Is Ross Street the Fourth Street Closure Santa Rosa Never Got?
October 8, 2026
October 8, 2026
"You never know until it's done," Vice Mayor Jeff Okrepkie told The Press Democrat in July, a few weeks before downtown Santa Rosa closed one block of Ross Street to cars. "It gives people an opportunity to see what it could look like, and what it could possibly turn into."
That block has had a stage, food trucks, ping-pong tables and Sunday markets since August 14. It reopens to traffic after October 31. Most of the coverage calls it a fall block party. Its own history tells a different story. Ross Street is the smaller version of an idea the city has been working toward since 2024, and the four weekends left are the only real-world evidence anyone will have of whether a car-free piece of downtown actually works.
In 2024, the City Council told staff to look for spots downtown that could close to cars and become pedestrian spaces that bring in business, city spokesperson Misti Wood told The Press Democrat. The first target was part of Fourth Street. In early 2025, city staff gathered input from downtown businesses, ran a community survey, held a council study session, and looked at similar programs in San Mateo, San Jose and San Diego. After some pushback on testing the idea on Fourth Street, the city turned to a smaller pilot on Ross Street in late 2025. The Downtown Action Organization set up an ad hoc committee that November and signed an agreement with the city on June 4.
The block that came out of all that is small. It's the eastern section of Ross Street off Mendocino Avenue, between 5th and 7th Streets. The parking lot at Mendocino and Ross holds the stage and the weekend gathering area. The city's event listing places the closure between Mendocino Avenue and the exit of the parking lot behind 427 Mendocino. Local businesses run the programming. Cooperage, The California Theatre, Flagship Taproom, The Lost Church and SoCo Market organize it, with support from the city and the DAO.
"We haven't really done anything of this scale," the DAO's Cadance Hinkle Allison told The Press Democrat.
Wood described the program as "a test of expanded pedestrian space and community programming in the downtown core, while allowing the city and its partners to gather feedback and assess impacts." Speaking to KRCB in August, Pauline Block of the Downtown Action Organization said organizers want to know whether people who come for the events also eat or shop nearby, and what those visitors have to say. She also said a pilot doesn't have to become permanent.
Okrepkie said there's no clear timeline for when the city will revisit other possible locations for pedestrian space, but that the pilot gives it a real-life example to draw from. What happens on this block through Halloween is that example.
The businesses behind the pilot have described their own hopes. Leeanna Ausiello-Kane, whose family co-owns Ausiello's 5th Street Bar and Grill, which has been downtown for nearly 26 years, said the pilot "could help change the perception of downtown." Josh Walden of School of Rock Santa Rosa said he hopes it leads to a permanent downtown stage. Argo Thompson of The California Theatre pointed out that when the theater moved in four years ago, "there were no other music venues downtown."
Each day of the week has its own lineup on Ross Street.
Food trucks serve lunch Monday through Friday. The block runs from behind The Corner Store Collective to Mendocino Avenue, with cornhole, ping-pong, seating and public restrooms. Ausiello's planned to pop up on some weekdays and select weekends with a short menu that includes smash burgers.
The California Theatre books Friday nights, and The Lost Church hosts every fourth Friday. Cooperage Brewing books Saturdays. Local restaurants such as Galvan's Eatery pop up on some nights. Ryan Woodard, whose band played opening night, called the "13 dates of music" on a dedicated stage "an excellent starting point" for local bands.
SoCo Market runs Ross Street Markets from noon to 4 p.m., with family activities alongside. There are three Sundays left after today: October 11, 18 and 25.
Ross Street isn't the only downtown series changing hands this fall. In 2026, downtown's evening events have been passed from one organizer to the next, and the chain ends at Halloween.
| Program | Where | 2026 status |
|---|---|---|
| Wednesday Night Market | Downtown | Season ran May 13 to August 12. Steven Adler headlined the final concert of its 37th season |
| Ross Street | Ross off Mendocino Ave | August 14 to October 31 |
| Wanderlust Food Truck Festival | Old Courthouse Square | Started September 3. Dates are posted only through October 29 |
| WinterBlast | SOFA arts district | Not happening this November. On hold until 2027 |
Wanderlust picked up where the Wednesday market left off, literally. Its Thursday nights pour beer and wine from the same team that ran the Wednesday Night Market. The opening lineup included MoMo Man, Tri Tip Trolley and Stickee Eats, and organizers planned on 15 to 20 trucks a week. The organizer's website now lists Thursday hours as 4 to 8:30 p.m., which is earlier than the 5 to 9:30 p.m. reported at launch. Its schedule shows October 8, 15, 22 and 29 and nothing yet past that.
The WinterBlast pause takes away November's biggest downtown-area event. The SOFA festival drew an estimated 5,000 to 7,000 people in 2025. Spring Maxfield of the Santa Rosa Urban Arts Partnership, which has run WinterBlast since 2022, said organizers want to "refocus on what WinterBlast is — and isn't." They plan to hold a community town hall in January instead of a festival this year. "WinterBlast exposes Santa Rosa Arts Center and all the businesses here to thousands of people every fall," said Simmon Factor, who founded the arts center on South A Street. When we checked in early October, the downtown events calendar had nothing posted for November.
That makes the rest of October the busiest stretch downtown will have until at least the new year.
Block wants to know whether people at Ross Street also spend money nearby, and several recent openings are close by. Capriciano Osteria is open at 505 Mendocino Ave. Its chef, Baki Bekci, has cooked in Four Seasons kitchens and founded Mezzaluna. Wind McAlister opened a second Sonoma Spice Queen shop at 404 Mendocino Ave. in early September, selling her blends, rubs, chiles, salts and sugars. A few blocks away, Ivy Reyes's Café Carrusel at 630 Third St. serves a Mexi-brunch menu.
Frenchie's, a wine bar from Healdsburg sommelier Morgan Gray, was announced for 642 Fifth St. with an August target. We haven't seen it confirmed open as of early October. If it opens before Halloween, it will be close enough to the block to count among the nearby spots the pilot is meant to help.
If you want to talk about how downtown Santa Rosa's next chapter could shape the blocks around Ross Street, Tim McKee is glad to share what he's watching as a local. Schedule a free consultation and home valuation and we'll talk it through over coffee somewhere on Mendocino Avenue.
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