![santa rosa county land development code collector roads santa rosa county land development code collector roads](https://1.bp.blogspot.com/_annTPGBcsB4/SW1zaczUp4I/AAAAAAAABZM/G9UqBTcuDnI/s400/Martian-Board-VLing.jpg)
Photo courtesy Sonoma County Museum)Īs introduced here in earlier chapters of the “ ROAD TO THE MALL” series, this phase of urban renewal started in March 1970 when the City Council passed an ordinance ruling that pretty much everything between B Street and the highway was a “blighted area.” Hardly anyone made comments or raised questions at the public hearing likely most expected a replay of what happened in the 1960s, when all the blocks surrounding Courthouse Square were similarly deemed unfit but only a few building locations east and south of the Square were affected. (ABOVE: Hugh Codding holding the “key to the city” while dressed in 19th century costume during the MaSanta Rosa centennial. It’s tough to stay optimistic for that long, particularly when a growing number of people would start to question whether the shopping center was such a good idea in the first place. In the name of urban renewal, that business and residential district was turned into this scene of desolation – which is how it would remain for the next seven years. Not long before, the area was home to mom ‘n’ pop stores, repair shops, apartment buildings and more. The photo accompanying that cheery item portrayed a scarred landscape that looked like a war zone, with several roughly cleared acres half filled with pools of rainwater. And soon after that a renewal project for Railroad Square will include a community center with a 2,500 seat performing arts theater and a 50,000 sq. We would soon have a wonderful downtown shopping center with three major department stores and up to 85 stores. In Santa Rosa, the Press Democrat published its “Outlook 73” supplement which painted a very rosy picture of things to come. The Watergate hearings started and people began taking the scandal seriously, with public opinion swinging from it being “just politics” to “very serious.” There were good reasons to feel optimistic in the spring of 1973.