cooper said. “I hope for fewer unwanted litters, fewer animals surrendered due to financial hardship.”
“My hope is that the economy will improve because so many theatrical companies and small arts organizations are just trying to keep their doors open,” he said.
In adversity, however, Templeton sees a glimmer of creativity being exercised by some arts organizations willing to take chances on experimental projects with an edge.
“Sometimes it works and sometimes not,” he said. “My hope is that companies take advantage of this opportunity because the best art and creative choices often come during times of hardship.”
Improvement in the lot of families struggling during the recession is a theme echoed in many end-of-the-year public opinion polls.
Lisa Maldonado, the North Bay Labor Council’s executive director, said that, as the glow of President Barack Obama’s first year in office has given way to more realistic expectations, people’s hopes for 2010 are more focused on their close-to-home expectations.
“I guess what I would want to see is recognition of the importance of having a real middle class, where workers can afford to live in their community with dignity,” Maldonado said.
Maldonado, whose phone message machine plays Yoko and John Lennon’s “Power to the People” in the background, hopes 2010 will center on family fundamentals, such as solvent pension plans and affordable health care.
“We all do better when everybody does better,” she said. “We do not have a sustainable community when a few have too much and some have not enough.”
Exactly how to obtain and sustain such a community during emergence from a recession is the question that poses challenges for public policy debate during 2010.
Whether over an asphalt plant near Petaluma, a Wal-Mart in Santa Rosa or a development surrounding a SMART rail stop, there is hope among activists that long-standing disagreements will center on issues rather than personalities and gains tallied by narrow special interests.
“My desire would be debate that would be calmer of tone when a community like ours is trying to figure out how to address complicated questions of land use,” said attorney and former county Supervisor Eric Koenigshofer. “Not black vs. white, not developers vs. environmentalists.
“These are complicated questions of how you fit all the working parts our of economy in an environmentally sensitive way,” he said. “My fear is that we have a long way to go on that front.”
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