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As a 40-year resident of Sonoma County, 27 years in Santa Rosa I am proud and excited to be writing the column for Santa Rosa. A lot going on in our beautiful city and if you know of anything you believe is important to share, please email me and let me know.
Get an Eyeful, Plateful and Bagful
Congratulations Santa Rosa, spear-headed by Julie Kawahara owner of Kindrid Fair Trade and Maria Lewytzkyi Milligan and a coalition of citizens and community groups, on October 17, 2015 a proclamation by the Santa Rosa City Council was read announcing the official designation of Santa Rosa as a Fair Trade Town. Santa Rosa joins 20 other municipalities recognized as Fair Trade Towns which is part of a nationwide organizing effort called Fair Trade Towns USA. There are two Fair Trade Towns in Sonoma County: Healdsburg and Santa Rosa. The campaign raises consumer awareness, increases availability of Fair Trade products, and drives sales to help lift more than 1.2 million farming families out of poverty. To learn more about the initiative and designation, go to santarosafairtrade.wordpress.com.
To support one of the cities goals to be open and transparent and having a good ear for the community Ecuador native and Santa Rosa resident for 15 years, Jaime Penaherra was hired as its first Community Engagement Director. His local experience includes Santa Rosa Junior College Bond Oversight Committee and the Moorland Area Revitalization Steering Committee along with a strong background in social media, public relations, strategic planning, community organizing, civic engagement as well as diversity and inclusion plus sales and marketing. In 2013 he received the American Dream Award from the Napa County Chamber of Commerce.
Art Museum of Sonoma County – Great Place to Visit
Looking for places to write about, a friend suggested that art in our community is overlooked and suggested that I visit the Art Museum of Sonoma County on 4th St. in Santa Rosa – which I did. A tour of the museum was provided by Cynthia Leung, Community Outreach and Volunteer Coordinator who graciously introduced me to three exhibits: two were ending by the time of this publication but the one remaining – Flexible Sculpture and Fiber: West Coast Fiber Artists – is phenomenal and ends November 29th. One of the highlights of this exhibit is a complete deck of embroidered playing cards. Two shows will be starting this month: “Beyond Bollywood: Indian Americans Shape the Nation.” This was collaborated with the Asian Pacific American Center and the Smithsonian Traveling Exhibition, starts and “Journey to Fountaingrove: From Feudal Japan to California Utopia,” the story of the connection between 19th century Japan, Santa Rosa, and Kanaye Nagsawa who became known as the “Wine King of California.” Both exhibits begin November 7th. The museum offers school tours of both the Art and History Museums. For information visit website www.musemsc.org.
Coffee With A Cop
The Coffee With A Cop program is a national initiative supported by The United States Department of Justice and Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. The goal is to provide an informal, neutral space to discuss community issues, build relationships, ask questions and drink coffee. The program started in September and all community members are invited. If you are a business and would be interested in hosting one of these events or dates and times, contact Sgt. Jeneane Kucker (707) 543-4019 or jrkucker@srcity.org.
The Commission on the Status of Women (Sonoma County)
“...Planned Parenthood is an essential component of our countywide system of health care for women, men, and families. Any disruption to Planned Parenthood’s current levels of funding or services would negatively impact the well-being of this community. www.sonomacounty.ca.gov/Commission-on-the- Status-of-Women
Roller Coasters are what many long time Roseland residents have called the extremely bumpy, up and down, pothole-filled roads in Roseland, such as Corby Ave. and Sebastopol Rd. east of Dutton Ave. Now the Sebastopol Rd. Roller Coaster east of Dutton Ave. is being smoothed
Santa Rosa Community Engagement Director Hired
At the old Point St. George’s Fish Processing Plant right next to the tracks
at this site there is now a proposed housing project waiting to move forward. SMART is also in the process of having the Sonoma County Parks Department build a bikeway and walking path next to the rails. These are brand new rails put in by the taxpayer financed SMART system. There have been discussions saying the pathway will help to unite more of Roseland residents from the various corners of the 1.2 square mile community. Because there is no SMART station in Roseland or Southwest Santa Rosa it is hoped the bikeway will get more people on the train at the Railroad Square Station. Time will tell once it is all built out for passengers to ride the rails again.
Supports Planned Parenthood
During Nov. there is the possibility the city and county joint Roseland Annexation Subcommittee will meet again to discuss just what they are going to do about these matters. Please look to the Sonoma County Gazette website
for an update once the meeting date is announced. As autumn leads into the holiday season, and possibly a wet winter, some friends of Roseland Creek
got together on “Make a Difference Day”, Oct. 24, 2015 to do a creek clean
up and clear out after the homeless encampments moved away recently. An extraordinary effort was done by local volunteers and members of the group Forest Unlimited. The executive director, Rick Coates drove in from Cazadero to help the Roseland residents get their Roseland Neighbor Wood ready for winter. It was quite an encouraging day as Forest Unlimited volunteered to help Roseland residents on into the future to save nature in Roseland forever.
Elaine B. Holtz is producer/Host of “Women’s Spaces” Monday 11-12noon & 11-12midnight. All shows on line at www.womensspaces.com
This was especially heartening because the city of Santa Rosa has not been making real plans for how to manage open space and urban green spaces
in Roseland. The city which held a third community meeting about the Roseland Specific Plan on Wednesday, October 21, 2015, has been less than forthright about how the community goals for more green space in Roseland will be saved. Roseland Review proposes a Roseland Open Space System with residents going to be planners.
out. Santa Rosa public works projects have been repaving the north side, west bound lane of the road and soon the east bound lane will be done also. It is an amazing difference after close to 20 years of the Roller Coaster, especially at the railroad tracks crossing. The railroad crossing may also get smoothed out soon. With the new Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit trains to begin running on the old Northwestern Pacific tracks there is more activity than any time in the last 20 years.
Some of these ideas have been discussed in the recent Santa Rosa city meetings regarding the Roseland Specific Plan. But not much detail has
been given, and no real “in-depth” exploration about an idea of truly Transit Oriented Development around the SMAART tracks in Roseland has been done with the greater Roseland community. Opportunities to develop more housing in Roseland up along the Sebastopol Rd. corridor and near the SMART tracks may be discussed more in the future. Sonoma County is exploring the redevelopment of the 7 acre parcel known as the Roseland Village Shopping Center which the county purchased with taxpayers’ funding. When the county prepares an environmental impact report for the project they are hoping to have happen there, it will be an opportunity to reassure other developers and investors of the viability of building housing along Sebastopol Rd.
Recently the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board released an updated “Fact Sheet” about the many contaminated Brownfields sites once existing along Sebastopol Rd. There had been as many as 59 sites in Roseland where toxic contamination had been a concern in the past. In the Sebastopol Rd. / McMinn Ave. area where there were 49 “groundwater cleanup sites” a “total of 34 have been sufficiently investigated and remediated and are now closed.” In the future the Roseland Review will delve deeper into this story as it has been one of the main obstacles in the past to the city of Santa Rosa finally annexing the 264 acre Sebastopol Rd. corridor from Stony Pt. Rd. east to Olive St. The city has annexed portions along the corners of intersections such as Dutton at Sebastopol Rd. and Stony Pt. Rd. at Sebastopol Rd.
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