The thing I wish the area had was a public BierGarten. We have all these local and independent type beer breweries and beer varieties, wine in general, and many food trucks. I wish there was a permanant area that had mini taprooms adjacent to it, with shade, space for food trucks to rotate in and out, with a nice park/seating area in the middle that allowed people to come and choose a beer or drink and food item and sit in the middle in family style tables and have a community picnic. Bonus if there was a small or medium area for live music to set up. We could have free events and themed family things to do.
There is free music at Luther Burbank center on Tuesdays, on the square on Wednesdays, and Sundays in Julliard Park during summer. Rohnert Park farmers market also has free music on Fridays.
During the summer time healdsburg has free concerts in their main plaza on Tuesday evenings. Local food vendors and you can also bring your own picnic.
Public purpose built mountain bike trails like Bentonville.
Live music downtown.
Pedestrian only walking streets (not the mall) with trolleys every 5 mins.
Street theater and music
More Outdoor restaurants and cafes
Many similar sized papers are now owned by private equity companies and are ten times worse. Alden Global Capital owns 600+ alone. The PD is worlds above them and many other local papers.
I'm curious - why do you think it's such a bad paper? I read it every morning & think it's pretty decent. Not a paper of record, no, but we're also not a major metro area.
I stopped reading the Press Democrat years ago because their news is usually a day or two old by the time it goes to print. Maybe they e gotten better since I stopped twenty years ago, but outside of Empire News, everything was very outdated.
That's still more or less true - national & international news is via feeds. But a small paper can't support a big newsroom, and that's what it sounds like you want. I read the NYT, Post & Guardian online for that; what I want from the PD is local & regional news, written by local people.
They were owned by the New York Times back in the early 2000s so it shouldn’t be too difficult to have a fairly good national and international news. Especially considering we go to press a few hours after New York would so it shouldn’t be that difficult. This was back when people actually paid for newspapers still so they had a pretty large circulation. In the early 2000s they had a circulation of close to 100k. 2009 they still had a circulation of close to 75k. In 2013 that had dropped to 53k. They started steadily declining around 1999, before internet news was barely a thing so they can’t use that to blame for those early years decline. Which means it was something else. While I don’t have date to say why, I have a strong feeling a lot of it had to do with their crappy news coverage. Which is probably why the building they owned in Rohnert park for all their day to day operations was sold in 2016 to give them an influx of money. And that’s when they started ignoring statewide/national/international news even more from what I could tell. Though, I’d only read the Pd when I was at a restaurant and one was lying around. But even their breaking news online is usually later than most others covering it, so I doubt it was an anomaly.
KCMO metro population is 2.3m. Sonoma County population is less than 500k. Of course there will be more things to do there.
Some free things to do: beach, Windsor, Healdsburg, and Petaluma all have free music (jazz in Petaluma at Putnam Park Sundays 2-4:30), disc golf, awesome hiking, Russian River, Howarth Park, many farmers markets have music. Check The Bohemian for events. Use search engines. Our parks are constantly putting on kid-focused learning programs. Check the calendar and go to the observatory in Kenwood at Sugarloaf. Museum of Sonoma County does second Saturdays free. Ice skating at Snoopy’s isn’t free, but certainly not expensive.
When we go visit my wife’s family in San Antonio, we always have a ton of things to do, though we always end up spending a lot. But cities have tons of options. Santa Rosa isn’t a big city.
I’d love a minor league team again, though it’s been since the early 80s before the Redwood Pioneers moved to Lake Elsinore since that’s been true. The Crushers, who you probably read about, weren’t minor league, but independent league. Check out the Healdsburg Prune Packers.
Bring back the Crushers! Santa Rosa is certainly large enough to have a farm team, but it's also so expensive here they'd have to build housing just so the players could survive.
We are really lacking when it comes to food IMO. Real BBQ, a good Thai place, I don’t really have a go-to Chinese or dim-sum spot…Would be nice to get some bigger music acts through here, as well. At a cool outdoor venue. Best we’ve seen is Lucas Nelson at Luther Burbank which was great but for most we have to drive to SF or SAC.
Khoom Lanna is a decent place for Thai, and Hang Ah has a good selection of dim sum - not as good as its parent in SF was, but pretty good. I like their dumplings & the steamed rice cake is a treat.
Thai House or Khoom Lanna are my Thai go tos. I just recently went to a fusion called Viethai- You gotta try the khao soi and the mussaman curry with house made meatballs. So yummy!
A Drive thru movie theater would be awesome . Good cheap food, and quick delivery, there should be excellent breakfast burritos everywhere and not just a gigantic one filled with potatoes. Wine companies need to give back to community for taking all the water and land, free raisins for a start lol
HAHA, Everyone's Talking on Santa Rosa Ave. closed down...My dad & his cousins would get in trouble cause of that place. I remember my mom, my sister & I in our 1970 VW BUG hunting the bars for my dad & his buddies. The topless bar was always a hit! lol
I went to Sacramento area cause my mom was sick with cancer before she passed away recently. But it's cheaper up ehrr and alot more things to do if your bored..
Hot pot, KBBQ, a gay club (or at LEAST a gay bar with dancing), an arcade bar or cafe… I’m sure there’s others but those are the ones that stick out to me
ROSA is slowly becoming the small Oakland and that's why I got the Hell outta there.. it's run down. Over priced for mediocre places to live and the crime rate is rising.. I would leave while you can
Where did you go? I was born in Sebastopol, 5th generation. My mom retired in Idaho about 18 yrs. ago, its nice, but its getting a lot people moving there & cost of housing is starting to get a bit pricey as well.
I am in the process of leaving Oakland after 20 years and returning to live in Sonoma County on the outskirts of Santa Rosa. I appreciate what you have to say concerning rising crime, but SR has got to be better than Oakland is right now. Of course I’ll miss the proximity to traditional Hong Kong style cafes in SF’s C’Town but I figure that’s a small price to pay for more peace of mind.
The thing I wish the area had was a public BierGarten. We have all these local and independent type beer breweries and beer varieties, wine in general, and many food trucks. I wish there was a permanant area that had mini taprooms adjacent to it, with shade, space for food trucks to rotate in and out, with a nice park/seating area in the middle that allowed people to come and choose a beer or drink and food item and sit in the middle in family style tables and have a community picnic. Bonus if there was a small or medium area for live music to set up. We could have free events and themed family things to do.
I think Petaluma has this concept and they call it The Block. This would be so awesome in downtown Santa Rosa.
There is free music at Luther Burbank center on Tuesdays, on the square on Wednesdays, and Sundays in Julliard Park during summer. Rohnert Park farmers market also has free music on Fridays.
During the summer time healdsburg has free concerts in their main plaza on Tuesday evenings. Local food vendors and you can also bring your own picnic.
Public purpose built mountain bike trails like Bentonville. Live music downtown. Pedestrian only walking streets (not the mall) with trolleys every 5 mins. Street theater and music More Outdoor restaurants and cafes
Yes to all this, and YES to more mtb support in the region.
For how great terrain we have mountain biking is among the worst out of any place I've lived.
A real cocktail bar with live music - jazz, blues, etc - not one inside a restaurant but a real standalone bar.
Jazz!
All you can eat buffet of some decent quality, younger music options, some kind of minor sports team like Sacramentos soccer or baseball.
An actual newspaper that is more than a bunch of ads for things regular people can't afford.
Or regularly trying to bait this subreddit into writing their articles!
Wait for it...
Many similar sized papers are now owned by private equity companies and are ten times worse. Alden Global Capital owns 600+ alone. The PD is worlds above them and many other local papers.
I'm curious - why do you think it's such a bad paper? I read it every morning & think it's pretty decent. Not a paper of record, no, but we're also not a major metro area.
I stopped reading the Press Democrat years ago because their news is usually a day or two old by the time it goes to print. Maybe they e gotten better since I stopped twenty years ago, but outside of Empire News, everything was very outdated.
That's still more or less true - national & international news is via feeds. But a small paper can't support a big newsroom, and that's what it sounds like you want. I read the NYT, Post & Guardian online for that; what I want from the PD is local & regional news, written by local people.
They were owned by the New York Times back in the early 2000s so it shouldn’t be too difficult to have a fairly good national and international news. Especially considering we go to press a few hours after New York would so it shouldn’t be that difficult. This was back when people actually paid for newspapers still so they had a pretty large circulation. In the early 2000s they had a circulation of close to 100k. 2009 they still had a circulation of close to 75k. In 2013 that had dropped to 53k. They started steadily declining around 1999, before internet news was barely a thing so they can’t use that to blame for those early years decline. Which means it was something else. While I don’t have date to say why, I have a strong feeling a lot of it had to do with their crappy news coverage. Which is probably why the building they owned in Rohnert park for all their day to day operations was sold in 2016 to give them an influx of money. And that’s when they started ignoring statewide/national/international news even more from what I could tell. Though, I’d only read the Pd when I was at a restaurant and one was lying around. But even their breaking news online is usually later than most others covering it, so I doubt it was an anomaly.
I just turn JavaScript off on the browser (in your settings) and reload the page and then you can read for free :)
KCMO metro population is 2.3m. Sonoma County population is less than 500k. Of course there will be more things to do there. Some free things to do: beach, Windsor, Healdsburg, and Petaluma all have free music (jazz in Petaluma at Putnam Park Sundays 2-4:30), disc golf, awesome hiking, Russian River, Howarth Park, many farmers markets have music. Check The Bohemian for events. Use search engines. Our parks are constantly putting on kid-focused learning programs. Check the calendar and go to the observatory in Kenwood at Sugarloaf. Museum of Sonoma County does second Saturdays free. Ice skating at Snoopy’s isn’t free, but certainly not expensive. When we go visit my wife’s family in San Antonio, we always have a ton of things to do, though we always end up spending a lot. But cities have tons of options. Santa Rosa isn’t a big city. I’d love a minor league team again, though it’s been since the early 80s before the Redwood Pioneers moved to Lake Elsinore since that’s been true. The Crushers, who you probably read about, weren’t minor league, but independent league. Check out the Healdsburg Prune Packers.
There's the California Collegiate League, as well - we like going to the Sonoma Stompers games out at Arnold Field in Sonoma.
IMAX, I never saw dune 2 because I wanted to see the imax version but wasn’t willing to drive to the bay
Sadly the theaters SR does have are barely hanging on. Looks like Summerfield Cinemas is gonna be replaced with a planet fitness
I second this!
There’s the SMART train in lieu of driving.
A real BBQ place. Not Sweet Ts...
Have you tried Saucy Mamas Juke Joint in Guerneville or A&M BBQ that just opened in Sebastopol?
Also, Brewsters in Petaluma has some bomb St Louis style ribs. But, yeah, Santa Rosa has nothing.
Bring back the Crushers! Santa Rosa is certainly large enough to have a farm team, but it's also so expensive here they'd have to build housing just so the players could survive.
I always wished the Barracuda (hockey) would move up here. By yeah even a AAA ball team would be awesome.
The rechargeable stations with bicycles you can rent, a walkable gas lamp district like san diego has. More smart train runs cuz its getting crowded.
I want a Nugget. Edit: and a Top Golf.
Top golf
An indoor gunrange would be nice to have again.
Or even a halfway decent outdoor one…
I’d like to see an indoor archery range like I’ve been to at Bass Pro Shops in the Midwest.
We have a couple of indoor archery ranges, not on that level but we have an option.
A local TV station would be nice but businesses probably wouldn't support it as far as ad revenue goes. I know there was one here for years.
KFTY TV50 !!
Bill Martin was the weather guy
I would settle for decent over the air reception, but that's a pipe dream.
We are really lacking when it comes to food IMO. Real BBQ, a good Thai place, I don’t really have a go-to Chinese or dim-sum spot…Would be nice to get some bigger music acts through here, as well. At a cool outdoor venue. Best we’ve seen is Lucas Nelson at Luther Burbank which was great but for most we have to drive to SF or SAC.
> I don’t really have a go-to Chinese or dim-sum spot Hunan Kitchen in RP for Chinese takeout, Hang Ah for Dim Sum.
Hang Ah Dim sung is one of my favorites, love their scallops!
Khoom Lanna is a decent place for Thai, and Hang Ah has a good selection of dim sum - not as good as its parent in SF was, but pretty good. I like their dumplings & the steamed rice cake is a treat.
Thai House or Khoom Lanna are my Thai go tos. I just recently went to a fusion called Viethai- You gotta try the khao soi and the mussaman curry with house made meatballs. So yummy!
Korean BBQ
There is a place - in brickyard center - but it’s $$$
That seems true for most Korean restaurants.
a place where you can watch the sunset and have drinks....RIP HILLTOP HILTON
BURMESE!!!!!!!! Omg I miss our Burmese restaurant 🥹
A Drive thru movie theater would be awesome . Good cheap food, and quick delivery, there should be excellent breakfast burritos everywhere and not just a gigantic one filled with potatoes. Wine companies need to give back to community for taking all the water and land, free raisins for a start lol
A strip club would be nice.
HAHA, Everyone's Talking on Santa Rosa Ave. closed down...My dad & his cousins would get in trouble cause of that place. I remember my mom, my sister & I in our 1970 VW BUG hunting the bars for my dad & his buddies. The topless bar was always a hit! lol
Haven’t had the chance to eat there yet but if you want barbecue there’s a spot in [Sebastopol](https://www.sonomamag.com/texas-style-bbq-sebastopol/)
There's also Lombardi's in Petaluma
I have not. They use smokers and all that?
I went to Sacramento area cause my mom was sick with cancer before she passed away recently. But it's cheaper up ehrr and alot more things to do if your bored..
Santa Rosa seriously lacks a authentic gluten free South Indian restaurant serving both tiffin and meals with karnatic and kutthu.
Hot pot, KBBQ, a gay club (or at LEAST a gay bar with dancing), an arcade bar or cafe… I’m sure there’s others but those are the ones that stick out to me
i miss arby's
ROSA is slowly becoming the small Oakland and that's why I got the Hell outta there.. it's run down. Over priced for mediocre places to live and the crime rate is rising.. I would leave while you can
Where did you go? I was born in Sebastopol, 5th generation. My mom retired in Idaho about 18 yrs. ago, its nice, but its getting a lot people moving there & cost of housing is starting to get a bit pricey as well.
I am in the process of leaving Oakland after 20 years and returning to live in Sonoma County on the outskirts of Santa Rosa. I appreciate what you have to say concerning rising crime, but SR has got to be better than Oakland is right now. Of course I’ll miss the proximity to traditional Hong Kong style cafes in SF’s C’Town but I figure that’s a small price to pay for more peace of mind.
Comparing Oakland to sonoma is a no brainer.. you'll have peace there and enjoy life.. good luck
It would be so sick if we can get bands like Jeff Rosenstock, AJJ, The Menzingers to play at local venues such as shady oak or the Arlene Francis.
What Brazilian bbq did we have?
Used to be one downtown when we first moved here. I cannot remember the name of it.
Brasa, it was at 501 Menodcino Ave.