It is heartbreaking to hear people so willing to allow our city to be defined by corporations like CVS and Chase Bank while American downtowns everywhere are being replaced by chain stores and strip malls. And a huge, brown, automobile-centric box with a drive-thru window and 100 parking spaces will not help our air get cleaner. A town that prides itself on progressive thinking, local sustenance and environmental sensitivity, would be associated with the first thing you’d see when entering Sebastopol from three directions - the giant CVS logo. The showpiece of Sebastopol would no longer be the shops along Main Street. Instead - the stark, street level windows of CVS featuring shampoo displays, stacked liter bottles of soft drinks and posters announcing discounts on liquor. All across America, communities are suing to keep CVS out of their town. Attorneys General have successfully sued CVS for predatory and unethical business practices. Most recently for improper disposal of toxic waste. This project is so close to the Laguna de Santa Rosa and yet NO environmental impact studies were conducted. Limited traffic studies were flawed, at best, and do not examine the effects on the surrounding neighborhoods that would be inundated by drivers trying to avoid downtown. And Chase, by the way, is one of the biggest lenders of mortgages under water. Yet, there are people who believe these projects to be the future of Sebastopol. These two projects seal the fate of our beloved downtown. It sends Sebastopol in an irreversible direction that will dilute all future growth, including the Barlow project. Sebastopol will be reduced to an intersection that people try to avoid. These companies are already in Sebastopol. We just don’t want them to define Sebastopol. We’ll all lose if they do. Sign our petition. Say NO to the CVS/Chase project on the Pellini site.

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