Adaptation & Innovation

WHILE 2021 WAS BY no means “normal” with Sonoma County remaining under lockdown through June, Downtown Santa Rosa proved to be an excellent canvas for testing new ideas and bringing the community safely together.

Early in the year, with the goal of supporting small business recovery and survival through the pandemic, business owners and volunteers came together to strategize on how to safely bring locals back Downtown. A year of unique hybrid programming that focused on the current health regulations and the mood in the community took shape. It started with an Easter Egg Hunt.

Bayside Church, a group that first got involved supporting Downtown businesses in 2020 when they built over 15 free parklets to help Downtown restaurants operate outdoors, came up with the idea to create passports sending community members to more than 30 businesses throughout Downtown with the chance to win big prizes including a big screen TV and an Xbox. Hundreds of families stopped into each store to complete their passport and enter to win. While the county was still masking and not yet fully open, this event on the cusp of the return to normalcy was a huge boost for Downtown businesses.

Bernie Schwartz, owner of California Luggage which has been Downtown for over 40 years had people come into his store that had never been there before. Schwartz remembered, “One of the Egg Hunt participants, a thirty-something guy, even said, ‘I had no idea that there was such a thing as a luggage store!’ and you just can’t buy that kind of awareness and publicity through advertising. We reached a whole new audience through participating in the Egg Hunt.”

In the spring, with several unknowns on the horizon, business owners resurrected the Open & Out program and began raising money to host ambiance enhancing activities that would encourage people to come Downtown by creating an ongoing festive atmosphere. The block of Fourth Street that remained closed to vehicular traffic had summer lighting installed in the trees and an interactive hopscotch painted on the street. Acoustic musicians were scheduled three days a week to entertain shoppers and diners and cultural performances were scheduled in the Square.

Once county health officials announced that outdoor events would be permitted and Poppy Bank stepped up as a presenting sponsor, it was full steam ahead. Said the bank’s CEO & President Khalid Acheckzai, “Poppy Bank was happy to support Open & Out as Santa Rosa is made up of mostly small and locally-owned businesses. Through the pandemic, these are the businesses who were hit the hardest and we will continue to do all we can to support them and preserve the culture that makes this community so special.”

A Downtown Showdown Bartenders Challenge, End of Summer Block Party, Family Movie Series sponsored by Sonoma Clean Power, and other events added to the festive atmosphere.

The Downtown District also took over some programming in Courthouse Square, reaching out to several local markets to see if they would like to host activities on the Square throughout the summer. One of those was SOCO Market, organized by Mercedes Hernandez who has since opened a brick and mortar location, Holee Vintage clothing at 529 Fourth Street. SOCO Market hosted three events during the summer with over 80 local small business owners, entrepreneurs and makers.

Courthouse Square proved to be an excellent venue for Pop Tha Trunk Art Show as well. Show founder Justin Hollingsworth wanted to figure out ways to help local artists expose their work to the community. “It was a dream come true to bring our artists to Courthouse Square and host our event in the heart of Downtown,” he said. After the first show, the Santa Rosa Metro Chamber connected Pop Tha Trunk to 365 Recreational Cannabis who became a sponsor of the event, assisting with advertising and securing additional vendors, allowing the event to grow even more.

Thousands of community members came out to support the local makers and artists.

Every weekend from Labor Day to Memorial Day had some type of programming Downtown, all geared toward getting people shopping, dining and seeing what Downtown Santa Rosa has to offer—and that energy carried into the fall.

Given the community’s continued desire to come together, the increasing vaccination rates and the safety of outdoor gatherings, plans moved forward with Fall Fun Fest—a massively enhanced Downtown Trick or Treating experience supported by Bayside Church. Games, inflatables, food and a costume contest coordinated by Third Street Aleworks led to thousands of people coming Downtown.

Trick or treaters roved throughout Downtown and enjoyed festivities in Courthouse Square, which had a massive LED screen to show off the fun costumes, dance parties and more. The night ended with a screening of Hocus Pocus. Downtown business owners again got the chance to connect with community members who came through for trick or treating. “We ran out

of candy,” said Julie Montgomery of Kindred Fair Trade. “We bought 750 pieces of candy and we ran out before the event was over. It was fantastic to get so many people into the store.”

Throughout the season, Courthouse Square was able to welcome first-time events, like the North Bay Indo-American Association’s Diwali Celebration, as well as community events that hadn’t taken place since the pandemic began, like the Santa Rosa Dia de los Muertos event. The ability to provide safe space for distancing as well as no outdoor mask requirements allowed for greater ease of planning for event organizers.

These events and the activation throughout the year provided a clear message: Sonoma County residents want to come together again. Seeing this, the Santa Rosa Metro Chamber decided to initiate plans that had been discussed for many years and bring a skating rink to Old Courthouse Square. Rather than use hundreds of thousands of gallons of water during a drought, the Chamber rented an environmentally-friendly synthetic skating rink. The business community came together to raise over $100,000 to make the rink a reality, and eight different nonprofit organizations, such as Sonoma County Pride, Chops Teen Club, and the Rotary Club, stepped up to run the rink from November 19 through January 9. The proceeds from ticket sales went to these non-profits, totaling over $30,000.

“All of us at Redwood Credit Union are committed to lifting people up and bringing joy and hope to our community, especially in challenging times—this is just one of the many values we share with the Chamber,” said Brett Martinez, RCU President & CEO. “We’re honored to sponsor the Winter Lights celebration, which brings the community together in a safe way while also supporting our local businesses who have faced so many struggles during the pandemic. But seeing the skaters out there with such big smiles just illustrates how resilient and supportive our community is—and it truly reflects the magic of the season!”

Volunteers from Third Street Aleworks and Bayside Church assembled the rink alongside Chamber staff. Bayside Church erected a snack shack to sell warm drinks, festive lighting was installed and holiday music played during each skate session. Redwood Theatre Company, a local ice dancing theatre connected to Snoopy’s Home Ice, performed on the rink three different times and Sonoma County Pride used it for a Drag on Ice show.

The rink also served as the centerpiece of the annual tree lighting event on the day of after Thanksgiving, an evening sorely missed by the community in 2020. Thousands of families attended, lining up to meet Santa and watching as Redwood Theatre Company and Snoopy skated together, leading the community into a countdown to light the tree in Courthouse Square.

These events have been instrumental in helping Santa Rosans view Downtown as the heart of the community and support the small business owners that have kept their doors open as well as meet those who opened their doors for the first time during the past two years. While a handful of businesses ended up closing early on during the pandemic, thankfully the majority have managed to stay open.

Those that remained have shifted business models and adapted along with the rest of the world. They’ve taken the opportunity to remodel, change menus, alter their hours and update protocols. Many have had to make additional shifts in response to the staffing shortage, but they’re still managing to meet the needs of the community. It’s been a huge test for many, but the small business owners Downtown are certainly up to the challenge.

Third Street Aleworks made critical changes to their business model and their space. They remodeled the inside of the restaurant to allow for better social distancing inside. Fewer staff wanted to come back to work once they were able, so they cut down their menu to make both cooking and serving easier for those returning. In doing so, they turned to more local distributors.

photo by Keith C. Flood Photography The Winter Lights rink brought season-long skating to Downtown and became the centerpiece of the tree lighting celebration.

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“We wanted to keep the money local,” said Matt Vella, who took over Third Street in the spring of 2019 with his business partners. “Our menu is now sourced from solely local distributors and almost entirely from local farmers and ranchers. Even if the options were reduced, we wanted to make sure the quality was exceptional, and working with local partners really allows us to deliver on that.”

They also made more of an effort to get into the wholesale market, expanding into the Greater Sacramento market and adding salespeople to help increase distribution.

Despite the pandemic, many new business owners opened their doors in Downtown Santa Rosa over the past year, including Botany Zhi, a stunning indoor plant jungle located on D Street run by the incredibly friendly Lewis Deng, lover and grower of all things green. Multiple new restaurants opened this year as well, all from restauranteurs with other established restaurants in the Bay Area. On Fourth Street’s 500 Block, Sushi Rosa (an eatery where robots serve your sushi) and Warike Restobar opened, the 700 Block welcomed both Falafel Hut and Mi Pueblo, and Fifth Street saw Mi Ranchito Restaurant open its second Sonoma County location.

One of the other interesting shifts in Downtown life over the course of 2021 was a change in parking behavior. Longtime residents of Santa Rosa can frequently be heard to bemoan the “lack of parking” Downtown, while many new residents see Santa Rosa as a city with plenty of inexpensive parking options— they love the ease and safety of garage parking or utilizing the City’s Passport parking app for street parking. In response to the pandemic and the need to support businesses by making it easier for shoppers and diners to come Downtown, the City incentivized garage parking by making it free on the weekends, free after 5 p.m. and free for the first hour. That temporary change has led to an increase in garage use by 2%.

Beautification efforts also took place in 2021 with over thirty new trees planted, replacing the dead and diseased ones planted many decades ago. The combination of crape myrtles and gingko trees will provide new color in both fall and spring. 2022 will see the long-awaited reinstallation of the Asawa Fountain with the panels cast in bronze and the installation of Blessing Hancock’s piece Unum on the Square. Inspired by the unified Old Courthouse Square, the sculpture embraces themes of welcoming and inspiration, while also relaying the Santa Rosa values of innovation and cultural inclusivity through its text which was collected through a community engagement process that speaks values inherent to Santa Rosa.

These pieces will not just bring public art to the Square but allow Downtown Santa Rosa to showcase its important history while focusing on the future. One that will undoubtedly include an active, engaging and flourishing heart of the community.