By Petaluma Voice

Greetings, readers. As Election Day draws nearer, we've got our eye on the ball – and you'll find more stories about local races in this week's issue.

But not at the expense of everything else happening around Petaluma. This week, as always, we've got a mix of stories covering arts, culture, people, the environment, and more.

If you'd like to support our work covering all of Petaluma for all of Petaluma through our paywall-free, ad-free, nonprofit news site, as the end of the year approaches you can make tax-deductible donations to Petaluma Voice via our fiscal sponsor, the Tiny News Collective. We really can't do it without you.

This week's stories

One thing that draws people to Petaluma is our natural environment, including the rolling, oak-studded hills that surround the city and its many parks and yards thoughtfully landscaped to provide habitat, food, shade, and more.

In 5Qs, we feature a conversation with someone whose fingerprints are all over Petaluma's most environmentally friendly gardens: Trathen Heckman, founder and executive director of Daily Acts.

For our monthly nature and outdoors column Get Out, editor Nate Seltenrich covers a unique program that helps restore treeless city-owned parcels across town by planting oaks grown from acorns collected right here in Petaluma.

On the election front, reporter Jennifer Sawhney brings us a story about the city's rules governing campaign signs – including a number of violations reported and cleared in recent weeks.

In local news, we have an update from editor Tobias Young on the identities of the two men killed in a tragic airplane crash at the Petaluma Municipal Airport earlier this month.

We also have an update on the Little Woods mobile home park in east Petaluma, which has moved one step closer to closure.

This week's Talk of P-Town column features items on election integrity, upcoming events, a major city contract, a comedian-turned-teacher, and more. Don't miss it.

Finally, in Scene & Herd we share a beautiful photo of the Petaluma River and a write-up from Crissy Pascual about a mayoral forum hosted by the Petaluma High School Speech and Debate Club on Tuesday, Oct. 20.

In case you missed it: Election 2026

Last week's newsletter included a link to our Election 2026 page, but we wanted to share it again – especially after adding extensive interviews with Petaluma's mayoral candidates in a special edition on Friday, Oct. 16.

Since our very first issue on April 15, when we covered an online forum for the District 2 supervisor race ahead of the June 2 primary, we've been following the races and candidates that matter to you. And we'll continue through Election Day and beyond.

Thanks for reading.