Weird and Provincial
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5/18/2019
The place gets both its stars for the weather, which is not as good as coastal places like Monterey or Santa Barbara, but holds its own despite the summer heat. The summer nights are almost always cool and temperate which you grow to appreciate. In addition the scenery and topography of Sonoma County are truly outstanding and picture perfect.
Now the downside. I've been here for 10 years and my opinion of the place is remarkably unchanged over these years. I have to say that it may be the single most provincial place in the country. I use the word provincial deliberately. The inhabitants are generally unsophisticated, narrow minded people. You may ask, how can one of the most liberal places in the country be provincial? It doesn't make sense. I too would have thought that before moving here. But, alas, there it is, the most closed minded, conservative people I've met, live in this town. I don't mean politically conservative. I mean in personality, in demeanor, and most of all in uninteresting, unusually sheltered lives.
This is a town that stopped a freeway from going two or three miles through the east side of town for all sorts of environmental reasons, only causing needless and endless traffic congestion on Farmers and Hoen. But that's what you get when you have an area jam packed with old, slowly dying flower children, which is another interesting part of living here. Nearly an entire demographic is missing between high school kids and the Teva wearing gray haired. If you're here to raise a family, you've come to the wrong place. The public school system is as malfunctioning as anywhere else in CA, nothing to write home about, that is if you do indeed learn to write. The economy is wholly unable to provide a good standard of living for anyone not occupying a niche job, which means a lot of people disappear as they follow their career paths.
The worst part of the place however is what I can only describe as an "Indian burial ground vibe." It feels dead. After all of these years I can't put my finger on it, other than a feeling. Yes, a lot of people here smoke pot, but that's not it. It just feels like something not alive. The people are very polite, but there's an empty coldness to them. You may even say they have an inner meanness or aloofness with an outer politeness, yet also with childlike personalities. Passive aggression? Passive annoying? I'm not from the midwest, but midwesterners I know pick up on this right away. It's a strange bubble of humanity.
I will likely not retire here, but it is where my particular niche career has placed me.
Jack | Santa Rosa, CA