Friendly, Convenient, Great Climate & Amenities - 9/13/2020

We moved here from Marin County, and have found Rohnert Park to be far superior for many reasons. There is much less traffic, far better local restaurants (from gourmet to casual, steak, seafood (including a world class Sushi Bar - to organic vegan), great local groceries with huge organic sections (Oliver’s Market, Community Market), local farm stands & farmer's markets, exceptionally gorgeous hiking and cycling trails and a beautifully designed light-filled library. We’ve found neighbors to be welcoming, friendly and helpful, but not at all intrusive. Sonoma State University has a gorgeous outdoor amphitheater with grassy terraces for chairs, picnics and wine sipping during high caliber musical performances from pop to classical greats. The Green Music Center at SSU also has wonderful indoor concert halls with superb acoustics. Sonoma Mountain Village on the south end of RP also offers wonderful outdoor concerts under the stars, and the restaurant there offers stand up comedy regularly. The region is excellent for gardening (which is why Luther Burbank settled in the area) and allows one to grow a huge variety of fruits and vegetables all year long. SSU also houses the excellent Tech High, for High School Students, and an exceptional senior continuing-education program. Rancho Cotati High School was recently remodeled & expanded, and the wonderful K-12 Summerfield Waldorf School is nearby. Santa Rosa Community College has campuses both in Santa Rosa, just north of RP & in Petaluma just south of RP and offers many very low cost courses, from one time 3 hour presentations to semester length, toward college degrees. There is a full Casino in Rohnert Park which we haven’t visited, and would never even know was there, but our visitors who have spent time there enjoyed blackjack, craps and all the usuals, along with the many restaurant offerings. Rohnert Park is situated in the southern part of Sonoma County, making the drive to San Francisco much faster, as it is south of Santa Rosa. The Pacific Coast is only a beautiful 30 minute drive away. From the small convenient local Santa Rosa Airport, one can fly direct to/from Los Angeles, San Diego, Portland, or Seattle with Alaska Airlines; and direct to/from Phoenix with American Airlines; or direct from SanFrancisco with United Airlines. The Smart Train connects to Larkspur in Marin County, where a ferry can take one to San Francisco with connections to the SF Airport.

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Soulless, but Very Convenient - 6/8/2019

If Rohnert Park was a person, it would be your little brother who got into drugs early in life, but made a solid comeback and now lives a solidly lower middle class life with a motorcycle in the garage. This town is generally hated by other people in Sonoma County. It's looked down upon as a declasse' bedroom community with no soul. However these same people often sneak into RP to do their shopping, as RP has by far the best convenience shopping in the county. It has all the big box stores that everyone hates, yet patronize. It also has a casino just out of town to the west, mostly for city people. The weather is some of the best in the county as the further south you go in the Summer the better it is. The downside to RP, is mostly the housing. You have some really ugly stuff in this town, from which grew rapidly from the 60's through the 80's. Parks and trees abound however, cushioning the blow from the banal, soul eating architecture. Also, you have ground zero of messed up adult children living with parents. Single family home neighborhoods that should have ample parking instead have four cars per house. The house likely having powder blue T1-11 siding from 1981 and a dead tree in the yard. The public schools? Great if you hate school and plan to work in a trade.

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Not a bad little bedroom community - 11/2/2013

I'm a native Californian and have lived here most of my life - save for about a year total in Eugene, Oregon, two separate times. I've lived in Southern, Central, and Northern California for extended periods of time (at least 8 years in each) and Northern California for by far the longest (over 20 years now). Of all the places I've lived I've enjoyed the North Bay Area - basically all of coastal California north of San Francisco from Marin County on up - the most. If you want total warmth or near-warmth 365 days a year (more or less) without it being overbearingly hot coastal Southern California (L.A., San Diego, etc.) is for you but the North Bay Area, including the "Friendly City" of Rohnert Park, has some of the mildest and most temperate winters and summers you'll find just about anywhere in the State. Go 30-50+ miles to the east of here and you'll find the summers much hotter. 70+ miles inland you're easily looking at 100+ degrees for at least 4-6 weeks in the summer. It's bad. You WILL get approximately 1-2 weeks of fairly scorching weather during the day in the summer but the nice thing about the North Bay is it almost always cools off very nicely in the evening. It can be 90+ degrees during the day but will drop below 70 in the evening, making the overall weather quite tolerable and evenings plenty cool enough to sleep with your windows open - and can often be downright chilly even after hot summer days. This year we did have a week of pretty miserable high pressure that kept up the temperatures even in the evenings but that is quite unusual. Rohnert Park is only 30-35 minutes from the coast and it's easy to get to. This also means you frequently get a fairly dense marine layer that sweeps in from the coast during the mornings, often lasting into the late morning and sometimes early afternoon, keeping things even on warm days very cool. The closest beach by far is Dillon's, which is actually a private beach (you have to pay to park there). There are many very nice vacation rentals at Dillon's if you're ever interested. Northern California gets more rain in general than Southern California (duh, obviously) but it's definitely less than say Oregon or Washington. It also varies sharply from year to year. 3-4 years ago for example it rained daily for almost 3 months solid after what had been a very dry winter up to that point. Subsequent years have been much drier though certainly wetter than So Cal. In short, from year to year it's a toss-up how much rain you might experience. Depending on the rain and how brutal the summer is the hills around Rohnert Park and the surrounding Sonoma, Napa, and Marin Counties will definitely turn brown in the summer. If it's a really heavy rain year it might be delayed for quite some time but usually you'll have at least a few months of brown. By December or January things will usually return to a pretty green on the hills and forests around here. You are quite close to very pretty and large Redwood forests in Rohnert Park - less than 20 minutes. Sorry this wasn't very short but I'm verbose by nature. To sum up the North Bay Area weather in general it is some of the most temperate in the State, cooling off nicely most evenings and in the depths of winter or height of summer usually very mild.

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Great climate - 5/12/2010

Rohnert Park & surrounding communities has to have the most temperate climate in the US. We have all 4 seasons, but no extreme heat during summer months (although it gets in the 90's many times but usually in the mid to high 80's) no snow in winter, lots of sunshine, no humidity. Everything is green and lush, always. Autumn is pretty, spring is breathtakingly beautiful.

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Too much - 2/15/2007

small town but seems like there is more crime than there should be. Tagging is getting out of hand

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Rohnert Park - 8/29/2006

Rohnert Park is a nice small city to live in. It has changed from how it was when we first moved here. The weather is generally good (though we have grown less tolerant of how cold the winters get (30's too often) which are still warm compared to back east, but cold when compared to Southern California). The city is generally full of good people, good families, lots of sports, and events on the weekends, festivals nearby, wineries, etc. However, the city of Rohnert Park, and the county of Sonoma has slowly grown to a totally "politically correct" environment - which will appeal to many, but is a turn off to us. If you are familiar with the term NIMBY (not in my back yard), it is the central theme of Sonoma County. Too many people feel that "OK, i have moved here, so now let's close the doors". Don't build any new houes (because it will get too crowded). Don't widen the freeway (because it will bring too many people). Don't bring in new businesses (because "big businss" is somehow viewed as evil.). The reality is that the the people have already moved here, and it is already crowded. It is truly easier and quicker to drive the freeways in Los Angeles, then it is in Sonoma County. Part of why i joinged this forum (Sperlings), is that we are looking to move. We want to live in an area where people appreciate local business, and realize that some growth is ok, and needed, because businesses are the places that people get jobs. We want to move to an area where it is ok to widen a road if it gets congested. To us, it is far better to have cars moving on 5 lanes of freeway, then to sit still in 2 lanes. For several years now, it has officially been more inportant to protect some snail (that only comes out at night, and during storms), then it is to bulid houses and new businesses. Even the local liberal newspaper (Press Democrat) concedes that the protection of the snail is killing jobs, and people are moving away. Oh, guess we will be next.

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Plenty of bike path, and a nice golf course - 6/13/2006

Rohnert Park, is a nice sunny town located about 60 miles north of San Francisco. Plenty of bike paths, ball parks, and a nice golf course.

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