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Roseland Review by Duane Dewitt - October 2018

Some Roseland residents, and other supporters of Roseland, have told Roseland Review they believe

JOIN US - This month’s column will remind readers of “Make a Difference Day” to be held on Saturday, October 27th in Roseland at the Roseland Neighbor Wood. Hosted by the Burbank Ave. Neighborhood Association, the Community Benefit Initiative of the Community Action Partnership and the Hughes Ave. Neighborhood Association along with members of Roseland Action as well as the Southwest Health Action Team there will be food and fun for volunteers.

Meet at the Roseland Neighbor Wood at 10am where there will be people enjoying the nature preserve as well as helping to keep it clean. This is across the street from Roseland Creek Elementary School on Burbank Ave. There will be refreshments and after 12 noon folks often go their separate ways to help in other parts of Roseland.

This is an especially important time of year to help in the Neighbor. Wood as there may be another good rainy season coming our way. If the area is cleaned well, there is less chance for pollution of the creek, and the Russian River. The first big rain of the season usually washes lots of debris out into the Laguna de Santa Rosa and then into the Russian River. If we are able to keep Roseland Creek cleaner near the source of pollution the River will be better off for our efforts. Please come out to the Roseland Creek Elementary School at 10 am on Saturday October 27 for Make a Difference Day and enjoy the Roseland Neighbor Wood with us.

Last month Roseland Review mentioned the unsung heroes doing good things for Roseland. One of the people is now known to us as Annette who cleans up the vacant lots on Hearn Ave. across from the Southwest Community Park at the end of Burbank Ave. Thank you kindly Miss Annette for all you do to help Roseland be a better place. Now back to the attention-grabbing headline.

Racist rulers of Santa Rosa, and now all of Roseland, have kept the people of Roseland from being able to have a voice in the decision-making process for many decades. Now they have gone so far as to keep Roseland residents from having a vote in this November’s election for city council. Roseland is out of the vote until 2020 when the current council members have decided to allow Roseland to be able to vote. The current folks up for election this time around also decided to keep South Park out of the vote until 2020 making the new Roseland “District 1” the last to have any power. The areas of the city with the most people of color will be marginalized as usual, even though the Districts were supposedly formed to give the underrepresented people of color in Santa Rosa better representation in city government.

Longtime voters in both Roseland and South Park which make up District 1 have not really won anything with this new District. Time to “hurry up and wait” for 2020 to have any chance to influence their future while the “Big” decisions for Santa Rosa’s future will have already been made in the next two years. With this in mind, Roseland Review offers up this opinion to those Santa Rosa residents who will be voting in the November elections. Vote No, N & O, No. Vote No on all the measures and propositions except the County Parks measure. Vote YES on Measure M.

The small amount of tax increment from your one-dollar purchases would not come back to you anyway. Businesses round up the amount of the money your purchase is taxed. That small increment could help everyone in the county with better parks. Also, vote out the incumbents and bring back Lee Pierce a good man and an Army Veteran who will listen to people from Roseland and South Park as he previously did while on the Santa Rosa City Council in the past.

For the best thing for Roseland a woman named Mary Watts who works for Community Action Partnership could be our best bet. We don’t get to vote for her, but you could tell your friends about her. Lee Pierce and Mary Watts know about Roseland. They will help Roseland if elected so please spread the word, so we can try to have a better Roseland sooner than later.

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