In 2010, a group of Forestville citizens asked, “What does the city need and how can we make it happen?” A few weeks after that discussion, a property downtown came on the market and a buyer from out of town was interested! We thought, “Why don’t we try to get that property for the city?” And so we started applying for an Open Space Matching Grant to buy it ourselves. We could create our own community space for the city. Mind you, we never thought we would get it! At least we could say we tried.
Half the city was outraged. “This will ruin the city,” many shouted. They predicted homeless camps, falling property values and tax revenues drying up. We were hanging by a thread. We felt verbally beaten, even despised by many neighbors. I admit that at some point we asked ourselves whether we should give up this “daring” venture and disband our group (the FPA) altogether! But there were others who believed in this dream of a community space, donated money and goods and told us not to give up.
Fast forward to the present. Downtown Forestville Oaks Park is a treasure. The grove of Valley Oaks is healthy and provides welcome shade in the summer. You can sit at a picnic table or redwood bench and look out over vineyards, meadows and the West County Trail. It’s peaceful. It’s beautiful. This small, four-acre park brings cyclists from Graton, Sebastopol and Occidental right into the heart of downtown. They invariably stop for a while.
Get coffee from Roasters, buy bread from Nightingale, eat Mexican at La Rosa’s, or eat pizza at Sonoma Pizza Co. People come from Santa Rosa to walk their dogs. “This is my favorite place,” I hear all the time. It’s an open, welcoming place for people of all ages, despite any fears expressed at first. It’s been good for the merchants, it provides extra parking for city events, it’s the place where we come together, meet friends and neighbors, buy summer produce, dance to the bands. It’s community and has been a godsend during the pandemic when outside was the safest place to be.
To keep our promise to keep it beautiful, the FPA is hosting our first ever fundraiser for ongoing maintenance. It’s our Pie in the Park event on Saturday, August 31st from 3:00pm-5:30pm. We will be having a contest for the “best pie in Forestville” where the winner will receive a trophy and a gift basket. We will be having a Pie Walk (like a cake walk) where many local bakeries will donate pies, a Pie Share where we ask people to bring their favorite pie to share with others, face painting, and even a bar with donated beer and wine.
We hope everyone who loves this park comes. We hope everyone who uses it, even if it’s just occasionally, comes. We hope everyone who said it was a disastrous idea comes. This Pie in the Park is our way of celebrating. We thank Open Space for trusting us with this land even though we were and are only a small group of citizens. We thank the park administration for creating the trail themselves, and we thank those who helped us do it. It’s also my way of celebrating my 80th birthday! Come join us, bring a pie if you can, or just drop by. Great band, Angela’s ice cream too!
When it’s August, it’s time for our kids to wrap up their summer and start a new school semester. Forestville School begins welcoming new students on Thursday, August 15th. Class sizes average 22.4 students, with 224 children enrolled. For our high school students, school starts August 14th in Analy. And if you pay even a little bit of attention, you’ll know there’s energy afoot to create a new district so our beloved El Molino can get a second chance to serve our teens closer to home. A feasibility study is in the works right now. Google “WSCUHSD Unification Study” to learn more, or email the dynamic Kim Lambert at [email protected], who is leading the initiative. She’d love to hear from you!
See you on August 31st at Downtown Oaks Park! Cake and ice cream, what could be better?
