By Petaluma Voice

Late last Thursday night, subscribers received an email from us sharing a single news story. It was an urgent, breaking story that we wanted to get out to our readers and to the community as quickly as possible: Newport Beach-based EKN Development had informed the city it was walking away from its controversial hotel project in downtown Petaluma and putting the property up for sale.

Other local papers later covered the news, too, citing our reporting.

This is exactly the sort of work we set out to do when our crack team of experienced local journalists launched Petaluma Voice in April. But it’s not the only thing we do. Week in and week out, we also cover local people, nonprofits, and government – like the recent approval of Petaluma’s General Plan 2050, covered in depth in this issue.

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This week's stories

Our main news story of the week covers City Council's recent approval of General Plan 2050, Petaluma's central long-term planning document.

Scene & Herd also documents recent council activity – in this case its approval of a non-cooperation resolution with U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) at the Monday, Sept. 28, meeting.

In 5Qs, we've got an interview with the Sonoma Spice Queen herself, Wind McAlister. The business she built out of her home and launched in Petaluma now has a second location in Santa Rosa.

This week's Talk of P-Town might be our biggest ever. Read all about the Goodwill building on Lakeville going up for sale, a masked intruder, the Chileno Fire investigation, Petaluma's paintball world champs, and much more.

Finally, with ideal fall weather it's time to get out and ride. In our monthly Get Out column, we cover Safe Streets Petaluma's First Friday group rides, which encourage people of all ages to come together, have fun, and explore Petaluma by bike.

In case you missed it: Local business coverage

In recognition of this week's 5Qs interview with Sonoma Spice Queen owner Wind McAlister, we thought we'd share some of our past coverage of Petaluma-based small businesses.

On Sept. 2, we broke the news of Down Under Industries' new cannabis retail store in Petaluma, the third and final such shop allowed in town under current regulations.

On Aug. 19, we interviewed Miguel Gutierrez, owner of Caffeine, a popular café at the Petaluma Marina. And on June 10, we spoke with Natalie Vinueza, co-owner of another well-loved independent café in town, Grand Central.

In news coverage, we ran a series of stories about the closure of Sack's thrift store and a piece on downtown Petaluma's many fenced lots and empty storefronts.

Find more local business coverage right here.

As always, thanks for reading.