Santa Rosa, CA.???

[scottmandue]

I have spent most of my life here in San Pedro, CA. and like it just fine.

However from time to time I get the itch and wonder if it wouldn't be nice to break free of these all too familiar surroundings and explore a new life somewhere.

I work for the state and am five years (give or take) from retirement.

Long story short there are job opps. in Santa Rosa... a brief look and it is basically Cali wine country, sounds nice. Anyone lived there or know someone who does? Ideas/opinions?

Thanks in advance!

[motion]

Santa Rosa has its cons, but it has to be 100x better than the Long Beach area. Drive up and check it out! Beautiful country!

[Rick Lee]

I've been there and it's nice. IIRC, it's near wine country, but not right in it where the traffic especially sucks.

[john70t]

(Just as an observation......The thread title "Santa Rosa, CA.???" would be better responded to as "Tell me about the city of Santa Rosa, CA".
Just IMO)

It was a smaller artsy wealthy cloistered liberal town a decade ago, and still may be.

(-)Even waterfront, nice resteraunts, and wine valley can get boring after a while. The GG bridge and 101 traffic might become a huge detriment to your lifestyle if The Peninsula is on the daily commute list.

(+)Close-r to everything in the Bay Area than LA, and nature areas are close and abundant. You will be purchasing many many tires and brake pads

[jtkkz]

my brother lives in santa rosa, ca.

we go up there often, nice place...

[LakeCleElum]

Beautiful backroads to drive in any direction. Ocean is only 1/2 hr away. Infineon, Clear Lake, Hwy 1, etc.......

[speeder]

Gorgeous part of the world as others have said, but on the 101 corridor with probably a lot of traffic at times. As Richard said, it's paradise compared to Long Beach and environs.

I sometimes have a hard time advising people in these *where to live* threads, people value such varied qualities in a location. We have people who claim to love living in some real hell holes because they like the politicians better. That's number 487 in my list of things to consider in where to live.

I'm a city boy and could never live full-time in a suburban or other location more than an hour from a major city. I'd kill myself from boredom. Some others, (including in my immediate family), love being far from civilization at almost all times.

Let's just say that there are about a million places that are not as nice as Sonoma county.

[nostatic]

Hopefully Don will chime in as he lives in Petaluma. If I had a decent job prospect up there, I'd live up in that area. Actually central coast is still my fav but both are longshots due to budget and employment. If you're retired and have the coin to pay the cost of entry, there are far worse places to live.

[DARISC]

When I think of Santa Rosa, Burbank springs to mind.

[cantdrv55]

Nice roads for both the 911 and a bicycle. Warmer than the SF Bay Area. I'm biased so there really isn't a choice for me between Long Beach and Santa Rosa. Concrete jungle versus wine country.

[BeyGon]

If you don't actually have to live in Santa Rosa there are some great spots west of the freeway.

[PorschePilot]

I live in Petaluma and have for the past 15 years, which is 11 miles south of Santa Rosa. If the negative comments come from people who have not spent significant time in the area, disregard.

I grew up in San Diego and my son lived in Belmont Shores, so I am qualifies to do the Norcal vs Socal comparison. I love the beach communities of Socal, but go inland not so pretty.

The entire Sonoma County area where Santa Rosa is is beautiful. Each town has a quaint old downtown area where all the good restaurants are and is the place to hang out. I live 15 minutes from world class wineries which are fun places to hang out. Its 2.5 to 3 hours to Lake Tahoe for skiing. The back roads are a lot of fun and the Redwood PCA region is a nice group with a lot of fun events.

I much prefer Norcal over Socal.

[trekkor]

Very nice area.

I live about 35-45 minutes away.

We vacation up the Sonoma coast near Manchester every year.

You should definitely check the area out.
Petaluma, Rohnert Park, Windsor, Santa Rosa... All nice.


KT

[tadink]

the comments about traffic make me laugh -

"traffic" is relative - particularly compared to LA traffic! Compared to that - there is almost zero traffic and it is easily avoided by not driving on 101 when there is traffic there. Now that they have completed construction on widening the lanes thru the middle of town - it is a comparative dream, particularly when compared to the 405!

SR is a great town, but many prefer to live in one of the smaller and greater locations nearby, such as Petaluma, Sebastapool, or Healdsburg.

Housing is cheap and plentiful compared to SoCal - and SR is in the middle of the wine country. If you like cycling, there could not be any better location - great roads, light traffic, many fellow cyclists.

The SR porsche club is friendly and welcoming (called the Redwood chapter) and they are frequently together doing AX or drives around NorCal.

Great sports car roads abound -

compared to SoCal, there is NO comparison!!

tadink

[Don Plumley]

I'm traveling but will chime in with what PorschePilot said - it's a great part of the world to live in. I have also lived in both halves of the state and truly love the Bay Area. Now I'm sitting in Newport Beach as I type this note and SoCal has its advantages, but Sonoma County is home for me.

Santa Rosa as a city has some sketchy areas, but nothing like Long Beach. There are some great communities, such as Windsor, Sebastopol, Petaluma - just depends what floats your boat. Yes, there are some traffic issues, but compared to SoCal, nothing. There is a bunch of freeway work going on right now that acerbates the situation, but the end result will be much improved traffic flows.

Here you are less likely to be judged on what you are wearing and what you are driving. Wealth is more subtle. Lots more tattoos and aging hippies, and it is a tourist area so on big wine weekends everyone seems to show up on the roads.

The downsides (from a SoCal perspective), we have three seasons, the beaches are cold, lots of microclimates so you have to be selective where you live if you like outdoor dining, schools generally suck in comparison to good SoCal neighborhoods (Irvine). You will probably be a little further from an airport.

The many upsides include great driving roads, Sears Point, Laguna Seca; Tahoe in 3 hours. SF in 1 hour. Wine and Food focus - many amazing great little neighborhood restaurants; A less urgent lifestyle. Cows and open fields; trees and beauty everywhere.

Let me know if I can answer any specific questions.

[Zeke]

Santa Rosa is a hot rod capital. It's also hot and it rains heavily. I'm sure the locals haven't noticed.

[Radioactive]

The biggest problem, it is in California.

[911Freak]

Yep, You guys summed it up pretty well... I lived in and around SR for 30 years, been in West LA for 6 and were trying to get back up there soon... SoCal is nice, but I'm home sick for the wide open spaces, weather (there isn't any in SoCal it's always sunny!) but more importantly, SR and its surrounding communities (albeit more liberal then I) offer what my family and I value as an environment to raise our son. As Speeder eluded its not what we like about one location vs another, it's what meets the you, the individual's preferences....

The best public K-12 schools are on east side ala Rincon Valley / Bennett Valley, top notch SRJC & Sonoma State etc etc
Stay away from Wst9th street area and area around the County fairgrounds...

Hwy 101 and hwy 12 divide SR into 4 sections, each quite different
They have a quant old town area, great food, wine and live entertainment...

RE is more expensive on North East side (east of the 12 / 101 hwy interchange), SW SR is much more rural and affordable but lowlands, NW SR is nice rural areas, decent schools (middle class++) and is adjacent to the Russian River valley...
SE SR is mostly low income with pockets of nice little neighborhoods.

PM me for way more info on

[ckissick]

My sister lives in Sebastopol. My grandmother lived in Occidental when we were kids. Very, very nice area. The apple country has been transformed to wine country, which means the new wine people still retain the laid back apple farm vibe. Less pretentious than Napa or Sonoma.

I'd look west of SR, to Sebastopol, Occidental, Freestone, etc. There's also the Russian River. Now you got me wanting to invite myself up to my sister's for a weekend.

[scottmandue]

Originally Posted by john70t

(Just as an observation......The thread title "Santa Rosa, CA.???" would be better responded to as "Tell me about the city of Santa Rosa, CA".
Just IMO)

You are correct!

I typed out the title early before I had my coffee...

And, the main reason I have stayed in Socal is to be close to family... my parents are coming to the end of their road and I see this as maybe a stepping off point for a new life. Thus my thoughts are somewhat preoccupied.

Originally Posted by john70t

and nature areas are close and abundant. You will be purchasing many many tires and brake pads

I am all about nature... and would like to do more hiking for my health, we have some nice beach paths around here but they are limited.


Um... not sure how Long Beach came up... I live in San Pedro... southwest of Long Beach... not far but rather different.

Thanks for the input, I will mail off job application (standard state form 678) and it is a long shot but worth a try.

Seeing as we have gone through he11 getting the car key away from dad where we can retire, enjoy driving for the next 20 or so years, but then be somewhere we can walk to do basic grocery shopping etc.

I have a friend in Pasadena that lives without a car... something like that but not in the heart of the city.

Does the BART run up to Santa Rosa?