Since last Thursday was Green Waste pick-up day for our neighborhood, "The Trio" decided to go through a few more boxes of "stuff" (or "treasures" as we stated in a recent blog) in an effort to clean up the garage. (This project has been a "work in progress" for years) "Hammerhead" thought it would be a waste (no pun intended) of time and decided to sit on the sidelines and observe "Me, Myself & I" sift through stacks of old notes, files, magazines and yes - newspapers - like our local Petaluma Argus-Courier and The Press Democrat.

In the past, these Then & Now blogs have compared historical Petaluma events that were reported 50-100 years ago. "Eagle-Eyes," however, discovered a few headlines from over five years ago that looked like they could have been printed today. For example -.

From the Argus-Courier dated, Wednesday, December 17, 2003

Front page headline: City prepares for deep budget cuts.

Editorial headline: Governor must not leave cities in limbo - Schwarzenegger's failure to keep campaign promises forces Petaluma to cut $1.3 million. (12-17-03)

Front page article: Petaluma's new retail strategy: making it work. City ready to move forward with plan to bring new retail stores to town and boost sales tax revenue. (12-`17-03)

A table and chart on page A7 reported on the "Comparison retail sales and leakage from Petaluma in 2001." The findings included: (1) Only 43 percent of Petalumans shop in town for comparison goods; (2) 68 percent buy clothing in other cities; (3) 93 percent buy electronics and computers outside Petaluma; (4) 70 percent of locals dine outside of town; (5) virtually 100 percent of entertainment spending is done outside the city limits. (Note: The new downtown movie theater was scheduled to open in one year.)

From the Argus-Courier dated, Thursday, May 21, 2009, front page:

State tax grab poses 'hardship' for city.

From The Press Democrat, dated May 21, 2009, front page:

How deep will they cut? (Projected loss for Petaluma = $1.1 dollars.)

Hmmmm, thought "Hammerhead." All of the above sounds familiar, doesn't it? We wonder what next week's headlines might say. Stay tuned.