Edited by author 12-27-2003 09:32 PM
There's a renaissance of sorts going on in downtown Forestville. Khysie Horn has remodeled and expanded an old downtown storefront and moved her Quicksilver Mining Co. art gallery there from Forestville.

Theresa Mitchell and Steve ??? have taken the old re-habbed gas station and make it into another gallery.

Others talk of the need for new storefronts, new tree plantings, new, wider sidewalks, maybe even a parking district.

This topic is for discussion of Forestville's downtown.

Steve Lathrop - he keeps getting mistaken as a Mitchell. Modern love!

My own thoughts are that downtown will get a face lift when the bypass goes in and until then anything we do is window dressing. But what the heck - a bit of prettying up can't hurt.

I just don't want it to turn into Knott's Berrry Farm like West Windsor did! Yuck!!!

We don't have a town government and therefore budget to maintain plantings, etc. and so far every volunteer project people have signed up for simply hasn't been accomplished! We can't even get people to donate to the mural project and it will sit there undone without some funding!!!!!

Our town is full of good intentions followed my lax action. Is it like this everywhere?

Well, that's another issue -- how to break the cycle of lack of motivation/lack of progress. I think the formation of FPA has certainly been a step in the right direction. I hope www.95436.com will also do something to spark some motivation.

I think Ramona Crinella's development is key here. She's going to build 30+ houses, 15 artist work/live units and 20,000 square feet of commercial smack in the middle of town.

Done correctly it could be a great boon and should provide some pressure on nearby property owners and tenants. If they don't enhance the downtown shopping experience they run the risk of people going to Ramona's new, presumably attractive shops.

There will also be a fair bit of county/state spending around the bypass and the stoplight. Those projects may provide some additional funds to get started on revamping sidewalks, etc.

Short answer: the political pressure ALWAYS precedes the action. No squeak; no grease.

That's what Forestville Citizens for Sensible Growth, FPA and this site are about: building community so the citizens of Forestville are more effective at determining the fate of their town.

Vesta,
I feel obliged to answer to your mention of forestville apathy. I'm not a "family unit" and I live in the canyon outside of town where the concept of "community" is a bit more complex or mysterious, perhaps...

I want help out but somehow I always feel like I won't fit in...I dunno. It could be my gereration's preoccupation with coolness....If I volunteer for events and things where I don't know people the experience is always awkward. I've done a lot of volunteering and have experienced this a lot....maybe it's because I go alone most of the time....

I really don't know anyone in town and hope that this site helps out with that. I would like to find a niche, you know?

From a student's point of view, i would like to see a sidewalk actually made on covey from 116 to the high school. I end up walking to school every once in a while and it's not exactly safe to be walking along side Covey while dozens of cars (students) rush by.

Honestly, I do like how Forestville is starting to look. (Now if only we could start remodeling the other side of the street :-P) the mural is very beautiful but it's on the ally side which can't be seen as well as the front side of the Forestville Club.

But really... Forestville is starting to look nicer :-)

Adam and I must think alike.

(Adam, please introduce yourself over in the introductions topic, and email me at editor@95436.com; I'd like to know more about what's going on at El Mo).

I just got back from the Airport Health Club. Sonoma County is notorious for either not requiring developers to build sidewalks at all, or building short sidewalks that don't connect to anything. Adam's Covey Road example is a perfect one.

Now that I think about it I'm going to start putting pictures up on the site that illustrate really dumb anti-people planning that has been foisted upon us by the "planners" in Santa Rosa.