interested in moving to Sebastopol

[Ravenwolf13]

Hi all, I am working on gaining information on living in Sebastopol.

My husband and I have looked hard for a place to put our roots down and call "our town".

We both grew up in small towns in the deep southeast US. We live in southern california and miss living somewhere that feels like home. We love California and want to spend the rest of our life in this state, but somewhere less hectic than where we live now.

We are really considering Sebastopol. If anyone wishes to speak on behalf of this town please do so. We welcome any comments or suggestions of sites on the web that may help us.

We are both artists and screenplay writers and feel we would fit in well with the artistic community Sebastopol is known for.

I also have been researching schools in the area as we are hoping to bring new and exciting teaching skills to the area.

One school in particular that caught our eye is called Nonesuch School.


If anyone has any information on this school or is on faculty there or even is a graduate or attending student there please send along your thoughts and information on the school.

I thank all in advance for any information or thoughts passed along to us.

Peace to everyone,
Raven

["Mad" Miles]

Hey Raven,

Not sure the following link to an old discussion in response to a post by me asking the question, "What's so great about Sebastopol" answers your question. I guess I'm forwarding it just to prove that you're not the first to ask!

https://www.waccobb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18321 (https://www.waccobb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18321&highlight=%2AWhat%26quot%3Bs%2A+%2Aso%2A+%2Agreat%2A+%2Aabout%2A+%2ASebastopol%3F%2A)

Since waccobb is centered in and focused on West Sonoma County (but wacco is not exclusive to the same), and Sebastopol is the major population center for the area, you can find lots and lots of stuff by searching this site with Sebastopol in the search field. There're even a couple of threads about how to properly pronounce it!

Hope this helps. I spent ten years "Behind the Orange Curtain" ('74-'84) so I understand your need for less sprawl.

Just keep in mind that what's happening there/here is happening everywhere.

"Mad" Miles

:burngrnbounce:


P.S. Nonesuch seems pretty cool. I'm not associated with them, although I thought of applying after I got my credential. I was impressed that a number of their students were arrested after occupying the Arms Forces Recruiting Center in Santa Rosa back in the winter of '03, just after the current debacle in Iraq began. I didn't see any other school specific groups doing the same, so from this activists perspective it looked to me like the parents and teachers there were doing something right!

[Zeno Swijtink]

Hi all, I am working on gaining information on living in Sebastopol.

My husband and I have looked hard for a place to put our roots down and call "our town".


The real estate market in S. is highly inflated. If you have no need to be in this town, avoid it!

I recommend Cotati, just ten miles from S. Housing there is more affordable.

https://www.pressdemocrat.com/section/realestate

It's close to Sonoma State University, and has a Transition (https://www.relocalize.net/groups/transitioncotati/) group while people in S. still try to get used to the concept of greenbelts and living in town, rather than sprawling the country site. Consequently, and because of the local geographic constraints (Laguna de Santa Rosa, elevation rim running from Stony Point Rd. to S. to Forest(??)ville), traffic jams are horrendous, by local standards, and increasing.

Cotati is close to projected mass transit, including a planned train station a half mile away. SMART.

[Tars]

I recommend Cotati, just ten miles from S. Housing there is more affordable.
I'll probably get slammed by any Cotati fans here, but...

If you're looking for a small town atmosphere, I wouldn't pick Cotati. Cotati is basically a subdivision of Rohnert Park. Its "downtown" is mainly geared towards the Sonoma State students - 3-4 bars in a one-block stretch, intemingled with a few restaurants. One would have to go out of Cotati for virtually anything else.

Perhaps they've fixed the problem, but...within the last decade Cotati had one of the higher property crimes, theft, burglary, etc. rates for the whole county.

All property prices anywhere in Sonoma County will cause cardiac arrest to a person moving here from a small town in the southeast.

It's common for people who plan to move to this area, and who visit sebastopol.org, to see that Sebastopol has a population of 8,000-something. That's misleading. Sebastopol has expanded far past its old town boundaries; there are magnitudes more people than 8,000 living in the immediate core area, and magnitudes more than that who drive through the city daily. Sebastopol has two main surface-street traffic arteries passing through it, which serve communities in the west county. You might note a discussion going on here about a major population growth project planned for the central area of the Sebastopol community.

However, in the plus column, Sebastopol is largely a self-contained community for day-to-day living. It as a hospital, a handful of major grocery stores, and a sense of community, probably as strong/stronger than many communities in the county. It does have a strong cultural presence, with art galleries, live performance venues, and a very pleasant town square, complete with weekend farmers' market most of the year.

I'd suggest that, if you can accept the property prices in Sebastopol, and since your occupation doesn't need you to commute frequently, you might also consider Healdsburg. It is actually a community on it's own, still mostly separated from Windsor. Like Sebastopol, it has its own cultural identity as well. A very pleasant town center with square.

[Ravenwolf13]

Thanks everybody for the info. I really appreciate it! :Yinyangv:

If anyone else out there wants to add something please do.

Peace from the Raven

[Malene]

Ok, here is my two cents worth.

I am not quite sure what your criteria is for the new place you move to.

When we moved up to this area we looked at the whole area as a whole. That meant Santa Rosa, Rohnert Park, Cotati, Petaluma, Sebastopol and environs. I love this general area, there is nothing but great to say about it.

There are towns, cities and country side. There are wines and high style living, and close by wonderful camping spots. There is ocean and magnificent coastal views, and inland heat. I love the area.

The cities and towns listed above have a lot in common. They are all approximately within a 20 minute drive from each other to start with. There are small differences in the feel of each place of course but they are very interrelated.

Sebastopol is new agey, and extremely expensive. Its nice though, and fairly self contained. It seems to be a mecca for body workers and those practicing new age philosophies.

Santa Rosa is "the big city" of the area. Downtown is nice, but it certainly can be felt both in crime rates and other ways that this is a fairly much larger city.

Rohnert Park is commercialized but Cotati is right next to it and super charming. Also rather upscale. RP is not too expensive.

Petaluma is also a bit larger. Downtown is really charming, but I know that area less.

If what you are looking for is a smaller town feeling then you might want to look at Bodega, Bodega Bay, Jenner, Graton, Forestville or Guerneville - all here close by. Graton and Forestville is a 20 - 25 minute drive from Santa Rosa, but has all the small town feeling.

Bodega, Bodega Bay and Jenner are all on the coast. Nice little communities, but a bit further away from everything.

If that is still too much "city" for you then look further south up to around Healdsburg or further up Ukiah.

Warm regards,
Malene

[Ravenwolf13]

Hi all,
Again thank you for your info. We have also considered the Occidental area. Does anyone know about this town? All we know is that Terence McKenna lived there at the end of his life.

Does no one have any info of the Nonesuch School?

[Malene]

Dont know about the school you mentioned. I really like occidental though. Neat and charming downtown area, but with a lot of country charm still. Quite a bit smaller than Sebastopol.

Why dont you come on up here and spend a few days?

Warm regards,
Malene




Hi all,
Again thank you for your info. We have also considered the Occidental area. Does anyone know about this town? All we know is that Terence McKenna lived there at the end of his life.

Does no one have any info of the Nonesuch School?