Petaluma Voice is growing every week, and doing great work – but we still need your help. Please share our stories, which are free to all. Make sure your friends, family, neighbors, and colleagues know about us. Tell them that Petaluma Voice is an independent nonprofit operated by experienced journalists who live right here in town. Subscriptions are free and our site has no paywalls or ads, but paid memberships and donations help financially support our mission going forward.

This Week's Issue

Street trees and traffic signals, roadways and runways, fire stations and train stations: all these and more are covered in our latest stories.

To start, we've got the lowdown on Petaluma's "strong" new tree preservation ordinance. Designed to enhance the city's urban tree canopy, it protects mature trees on public and private land alike.

5Qs features a conversation with Petaluma's longest-serving city commissioner, Barry Lawrence, who helped get our airport off the ground (pun intended) back in 1985 – and has done lots of other interesting things, too.

Potholes be gone: at Monday night's meeting, Petaluma City Council approved repairs, repavings, and a slate of other improvements to streets citywide.

Economic uncertainty looms over the city's new $400.5 million budget for fiscal year 2026-27, also approved at Monday's city council meeting.

Prom season can be pricey, and Kinyatta Reynolds wants to help. She launched Petaluma Prom Closet in April to pair local high school students with sharp looks for less.

Downtown was bustling all day last Saturday for Petaluma's Salute to "American Graffiti" – so why are there no classic cars featured in this week's Scene & Herd?

Calling all high school families! Do you have a loved one graduating in June? Petaluma Voice wants to give you a chance to honor them with a shout-out that will be published through the month of June. Submit your graduate's photo (horizontal, please) plus a short dedication and we will compile a slideshow to share with readers.

In Case You Missed It: Double Takes

In last Friday's Re-Fresh newsletter, we shared three items that built on previous stories.

We followed up on a story from our very first issue with a roundup of the candidates running for District 2 supervisor.

On the heels of our May 13 story "Fewer Animals, More Transparency at Petaluma Shelter," we introduced you to our first Shelter Tales pet of the month, Nelly.

We also published a Spanish-language version of our May 13 story about a team of live interpreters serving two Spanish-speaking city commissioners.