I have always considered myself an optimist, and for a time, not even COVID derailed my sparkly side of the street outlook. When the world locked down last March, I thought, we’ve got this, two weeks, no problem. When I dropped my kids off for their final day of school, I chuckled when someone said, “This could be a while.” Nope, I thought, they will be back soon enough. A month into my newfound role of “teacher,” I knew with confidence that by the time the summer swelter hit, things would carry on as they had every summer before—balmy days at the pool, concerts in the park, Independence Day parades, campouts and more. But when the Fourth of July amounted to a dismal family parade of four, and BottleRock was postponed not once, but twice, Ms. Feelgood was dead on delivery.
Gratefully, like many times in life, I was wrong. In May, the 2021 BottleRock lineup was announced and at last confirmed, the event was back, baby back! Details about the execution of the fest were only scant with this proffered statement from the website, “BottleRock Napa Valley will follow all local and state COVID-19 health and safety guidelines required at the time of the festival to offer a safe festival experience.” I couldn’t help but be giddy. Check back here for a rundown on what “live performance” in a post-pandemic world looks like and the ways in which outdoor entertainment has been forever changed.
In other feel-good news, the Blueprint for a Safer Economy was booted to oblivion on June 15 and as such, tourism is on the rise, granting local businesses that survived the COVID storm something to smile about. New concept places including the farm-to-table micro-market, Legit Provisions, in St. Helena, were more than ready to serve. The purveyors, which opened the spot in January, purport a simple yet noble purpose: “to make people feel authentically good, with mindful meals, quality food products, and extreme convenience.” Some of that “convenience” includes self-serve beer and wine on tap, artisan snacks, curated grab-and-go meals and wine tasting kits packed to perfection with locally sourced goods. If that wasn’t enough to keep the good vibes rolling, try live music Fridays and rainbow unicorn cookie dough for the win.
A Pacaso that is anything but arty
Amid all the feel-goods, some happenings have locals feeling anything but friendly. One of the most notable is Pacaso, a well-financed, Bay Area real estate startup, founded earlier this year by Zillow executives, including co-founder and former CEO Spencer Rascoff and founder and former CEO of dotloop Austin Allison. The company markets itself with pithy phrases like: “co-ownership—simplified” and “we manage the home, you own it.” Another website nugget reads, “It’s the modern way to buy and own a second home.” “Ownership” in this context smacks of timesharing with homes that are sold off to not one but multiple fractional owners. The model only adds to an already contentious battlefield as full-time Napa Valley residents fight to keep their neighborhoods tight and contained to year-round residents, a war that won’t soon be won.
Pacaso homeowners, which could be sharing their residence with as many as seven other “owners,” reap the benefits of a fully furnished home, maintained and managed by Pacaso. Ahh, timeshare anyone? Given the 100-plus (and still counting) comments on Nextdoor, which rail against Pacaso, it would seem that many agree with the comparison.
The company counters the timeshare connection with marketing speak that espouses homeownership with platitudes such as “Own a home, not a block of time!” Or, “Owners not renters.” And one of my favorites, “Helping communities thrive!” Judging by all the front-yard signs that read, “Say no to timeshares” and “Say no to Pacaso,” thrive may be a new four-letter word, cloaked in six.
It’s not just residents who oppose the startup’s interest in our communities, St. Helena City Attorney, Ethan Walsh, declared the homes illegal, according to a town law that prohibits time-shares. Pacaso one-upped the move by suing the city and requesting a judgment, declaring that St. Helena’s timeshare prohibition does not apply and also served an injunction that bars the city from interfering with Pacaso’s economic interests. Talk about not playing nice with your neighbors.
Locals I spoke with consider the sale of each Pacaso home as another nail in the ladder that is hammering up housing prices in an already inflated market. Six months into its operation, Pacaso homes had already infiltrated neighborhoods in a dozen Western states with aggressive plans to expand throughout the country by year’s end, and international locations to follow.
While these developments threaten to kill my feel-good buzz, some determined locals have come to the rescue. After backlash from residents in Napa’s Bel Aire neighborhood, the startup announced it would sell one of its fractionally-owned homes to a “whole home buyer,” and also enacted policy changes that included the addition of a donation program and appointment of local neighborhood liaisons (aka watchdogs) along with instituting a price floor that restricts Pacasco home purchases to $2 million or more. The optimist within would call that a win.
