Posted in reply to the post by santarosie:
Santa Rosa has many good and some bad qualities. There are numerous nice parks and bike/hiking trails, community activities like athletics, classes, concerts, and farmers markets, beautiful natural features, decent shopping at a variety of economic levels, and friendly caring people. Check out the City of Santa Rosa, the Bohemian, and the Santa Rosa Junior College websites. Traffic is bad at certain times of day if you choose by design to spend a lot of time in your car driving around. I recommend finding home/school/work/activities that are all within 2-3 miles of each other. The bus system is pretty good. I manage to live car lite here, filling up my gas tank once or twice a month. Overall it is a nice place to live; pleasant, fun, and safe (as long as you use good common sense, there's crime and gangs in most places, learn how to be safe). Simply driving around in areas you are considering living at different times of the day will help a lot, and if you find an area you like, get out of the car, walk around, and talk to people.
I don't have kids in school, but the Mark West Area just north of Santa Rosa is reported to have good schools. I enjoy living in this area, the kids (mixed races and ethnicities) play together in the streets, in front of my house, in the parks and schoolyards, and by the creek which all reminds me of my childhood years. It's funny, the kids don't seem to care about their differences in color, language, and economic status. There are three duplexes for rent in Wikiup right now (if you don't mind the proximity to the fault zone
) that go for around $1200 a month.
P.S.
Reportanddeport,
I would rather spend time chatting with a misfortunate "strange, scary, filthy, homeless person", or an honest, hard working "illegal alien" than you. Your paranoid, extremist, and antagonistic sort of stereotyping and hate-and-fear-mongering certainly smacks of racism, whether it is directly stated or implied. And it obviously doesn't sit well with this crowd.
Your finding that most people are cold and uncaring suggests that you are probably not someone who engenders a feeling of warmth and caring in others. Try treating people the way you'd like to be treated, and perhaps you'll find that good people are everywhere if you are respectful, compassionate, and kind as a matter of course.