South Park is residential neighborhood in the city of

Santa Rosa, California Santa Rosa ( Spanish for " Saint Rose") is a city and the county seat of Sonoma County, in the North Bay region of the Bay Area in California. Its estimated 2019 population was 178,127. It is the largest city in California's Wine Country and ...

. It is located in south Santa Rosa, east of U.S. Highway 101, south of Bennett Valley Road, west of the

Sonoma County Fairgrounds The Sonoma County Fairgrounds is a fairground and exhibition center located in Santa Rosa, California. It is where the annual Sonoma County fair takes place and other events throughout the year. History Historically, the fairgrounds has held hor ...

, and encompasses 60 blocks. The community is known for its old houses and artistic murals in the area, and notorious for its history of an above average crime rate and gang activity. South Park was also once a settlement for

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

s during the mid-1900s and was a center of Santa Rosa's Black community. Today, the neighborhood is mainly Latino. It has around 1,500 residents.

History

Originally an

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

and

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

community, South Park became a popular settlement for

s relocating from the South after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

in the late 1940s, and was considered BY some locals to be the " black neighborhood" of Santa Rosa. A chapter of NAACP was founded and a

black church The black church (sometimes termed Black Christianity or African American Christianity) is the faith and body of Christian congregations and denominations in the United States that minister predominantly to African Americans, as well as their ...

was established during this time in the area, known as the Community Baptist Church. It was damaged in a suspected arson in the 1980s, and it was later moved to Sonoma Avenue. In 1990, 17% percent of South Park's residents were Black, and 51% of them White, and 21% of them Hispanic. In the 2000s, South Park became increasingly and predominately Hispanic. Refugees from

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

n countries, mainly

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

and Eritrea also settled in the neighborhood during the 1980s and 1990s, as well as with northwest Santa Rosa.

Crime

The South Park neighborhood, along with West Ninth, Roseland and Apple Valley in northwest and southwest Santa Rosa, has dealt with a higher-than-average rate of crime in comparison to other neighborhoods in Santa Rosa. South Park's gangs were generally of Mexican American ethnicity, namely Nortenos and Surenos.

Drive-by shooting A drive-by shooting is a type of assault that usually involves the perpetrator(s) firing a weapon from within a motor vehicle and then fleeing. Drive-by shootings allow the perpetrator(s) to quickly strike their target and flee the scene before ...

s have been a common form of violence in the neighborhood, especially when conflicts between rival gangs intensify.

Features

South Park along with West Ninth Street was home to American rapper Ray Luv. South Park also contains a

Boys & Girls Clubs of America Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) is a national organization of local chapters which provide voluntary after-school programs for young people. The organization, which holds a congressional charter under Title 36 of the United States Code, h ...

, Martin Luther King, Jr. Park, and two churches. It is situated southwest of the Sonoma County Fairgrounds. There is a community garden in the center of the park. The edges of South Park contain stores like an Asian market, another nearby, Mexican market, and close to a Mexican supermarket, Lola’s. There are a few restaurants in the area. A tire and hat shop are in Petaluma Hill Road in the neighborhood, as well as a cannabis store and art/dance studio. Most homes are houses, some in Victorian or old British styled homes. There are apartment complexes and duplexes. Most are older, built before 1960, but there are some new developments especially on the outer edges of the neighborhood by Temple Avenue.

Films

A movie about a Native American family moving from a reservation, '' Grand Avenue'', is based on the Grand Avenue in South Park. It is however mostly shot in other areas of Santa Rosa even if it is in a scene set in the exact neighborhood. It was written and produced by Santa Rosan

Greg Sarris Gregory Michael Sarris (born February 12, 1952) is the Chairman of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria (since 1992), the Graton Rancheria Endowed Chair in Creative Writing and Native American Studies at Sonoma State University, where he t ...

References

{{coord, 38.4284, N, 122.7080, W, dim:2000_region:US-CA_type:city, display=title Chicano and Mexican neighborhoods in California Neighborhoods in Santa Rosa, California