Santa Rosa moving ahead with Fourth Street closure, opening space for pedestrians and patrons amid coronavirus spike

Santa Rosa is set to close three downtown blocks of Fourth Street for about three months, creating pedestrian-friendly zones and new outdoor space for restaurants and other businesses even as Sonoma County braces for new coronavirus restrictions.

The closure of Fourth Street between B and E streets, starting Friday, will leave open intersecting roadways including Mendocino Avenue, B, D and E streets, and the streets that surround the Old Courthouse Square. City workers will place barriers to block vehicle traffic along Fourth Street, allowing pedestrians fuller use of the space and businesses to expand seating into the street.

The extended room for shoppers, diners and strollers is meant to create harmony between two opposing forces: The desire to have a thriving business-rich corridor along Fourth Street near Old Courthouse Square and the responsibility to help curb the spread of COVID-19, which is believed to be more prone to spread indoors than outside.

The street closure, set to last until Oct. 15, was first floated in May and has been delayed as the city remained in the grip of the pandemic while also experiencing days of large protests against racial injustice and police brutality.

Some additional time was also needed to secure supplies for the closure, including tables and chairs to fill the newly available space.

Pandemic concerns reared again Wednesday, when a trio of City Council members who meet regularly to discuss downtown issues considered whether to impose yet another delay, this time due to elevated virus benchmarks that are likely to land Sonoma County on a list of about two dozen California counties facing state-mandated additional coronavirus restrictions.

Eventually, Vice Mayor Victoria Fleming and Councilmen Ernesto Olivares and John Sawyer left the matter in the hands of city staff and the Chamber of Commerce affiliate Downtown Action Organization to poll affected business owners and determine whether to proceed or postpone.

Most of those surveyed favored going ahead with the closure, according to Tara Thompson, the city’s arts and culture manager.

“A majority of the participating businesses on Fourth Street want to move forward with using the extended outdoor space and are willing to work within any new restrictions that may be upcoming,” Thompson said Wednesday night in an email.

The head of the Downtown Action Organization, Cadance Hinkle Allinson, said as much Wednesday when the downtown council trio were looking for guidance.

“There’s definitely an appetite from our restaurants to move forward with this,” Allinson said. “Some of our retailers are still a little bit skeptical. Most of them are on board, most of them are excited about the potential of foot traffic coming downtown.”

Council members appeared conflicted, indicating they could understand why businesses would want to use the open air of Fourth Street to expand their operations. They also acknowledged the concerns that came with Sonoma County’s potential placement on a state coronavirus watch list, driven by increasingly high numbers of new cases, rising hospitalizations and a spate of recent deaths.

The decision, therefore, was left up to merchants.

“I have a hard time making a decision for them,” Sawyer said. “They know their business, they know what they’re hoping to do or what they’re planning to do — without knowing what the state is going to do.”

The lone Fourth Street merchant to comment during Wednesday’s subcommittee hearing was Bernie Schwartz, the longtime proprietor of the California Luggage Co., who like the council members expressed a split opinion and noted that any strategy to draw people downtown “is going to be in tension with the current COVID news that is front page every day.”

“I have, I have to admit, equal amounts of hope and skepticism,” Schwartz said, adding, “It would be a shame to close the street when everybody’s afraid to go out again.”

You can reach Staff Writer Will Schmitt at 707-521-5207 or will.schmitt@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @wsreports.