Roseland Review by Duane Dewitt - April 2020
A Good partnership has been formed with Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation and Roseland School District. They have been able to secure funding together which has been used for tree planting and riparian corridor restoration along Roseland Creek as it runs through school district property west of Burbank Ave. This is between Roseland Creek Elementary School and the Roseland Public Schools District Office on Burbank Ave. Some students have been involved and learning from this project, with a hope for more projects in the future. The district is currently closed for Spring Break until May 1, 2020 due to the pandemic. Information about the various Roseland schools can be found at www.roselandsd.org.
Some students from Roseland University Prep High School located next to Sheppard Elementary School at 1777 West Ave. have been coming over into the Roseland NeighborWood to help with creek cleanups. Some will also be doing a Spring Day of Service taking place on Tuesday April 21st. The weekend before that there WAS going to be an Earth Day bird and nature walk on April 18, from 9 am to 10 am held by Madrone Audubon at Roseland Creek Preserve, but under the circumstances it hase been postponed.The creek Cleanup held by the Friends of Roseland Creek for Earth Day at the same site is also postponed. In the meanwhile there are online earth day events we can particioparte in with the kids. https://www.earthday.org/campaign/earth-day-earthrise
A Bad situation occurred recently when the city of Santa Rosa staff in the Recreation and Parks Dept. invited over 9000 people from Southwest Santa Rosa to a free dinner in the Wright School District and only approximately 50 people came. The city no longer wants to think of Roseland as a separate place. It wants to lump us in with the “Southwest.” The rationale is to allow for LESS parks to be in Roseland while proposing to build more to the west in the Wright School District. This is based upon Santa Rosa city population growth projections for the area. Now here is where things get ugly.
“They must think we are stupid!” exclaimed a woman leaving a presentation, “Envision Roseland”, put on by Santa Rosa city staff on Weds. March 4 at Cook Middle School. The good part was it started with a small pasta dinner, with salad, for attendees. A bad part was the event was billed as a discussion, “To help residents with providing input specific to the future design of Roseland Creek Community Park.” It was ugly because after making local residents sit through over an hour of city staff talk at them, the residents were not given much time for dialog and discussion between Roseland residents themselves. Some residents were not happy with this and left early. Some others who stayed were unhappy with how their input may not have any impact on what happens next for Roseland NeighborWood as locals call the area.
There were over 20 city staff and members of boards and commissions there to present what the city envisions for the 19.5 acres of open space purchased with taxpayers’ funds. A short 15 minutes was given to some Roseland residents calling themselves The Friends of Roseland Creek NeighborWood. They advocated for a “nature park” with only one parking lot and trails to be unpaved or done with only permeable surfaces. Across the street from the NeighborWood is a nearly new elementary school with lots of paved parking lots and 3 full court Basketball courts.
Roseland Creek Elementary School also has as nice full-size Multi-purpose room with a Basketball Court so many local residents do not see the need for another Basketball court to be built at the NeighborWood as the city wants. This is a point of contention as some city staff said sports courts must go in on the southern portion of the land on the south side of Roseland Creek. This 5.9-acre parcel of land was bought by the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District in Feb 2010 with taxpayers’ funds. It was then deeded over to the city of Santa Rosa while still not annexed into the city. It was specifically stated at the time a bikeway/ greenway was going to be built along the south side of the creek from Burbank Ave. eastward to McMinn Ave. and still nothing has been done for this bikeway and the land is still locked up.
The end of the Envision Roseland meeting was not pleasant. Many speakers to city staff felt the process was a “set up” to get the city’s way. Comments from anyone were solicited in writing for the “amenities” to be at the proposed park. Some Roseland residents were incensed because this was a way to have “no accountability” and then the city will say “a majority of people” want this. As Terry Hilton a local veteran and long-time advocate for Roseland put it, “this is just for show, and then they will do what they want in spite of what the people want.”
