Tell me about Santa Rosa, CA (university, casinos, living in)

[thomasw98]

(Crawling on knees begging forgiveness)....OK, I totally screwed up. I was writing about Santa Maria, not Santa Rosa. I wish you had exploded earlier since now the edit period has passed and I can not delete my post. Maybe the moderator could delete it for me?

P.S. I did visit Santa Rosa, and Rohnert Park as well, during the same trip.

[thomasw98]

OK, so here's my take on Santa Rosa (I promise it's the right city this time!):

Overall, a nice city. Like Miss Daisy said, they have plenty of local retail, nice wooded feeling along the winding roads, and some nice big parks. Also a pretty cool downtown area (around the mall). If you are raising a family and/or interested in the surrounding wine country, a great place for you to consider.

For me, though, I was looking for a city with a little more unique personality, and this is what I found slightly lacking in Santa Rosa. It's close, but for me, it just misses the target by a little.

One other thing to mention, as some others have mentioned previously, there really are some seriously scary and rough areas of Santa Rosa. Keep in mind, I am from Los Angeles and have seen plenty of rough areas, so it's not like I am being overly sensitive. I suppose if you lived there and knew the areas to avoid, you would just stay out of them.

Rohnert Park

Now, Rohnert Park, on the other hand, is really suburban hell. There really seems to be no reason why this small city even exists. No central theme, geographical feature, culture, etc. Many people told me this in advance, but I did not listen. But as soon as I got there, I could really understand what they meant. I suppose if you had a young family, and thus plenty of self-generated activity based around family activities and kid's school stuff, then this place might be pretty nice. In those terms, the city is nice and clean and could be considered, especially since the real estate values are OK there.

[Linenoise]

Originally Posted by thomasw98

Now, Rohnert Park, on the other hand, is really suburban hell. There really seems to be no reason why this small city even exists. No central theme, geographical feature, culture, etc. Many people told me this in advance, but I did not listen. But as soon as I got there, I could really understand what they meant. I suppose if you had a young family, and thus plenty of self-generated activity based around family activities and kid's school stuff, then this place might be pretty nice. In those terms, the city is nice and clean and could be considered, especially since the real estate values are OK there.

To be fair, there's nothing really -wrong- with Rohnert Park. It's a bedroom community, nothing more. It's a pretty safe town with little traffic that's in between two larger towns that offer all the services - santa rosa for the shopping / petaluma for a downtown and lots of places to eat. It isn't a place to move to for nightlife and there isn't much to do - but, you're closer to SF (where all the REAL action is) than Santa Rosa (30 minutes+ shaved off the drive), and it's far cheaper than Petaluma (with will save only 10 minutes). Just don't want to scare people away =) I'd take Rohnert Park over the scary parts of Santa Rosa (which is like, 1/3 of it) any day.

[idgal]

we are considering Oakmont Village, Santa Rosa as a place to retire. We are active, mid to late 50's and may still be working. Is Oakmont full of slow-moving, OLD type people, or, does it seem more like an active, fun place to live?

[SRtransplant]

Originally Posted by idgal

we are considering Oakmont Village, Santa Rosa as a place to retire. We are active, mid to late 50's and may still be working. Is Oakmont full of slow-moving, OLD type people, or, does it seem more like an active, fun place to live?

Oakmont Village is on the outskirts of Santa Rosa, just about smack dab in the middle between Santa Rosa and Sonoma. Nice little community. No real "shopping" to speak of other than your typical small strip mall type stores. Don't really know if it could be considered an "active, fun place to live" but I imagine it has its fair share of typical retirement community type activities.

I attended the Santa Rosa Police Dept. Citizen's Academy about 2 years ago and there was an officer there explaining to us how the different patrol beats are broken down. He told us that naturally, most officers want to be where the action is and said rookies and newcomers usually get assigned to the Oakmont beat since about the most exciting thing that happens there (that requires a police response) is the occasional raccoon trespassing onto someone's property. He was trying to be funny but at the same time, it's probably a pretty accurate description!!

The houses and condos look nice enough, it's a very clean community and, like I said, super LOW crime rate.

[Macrina]

Originally Posted by IloveCA

I lived in Santa Rosa for over 10 years and I LOVED IT!!!! It is the greatest town. It is beautiful, the weather is amazing, the scenery to die for, great stores and restaurants. You could not ask for anything more! I moved to IL 4 years ago and I absolutely hate it here! Being here in the midwest makes me realize just how FABULOUS California is. I am planning on moving back to my beloved town.

I'm with you! I lived there for 23 years and will soon be going back, though I may be up in Wikiup or Healdsburg or Windsor.


Lol, just realized I've responded to an older part of this thread. I forget to look at the dates.

[Macrina]

Originally Posted by idgal

we are considering Oakmont Village, Santa Rosa as a place to retire. We are active, mid to late 50's and may still be working. Is Oakmont full of slow-moving, OLD type people, or, does it seem more like an active, fun place to live?

It's been a while since I lived in SR....but at the time I was there, Oakmont was a thriving, growing community. It's really quite large and there are older sections or areas as well as the newer ones. And yes...there were lots of folks in your age group. It's well worth the $$, I'd say


And this comment of idgal's is from Feb, for Pete's sake. LOL

Probably talkin' to myself here!

[italiangirl]

We loved the area; SR and surrounds, we are retiring there! (from cold, but beautiful Colorado after 25 years)

[cassidy2]

Originally Posted by IloveCA

I lived in Santa Rosa for over 10 years and I LOVED IT!!!! It is the greatest town. It is beautiful, the weather is amazing, the scenery to die for, great stores and restaurants. You could not ask for anything more! I moved to IL 4 years ago and I absolutely hate it here! Being here in the midwest makes me realize just how FABULOUS California is. I am planning on moving back to my beloved town.

I lived in Santa Rosa approx. 15 years ogo. Worst experience in relocation reality, possible. The people are NUTS! Its just a weird scene.
Sorry.

[Macrina]

Originally Posted by cassidy2

I lived in Santa Rosa approx. 15 years ogo. Worst experience in relocation reality, possible. The people are NUTS! Its just a weird scene.
Sorry.

Of course you are welcome to your opinion, but as one who lived in SR for 23 years I can say there was nothing weird about the 'scene' or the people or the city or the weather.....it's a lovely place with many wonderful people and in fact SR has been ranked for many years as one of the Best places to live in the US. That's one of the main reasons for how much it has grown, which is, in my opinion, a mixed blessing.

The difference in perceptions here may be due to an age factor...