Roseland Review by Duane Dewitt - December 2018

Merry Christmas and Feliz Navidad to all the residents of Roseland and readers of Roseland Review. This column will be addressing both Christmas wishes, and Thanks giving for the things we have been blessed with in 2018. The year has passed by very quickly. It is already time to be getting your Christmas trees or Kwanza decorations, or whatever ways you celebrate your holidays, together for the holidays. Should you be looking for Christmas trees and Wreaths keep Mark’s Christmas Tree lot in mind on the corner of Dutton Ave. and West Third St. Mark Lazzini and his family having been serving the Roseland community for decades with nice trees at fair prices. Thank you to the Lazzini family for all they have done for Roseland for over 60 years.

Thank you also to all of the kind folks in Roseland who have been doing what they can to keep Roseland nice, and also trying to make it better. Thanks to both the City of Santa Rosa and the County of Sonoma for getting a few roads repaired such as the northern part of Boyd St. which has been recently resurfaced. A really bumpy portion of Corby Ave. was also repaved. Now for a Christmas wish to have Barham Ave., the northern portion of Burbank Ave., Hughes Ave., Sunset Ave., McMinn Ave. and the eastern portion of Sebastopol Rd. rebuilt also. Thanks to the city for trying to have better law enforcement undertaken in Roseland.

Thanks to Sonoma County for having the Roseland Library in the Roseland Community Center for all of the community to enjoy. The Christmas wish is for a library to be kept open and in the heart of Roseland throughout the future. After the Nov. 5, 2018 meeting of the Sonoma County Library Commission it seems like the library may be moved out of Roseland for up to 5 years while the building of the housing project by Mid-Peninsula housing goes forward in the Roseland Village Shopping Center.

Another Thanks, and a Big Wish also, is to the Central Sonoma County Boys and Girls Club which has been operating in the Roseland Library space. Many Roseland residents want there to be a nice big separate Roseland Boys and Girls Club.

There has been a new person elected to the Santa Rosa City Council and she will be taking office on Tuesday Dec. 4, 2018. Her name is Victoria Fleming and she is a social worker who may take an interest in helping to solve some of the long time, almost intractable problems we in Roseland have faced over the decades. Although Roseland has been in the for a year now we will not have any representation on the City Council until 2020 so it is important if you have concerns for you to contact the City Manager Sean McGlynn for help. The county is working on getting environmental clearances for properties on Roberts Ave. off of Sebastopol Rd. These clearances would make the land which has already been in the city for decades available for development.

Thanks for the development of more housing in Roseland. Development of housing near the SMART station will be a topic in the upcoming Station Area Plan to be funded by the city after approval by the City Council for the contract. Housing is currently being built on Sebastopol Rd. at the corner of Boyd St. in the Village Station development of for sale houses. More housing is being built at Paseo Vista on Dutton Ave. near Hearn Ave. as well as at the new Villas project off of Sebastopol Rd near Stony Pt. Road where the a controversial Golf Driving Range was next to Highway 12.

Now for a very serious Christmas wish. Better safer road conditions for bicyclists and walkers. Recently near the intersection of Stony Point Rd. and Highway 12 a young woman named Sidney Falbo lost her life in the crosswalk while attempting to ride a bike across to the Joe Rodota Trail. Shortly before this in the same northwestern corner of Roseland another woman was killed while attempting to cross Stony Pt. Rd. north of Highway 12. Before that a man was run over near there and dragged into Occidental Rd. losing his life also. Three dead young people in the space of weeks should be a warning to all drivers and city officials for better safety.

This month marks 20 years since Patrick Jerome Scott a young 17 year old was run over and killed while a student at the new Elsie Allen High School south of Roseland. He was killed walking near the school and Santa Rosa officials stated then they would work to make “pedestrian safety” a priority. Now is the time to remind government planners of this, especially because the city is completing a Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan for adoption in the near future. Roseland Review wishes for a safe and happy Holliday Season for everyone and specifically asks you to hold the spirits of Patrick Scott and Sidney Falbo in your hearts forever.