Santa Rosa Jewish, Japanese residents say proposed unity sculpture in Old Courthouse Square won’t represent all

Members of Sonoma County’s Jewish and Japanese communities are asking a Santa Rosa committee to reverse its decision to limit the number of languages that will appear on a unity sculpture to be located in the heart of downtown Santa Rosa.

They contend that with the limitations the project won’t represent all of the people who live in this region.

Their appeals are the result of last week’s Santa Rosa Art in Public Places Committee special meeting, where members selected the words and languages that will appear on Unum, a stainless steel sculpture by Tucson-based artist Blessing Hancock.

The sculpture, which will be located in Santa Rosa’s Old Courthouse Square, is meant to symbolize unity.

The $300,000 sculpture was approved by the committee in December 2020 and will resemble a curved, 12-foot-tall 3D band covered in words. Lit by LED lights, it will sit on the Fourth Street side of the square and could be installed by late spring.

The lone topic during the committee’s Jan. 10 meeting, discussion focused on whether the panel would approve a list of 18 words that will appear on the sculpture, as well as the 17 languages in which those words will appear.

The language list was determined using census data, which identified the top 15 languages spoken in Santa Rosa homes. The languages included English, Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese and Thai, city staff said.

Southern Pomo and Coast Miwok were added by a community advisory group tasked with obtaining public input on the list of words. It was also charged with setting the criteria for which languages would be included.

But during the meeting, several community members wrote and called in to urge the committee to expand the list of languages to include Greek, Japanese and Hebrew.

Many of those messages, including one from Santa Rosa resident and former Santa Rosa Art in Public Places Committee member Nina Bonos, urged the committee to specifically include the Hebrew word ‘Shalom’, meaning peace, as a way to represent the area’s Jewish families.

“They talk about how this is supposed to represent everybody,” Bonos said in a phone interview this week. “Although I speak English every day, I say Hebrew prayers.”

Despite objections over the proposed list of languages, three of the four committee members — Chair Kristin Kiefer, Vice Chair Melanie Jones-Carter and member Nathan Azhderian — voted to move forward with the sculpture without making additions or postponing the decision.

Committee member Anne Baumgartner cast the lone dissenting vote.

Jones-Carter emphasized her desire to honor the work of the advisory group that recommended which languages should be included in the project.

Santa Rosa Economic Development Director Raissa de la Rosa said the advisory group turned to the census data to make equitable language selections.

Azhderian said he wanted to see the project, which has faced several delays, move forward.

“I felt the advisory committee did what was asked of them and I liked the process that they followed,” Jones-Carter said after the meeting.

“There was a discussion, a decision was made and I think the right choice was made,” she added.

Nevertheless, Sonoma County’s Japanese American Citizens League has joined members of the local Jewish community in asking the public art committee to reconsider its vote.

Phyllis Tajii, a member of the chapter’s Human and Civil Rights Committee, said she liked the method the arts committee used to choose the languages as it included multiple languages from the Asian community. But, she believes the list fails to fully represent the ethnic communities, including Santa Rosa’s Japanese families, Tajii said.

Had the city committee chosen to postpone its vote, it would have given her and other members of the community more time to weigh-in on the decision, which she only heard about after the fact, Tajii added.

“I felt disappointed,” Tajii said of the vote. “It seemed like they left out some groups of people who have had a long history in Santa Rosa.”

Santa Rosa resident Gael Forest-Knowles, who like Bonos is a member of Congregation Shomrei Torah in Santa Rosa, said she too was upset by the committee’s decision.

She pointed to comments from Santa Rosa Arts & Culture Manager Tara Thompson that indicated it was possible to add additional languages to the list, though it would lead to words being repeated fewer times across the sculpture.

While Forest-Knowles recognized that it would be impossible to represent every language spoken in Santa Rosa, she believes the committee could have been more responsive to the community.

“It will be there for generations and it will be a sign of us not being as important in the city’s culture,” Forest-Knowles said of the sculpture.

Santa Rosa Mayor Chris Rogers said he’s received messages from community and committee members over the decision.

Though he doubts he would have come to the same decision as the majority of the committee, he said it would be inappropriate to interfere given that they are the ones charged with overseeing the Unum project.

“When we appoint people to boards and commissions, we ask them to do a lot of free public work to try to make the community a better place,” Rogers said. “We want people to feel empowered when they serve on a board or commission.”

When asked if it was possible for the board to revisit its decision, Thompson said a committee member could make a motion to revisit the languages that will be included in the Unum project.

That request would have to happen during a regular meeting, then be seconded by another member and then be voted on by the full committee for the topic to be placed on the agenda of a future meeting, Thompson said.

The committee’s Feb. 7 meeting has been canceled due to previously scheduled time off for city staff involved in the project, she added.

You can reach Staff Writer Nashelly Chavez at 707-521-5203 or nashelly.chavez@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @nashellytweets.