"When the events end, the crowds disappear."
That line comes from a September 2 letter to the Mayor and City Council. Sonu Chandi of Chandi Hospitality wrote it on behalf of what he described as downtown business owners, employers and investors, and he copied people at Russian River Brewing Company, Stark Restaurants and the Santa Rosa Metro Chamber. The letter showed up in the Downtown Action Organization's September executive committee packet, so it's a public document. It also frames a question that matters more than any single concert this month. A busy downtown summer happened. It didn't turn into a busy downtown Tuesday.
That gap explains Santa Rosa's fall. The car-free block on Ross Street ends October 31. Meanwhile the work the city and its downtown partners are counting on is slower and more permanent: lighting, seating where a fountain used to be, a possible stage, and a group of new storefronts that opened with no street closure behind them.
A Summer Built Mostly on Pop-Ups
Look at the run of programming in order. The Wednesday Night Market ran from May 13 to August 12. Ross Street Live opened August 14. The Wanderlust Food Truck Festival began Thursday nights on Old Courthouse Square on September 3. Add SoCo Markets and Monday movie nights, which the letter also lists, and downtown had something on the calendar almost every week from spring into fall.
The letter says all that activity "has not translated into sustained customer traffic, meaningful sales growth, or lasting downtown vibrancy for many permanent businesses." It gives year-over-year numbers from a few downtown restaurants:
| Business | Year-over-year change cited in the Sept. 2, 2026 letter |
|---|---|
| Belly | Sales down more than 40% |
| Augie's | Sales down more than 30% |
| Beer Baron | Sales down just under 10% |
| Russian River Brewing Company | Customer count down 7% |
These figures come from business owners. They aren't audited data, and they describe downtown as a whole, not the effect of any one event. Still, the letter points out that Russian River Brewing has been downtown for 23 years. A long-standing anchor reporting fewer customers is a different signal than a new concept having a slow first year.
Four Weekends Left on Ross Street
Ross Street Live is the smaller version of a bigger idea. In 2024 the City Council directed staff to look at pedestrian-only spaces, and the first proposal was to close part of Fourth Street. Some businesses there pushed back. In late 2025 the city shifted to a smaller pilot on Ross Street, and the Downtown Action Organization reached an agreement with the city on June 4. The closed section runs from behind The Corner Store Collective to Mendocino Avenue and has a stage, food trucks, cornhole, ping-pong, seating and public restrooms. The California Theatre runs Friday nights, The Lost Church hosts every fourth Friday, and Cooperage Brewing runs Saturdays.
Here's what's left on the October calendar from the Downtown Santa Rosa events listings:
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| Sat., Oct. 10 | Muster the Gusto opens for The Restless Sons; gates at noon, music at 6 p.m. |
| Sun., Oct. 11, 18 and 25 | SoCo Market presents Ross Street Markets, noon to 4 p.m. |
| Fri., Oct. 16 | The California Theatre presents the School of Rock House Band, 6 to 9:30 p.m. |
| Sat., Oct. 17 | The Psychedelic Fuzz, 6 to 9:30 p.m. |
| Fri., Oct. 23 | The Lost Church presents MCHS Mariachi, 6 to 9:30 p.m.; Norbays Awards at 7 p.m. |
| Fri., Oct. 30 | Lowline opens for 945 Band, 6 to 9:30 p.m. |
| Sat., Oct. 31 | Ross Street Halloween Line Up with Glitter Goth, more performers to be announced; gates at noon, music at 6 p.m. |
The October 30 show is part of the original pitch. School of Rock Santa Rosa owner Josh Walden said the pilot would give new student bands like 945 and The Okay Ultras somewhere to play. The California Theatre's Argo Thompson said that when the theater moved downtown four years ago, "there were no other music venues downtown."
As of early October, no one has published how the pilot is doing. At the August 19 DAO board meeting, Thompson described "positive feedback," and the minutes include no attendance count or sales figures. The city's event listing still has the closure ending October 31. The city described the pilot as a way "to gather feedback and assess impacts," so what happens on November 1 is still undecided.
The Market Moves Back, and Thursdays Stay
Two weekly fixtures will carry on after the Ross Street stage comes down, and one of them is a homecoming. Starting October 7, the Santa Rosa Community Farmers' Market returns to the Veterans Memorial Building lot. It runs Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and Saturdays from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., ending six years on Farmers Lane. The move happened because Oliver's Market is opening a store in the former Rite Aid at the Farmers Lane plaza and gave the market until October to relocate. The Veterans Building was the market's home for decades before that.
Wanderlust runs every Thursday from 5 to 9:30 p.m. and brings 15 to 20 trucks to Old Courthouse Square. Opening night included MoMo Man, Tri Tip Trolley, Stickee Eats and Costas Tacos. Beer and wine come from the team behind the Wednesday Night Market, so there's a direct line from the summer series to the fall one. This is the same pattern the September letter describes: a weekly event that pulls a crowd to the Square for a few hours on one evening.
Seating Where the Fountain Was
Five days before Halloween, the city's answer to the "after" question was already in a staff report. At a September 29 study session titled Downtown Improvements Update, staff described a set of projects across Courthouse Square, Fourth Street, Comstock Mall, Jeju Way and Juilliard Park. Council took no formal action. Unlike the event calendar, most of these projects don't go away after a few hours.
The staff report sets this schedule:
- September 2026: removal of the La Rosa fountain on Fourth Street
- November 2026: Bigbelly trash cans in Courthouse Square and Comstock Mall, bike rack relocation and repainting, and new Comstock Mall lighting
- December 2026: Fourth Street lighting with powder-coated light and signal poles, and restoration of the Jeju Way fountain
- Date not set: Juilliard Park playground equipment, the Ruth Asawa panels and fountain reconstruction, and utility box wraps
The presentation says the La Rosa fountain will be replaced with tables and chairs. That gives Fourth Street a permanent version of what Ross Street has offered for eleven weeks: somewhere to sit outside without buying a ticket. Six of the nine Ruth Asawa panels for Courthouse Square have been poured, and the other three are moving to fabrication. According to the city's February planning memo, if the fountains don't return, a permanent stage could be built with the Asawa panels attached to it. The September report lists a possible $100,000 in SRTBIA funds toward a permanent downtown stage, plus roughly $1.1 million in Downtown Park Development Impact fees for the wider package. At the DAO's August meeting, Ken LaFranchi reported that Hugh Futrell was talking with other groups about a Courthouse Square stage, and that the committee was weighing a large stage against a small community one.
So a stage is still a concept. Even so, a permanent stage is what Walden and Thompson described back in July. Ross Street may turn out to be the test run for it.
The Storefronts That Opened Without a Street Closure
Parking is the other half of the letter. It cites higher parking rates and $50 citations as a barrier. Those come from changes Council approved in November 2025 that took effect January 1, 2026. Hourly meters went up $1 in high-demand areas like Old Courthouse Square and Railroad Square, and nearly 200 perimeter spaces became free. Citations went up $15 from a range that had been $35 to $50. The September 29 project update didn't change any of that. The presentation names a separate future study session on "Downtown Vibrancy" covering business mix, parking updates, programming and identity.
While those conversations go on, a group of business owners signed leases downtown anyway:
- The Passdoor moved from First Street in Sonoma to 1160 Fourth St. and reopened October 1 after nearly a decade in Sonoma. Jennifer Edwards is the founder.
- That Fiber Bish, Christina Bishop's shop at 631 Fourth St., Suite 16, soft-launched September 8 and held its grand opening September 26.
- Sonoma Spice Queen, owned by Wind McAlister, opened in early September at 404 Mendocino Ave., Suite D.
- Capriciano Osteria at 505 Mendocino Ave., chef-owner Baki Bekci's Italian restaurant, was packed a week after it opened this summer.
- Café Carrusel, Ivy Reyes's brunch spot at 630 Third St., opened June 23.
Each of these is a seven-day-a-week bet on the downtown core, which is exactly the kind of business the September letter says the events have missed. At Ausiello's 5th Street Bar and Grill, a downtown fixture for nearly 26 years, Leeanna Ausiello-Kane put it this way when the pilot was announced: "We want to get more movement downtown." The DAO's next board meeting is October 21, ten days before the Ross Street closure ends. The Halloween Line Up opens at noon on October 31, and the same block goes back to traffic the next morning.
Here at Donna Nordby and Poppy Real Estate, we watch what downtown Santa Rosa builds for every day of the week, because those streets are part of what makes a home here worth owning. If you're thinking about what your place near the Square or Railroad Square might be worth heading into 2026's winter projects, we'd love to put together a complimentary home valuation and marketing plan for you.
