text:
Petaluma, California

Petaluma is a city in Sonoma County, California, located in the North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. Its population was 59,776 according to the 2020 census.

Petaluma's name comes from the Miwok village named Péta Lúuma that was located on the banks of the Petaluma River. The modern city originates in Rancho Petaluma, granted in 1834 to famed Californio statesman Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, considered to be the founder of Petaluma. Today, Petaluma is known for its well-preserved historic center and as a local hub for the Petaluma Valley region of Sonoma County.

History

The Coast Miwok resided throughout Marin and southern Sonoma County. The village of Péta Lúuma (Coast Miwok for "backside of the hill", or "sloping ridge") was east of the Petaluma River, with a number of other Coast Miwok villages nearby: Wotoki was immediately to the south of Péta Lúuma, on the opposite side of the river; Etem, Likatiut, and Tuchayalin were near today's downtown; and Tulme and Susuli were just north of today's city limits.

The Petaluma area was part of a 66,000 acre 1834 Mexican land grant by Governor Jose Figueroa to Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo called Rancho Petaluma. In 1836, Vallejo ordered construction of his Rancho Petaluma Adobe, a ranch house near Petaluma, which his family often used as a summer home, while he resided in the neighboring town of Sonoma. Vallejo's influence and Mexican control in the region began to decline after Vallejo's arrest during the Bear Flag Revolt in 1846.

Pioneers moved to Petaluma from the eastern United States after James Marshall found gold in the Sierra Nevada in 1848. The town's position on the Petaluma River in the heart of productive farmland was critical to its growth during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Sailing scows, such as the scow schooner Alma (1892), and steamers plied the river between Petaluma and San Francisco, carrying agricultural produce and raw materials to the burgeoning city of San Francisco during the California Gold Rush.

There were brothels downtown along Petaluma Boulevard, which used to be the main thoroughfare until U.S. Highway 101 was constructed in the 1950s. The Petaluma Historic Commercial District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Sonoma County Bank Building was the home of the Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company and the Petaluma Seed Bank until 2019. It was built in 1926.

Petaluma soon became known for its grain milling and chicken processing industries, which continue to the present as a smaller fraction of its commerce. At one time, Petaluma was known as the "Egg Capital of the World," sparking such nicknames as "Chickaluma". Petaluma hosted the only known poultry drugstore and is the place where the egg incubator was invented by Lyman Byce in 1879. One of the largest historic chicken processing plants still stands in the central area of town; this 1930s brick building is no longer used for the chicken industry, but is being evaluated for preservation and change of use. Even though it is no longer known as the Egg Capital of the World, Petaluma maintains a strong agricultural base today with dairy farms, olive groves, vineyards, and berry and vegetable farms.

According to the Army Museum at the Presidio, San Francisco, Petaluma was relatively unharmed during the San Francisco earthquake of April 18, 1906, due to significant stable bedrock underlying the region. As one of the few communities in the region left standing after the earthquake, Petaluma was the staging point for most Sonoma County rescue and relief efforts.

There are extant, pre-1906 buildings and Victorian homes on the western side of the river. The downtown area has suffered many river floods over the years and during the Depression commerce declined. A lack of funds prevented the demolition of the old homes and buildings. In the 1960s there was a counter-culture migration out of San Francisco into Marin County and southern Sonoma County, looking for inexpensive housing in a less urban environment. The old Victorian, Queen Anne and Eastlake style houses were restored. Historic iron-front buildings in the downtown commercial district were also rescued. Traffic and new home development for the most part was rerouted to the east of downtown by the construction of the 101 freeway. The first official airmail flight took place in 1911, when Fred Wiseman carried a handful of mail from Petaluma to Santa Rosa, including letters from Petaluma postmaster John E. Olmstead and the mayor of Petaluma. Wiseman's plane ended up in the National Air and Space Museum.

There was a substantial influx of Jewish residents to the area in the first three decades of the 20th century. Most of the settlers were secular Eastern European Jews; they founded today's B'nai Israel Jewish Center as a secular Jewish community center with no rabbi and only a small area for prayer. The community became active in the poultry industry, and some settlers joined the local labor movement and participated in leftist political organizing, leading to significant conflicts between integrationists who aimed to quietly integrate into Petaluma society and socialists who hoped to change it.

With its large stock of historic buildings, Petaluma has been used as the filming location for numerous movies set in the 1940s, '50s, and '60s (see list of movies below). The historic McNear Building is a common film location.

Petaluma pioneered the time-controlled approach to development. After Highway 101 was re-aligned as a freeway in 1955, residential development permits tripled, from 300 in 1969 to 900 in 1971. Because of the region's soaring population in the sixties, the city enacted the "Petaluma Plan" in 1971. This plan limited the number of building permits to 500 annually for a five-year period beginning in 1972. At the same time Petaluma created a redbelt around the town as a boundary for urban expansion for a stated number of years. Similar to Ramapo, New York, a Residential Development Control System was created to distribute the building permits based on a point system conforming to the city's general plan to provide for low and moderate income housing and divide development somewhat equally between east and west and single family and multi-family housing.

The stated objectives of Petaluma's time controlled growth management were to ensure orderly growth; to protect the city's small town character and surrounding green space; to provide a variety of housing choices; and to maintain adequate water supply and sewage treatment facilities.

The controlled development plan attracted national attention in 1975 when the city was taken to court by the Construction Industry Association. The city's restriction was upheld by the 9th Circuit Court in 1975 and the Supreme Court denied a petition for writ of certiorari in 1976. This court ruling still forms the foundation for most local growth management ordinances in California.

Despite this history of planned development, the Petaluma City Council voted on April 13, 2009, to eliminate the entire planning department and lay off the whole planning staff. Planning Division responsibilities were subsequently contracted out to the consulting firm Metropolitan Planning Group, which re-hired some of the former planning staff and continues to operate planning services for the city.

In the late 1990s, Petaluma was also known as Telecom Valley due to the telecom startup companies that seemed to multiply from one another, and offer great riches for early stockholders and employees. Two success stories were that of Advanced Fibre Communications (AFC) (now Tellabs), and Cerent, which was purchased by Cisco. Some Cerent employees went on to purchase the Phoenix Theater, a local entertainment venue, which was once an opera house.

In 2021, Petaluma established a goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2030. In March of that year, the city formally prohibited construction of new gas stations,  becoming the first municipality in the world to enact such a ban. The city also streamlined the process of building EV charging stations and potential hydrogen filling stations.

The city has identified about two dozen buildings and districts as Petaluma landmarks.

Geography
Petaluma has a total area of 14.5 sqmi. 14.4 sqmi of that is land and the remaining 0.1 sqmi is water. Water is 0.74% of the total area.

It is 32 mi north of San Francisco.

Petaluma is flanked by the unincorporated communities of Penngrove to the north and Lakeville to the south.

Petaluma is situated at the northernmost navigable end of the Petaluma River, a tidal estuary that snakes southward to San Pablo Bay. Pollution levels in the river, once considerable, have improved in recent years. A significant amount of the city is in the river's flood plain, which overflows its banks every few years, particularly in the Payran neighborhood.

Principal environmental noise sources are U.S. Route 101, Petaluma Boulevard, Washington Street and other major arteries. The number of residents that live in a zone of noise exposure greater than 60 CNEL is approximately 4,000.

Climate
Petaluma has a mild Mediterranean climate (Köppen: Csb). Its dry summer is characterized by typically warm days and cool nights with a large degree of diurnal temperature variation. Summer mornings often start out foggy and chilly, but the fog usually clears by midday or so, giving way to clear skies and warmth for the remainder of the day. August is usually the warmest month, with average daily temperatures ranging from 82 °F to 53 °F. December is usually the coldest month, with average daily temperatures ranging from 57 °F to 39 °F. Winter is cool and rainy, with frost occasionally occurring on clear nights.

Weather Underground's reporting station in Petaluma had a record high temperature of 111 °F on September 6, 2020. The record low temperature of 16 °F was recorded on November 14, 1916, and December 14, 1932. The wettest year was 1998 with 45.93 in and the driest year was 1976 with 8.29 in. The wettest month was February 1998 with 19.59 in. The most precipitation in 24 hours was 4.29 in on December 27, 2004. Although snow is rare in Petaluma, 1.5 in fell in January 1916, as well as about 3 in in January 2002.

2020

Data released by the United States Census Bureau reports that per the 2020 United States Census, Petaluma had a population of 59,776. There were 22,756 households, with an average of 2.61 occupants. The population density increased to 4,146.8 per square mile compared to 2010. The largest demographic groups remained Whites (75.9%) and Hispanics (21.6%), followed by Asians (4.2%), African Americans (1.3%), and Native Americans (0.8%). 22.0% of households in Petaluma report speaking a language other than English. Furthermore, 14.9% of residents were foreign-born.

The city's population (in terms of sex) was practically evenly split, with 50.1% of residents being female, and 49.9% being male. More than one-fifth (20.6%) of Petaluma's residents were under the age of 18, while 18.7% are senior citizens aged 65 and over. Nine-tenths (90.5%) of the population had graduated high school, with 40.3% of residents having obtained a Bachelor's degree or higher level of education.

The median household income was reported to be $100,379 in 2021 dollars, with a per capita income of $50,664. The median gross rent in Petaluma was measured to be $2,144, with the labor force participation rate having leveled off at 65.7%. The rate of poverty in the city changed only marginally between 2010 and 2020, slightly decreasing to 5.9%.

2010
The 2010 United States Census reported that Petaluma had a population of 57,941. The population density was 3,998.9 people per square mile (3998.9 PD/sqmi). The racial makeup of Petaluma was 46,566 (80.4%) White, 801 (1.4%) African American, 353 (0.6%) Native American, 2,607 (4.5%) Asian (1.3% Chinese, 0.9% Filipino, 0.8% Asian Indian, 0.4% Japanese, 0.3% Vietnamese, 0.2% Korean, 0.1% Pakistani, 0.1% Laotian, 0.1% Thai), 129 (0.2%), Pacific Islander, 5,103 (8.8%) from other races, and 2,382 (4.1%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 12,453 persons (21.5%). The Latino ethnic groups are Mexicans (16.2%), Salvadorans (1.2%), Guatemalans (0.6%), Nicaraguans (0.3%), Peruvians (0.3%), and Puerto Ricans (0.3%).

The Census reported that 57,217 people (98.8% of the population) lived in households, 361 (0.6%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 363 (0.6%) were institutionalized.

There were 21,737 households, out of which 7,541 (34.7%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 11,392 (52.4%) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 2,257 (10.4%) had a female householder with no husband present, 1,052 (4.8%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 1,319 (6.1%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 207 (1.0%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 5,372 households (24.7%) were made up of individuals, and 2,366 (10.9%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.63. There were 14,701 families (67.6% of all households); the average family size was 3.14.

The population was spread out, with 13,455 people (23.2%) under the age of 18, 4,589 people (7.9%) aged 18 to 24, 15,041 people (26.0%) aged 25 to 44, 17,273 people (29.8%) aged 45 to 64, and 7,583 people (13.1%) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40.3 years. For every 100 females, there were 96.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.8 males.

There were 22,736 housing units at an average density of 1,569.2 per square mile (1569.2 PD/sqmi), of which 14,159 (65.1%) were owner-occupied, and 7,578 (34.9%) were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.3%; the rental vacancy rate was 4.8%. 37,389 people (64.5% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 19,828 people (34.2%) lived in rental housing units.

2000

As of the census of 2000, there were 54,548 people, 19,932 households, and 14,012 families residing in the city. The population density was 3,953 people per square mile (3953 PD/sqmi). There were 20,304 housing units at an average density of 1,471/sq mi (1471 PD/sqmi). The racial makeup of the city was 84.16% White, 1.16% African American, 0.54% Native American, 3.91% Asian, 0.17% Pacific Islander, 6.08% from other races, and 3.98% from two or more races. 14.64% of the population were Hispanic.

There were 19,932 households, out of which 36.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.3% were married couples living together, 10.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 29.7% were non-families. 22.6% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.70 and the average family size was 3.16. The age distribution is: 26.2% under the age of 18, 7.2% from 18 to 24, 31.5% from 25 to 44, 24.1% from 45 to 64, and 11.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females, there were 95.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.9 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $61,679, and the median income for a family was $71,158 (these figures had risen to $68,949 and $85,513, respectively, as of a 2007 estimate ). Males had a median income of $50,232 versus $36,413 for females. The per capita income for the city was $27,087. About 3.3% of families and 6.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 6.2% of those under age 18 and 7.1% of those age 65 or over.

Economy

Amy's Kitchen, Calix Inc., CamelBak, Clover Stornetta Farms, Lagunitas Brewing Company, and Petaluma Poultry are based in Petaluma. Mesa Boogie and Enphase Energy were also founded in Petaluma.

Top employers
According to the city's 2021 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the city are:

U.S. Coast Guard
The U.S. Coast Guard operates Training Center Petaluma just outside Petaluma, near Two Rock. It operates several of its class "A" and "C" schools at TRACEN Petaluma, including the Electronics Technician (ET), Culinary Specialist (CS), Health Service Technician (HS), Information Systems Technician (IT), Operation Specialist (OS), Storekeeper (SK), and Yeoman (YN) schools.

The Coast Guard also operates the Chief Petty Officer Academy at the TRACEN. Academy trains senior non-commissioned officers (Chief Petty Officers) for both the U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Air Force.

California National Guard
The California National Guard operates an armed forces facility in Petaluma.

Arts and culture

The Petaluma Arts Center is located here.

The annual Butter and Eggs Day Festival is a celebration of Petaluma's culture and heritage.

The Cinnabar Theater is a professional non-profit theater, and is also home to the Young Repertory Theater.

Parks and recreation
Immediately to the southwest is Helen Putnam Regional Park, accessible from Chileno Valley Road. This park of 216 acre has trails for hiking, cycling and horseback riding and is one of two parks named in honor of former mayor Helen Putnam who served from 1965 to 1979; the other is Putnam Plaza on Petaluma Boulevard. Lying above the city of Petaluma on the northwest flank of Sonoma Mountain is the Fairfield Osborn Preserve, a nature reserve with a diversity of native plants and animals. Nearby to the southeast is Tolay Lake, the site of prehistoric seasonal settlement by Miwok and Pomo tribes.

Government

The mayor of Petaluma is Kevin McDonnell. The other six council members are Janice Cader Thompson, Brian Barnacle, Mike Healy, Karen Nau, Dennis Pocekay, and John Shribbs (Vice Mayor).

State and federal representation
In the California State Legislature, Petaluma is in, and.

In the United States House of Representatives, Petaluma is split between, and California's 4th congressional district, represented by Democrat Mike Thompson.

According to the California Secretary of State, as of February 10, 2019, Petaluma has 36,034 registered voters. Of those, 18,779 (52.1%) are registered Democrats, 6,124 (17%) are registered Republicans, and 9,281 (25.8%) have declined to state a political party.

Education
Public schools are managed by the Petaluma City School District. There are two comprehensive high schools in Petaluma: Petaluma High School and Casa Grande High School, whose athletic teams are known as the Trojans and Gauchos respectively. Casa Grande High School has a notable Academic Decathlon team, which has represented Sonoma County for the last 27 years in the state-level competition. There is an annual football game between the two schools' teams known as the "Egg Bowl". The Game was suspended in 2011 for fights involving players and fans, but was brought back in 2017, with Petaluma winning the game over Casa Grande, 20–14. The two Petaluma public middle schools are Kenilworth Junior High School and Petaluma Junior High School.

St. Vincent de Paul High School, a Roman Catholic private school, is in Petaluma, and its athletic teams are known as the Mustangs. Santa Rosa Junior College has a second campus in Petaluma, and the campus the unaccredited art school/atelier l'Atelier aux Couleurs is located in Petaluma. Harvest Christian School is a private Christian school in Petaluma, serving grades TK-8.

Transportation
U.S. Highway 101 is the main freeway for the city. State Route 116 also runs through town as Lakeville Highway. Other major streets include East Washington Street, North and South McDowell Boulevards, and Petaluma Boulevard.

Petaluma is served by Petaluma Transit, Golden Gate Transit and by Sonoma County Transit bus services. The Sonoma–Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) rail line inaugurated service in August 2017 and serves Petaluma–Downtown station, adjacent to the historic Northwestern Pacific Railroad depot near Washington Street. A second station, Petaluma–North, is planned for future construction and service.

The Amtrak Thruway 7 bus provides daily connections to/from Petaluma (with a stop at 19 Copeland Street), Martinez to the south, and Arcata to the north. Additional Amtrak connections are available from Martinez station.

The nearest major airports are San Francisco International Airport and Oakland International Airport, Sonoma County Airport Express buses connect Petaluma with the aforementioned airports. General aviation is served by the Petaluma Municipal Airport, as well as the Charles M. Schulz – Sonoma County Airport located north of Santa Rosa.

Actors

 * Winona Ryder (born 1971), actor; graduated from Petaluma High School in 1989
 * Myron Healey (1923–2005), actor
 * Lloyd Bridges (1913–1998), actor; graduated from Petaluma High School in 1930

Artists

 * David Best (born 1945), sculptor, lives and works in Petaluma, known for Burning Man creations
 * Mark di Suvero (born 1933), sculptor, lived and worked in Petaluma, 1975-
 * Mary Fuller McChesney (1922–2022), sculptor, lived on Sonoma Mountain, 1953–2019
 * Robert P. McChesney (1913–2008), painter, lived on Sonoma Mountain, 1953–2008

Businesspeople

 * Kevin Tsujihara (born 1964), former chairman and CEO of Warner Bros.

Video game designers

 * Jake Rodkin, video game designer, graphic designer, podcaster
 * Bill Tiller (born 1967), computer game designer, writer, and artist, known for his work at LucasArts.
 * Jeff Gerstmann (born 1975), prominent video game personality known for his podcasting and work at GameSpot and Giant Bomb.

Historical figures

 * Richard A. Penry (1948–1994), soldier and Medal of Honor recipient

Musicians and bands

 * Sean Hayes (born 1969), singer and songwriter
 * Em Rossi (born 1998), singer and songwriter

Sports figures

 * Bruce Bochte (born 1950), baseball player
 * Steven Cozza (born 1985), professional road bicycle racer
 * Joe Enochs (born 1971), former soccer player who most notably played for VfL Osnabrück
 * Jonny Gomes (born 1980), baseball player
 * Duke Iversen (1920–2011), football player
 * Brady Scott (born 1999) soccer player
 * Spencer Torkelson (born 1999), baseball player
 * Elijah Qualls (born 1995), football player
 * Anthony Bender (born 1995), baseball player

Writers

 * Shirley Neilsen Blum (born 1932), American art historian, author, gallerist, curator, and professor; born in Petaluma.
 * Tobias Capwell (born c. 1973), American curator, military historian and jouster; born in Petaluma
 * Pauline Kael (1919–2001), movie critic
 * Karen Kilgariff (born 1970), comedian, podcaster and writer
 * Bill Pronzini (born 1943), mystery writer
 * Silver Tree, film writer and producer

Other

 * Nicole Aunapu Mann (born 1977), USMC fighter pilot and NASA astronaut.

In popular culture

 * The 2016 film American Wrestler: The Wizard is set in Petaluma.
 * The 2007 Michael Ondaatje novel Divisadero is partly set on a farm situated near Petaluma.
 * In their song "The Days of the Phoenix" from their September 2000 album titled The Art of Drowning, the punk rock band AFI makes reference to the Phoenix Theater on Washington Street in downtown Petaluma, a venue the band used to play on a regular basis.
 * In the M*A*S*H (TV Series), SEASON 6, EPISODE 24 - MAJOR TOPPER first aired March 27, 1978, a fictitious Petaluma Lumberjack Festival is referenced.
 * Much of the 1973 movie American Graffiti directed by George Lucas and produced by Francis Ford Coppola was filmed in Petaluma.
 * Norman Greenbaum's 1972 album Petaluma is named in honor of the city, which was home to his dairy farm at the time.

title: Petaluma, California


text:
Rohnert Park, California

Rohnert Park is a city in Sonoma County, California, United States, located approximately 50 mi north of San Francisco. The population at the 2020 United States Census was 44,390. It is an early planned city and is the sister city of Hashimoto in Japan. Sonoma State University, part of the California State University system, is located nearby.

History
Originally home of the Coast Miwok native people, the Mexican government granted Rancho Cotate to Captain Juan Castaneda in July 1844 for his military services in the region. The grant encompassed present-day Penngrove, Cotati and Rohnert Park. "Cotate Rancho is a part of the Vallejo Township which is the plain between Sonoma Mountain and Petaluma Creek San Pablo Bay, and an east and west line dividing the tract from Santa Rosa Township." In 1849, Dr. Thomas S. Page, of Cotati, bought Rancho Cotate. Over time, the property was broken up and sold off piecemeal to incoming settlers.

The town of Rohnert Park was named after the Rohnert family, which owned the Rohnert Seed Farm. In 1929, a successful businessman, Waldo Emerson Rohnert (1869–1933), a native of Detroit, Michigan, purchased a large ranch in the area and minimized flooding in the fields with a crude drainage system. He died shortly thereafter. His son, Fred Rohnert, a graduate of Stanford Law School, took over the ranch and developed a seed growing business, the Rohnert Seed Farm, which became a major horticultural success for the county.

In 1956, only four adults resided within the district boundaries. In 1956 and 1957, with the U.S. Route 101 Freeway recently completed at the Cotati bypass, Rohnert Park began to be laid out and built as a planned city. In a summer election in 1962, Rohnert Park was incorporated, comprising 1325 acre, housing an estimated 2,775 persons. It was the first town to incorporate in Sonoma County since 1905. The neighboring town of Cotati, California, voted to incorporate the following year.

21st-century development
Sonoma Mountain Village Rohnert Park is a 200 acre, solar-powered, zero-waste community currently under development.

The Graton Resort & Casino opened on November 5, 2013.

Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, Rohnert Park has a total area of 7.0 sqmi, 99.93% of it land and 0.07% of it water.

The city neighborhoods east of Highway 101 are organized into sections, generally designated by the letters A–H, J-M, R, S, and W. In most cases, the names of streets and parks begin with the letter of the section they are in. K Section is also referred to as the "University District" and is the residential development of the city's University Specific Plan Area; W Section is also referred to as "Willowglen" and is the residential development of the city's Southeast Specific Plan Area.

There is a small reservoir called Roberts Lake at the north end of the city and a number of creeks. Important creeks include the Laguna de Santa Rosa (which forms part of the border with the City of Cotati), Copeland Creek, Hinebaugh Creek, Crane Creek and Five Creek. All creeks within the city limits have been channelized. Spivock Creek, Coleman Creek, Wilfred Channel, and Labath Channel are artificial channels designed to convey runoff.

Riparian communities within the city are limited by channelization of creekbeds. Vegetation alongside the city's streams primarily consists of grass and sedge species. The Laguna de Santa Rosa contains bands of thick native riparian vegetation, including willow (Salix spp.) and alder (Alnus spp.) trees.

Sudden oak death fungus risks are present in the Rohnert Park area. Research is ongoing at the nearby Fairfield Osborn Preserve.

Geology
The Rodgers Creek Fault is an active fault influencing earthquake activity in the Rohnert Park area. The city also experiences earthquakes from the San Andreas Fault.

Demographics
{"version":2,"width":214,"height":153,"data":[{"name":"table","values":[{"x":1970,"y":6133},{"x":1980,"y":22965},{"x":1990,"y":36326},{"x":2000,"y":42236},{"x":2010,"y":40971}]}],"scales":[{"name":"x","type":"ordinal","range":"width","zero":false,"domain":{"data":"table","field":"x"}},{"name":"y","type":"linear","range":"height","nice":true,"domain":{"data":"table","field":"y"}}],"axes":[{"type":"x","scale":"x"},{"type":"y","scale":"y"}],"marks":[{"type":"rect","from":{"data":"table"},"properties":{"enter":{"x":{"scale":"x","field":"x"},"y":{"scale":"y","field":"y"},"y2":{"scale":"y","value":0},"fill":{"value":"steelblue"},"width":{"scale":"x","band":"true","offset":-1}}}}]}

2010
At the 2010 census Rohnert Park had a population of 40,971. The population density was 5,846.8 PD/sqmi. The racial makeup of Rohnert Park was 31,178 (76.1%) White, 759 (1.9%) African American, 407 (1.0%) Native American, 2,144 (5.2%) Asian, 179 (0.4%) Pacific Islander, 3,967 (9.7%) from other races, and 2,337 (5.7%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 9,068 persons (22.1%).

The census reported that 99.0% of the population lived in households and 1.0% lived in non-institutionalized group quarters.

There were 15,808 households, 4,842 (30.6%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 6,546 (41.4%) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 1,883 (11.9%) had a female householder with no husband present, 907 (5.7%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 1,201 (7.6%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 144 (0.9%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 4,177 households (26.4%) were one person and 1,374 (8.7%) had someone living alone who was 65 or older. The average household size was 2.57. There were 9,336 families (59.1% of households); the average family size was 3.13.

The age distribution was 8,571 people (20.9%) under the age of 18, 6,853 people (16.7%) aged 18 to 24, 11,035 people (26.9%) aged 25 to 44, 10,710 people (26.1%) aged 45 to 64, and 3,802 people (9.3%) who were 65 or older. The median age was 33.0 years. For every 100 females, there were 95.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.7 males.

There were 16,551 housing units at an average density of 2,361.9 /mi2, of which 54.0% were owner-occupied and 46.0% were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 2.1%; the rental vacancy rate was 4.8%. 55.8% of the population lived in owner-occupied housing units and 43.3% lived in rental housing units.

2000
At the 2000 census there were 42,236 people in 15,503 households, including 9,797 families, in the city. The population density was 6,564.5 PD/sqmi. There were 15,808 housing units at an average density of 2,457 /mi2. The racial makeup of the city was 80.28% White, 1.97% African American, 0.78% Native American, 5.58% Asian, 0.42% Pacific Islander, 5.72% from other races, and 5.25% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 13.57%.

Of the 15,503 households 35.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 46.7% were married couples living together, 11.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 36.8% were non-families. 24.0% of households were one person and 7.7% were one person aged 65 or older. The average household size was 2.65 and the average family size was 3.20.

The age distribution was 25.3% under the age of 18, 14.8% from 18 to 24, 32.0% from 25 to 44, 19.8% from 45 to 64, and 8.1% 65 or older. The median age was 32 years. For every 100 females, there were 94.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 90.2 males. The median income for a household in the city was $51,942, and the median family income was $61,420. Males had a median income of $41,757 versus $31,149 for females. The per capita income for the city was $23,035. About 3.2% of families and 8.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 4.6% of those under age 18 and 6.3% of those over age 64.

City Council
Rohnert Park is governed by a City Council of five members, who serve staggered four-year terms. Municipal elections are held in November of even-numbered years. In 2019, the Rohnert Park City Council voted to transition from at-large elections to a district based system in which voters elect one councilmember to represent each district. Any registered voter who resides within Rohnert Park is eligible to run for City Council in the district in which they live.

County, state, and federal representation
Rohnert Park is split between Sonoma County's 2nd and 3rd supervisorial districts.

In the California State Legislature, Rohnert Park is in, and in.

In the United States House of Representatives, Rohnert Park is part of.

According to the California Secretary of State, as of February 10, 2019, Rohnert Park has 22,583 registered voters. Of those, 11,010 (48.8%) are registered Democrats, 4,051 (17.9%) are registered Republicans, and 6,234 (27.6%) have declined to state a political party.

Department of Public Safety
Rohnert Park is patrolled by the Rohnert Park Department of Public Safety, established in 1962, that operates as an integrated fire and police department. This is one of only two cities operating Departments of Public Safety in California.

Shooting of Kuanchung Kao
On April 29, 1997, Kuanchung Kao was waving a wooden stick in the street in front of his driveway. When some neighbors called 911, two officers, Jack Shields and Mike Lynch, responded. Shields shot Kao once in the chest. Shields stated that he believed Kao was waving the stick in a martial arts fashion, and that he and Lynch had to respond by using deadly force. The incident was investigated by the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office, the Sonoma County District Attorney's Office, and FBI, who all cleared Shields. Kao's family and attorney John Burris filed a lawsuit against the city of Rohnert Park, and received a settlement of $1 million in 2001.

2015 police controversy
On July 29, 2015, Rohnert Park Public Safety Officer Dave Rodriguez drew his sidearm during an encounter with city resident, while the resident was hitching his boat trailer to his vehicle. The resident recorded the incident and posted it on YouTube.

Rodriguez was placed on administrative leave while the city conducted an internal investigation into the incident. In August 2015, the city engaged an independent investigator, who found that Rodriguez's actions were within the law and followed department policy.

A civil rights claim filed on behalf of the resident asserted that Rodriguez was trying to intimidate him. The lawsuit concluded in a settlement.

On November 16, 2018, a civil rights lawsuit was filed against Rohnert Park alleging that Rohnert Park police "conspired to expand the legitimate interdiction mission to one of personal financial gain, and over the years seized thousands of pounds of cannabis and hundreds of thousands of dollars of currency without issuing receipts for the seizures, without making arrests for any crimes, and without any official report of the forfeitures being made". KQED published an investigation in June 2018, quoting complaints by other motorists saying they were "robbed" by the Rohnert Park police, including the officers named in the lawsuit. The police department has since ceased most of its seizure efforts.

In 2020, the city agreed to a $2 Million settlement with the family of Branch Wroth, who died in police custody in 2017, after a $4 Million judgment was vacated on appeal.

Transportation
Rohnert Park is served by a station on the Sonoma–Marin Area Rail Transit commuter rail line since it became operational on August 25, 2017. Sonoma County Airport Express buses connect Rohnert Park with Oakland International Airport and San Francisco International Airport.

Education
The Cotati-Rohnert Park Unified School District serves the city, which is also home to Sonoma State University.

High schools
Rancho Cotate High School is the main comprehensive high school for both Rohnert Park and Cotati.

Alternative education consists of:
 * Credo High School, a charter public high school
 * Flex Academy (on RCHS campus)
 * Technology High School, a small public high school
 * Phoenix High School (on RCHS campus)
 * Independent study

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Rohnert Park, California


text:
Roseland, California

Roseland is a neighborhood in Santa Rosa, California. As of the 2010 census, the population was 6,325. Roseland was an unincorporated enclave within the City of Santa Rosa until the area was annexed by Santa Rosa on November 1, 2017.

Located just south of downtown Santa Rosa, Roseland is known for its commercial district along Sebastopol Road.

Geography
Roseland is situated southwest of the US-101/CA-12 interchange. Roseland is surrounded by the Santa Rosa neighborhoods of downtown to the northeast; Lincoln Square, West End, and Railroad Square to the north; South Park to the east; Bellevue Ranch to the south; and Wright area to the west. It was a census-designated place (CDP) in unincorporated Sonoma County until annexation into the City of Santa Rosa finalized on November 1, 2017.

It covers an area of 0.94 sqmi, all of which is land. At the 2000 census, it covered a land area of 1.06 sqmi.

Sonoma–Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) commuter rail passes through eastern Roseland. The north-south bicycle-pedestrian path along the tracks connects to the east-west Joe Rodota Trail at California State Route 12.

2010
At the 2010 census Roseland had a population of 6,325. The population density was 6,726.5 PD/sqmi. The racial makeup of Roseland was 3,235 (51.1%) White, 130 (2.1%) African American, 224 (3.5%) Native American (1.6% Pomo), 276 (4.4%) Asian (1.0% Laotian, 1.0% Filipino, 0.7% Cambodian, 0.6% Vietnamese, 0.2% Chinese, 0.2% Indian, 0.1% Korean), 15 (0.2%) Pacific Islander (0.2% Samoan), 2,078 (32.9%) from other races, and 367 (5.8%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 3,773 persons (59.7%); 53.6% of Roseland is Mexican, 1.6% Salvadoran, 0.7% Guatemalan, 0.4% Puerto Rican, and 0.3% Nicaraguan.

The census reported that 98.9% of the population lived in households and 1.1% lived in non-institutionalized group quarters.

There were 1,724 households, 853 (49.5%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 804 (46.6%) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 276 (16.0%) had a female householder with no husband present, 172 (10.0%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 188 (10.9%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 20 (1.2%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 309 households (17.9%) were one person and 103 (6.0%) had someone living alone who was 65 or older. The average household size was 3.63. There were 1,252 families (72.6% of households); the average family size was 3.97.

The age distribution was 1,825 people (28.9%) under the age of 18, 758 people (12.0%) aged 18 to 24, 1,895 people (30.0%) aged 25 to 44, 1,416 people (22.4%) aged 45 to 64, and 431 people (6.8%) who were 65 or older. The median age was 30.2 years. For every 100 females, there were 111.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 113.8 males.

There were 1,824 housing units at an average density of 1,939.8 /sqmi, of which 50.8% were owner-occupied and 49.2% were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.4%; the rental vacancy rate was 3.0%. 44.6% of the population lived in owner-occupied housing units and 54.3% lived in rental housing units.

2000
At the 2000 census there were 6,369 people, 1,847 households, and 1,348 families in the CDP. The population density was 6,033/sq mi (2,320/km$2$). There were 1,887 housing units at an average density of 1,787 /sqmi. As of 2000, The racial makeup of the CDP was 57.65% White, 43.22% Latino, 2.68% African American, 2.65% Native American, 5.29% Asian, 0.50% Pacific Islander, 25.15% from other races, and 6.06% from two or more races. Of the 1,847 households 44.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 48.0% were married couples living together, 17.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 27.0% were non-families. 19.4% of households were one person and 6.0% were one person aged 65 or older. The average household size was 3.36 and the average family size was 3.76.

The age distribution was 31.6% under the age of 18, 10.8% from 18 to 24, 32.8% from 25 to 44, 17.5% from 45 to 64, and 7.3% 65 or older. The median age was 30 years. For every 100 females, there were 96.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.6 males.

The median household income was $45,955 and the median family income was $46,799. Males had a median income of $31,000 versus $26,449 for females. The per capita income for the CDP was $14,577. About 11.8% of families and 17.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 20.7% of those under age 18 and 16.4% of those age 65 or over.

Government
In the California State Legislature, Roseland is in, and in.

In the United States House of Representatives, Roseland is in.

Education
Roseland School District serves students from transitional kindergarten through high school. The three elementary schools, Roseland Elementary: A Leadership Academy, Sheppard Accelerated Elementary, and Roseland Creek Elementary, all serve students from transitional kindergarten through sixth grade. The two middle schools, Roseland Accelerated Middle School and Roseland Collegiate Prep, serve students in seventh and eighth grade. Lastly, Elsie Allen High School, Roseland University Prep and Roseland Collegiate Prep serve students in ninth through twelfth grade.

The Sonoma County Library system operates the Roseland Community Library on Sebastopol Road.

title: Roseland, California


text:
Santa Rosa, California

Santa Rosa (Spanish for "Saint Rose") is a city in and the county seat of Sonoma County, in the North Bay region of the Bay Area in California. Its population as of the 2020 census was 178,127. It is the largest city in California's Wine Country and Redwood Coast. It is the fifth most populous city in the Bay Area after San Jose, San Francisco, Oakland, and Fremont; and the 25th-most populous city in California.

Early history
Before the arrival of Europeans, what became known as the Santa Rosa Plain was home to a strong and populous tribe of Pomo people known as the Bitakomtara. The Bitakomtara controlled the area closely, barring passage to others until permission was arranged. Those who entered without permission were subject to harsh penalties. The tribe gathered at ceremonial times on Santa Rosa Creek near present-day Spring Lake Regional Park.

Following the arrival of Europeans, initially Spanish explorers and colonists, the Pomos were decimated by violence, land theft, slavery, genocide and smallpox brought from Europe. Social displacement and disruption followed.

19th century
Santa Rosa was founded in 1833 and named by Mexican colonists after Saint Rose of Lima. The first known permanent European settlement here was the homestead of the Carrillo family of California, in-laws to Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, who settled the Sonoma pueblo and Petaluma area. In the 1830s, during the Mexican period, the family of María López de Carrillo built an adobe house on their Rancho Cabeza de Santa Rosa land grant, just east of what later became downtown Santa Rosa. By the 1820s, before the Carrillos built their adobe in the 1830s, Spanish and Mexican settlers from nearby Sonoma and other settlements to the south were known to raise livestock in the area.

They slaughtered animals at the fork of the Santa Rosa Creek and Matanzas Creek, near the intersection of modern-day Santa Rosa and Sonoma avenues. This is thought to have been the origin of the name of Matanzas Creek; because it was a slaughtering place, the confluence came to be called La Matanza.

By the 1850s, after the United States annexed California following its victory in the Mexican-American War, a Wells Fargo post and general store were established in what is now downtown Santa Rosa. In the mid-1850s, several prominent locals, including Julio Carrillo, son of Maria Carrillo, laid out the grid street pattern for Santa Rosa with a public square in the center. This pattern has been largely maintained in downtown to this day, despite changes to the central square, now called Old Courthouse Square.

In 1867, the county recognized Santa Rosa as an incorporated city; in 1868, the state officially confirmed the incorporation, making it the third incorporated city in Sonoma County after Petaluma, incorporated in 1858, and Healdsburg, incorporated in 1867.

United States Census Bureau records show that after California became a state, Santa Rosa grew steadily, though it lagged behind nearby Petaluma in the 1850s and early 1860s. In the 1870 census, Santa Rosa was the eighth-largest city in California, and county seat of one of the most populous counties in the state. Growth and development after that was steady but never rapid. The city continued to grow when other early population centers declined or stagnated, but by 1900 it was being overtaken by many other newer population centers in the San Francisco Bay Area and Southern California.

20th century
By 1900, the Pomo population had decreased by 95%.

According to a 1905 article in the Press Democrat reporting on the "Battle of the Trains", the city had just over 10,000 people at the time.

The 1906 San Francisco earthquake essentially destroyed the entire downtown, but the city's population did not greatly suffer. However, after that period the population growth of Santa Rosa, as with most of the area, was very slow.

Santa Rosa grew following World War II because it was the location for Naval Auxiliary Landing Field Santa Rosa, the remnants of which are now located in southwest Santa Rosa. The city was a convenient location for San Francisco travelers bound for the Russian River.

The population increased by two-thirds between 1950 and 1970, an average of 1,000 new residents a year over the 20-year period. Some of the increase was from annexation of portions of the surrounding area.

In 1958, the United States Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization designated Santa Rosa as one of its eight regional headquarters, with jurisdiction over Region 7, which included American Samoa, Arizona, California, Guam, Hawaii, Nevada, and Utah. Santa Rosa continued as a major center for civil defense activity (under the Office of Emergency Planning and the Office of Emergency Preparedness) until 1979 when the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was created in its place, ending the civil defense's 69-year history.

When the City Council adopted the city's first modern General Plan in 1991, the population was about 113,000. In the 21 years following 1970, Santa Rosa grew by about 3,000 residents a year—triple the average growth during the previous twenty years.

Santa Rosa 2010, the 1991 General Plan, called for a population of 175,000 in 2010. The Council expanded the city's urban boundary to include all the land then planned for future annexation, and declared it would be Santa Rosa's "ultimate" boundary. The rapid growth that was being criticized as urban sprawl became routine infill development.

At the first five-year update of the plan, in 1996, the Council extended the planning period by ten years, renaming it Vision 2020 (updated to Santa Rosa 2020, and then again to Santa Rosa 2030 Vision), and added more land and population.

Santa Rosa annexed the community of Roseland in November 2017.

2017 firestorm
Beginning on the night of October 8, 2017, five percent of the city's homes were destroyed in the Tubbs Fire, a 45,000-acre wildfire that claimed the lives of at least 19 people in Sonoma County. Named after its origin near Tubbs Lane and Highway 128 in adjacent Napa County, the fire became a major section of the most destructive and third deadliest firestorm in California history. Most homes in the Coffey Park, Larkfield-Wikiup, and Fountain Grove neighborhoods were destroyed.

A notable exception to the destruction in the area was the protection of more than 1,000 animals at the renowned Safari West Wildlife Preserve northeast of Santa Rosa. All of the preserve's animals were saved by owner Peter Lang. At age 76, he single-handedly and successfully fought back the flames for more than 10 hours using garden hoses.

Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 41.50 sqmi. Of that area, 41.29 sqmi is land and 0.205 sqmi, comprising 0.49%, is water.

The city is part of the North Bay region, which includes such cities as Petaluma, Rohnert Park, Windsor, and smaller cities as Sonoma, Healdsburg, Sebastopol. It lies along the US Route 101 corridor, approximately 55 mi north of San Francisco, via the Golden Gate Bridge.

Santa Rosa lies on the Santa Rosa Plain. The city's eastern extremities stretch into the Valley of the Moon, and the Sonoma Creek watershed known as the Sonoma Valley. The city's western edge lies in the Laguna de Santa Rosa catchment basin.

The city is in the watershed of Santa Rosa Creek, which rises on Hood Mountain and discharges to the Laguna de Santa Rosa. Tributary basins to Santa Rosa Creek lying significantly in the city are Brush Creek, Matanzas Creek, and Piner Creek. Other water bodies within the city include Fountaingrove Lake, Lake Ralphine, and Santa Rosa Creek Reservoir.

The prominent visual features east of the city include Bennett Peak, Mount Hood, and Sonoma and Taylor mountains.

Climate
Santa Rosa has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen Csb) with cool, wet winters and warm, dry summers. In the summer, fog and low overcast often move in from the Pacific Ocean during the evenings and mornings. They usually clear up to very warm, sunny weather by late morning or noon before returning in the later evening but will occasionally linger all day. Average annual rainfall is 32.20 in, falling on 74 days annually. The wettest “rain year” was from July 1982 to June 1983 with 55.66 in and the driest from July 1976 to June 1977 with 13.06 in. The most rainfall in one month was 19.42 in in February 1998 and the most rainfall in 24 hours was 5.23 in on December 19, 1981. Measurable snowfall is extremely rare in the lowlands, but light amounts sometimes fall in the nearby mountains.

There are an average of 28.9 afternoons with highs of 90 °F or more and an average of 30.2 mornings with lows reaching the freezing mark. The record high was 115 °F on September 6, 2022, and the record low was 9 °F on December 25, 1924.

Seismicity
Santa Rosa lies atop the Healdsburg-Rodgers Creek segment of the Hayward-Rodgers Creek Fault System. The Working Group on California Earthquake Probabilities estimated a minimum 27 percent chance of a magnitude 6.7 or greater earthquake on this segment by 2037.

On November 21, 2005, the United States Geological Survey released a map detailing the results of a new tool that measures ground shaking during an earthquake. The map determined that the 1906 San Francisco earthquake was most powerful in an area between Santa Rosa and what is now Sebastopol, causing more damage in Santa Rosa (for its size) than any other city affected.

On October 1, 1969, two earthquakes of magnitudes 5.6 and 5.7 shook Santa Rosa, damaging about 100 structures. They were the strongest quakes to affect the city since 1906. The epicenters were about 2 mi north of Santa Rosa.

Nature and wildlife
Due to its population, much of Santa Rosa's remaining undisturbed area is on its urban fringe. However, the principal wildlife corridors of Santa Rosa Creek and its tributaries flow right through the heart of the town. Great blue herons, great egrets, snowy egrets and black-crowned herons nest in the trees of the median strip on West Ninth Street as well as along Santa Rosa Creek and downtown. Deer often are spotted roaming the neighborhoods nearer the eastern hills, as deep into town as Franklin Avenue and the McDonald area; rafters of wild turkeys are relatively common in some areas; and mountain lions are occasionally observed within city limits. Raccoons and opossums are a common sight throughout the city, while foxes, and rabbits may be regularly seen in the more rural areas. In addition, the city borders and then wraps around the northern end of Trione Annadel State Park, which itself extends into the Sonoma Mountains and Sonoma Valley. Trione-Annadel State Park also adjoins Spring Lake County Park and Howarth Park, forming one contiguous park system that enables visitors to venture into wild native habitats.

Neighborhoods
Santa Rosa can be seen as divided into four quadrants: Northeast, Southeast, Southwest, and Northwest. U.S. Route 101 runs roughly north–south through the city, and divides it into east and west sides. State Route 12 runs roughly east–west, and divides the city into north and south sides.

Neighborhoods, including both current ones and areas formerly known and named, include: • Apple Tree I and II

• Bennett Valley

• Burbank Gardens Historic District

• Cherry Street Historic District

• Coffey Park

• Dutton Avenue

• Fountain Grove

• Hidden Valley

• Holland Heights

• Indian Village

• Juilliard Park

• Junior College

• Lomita Heights

• McDonald Mansion Historic District

• Monroe District, an area historically known, from 1870s on

• Montecito Heights

• Montgomery Village

• Moorland Avenue

• North Junior College

• North West Santa Rosa

• Oakmont Village

• Olive Park

• Railroad Square District

• Ridgway Historic District

• Rincon Valley

• Roseland

• Santa Rosa Avenue

• Skyhawk

• Spring Lake

• Annadel Heights

• South Park

• St. Rose Historic District

• Stonegate

• Town & Country/Grace Tract

• West 3rd

• West End Arts and Theater District

• West End Historic District

• West Junior College

• Valley Oak

2010
The 2010 United States Census reported that Santa Rosa had a population of 167,815. The population density was 4,043.8 PD/sqmi. The racial makeup of Santa Rosa was: 119,158 White (59.7% non-Hispanic white), 4,079 (2.4%) African American, 2,808 (1.7%) Native American, 8,746 (5.2%) Asian (1.0% Filipino, 1.0% Chinese, 0.8% Vietnamese, 0.6% Indian, 0.5% Cambodian, 0.5% Laotian, 0.3% Japanese, 0.3% Korean, 0.1% Thai, 0.1% Nepalese), 810 (0.5%) Pacific Islander (0.2% Fijian, 0.1% Samoan, 0.1% Hawaiian, 0.1% Guamanian), 23,723 (14.1%) from other races, 8,491 (5.1%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 47,970 persons (28.6%). Among the Hispanic population, 98% of Santa Rosa is Mexican, 0.8% Salvadoran, and 0.4% Puerto Rican.

The Census reported that 164,405 people (98.0% of the population) lived in households, 1,697 (1.0%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 1,713 (1.0%) were institutionalized.

There were 63,590 households, out of which 20,633 (32.4%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 27,953 (44.0%) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 7,663 (12.1%) had a female householder with no husband present, 3,615 (5.7%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 5,020 (7.9%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 757 (1.2%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 18,021 households (28.3%) were made up of individuals, and 7,474 (11.8%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.59. There were 39,231 families (61.7% of all households); the average family size was 3.18.

In terms of age cohorts, there were 39,217 people (23.4%) under the age of 18, 15,982 people (9.5%) aged 18 to 24, 46,605 people (27.8%) aged 25 to 44, 43,331 people (25.8%) aged 45 to 64, and 22,680 people (13.5%) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36.7 years. For every 100 females, there were 95.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.2 males.

There were 67,396 housing units at an average density of 1,624.0 /mi2, of which 34,427 (54.1%) were owner-occupied, and 29,163 (45.9%) were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 2.0%; the rental vacancy rate was 5.0%. 87,244 people (52.0% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 77,161 people (46.0%) lived in rental housing units.

, there are an estimated 4,539 homeless people living in Sonoma County, many of whom live in Santa Rosa.

Santa Rosa's Hispanic population, mainly of Mexican descent, while spread out through the city, is concentrated within the western part of Santa Rosa. The highest percentage of Hispanic residents in Santa Rosa is in the Apple Valley Lane/Papago Court neighborhood, at 87%.

The Southeast Asian communities, mainly Vietnamese, Laotian, and Cambodian, are concentrated within the western Santa Rosa neighborhoods of Bellevue Ranch, Roseland, and West Steele areas. The northeast neighborhoods of Skyhawk and Fountaingrove have the most populous Chinese communities.

2000
As of the census of 2000, there were 63,153 households, of which 30.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 46.9% were married couples living together, 11.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 37.3% were non-families. 27.8% of all households were made up of individuals, and 11.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.57 and the average family size was 3.14.

In terms of age cohorts, 24.3% of the population was under the age of 18, 9.5% was from 18 to 24, 30.0% from 25 to 44, 22.3% from 45 to 64, and 13.9% were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females, there were 95.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.8 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $50,931, and the median income for a family was $59,659. Males had a median income of $40,420 versus $30,597 for females. The per capita income for the city was $24,495. 8.5% of the population and 5.1% of families were below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 9.5% of those under the age of 18 and 4.7% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line.

Crime
Neighborhoods such as South Park in south Santa Rosa, Corby Avenue, and Roseland, West Ninth District, and Apple Valley in west Santa Rosa, are most vulnerable to criminal activity. Acts of crime in these neighborhoods are commonly burglaries, graffiti, and violent gang activity. Street gangs such as Sureños and Norteños have large concentrations throughout Santa Rosa. There are multiple other gangs, including mostly racially based gangs or racially mixed that commit theft, street and violent crimes, motorcycle gangs, white supremacist gangs, and prison gangs. In 2011, there were 5 homicides, 58 rapes, 134 robberies, 485 aggravated assaults, and 637 burglaries. The violent crime rate for Santa Rosa (401.7 per 100,000 people) is slightly lower than the rate of California (411.1 per 100,000 people) and higher than that of the entire U.S. (386.3 per 100,000 people).

2021 and especially its late spring and summer saw an increase in shootings, violence, homicides, drug, gang, and homeless-related crimes. The increase was up to double for some crimes and problems, compared to the previous several years.

Homelessness
There are at least 2,700 homeless people in Sonoma County. Around 1,500 are in Santa Rosa, about one percent of the city. Downtown Santa Rosa, including its outskirts and the area south of the Santa Rosa Mall (Wilson and Morgan Street) and Mendocino Avenue area, South Park/Fairgrounds area, Santa Rosa Avenue, West Steele Lane, and the Joe Rodota Trail/Stony Point districts and neighborhoods have been concentrations of homeless people since the 2000s. Homeless services can be found in the Wilson Street area.

Economy
Forbes Magazine ranked the Santa Rosa metropolitan area 185th out of 200 on its 2007 list of Best Places For Business And Careers. It was second on the list five years earlier. It was downgraded because of an increase in the cost of doing business, and reduced job growth—both blamed on increases in the cost of housing.

Top employers
According to the city's 2015 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the city's top employers are:

Santa Rosa is also home to notable smaller businesses such as Moonlight Brewing Company, Russian River Brewing Company, and other companies.

Retail
As of 2014, Santa Rosa has 12 neighborhood shopping centers and 17 commercial districts, including three sizeable shopping malls: Santa Rosa Plaza, with more than 100 merchants; Coddingtown Mall, with over 40; and Montgomery Village, an open-air mall with more than 70 shops, a supermarket, five banks, and a satellite U.S. Post Office.

Libraries
The Sonoma County Library offers a Central Library in downtown Santa Rosa, a Roseland branch on Sebastopol Road, a Northwest branch at Coddingtown Mall, and a Rincon Valley branch in east Santa Rosa. It is a member of the North Bay Cooperative Library System. The Santa Rosa Central Library, the largest branch of the Sonoma County Library system, has a Local History and Genealogy Annex behind it.

The Sonoma County Public Law Library is at the Sonoma County Courthouse.

At Santa Rosa Junior College, the four-story Frank P. Doyle Library houses the Library, Media Services, and Academic Computing Departments, as well as the college art gallery, tutorial center and Center for New Media, a multimedia production facility for SRJC faculty.

Tourism
Santa Rosa sits at the northwestern gateway to the Sonoma and Napa Valleys of California's famed Wine Country. Many wineries and vineyards are nearby, as well as the Russian River resort area, the Sonoma Coast along the Pacific Ocean, Jack London State Historic Park, and the redwood trees of Armstrong Redwoods State Reserve.

The City Council pays the Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce to operate the Santa Rosa Convention & Visitors Bureau. The Chamber's visitors center is in the city-owned old railroad depot at the bottom of Fourth Street, in Historic Railroad Square. The SRC&VB has been a California Welcome Center since 2003.

Downtown Santa Rosa, including the central Old Courthouse Square and historic Railroad Square, is an area of shopping, restaurants, nightclubs, and theaters. Downtown also includes City Hall, state and federal office buildings, many banks, and professional offices. The Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital medical center is just to the east of downtown.

Although there are co-op network atms and several credit unions, there is no shared branching for credit unions in Santa Rosa.

The city council funds a private booster group, Santa Rosa Main Street, which lobbies the city to revitalize the traditional business district. Three new mixed-use, high-rise buildings, and a new city parking garage, are under development. (WHEN?) The council and downtown business boosters hope condos atop the new buildings will house a population to keep the area active 24 hours a day.

The nearby cities and towns of Bodega Bay, Calistoga, Guerneville, Healdsburg, Petaluma, Sebastopol, Sonoma, and Windsor are popular with tourists and readily accessible from Santa Rosa.

Railroad Square is the portion of downtown that is on the west side of U.S. Route 101 and has the highest concentration of historic commercial buildings. Of particular note are the four rough-hewn stone buildings at its core, two of which are rare in that they predate the 1906 earthquake. They include the old Northwestern Pacific Railroad depot, prominently seen in the beginning and the end of the Alfred Hitchcock film Shadow of a Doubt, and the still-functioning Hotel La Rose, built in 1907 and registered as one of the National Trust for Historic Preservation's Historic Hotels of America. The area contains numerous other historic buildings, such as the former Petaluma and Santa Rosa Railroad depot, and the Lee Bros. Building, both at the corner of 4th and Wilson Streets. Near it in the West End district are numerous other old buildings, including not only many old houses but the masonry DeTurk Winery complex, dating to the 1880s–1890s, and the DeTurk round barn. Also of note nearby is the former Del Monte Cannery Building, built in 1894. One of the oldest surviving commercial buildings in town, it was renovated into the 6th Street Playhouse in 2005.

Local attractions

 * Carrillo Adobe. Built in 1837 for Dona Maria Ignacia Lopez de Carrillo, General Mariano Vallejo's mother-in-law, the Carrillo Adobe was the first home on the site of the future Santa Rosa. The remains of the Carrillo home rest behind a cyclone fence off Montgomery Drive, on property owned by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Santa Rosa in California, adjacent to its Cathedral of St. Eugene.
 * Luther Burbank Home and Gardens
 * Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center
 * Redwood Empire Ice Arena ("Snoopy's Home Ice")
 * Safari West wildlife preserve is located northwest Santa Rosa. As of 2017, Safari West had over 1,000 animals of approximately 98 animal species.
 * Sonoma County Museum
 * Trione-Annadel State Park
 * Spring Lake Regional Park
 * Railroad Square. With the highest concentration of historic commercial buildings in Santa Rosa, this portion of downtown is popular with both tourists and locals.
 * Historic residential neighborhoods. Although most of Santa Rosa's commercial buildings were destroyed in the 1906 earthquake, almost all of its numerous houses survived and most have survived to this day. As a result, Santa Rosa has a number of old neighborhoods in and around downtown, several historically designated. These contain numerous old homes, including many Victorians. Most of these are on quiet, often tree-lined streets. An example of one of these houses would be the McDonald Mansion, near downtown.
 * The annual Luther Burbank Rose Parade and Festival
 * California Indian Museum and Cultural Center
 * The Pacific Coast Air Museum is located on the southeast corner of the Charles M. Schulz–Sonoma County Airport, next to the airplane hangar used in the 1963 Hollywood all-star comedy movie It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.

Performing and visual arts
The performing arts in Santa Rosa are represented by Luther Burbank Center for the Arts, the Sonoma County Philharmonic, the Summer Repertory Theatre, the Santa Rosa Symphony, and the 6th Street Playhouse. Santa Rosa is the home of the North Bay Theater Group, an alliance of some 40 theater companies, theater departments and individual performance companies from five North Bay counties.

The Luther Burbank Center for the Arts (LBC) is a performance venue, that opened in 1981.

The Sonoma County Philharmonic performs at the Santa Rosa High School Performing Arts Auditorium. It is a 65-member orchestra made up of professional-level local musicians who volunteer their time.

The Santa Rosa Symphony, a regional orchestra founded in 1928, performs at the Green Music Center in Rohnert Park, a new venue with traditional "shoebox" acoustics. The Symphony's Institute for Music Education supports four youth ensembles and provides classical music education to students across Sonoma County, serving 30,000 elementary students per year. Francesco Lecce-Chong has served as music director since 2018, replacing Bruno Ferrandis, who held the post for twelve years.

The visual arts are represented by the Sonoma County Museum and numerous independent art galleries.

In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Jessica Rasmussen, Anna Wiziarde, and Julian Billotte set up a mailbox painted gold with Dutch metal, for queries concerning the past or the future to be collected and answered by the "United States Portal Service" as part of the city's Open & Out project, with the aims of supporting the US Post Office and alleviating loneliness.

Government
In the United States House of Representatives, Santa Rosa is split between California's 2nd Congressional District represented by Democrat Jared Huffman, and. It was moved to the district beginning with the 2013 Congress. In the 1980s, future U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer was Santa Rosa's representative.

In the California State Legislature, the city is in California's 2nd State Senate district. The city is split between California's 2nd and 10th State Assembly districts.

The city's mayor is Natalie Rogers, its vice mayor is Dianna MacDonald, and the other five council members are Eddie Alvarez, Victoria Fleming, Jeff Okrepkie, Chris Rogers, and Mark Stapp.

The city council in 2013 adopted a set of "Goals and Strategic Objectives" through 2015 comprising six main goals. A "strong, sustainable" economy topped the list; other goals include showing leadership in environmental and cultural issues, and promoting "partnerships between neighborhoods, community organizations, schools, and the City".

According to the California Secretary of State, as of February 10, 2019, Santa Rosa has 91,998 registered voters. Of those, 47,905 (52.1%) are registered Democrats, 15,260 (16.6%) are registered Republicans, and 24,012 (26.1%) have declined to state a political party.

School districts

 * Bellevue Union
 * Bennett Valley Union
 * Mark West Union
 * Oak Grove Union
 * Piner-Olivet Union
 * Rincon Valley Union
 * Roseland Public Schools
 * Santa Rosa City Schools
 * Wright Union School District

Private schools

 * Cardinal Newman High School (9–12)
 * Redwood Adventist Academy (K-12)
 * Rincon Valley Christian School (K-12)
 * Sonoma Academy (9–12)
 * St. Eugene's cathedral school
 * St. Luke's Elementary School
 * St. Rose Elementary School
 * Sonoma Country Day School (K-8)
 * Summerfield Waldorf School & Farm (K-12)
 * Stuart School (K-8)

Colleges

 * Empire College
 * Santa Rosa Junior College
 * University of San Francisco (USF) – Santa Rosa

Print
The Press Democrat is published in Santa Rosa and is the largest daily newspaper in the North Bay. It is descended from the Sonoma Democrat, founded in 1857. Local business papers include the North Bay Business Journal and NorthBay biz. The North Bay Bohemian is a free weekly alternative. The Sonoma County Gazette is a free monthly paper.

Sonoma Media Investments is a significant regional presence: besides the Press Democrat and the North Bay Business Journal as well as the Sonoma County Gazette, it owns important newspapers in the nearby cities of Sonoma and Petaluma.

Television
The television studios of KQSL are in Santa Rosa.

Law enforcement
The Santa Rosa Police Department currently has 259 employees, of which 172 are sworn peace officers. Its budget is more than $40 million, comprising more than one third of the city's General Fund budget. Police shootings in 2007 led to calls for an independent civilian police review board.

Fire department
The Santa Rosa Fire Department provides fire protection and emergency medical services. Ambulance services are provided by Sonoma County Fire Department working in partnership with Medic Ambulance Service.

The Santa Rosa Fire Department, like many departments across the United States, made its start as a volunteer organization on February 12, 1861. Decades later in 1894 the department made its transition to a paid organization. In 1906 a massive 7.8 magnitude earthquake destroyed most of Santa Rosa. The department grew to 100 firefighters in 1983 with the addition of the city of Roseland to the SRFD responsibility area. Many members of the department serve as part of the California Task Force 4, one of the eight FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Task Forces throughout the state. The team, which is deployed as part of the nation's response to disasters both within and outside of the United States, specializes in dealing with large-scale disasters.

Road
The city sprawls along the U.S. Route 101 freeway, about an hour north of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge. Sonoma County Transit provides local bus service in the city. Into the 1950s, the Southern Pacific Railroad offered substitute bus service from Crockett in the northwestern edge of the San Francisco Bay.

Rail
Sonoma–Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) brought passenger railway back to Santa Rosa for the first time in 59 years, opening on August 25, 2017. It operates two railway stations within the city limits: Guerneville Road and Railroad Square. Trains serve locations as far south as Larkspur Into the 1950s, the Northwestern Pacific Railroad operated a passenger train from Eureka, through Santa Rosa, to San Rafael at the north edge of the Bay.

The Amtrak Thruway 7 bus provides daily connections to/from Santa Rosa (with a curbside stop at 2012 Range Avenue), Martinez to the south, and Arcata to the north. Additional Amtrak connections are available from Martinez station.

Air
Charles M. Schulz–Sonoma County Airport located just north of Santa Rosa is served by American, Alaska, and Avelo Airlines. Nonstop jet flights are available to Los Angeles (LAX), Burbank (BUR), San Diego (SAN), Santa Ana Orange County Airport (SNA), Portland (PDX), Seattle (SEA), Las Vegas (LAS), Phoenix (PHX) and Redmond, Oregon (RDM) with seasonal nonstop service operated to Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) and Palm Springs (PSP). A Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) train station is located near the airport with shuttle bus service available between the rail station and the airline passenger terminal. Sonoma County Airport Express buses also connect Santa Rosa with Oakland International Airport and San Francisco International Airport.

Motor-minimal travel
The Prince Memorial Greenway is a developed bicycle and pedestrian path along Santa Rosa Creek through downtown and out to the west of town. Near Railroad Square, it connects directly to the Joe Rodota Trail, a paved path which terminates in Sebastopol. Santa Rosa is on the path of the partially-developed Great Redwood Trail which will run "from San Francisco Bay in Marin County to Humboldt Bay in the north."

Representation in other media
Director Alfred Hitchcock filmed his thriller Shadow of a Doubt in Santa Rosa in 1943; the film gives glimpses of Santa Rosa in the 1940s. Many of the downtown buildings seen in the film no longer exist, as there was major reconstruction in the late 20th century following the strong earthquakes in October 1969. But the rough-stone Northwestern Pacific Railroad depot and the prominent Empire Building (built in 1910 with a gold-topped clock tower) still survive. A scene at the bank was filmed at the corner of Fourth Street and Mendocino Avenue (at present-day Old Courthouse square); the Kress building on Fourth Street is also visible. The courthouse and bank are now gone. The Coen brothers' film The Man Who Wasn't There (2001) is set in Santa Rosa c. 1949.

Film locations
Santa Rosa has served as a location for many major films, including:
 * The Happy Land (1943), shot in Santa Rosa, including the house at 1127 McDonald Avenue, and Healdsburg. This was Natalie Wood's first movie, at age five.
 * Shadow of a Doubt (1943), Alfred Hitchcock's personal favorite, filmed at Santa Rosa Railroad Depot, NWP Engine #140, Old Courthouse Square, Public Library, and the house at 904 McDonald Avenue. The 1991 telefilm remake involved eight weeks of filming at a house at 815 McDonald Avenue.
 * The Sullivans (1944), shot on Morgan Street.
 * All My Sons (1948), shot at the house at 825 McDonald Avenue.
 * Storm Center (1956) – Bette Davis spent six weeks on location at the Santa Rosa Main Library, which keeps a collection of clippings. The movie includes scenes from downtown and a house on Walnut Court.
 * Pollyanna (1960), featured the Mableton Mansion (also known as the McDonald Mansion), at 1015 McDonald Avenue.
 * The Wonderful World of Disney – The "Inky the Crow" episodes (beginning in the late 1960s), filmed in the Fountain Grove area.
 * It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) – the sequence involving the plane flying full bore, at about 150 knots, through an airplane hangar in less than a second, was shot at the Sonoma County Airport, just north of Santa Rosa.
 * The Candidate (1972), directed by Michael Ritchie, shot in Howarth Park and Schlumberger Gallery.
 * Slither (1972) – Highway 101 south of Santa Rosa, and Cloverdale.
 * Steelyard Blues (1973), shot in downtown Santa Rosa and at the Sonoma County Airport.
 * Smile (1975), shot at the Veterans Memorial Auditorium and many other nearby locations. Made into a 1986 Broadway musical of the same name with music by Marvin Hamlisch.
 * Little Miss Marker (1980), shot at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds.
 * Shoot the Moon (1982), used a real Carl's Jr. on Industrial Drive at Cleveland Avenue. Also filmed at Wolf House at Jack London State Historic Park.
 * Cujo (1983) – locations include Santa Rosa and Petaluma.
 * Smooth Talk (1985) – locations include Santa Rosa shopping malls and Sebastopol.
 * Peggy Sue Got Married (1986) – locations include Santa Rosa High School and Petaluma.
 * Wildfire (1988) – includes Wood Pontiac & Cadillac on Corby Avenue.
 * Wired (1989) – filmed in Santa Rosa.
 * Die Hard 2 (1990) – scenes shot at Santa Rosa Air Center.
 * Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot! (1992) – shot over a four-week period at Santa Rosa Air Center.
 * Phenomenon (1996) – used Santa Rosa Junior College as an establishing shot for UC Berkeley. Also used "The Wagon Wheel" bar on Mendocino Avenue for bar scenes.
 * Scream (1996) – scenes show a house on McDonald Avenue, a local grocery store, and the Bradley Video Store on Marlow Road.
 * Inventing the Abbotts (1997), shot at Santa Rosa High School, on location in Healdsburg and Petaluma.
 * Mumford (1999), shot at Santa Rosa Junior College, other Santa Rosa locations, and in Guerneville and Healdsburg.
 * Bandits (2001) – locations included the Flamingo Hotel
 * The Man Who Wasn't There (2001) – set in Santa Rosa.
 * Cheaper by the Dozen (2003) – filmed in Railroad Square.
 * Paranormal Activity 3 (2011) – set in Santa Rosa during the 1980s.
 * Bad Ass (2012) – set in Santa Rosa in 1957

Sister cities

 * 🇺🇦 Cherkasy, Ukraine
 * Jeju City, South Korea
 * 🇲🇽 Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico

title: Santa Rosa, California


text:
Sonoma, California

Sonoma is a city in Sonoma County, California, United States, located in the North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. Sonoma is one of the principal cities of California's Wine Country and the center of the Sonoma Valley AVA. Sonoma's population was 10,739 as of the 2020 census, while the Sonoma urban area had a population of 32,679. Sonoma is a popular tourist destination, owing to its Californian wineries, noted events like the Sonoma International Film Festival, and its historic center.

Sonoma's origins date to 1823, when the Spaniard José Altimira established Mission San Francisco Solano, under the direction of Governor Luis Antonio Argüello. Following the Mexican secularization of the missions, famed Californio statesman Mariano G. Vallejo founded Sonoma on the former mission's lands in 1835. Sonoma served as the base of General Vallejo's operations until the Bear Flag Revolt in 1846, when American filibusters overthrew the local Mexican government and declared the California Republic, ushering in the American Conquest of California.

History
When the first Spaniards arrived, the area was near the northeast corner of the Coast Miwok territory, with Southern Pomo to the northwest, Wappo to the northeast, Suisunes and Patwin peoples to the east.

Mission era
Mission San Francisco Solano is the direct predecessor to the founding of Sonoma. The mission, the only to be constructed not by the Spanish but by the Mexican authorities (Spanish Viceroyalty at that time), was built as part of a larger plan Governor Luis Antonio Argüello had devised to fortify Spanish presence north of San Francisco Bay and thus deter Russian encroachment into the region. Franciscan padre José Altimira worked with Governor Argüello to plan the mission, against the desires of José Francisco de Paula Señan, then the President-General of the Californian missions, who disapproved of government intervention into religious matters.

In 1833 the Mexican Congress passed the Mexican secularization act of 1833, effectively nationalizing all the missions and associated lands of the Catholic church in California, which the goal of diminishing the church's highly influential standing in California's economy and political system. Governor José Figueroa appointed Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, then the Commandant of the Presidio of San Francisco, as administrator (comisionado) to oversee the closing of Mission San Francisco Solano and its conversion into a civilian town.

General Vallejo era

Governor Figueroa had received instructions from the Mexican Congress to establish a strong presence in the region north of the San Francisco Bay to protect the area from encroachments of foreigners. An immediate concern was the further eastward movement of the Russian America Company from their settlements at Fort Ross and Bodega Bay on the California coast.

Figueroa's next step in implementing his instructions was to name Lieutenant Vallejo as Military Commander of the Northern Frontier and to order the soldiers, arms and materiel at the Presidio of San Francisco moved to the site of the recently secularized Mission San Francisco Solano. The Sonoma Barracks were built to house the soldiers. Until the building was habitable, the troops were housed in the buildings of the old Mission. In 1834, George C. Yount, the first Euro-American permanent settler in the Napa Valley, was employed as a carpenter by General Vallejo.

The Governor granted Lieutenant Vallejo the initial lands (approximately 44000 acre) of Rancho Petaluma immediately west of Sonoma. Vallejo was also named Director of Colonization which meant that he could initiate land grants for other colonists (subject to the approval of the governor) and the diputación (Alta California's legislature).

Vallejo had also been instructed by Governor Figueroa to establish a pueblo at the site of the old Mission. In 1835, with the assistance of William A. Richardson, he laid out, in accordance with the Spanish Laws of the Indies, the streets, lots, central plaza and broad main avenue of the new Pueblo de Sonoma.

Although Sonoma had been founded as a pueblo in 1835, it remained under military control, lacking the political structures of municipal self-government of other Alta California pueblos. In 1843, Lieutenant Colonel Vallejo wrote to the Governor recommending that a civil government be organized for Sonoma. A town council (ayuntamiento) was established in 1844 and Jacobo Leese was named first alcalde, and Cayetano Juárez second alcalde.

Bear Flag Revolt

Before dawn on Sunday, June 14, 1846, thirty-three Americans, already in rebellion against the Alta California government, arrived in Sonoma. Some of the group had traveled from the camp of U.S. Army Brevet Captain John C. Frémont who had entered California illegally in late 1845 with his exploration and mapping expedition. Others had joined along the way. As the number of immigrants arriving in California had swelled, the Mexican government barred them from buying or renting land and threatened them with expulsion because they had entered without official permission. Mexican officials were concerned about the coming war with the United States coupled with the growing influx of American immigrants into California.

A group of rebellious Americans had departed from Frémont's camp on June 10 and captured a herd of 170 Mexican government-owned horses being moved by Californio soldiers from San Rafael and Sonoma to Alta California's Commandante General José Castro in Santa Clara. The insurgents next determined to seize the weapons and materiel stored in the Sonoma Barracks and to deny Sonoma to the Californios as a rallying point north of San Francisco Bay.

Meeting no resistance, they approached the home of General Vallejo, who invited the filibusters' leaders into his home to negotiate terms. However, when the agreement was presented to those outside they refused to endorse it. Rather than releasing the Mexican officers under parole, they insisted they be held as hostages. William Ide gave an impassioned speech urging the rebels to stay in Sonoma and start a new republic. Afterwards, Vallejo and his three associates were taken as prisoners and placed on horseback and taken to Frémont.

The Sonoma Barracks became the headquarters for the remaining twenty-four rebels, who within a few days created their Bear Flag. After the flag was raised Californios called the insurgents Los Osos (The Bears) because of their flag and in derision of their often scruffy appearance. The rebels embraced the expression, and their uprising became known as the Bear Flag Revolt. There were some small unit skirmishes between the Bears and the Californios but no major confrontations.

After hearing reports that General José Castro was preparing to attack Sonoma, Frémont left Sutter's Fort with his forces for Sonoma. There he called a meeting with "the Bears" and united his forces with the revolters to form a single military unit. Frémont then took the majority of the men back to Sutter's Fort and left fifty men to defend Sonoma. The Bear Flag Revolt ended and the California Republic ceased to exist on July 9 when Lieutenant Joseph Warren Revere of the U.S. Navy raised the United States flag in front of the Sonoma Barracks.

Post-Conquest era

Following the American Conquest of California and the advent of the California Gold Rush, local businesses prospered with the business brought by the soldiers as well as miners traveling to and from the gold fields. The prosperity and optimism about Sonoma's future promoted land speculation which was particularly problematic because of the cloudy records regarding land ownership.

Vallejo had granted land by virtue of his office as Director of Colonization before the pueblo was organized. Among the traditional duties of Alta California's alcaldes was the selling of town lots. Political factions backed different Sonoma alcaldes (John H. Nash, supported by American immigrants, and Lilburn Boggs supported by Vallejo and the Californios) made the situation more complex. Some property was sold more than once. A valid land sale depended on proof of the seller's chain of title. Over thirty years of lawsuits were required before land owners in Sonoma were able to obtain clear titles. When the U.S. military occupation of California ended in 1850, when California was admitted as a state, Sonoma was named the county seat for Sonoma County. About that time the flow of miners had slowed and the U.S. Army was leaving Sonoma. Business in Sonoma moved into a recession in 1851. Surrounding towns such as Petaluma and Santa Rosa were developing and gaining population faster than Sonoma. An 1854 special election moved the county seat and its entailed economic activity to Santa Rosa.

Contemporary era
The United States Navy operated a rest center at the Mission Inn through World War II.

Parts of Wes Craven's Scream (1996) were filmed in the city, with shots of the Sonoma Community Center masked as Westboro High School.

The center of town, know as the Plaza, is home to a particularly vibrant Farmers Market on Tuesdays during season. The live music offered there lends credence to the area's nickname, "The Valley of the Tunes".

Geography

The city is situated in the Sonoma Valley, with the Mayacamas Mountains to the east and the Sonoma Mountains to the west, with the prominent landform Sears Point to the southwest. Sonoma has an area of 2.7 sqmi.

The principal watercourse in the town is Sonoma Creek, which flows in a southerly direction to discharge ultimately to the Napa Sonoma Marsh; Arroyo Seco Creek is a tributary to Schell Creek with a confluence in the eastern portion of the town. The active Rodgers Fault lies to the west of Sonoma Creek; however, the risk of major damage is mitigated by the fact that most of the soils beneath the city consist of a slight alluvial terrace underlain by strongly cemented sedimentary and volcanic rock. To the immediate south, west and east are deeper rich, alluvial soils that support valuable agricultural cultivation. The mountain block to the north rises to 1,200 ft and provides an important scenic backdrop.

Climate
Sonoma has a typical lowland near-coastal Californian warm-summer mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification Csb) with hot, dry summers (although nights are comfortably cool) and cool, wet winters. In January, the normal high is 57.2 °F and the typical low is 37.2 °F. In July, the normal high is 88.6 °F and the normal low is 51.2 °F. There are an average of 58.1 days with highs of 90 °F or higher and 12.1 days with highs of 100 °F. The highest temperature on record was 116 °F on July 13, 1972, and the lowest temperature was 13 °F on December 22, 1990. Normal annual precipitation is 29.43 in. The wettest month on record was 20.29 in in January 1995. The greatest 24-hour rainfall was 6.75 in on January 4, 1982. There are an average of 68.6 days with measurable precipitation. Snow has rarely fallen, but 1 in fell in January 1907; more recently, snow flurries were observed on February 5, 1976, and in the winter of 2001.

2010

The 2010 United States Census reported that Sonoma had a population of 10,648. The population density was 3,883.3 PD/sqmi. The racial makeup of Sonoma was 9,242 (86.8%) White, 52 (0.5%) African American, 56 (0.5%) Native American, 300 (2.8%) Asian, 23 (0.2%) Pacific Islander, 711 (6.7%) from other races, and 264 (2.5%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1,634 persons (15.3%).

Within the Sonoma Valley, the racial makeup was 46.3% White, 49.1% Hispanic, and 2.7% Native American. The average household income was $96,722. The Census reported that 10,411 people (97.8% of the population) lived in households, 11 (0.1%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 226 (2.1%) were institutionalized.

There were 4,955 households, out of which 1,135 (22.9%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 2,094 (42.3%) were married couples living together, 425 (8.6%) had a female householder with no husband present, 174 (3.5%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 230 (4.6%) unmarried partnerships, and 48 (1.0%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 1,920 households (38.7%) were made up of individuals, and 1,054 (21.3%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.10. There were 2,693 families (54.3% of all households); the average family size was 2.82.

The population was spread out, with 1,920 people (18.0%) under the age of 18, 559 people (5.2%) aged 18 to 24, 2,252 people (21.1%) aged 25 to 44, 3,250 people (30.5%) aged 45 to 64, and 2,667 people (25.0%) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 49.2 years. For every 100 females, there were 83.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 78.8 males.

There were 5,544 housing units at an average density of 2,021.9 /mi2, of which 2,928 (59.1%) were owner-occupied, and 2,027 (40.9%) were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 2.6%; the rental vacancy rate was 7.0%. 6,294 people (59.1% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 4,117 people (38.7%) lived in rental housing units.

2000

At the previous census of 2000, there were 9,128 people, 4,373 households, and 2,361 families residing in the city. The population density was 3,442 /mi2. There were 4,671 housing units at an average density of 1,762 /mi2. The racial makeup of the city was 93.80% White, 0.36% African American, 0.34% Native American, 1.70% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 1.61% from other races, and 2.14% from two or more races. 6.85% of the population were Hispanics (of any race).

There were 4,373 households, of which 21.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 42.5% were married couples living together, 8.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 46.0% were non-families. 39.2% of households consisted of individuals, and 21.5% had someone living alone who was 65 or older. The average household size was 2.07 and the average family size was 2.77. The age distribution was as follows: 18.6% under the age of 18, 4.8% from 18 to 24, 23.5% from 25 to 44, 28.9% from 45 to 64, and 24.2% who had achieved age 65. The median age was 47 years. For every 100 females, there were 81.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 77.0 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $50,505, and the median income for a family was $65,600. Males had a median income of $51,831 versus $40,276 for females. The per capita income for the city was $32,387. 3.7% of the population and 2.0% of families were below the poverty line. 3.3% of those under 18 and 4.7% of those were 65 and older.

Government

The City of Sonoma was incorporated on September 3, 1883. It uses a council–manager form of government, wherein a council sets policy and hires staff to implement it. The city council has five members, elected to four-year terms. The city council selects one of its members to serve as mayor.

In addition to the official mayor, Sonoma has a tradition of naming an honorary mayor each year, titled "Alcalde/Alcaldesa". The Alcalde or Alcaldesa presides over ceremonial events for the city.

State and federal representation
In the California State Legislature, Sonoma is in, and in.

In the United States House of Representatives, Sonoma is in.

According to the California Secretary of State, as of February 10, 2019, Sonoma has 7,162 registered voters. Of those, 3,694 (51.6%) are registered Democrats, 1,309 (18.3%) are registered Republicans, and 1,783 (24.9%) have declined to state a political party.

Media

The two primary news sources for Sonoma are the Sonoma Index-Tribune and the Sonoma Valley Sun. The Sonoma Index-Tribune publishes twice weekly on Wednesdays and Fridays and has a circulation of 9,000. The Sonoma Valley Sun publishes every other Thursday and is free. The Sun is recognized as the alternative weekly for the Sonoma Valley. It has a circulation of 5,000. Sonoma has a local radio station, KSVY, and a public-access television station, SVTV 27.

Transportation
California State Route 12 is the main route in Sonoma, passing through the populated areas of the Sonoma Valley and connecting it to Santa Rosa to the north and Napa to the east. State routes 121 and 116 run to the south of town, passing through the unincorporated area of Schellville and connecting Sonoma Valley to Napa, Petaluma to the west, and Marin County to the south. Sonoma County Transit provides bus service from Sonoma to other points in the county. VINE Transit also operates a route between Napa and Sonoma.

The nearest airport with regularly scheduled commercial passenger service is Charles M. Schulz–Sonoma County Airport, about 30 mi northwest of Sonoma. San Francisco International Airport and Oakland International Airport are both about 60 mi south of Sonoma.

Notable people

 * Hap Arnold, first General of the United States Air Force
 * Rod Beaton, American journalist and media executive with United Press International
 * Phil Coturri, viticulturalist who is recognized as pioneering organic and biodynamic farming
 * Tommy Everidge, professional Major League Baseball player
 * Kirk Hammett, lead guitarist of Metallica and songwriter
 * Agoston Haraszthy, the "father of Californian wine"
 * Joseph Hooker, politician and Civil War general
 * John Lasseter, animator and former chief creative executive of Pixar
 * Tony Moll, former NFL player
 * Brian Posehn, comedian and actor
 * Don Sebastiani, vintner and politician - Sebastiani Vineyards and Winery
 * Tim Schafer, American computer game designer and founder of Double Fine Productions
 * William Smith, American Revolutionary War veteran believed to be buried in California
 * Tom Smothers, comedian and musician
 * Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, the last Mexican military commander of northern California
 * Ignazio Vella, American businessman who served on the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors
 * Sanford Weill, former chairman of Citicorp during 2007–2008 financial crisis
 * Chuck Williams, founder of Williams Sonoma
 * Paula Wolfert and husband William Bayer, both authors, have been resident in Sonoma since 1998

In popular culture
Apple's desktop operating system, macOS Sonoma, announced on June 5, 2023, during WWDC, is named after the city.

Sister cities

 * Aswan, Egypt
 * Chambolle-Musigny, France
 * Greve in Chianti, Italy
 * Kaniv, Ukraine
 * Pátzcuaro, Mexico
 * Penglai (Yantai), China
 * Tokaj, Hungary

title: Sonoma, California