Roseland Review by Duane Dewitt - June 2018
School is out and Roseland’s streets will be more active during daytime with children rushing about on foot and bicycles. Please be careful and slow down for our youth. Especially near the newly repaved section of Sunset Ave. behind
Don’t worry about gentrification yet as it took the city of Santa Rosa 22 years to have this one block section of Sunset Ave. repaved after the annexation of east Roseland in 1996. The other one block long section of Sunset Ave., just now annexed in November 2017, is just as beat up and potholed as the eastern section was. It may take 20 years for the western side to get gentrified with new asphalt. More new asphalt has been placed on the new block of Liana Dr. traveling west to Burbank Ave. for the new Crossroads housing project. The new 79 units of apartments at the Crossroads development on Burbank Ave. may be a form of gentrification, but it took close to 13 years to finish the affordable housing project so not to worry yet.
The Joe Rodota Trail on the old railroad line between Santa Rosa and Sebastopol through Roseland was paved years ago and now has become a living spot for numerous individuals who were moved off the county taxpayer-owned land at Roseland Village Shopping Center. About 50 people are living in tents or under tarps on both sides of the paved bike path. May’s Roseland Review pointed out U-Haul trucks were used to move some campers off of the site. A reader has stated private funds were used to enable the trucks to be rented and also the Porta Potties and fencing at the previous site. When these folks rented another Porta Pottie for the new camp along the Joe Rodota Trail the county had it removed after a day. So now we have more fecal matter back in the ditches of this neighborhood.
Homeless campers cannot find housing and some people in local Roseland housing are being evicted even as the problems worsen. Ms. Debra Kelly contactedRoseland Review pointing out she is being evicted so Santa Rosa can purchase the land where she lives to destroy the houses. She has asked the city to let her stay on the land until she could move the house elsewhere. For all the recent news stories about the “Housing Crisis” in Sonoma County it would seem one way to help solve this problem would be to save the housing stock in existence while building more. At the old Fouches Junkyard on Dutton Ave. they are now revitalizing the 12-acre former “brownfield” by building a new neighborhood and making room for a park. The new place will be called Paseo Vista and have a nice view of the SMART trains passing by daily.
The SMART train has been criticized as being a growth engine for the gentrification of the areas near the Highway 101 corridor of central Sonoma County. But it may also be a method to bring more housing into the areas located near train stops. Known as Transit Oriented Development there may be an opportunity to have affordable housing for cross sections of our communities. Ms. Kelly is a senior citizen who was paying fair market rate rent for her one-bedroom former garage converted into housing. She states she cannot find any place else to rent and has formally asked the Santa Rosa City Council to help her, but to no avail.
Santa Rosa may not be as helpful to Roseland as once thought. The City Council has created voting districts where Roseland residents may be able to vote for a representative to the council in the future. But Roseland will have to wait for elections in 2020 to be able to vote for candidates who may have an interest in Roseland. This was decided by the council recently. Gentrification may bring voting rights into Roseland sooner than the district elections because politicians follow the money. Taxpayers’ money is the main subsidy for affordable housing and has been an element in political interest regarding Roseland. If new money comes to Roseland maybe politicians will also. But if politicians only follow the money of campaign contributors the disadvantaged, underserved, overburdened community of Roseland will be going nowhere fast.
