Cloverdale, often overlooked and sometimes maligned, is getting some respect in Budget Travel magazine's contest that named it one of America's "Coolest Small Towns."
Sonoma County's northernmost city is one of 21 communities in the country nominated for the distinction, along with two others in California - Ojai and Three Rivers.
The magazine singled out Cloverdale as a "quiet Sonoma wine town along the Russian River flanked to the north by an unspoiled wilderness of redwood forests and to the south by orderly rows of vineyards."
The contest is open to towns with populations under 10,000 and the editors say they're not just looking for something quaint, but towns with an edge.
"It's also got to be on the upswing, a place that's beginning to draw attention," according to the magazine.
Quality of life, an arts and restaurant scene and proximity to nature are considered winning criteria.
Cloverdale officials believe the description fits.
"There is a growing affection for Cloverdale, as I think there is an appreciation for our smaller cities," Mayor Carol Russell said Friday. "We have retained something that people want."
Budget Travel encourages people to vote on its Web site for their favorite town. The current list of 21 was whittled down from more than 160 communities originally nominated.
Publicists for the magazine said voting is open until the first week of May at budgettravel.com, under the 2010 Readers Choice Poll.
The top town likely will be profiled in the September or October edition. In the past, ten small towns, not necessarily the top vote-getters, also were featured in the magazine.
"I think what you get is bragging rights," Russell said.
Not only do Cloverdale residents pride themselves on a friendly, small town atmosphere, they also are getting increasing attendance for the Friday Night summer concerts in the plaza, an independent film series and an active arts community.
Mark Tharrington, who books the Friday Night concerts, said they run the gamut, offering everything from swing, to Zydeco, rock-a-billy, funk, ska, samba and salsa.
"It has a lot of arts for a small town. There's a new performing arts center under construction now," he said.
The Cloverdale Arts Alliance offers not only painting exhibitions, sculpture, jewelry and metal welding, he said, but an opera appreciation series and belly-dancing classes.
On the second Thursday of each month, the First Street Gallery is transformed to a jazz club.
The metamorphosis of Cloverdale is a far cry from its past as a mill town, when lumber trucks rolled down the old Highway 101 straight through the heart of downtown.
Longtime residents remember epic traffic jams on Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends as Bay Area travelers clogged the main boulevard, typically on one of Cloverdale's record hot days.
The town has sometimes had an admitted inferiority complex, a reputation as less trendy than some of its neighbors, like Healdsburg to the south.
But that also can be a strength.
"It's not a town designed for the tourist trade, but designed for a small-town atmosphere where you walk down the street and everybody knows everybody," said Tharrington, a seven-year Cloverdale resident.
The rerouting of Highway 101, which became a freeway running east of Cloverdale in 1994, did hurt businesses that catered to motorists who might stop to eat, or fill up their gas tanks.
"This little town has taken a terrible beating with rerouting of the freeway. It's just now starting to get on its feet again," said Carla Howell, president of the Chamber of Commerce. "It was a huge blow to this community taking traffic off the downtown."
But by 2004, the town completed a redesign and beautification of Cloverdale Boulevard, making the downtown more inviting and walkable, what some compare to Mayberry, or "Main Street USA."
While Cloverdale still struggles to create jobs and new businesses, population has grown from just under 5,000 in 1990 to more than 8,500 today, in part due to retirees moving there and attractive housing prices.
While nearly 60 percent of the residents commute out of town for work, the labor force is increasingly professional, with a slight majority describing themselves as white collar, 25 percent blue collar, and 24 percent employed in agriculture, according to a 2008 survey.
The surroundings, including nearby Lake Sonoma, the Alexander Valley and other natural attractions, also are considered positives and part of the reason Cloverdale was singled out by Budget Travel.
Cloverdale City Manager Nina Regor, who moved from Spokane Valley, Wash., a city with ten times the population, said she appreciates Cloverdale for its "wonderful, dark-sky environment."
"I didn't realize what a difference the clear, dark skies make," she said. "You can look up and see the stars. It's just amazing."
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