Noga Wizansky – A Caricature of Nevada County Democrats
A dear friend sent me a copy of the article in The Union today about a local progressive activist who made public comments at Tuesday night’s Grass Valley City Council meeting opposing the candlelight vigil for Charlie Kirk on Mill Street in Grass Valley the day after he was assassinated in Utah by another different crazed progressive. Over two hundred people attended the impromptu vigil celebrating the life of Charlie, a prominent and outspoken activist for traditional values on college campuses, who was murdered in front of his wife and two infant children as he spoke to over 3,000 students at Utah Valley University.
Before you read anything further, please be advised that I am writing about a real person named Noga Wizansky. Nothing that I am writing here is a caricature or made up in any way. This progressive activist who spoke out against the vigil after the assassination is not make believe. She actually lives among us.
In her public comments at the Grass Valley City Council meeting, Noga Wizansky expressed her disapproval of the vigil held for Charlie Kirk at Mill Street Plaza, criticizing the city for allowing such a gathering which she alleged without evidence disrupted pedestrian flow and business access. She conveyed her opposition to political violence and condemned Kirk’s murder, while also criticizing the city’s seemingly inconsistent enforcement of codes. Wizansky shared her frustration that she and others had previously applied for a permit to hold a May Day event but had to remove their unpermitted grill and move their table out of the pedestrian pathway. For those of you who do not know what May Day is, May Day, also known as International Workers’ Day, is a socialist celebration of the global struggle for workers’ rights and the fight against capitalism’s exploitation. The socialist holiday celebration serves as a reminder of the need for solidarity among workers and the pursuit of a socialist society built on equality and collective ownership of property.
Anyway, Wizansky suggested that her alleged discrepancy in enforcement of time, place, and manner restrictions on speech in Grass Valley meant that Mill Street Plaza has now become a “free speech zone,” where political demonstrations—such as her favored protests advocating for immigrant rights, gun safety, or social justice—can be organized without fear of enforcement by the City.
The article in The Union stated as follows:
“I realized that the vigil for Kirk, apparently unchecked by any of those city codes that were applied to us in May, meant that Mill Street is now a free speech zone, and this is very exciting!” Wizansky said. “I look forward to organizing and participating in a host of political demonstrations there now, knowing that political speech is protected and we won't need to expect any enforcement for large gatherings of a political nature. Mill Street will be a wonderful place to call for the protection of immigrants from ICE in our community, for the protection of diversity, equity and belonging in all public and commercial spaces, for gun safety policies, for public housing, the support of young people… food stability and other forms of harm reduction, and for continuing to call for the stopping of the U.S. arming of a genocide in Palestine. I look forward to this future of public engagement on Mill Street. It's going to be wonderful,” Wizansky said.
The city’s policies for managing the use of Mill Street Plaza, established earlier in 2024, were referenced during the meeting, with City Manager Tim Kiser clarifying that the memorial for Kirk was not brought to the city’s attention beforehand and that the guidelines outline permissible uses of the space. Kiser’s response implied that the city’s enforcement or lack thereof was not intentionally discriminatory. During the meeting Kiser emphasized that the city does not intend to designate Mill Street Plaza as a public forum for unauthorized events or installations, favoring private events and installations to be held in other venues. Kiser addressed concerns about recent gatherings, including a vigil for Kirk and the May Day event, stating that the vigil was impromptu, brief, and conducted in a manner that did not violate regulations. He clarified that permits are required for amplified music and serving food, and that activities like barbecues which Wizansky used during her socialist celebration are prohibited on Mill Street due to fire hazards. Kiser defended the city’s approach, describing the vigil and other events as respectful and compliant, emphasizing that free speech is protected but must adhere to established regulations.
That said, let us get back to Noga Wizansky. I moved to Nevada County in 1998. I never heard of Noga Wizansky, and certainly with a name like Noga Wizansky, I would have remembered. Noga moved to our bucolic community from the Bay Area four years ago. She now lives in Nevada City to which she refers as “Usotmah.” Despite living here for over a quarter of a century, I had to look this one up. “Usotmah” is a former Maidu village near what has been called Nevada City for almost two centuries. If we go back further in time, I suppose that I could say that I now live in Pangea but that too seems somewhat ridiculous.
Unsurprisingly, Noga had a master’s degree in design with emphasis on drawing and painting and an ad-hoc interdisciplinary doctorate in the history of the visual arts, both from…you guessed it…University of California Berkeley. Again, and despite having a law degree, a master’s degree, and almost finished with my doctoral thesis, I had to look this one up too. An “ad hoc interdisciplinary doctorate” is a doctorate in which the student proposes a unique doctoral program tailored to their specific research interests, which may cross traditional disciplinary boundaries. In short and unsurprisingly, it is a doctorate in a made-up field of study. Please see below some of her artistic works. It seems that the last picture called “Two Rocks” may have been plagiarized from my two year old granddaughter who drew something quite similar last week, but I will have to ask my daughter for confirmation.
She is a member of SEIU Local 1021 and an active member in the Nevada County Democratic Party. Indeed, she will be hosting a canvassing training session for the “Get Out the Vote” for Proposition 50 which seeks to get rid of the California Citizens Redistricting Commission in favor of once-again allowing the state legislature to protect their districts without citizen input and behind closed doors without transparency. Noga also recently facilitated an international labor organizer training for a group of local Democrats and activist groups and is active in Indivisible Nevada County which led protests against Kevin Kiley at the beginning of the year. Noga is also an active supporter of Lisa Swarthout, Heidi Hall, Wendy Willoughby, Natalie Adona, and every single other crazy progressive in Nevada County.
Yes, my friends. These crazy progressives live among us and hold public office. They don’t like free speech. They are pseudo intellectuals. They are progressive activists who adhere to an ideology that is very foreign from yours. They don’t like our community. They come from the Bay Area and want to make Nevada County like the place they left. Most importantly, they don’t like you either. So, when voting in November and next year in June, do the opposite of what the crazies say.
