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This map highlights areas devoted to cars in Santa Rosa's Railroad Square and Downtown areasphoto credit: Santa Rosa YIMBY website
A new group called Santa Rosa YIMBY, which stands for Yes in my Backyard, has formed to encourage more affordable housing and a vibrant, car-free downtown city center.
Adrian Covert is the co-leader of the organization. He argues that Santa Rosa’s downtown core needs fundamental changes to encourage business and community engagement. Covert says that goes for both Railroad Square and the Downtown area.
“About half the entire surface area of downtown is just car infrastructure and about half of that is parking. And the city's own analysis has found that 75-percent of parking spots in the city go unused on a typical busy day. That's about 19 percent of downtown that’s just empty space year-round," said Covert.
The group has started a petition calling for the Santa Rosa City Council to create a car-free zone along 4th Street between B and D Streets, pointing out that this already happened during COVID. Covert says if you look further back in Santa Rosa’s history, housing and business density in the city core was the norm prior to the construction of Highway 101.
“There were homes there, there were hotels there. There were bowling alleys and Scottish Rite Halls, and furniture stores and much more commercial and residential activities in the downtown core 60, 70 years ago than there is today," Covert explained.
Covert cites something he observed during the holiday season as a sign that there is a different way to design the downtown of Sonoma County's largest city.
“There was a group of carolers in Railroad Square, just on Sunday, and there's a group of people watching them from in between parked cars and spilling out in the street with traffic. You know, there's a better way of doing this," said Covert.
The group holds regular events to meet with council members, city developers, and other community stakeholders. You can learn more on their website at new.santarosayimby.org
