Santa Rosa, which has always given tourists the impression of a “sleeping village” next to Highway 101, may become the Bay Area’s next retail hub.
Just six years ago, cowboys herded 30 longhorn cattle through banks and breweries in downtown Santa Rosa to kick off the county fair, the Chronicle reported.mayor Mark Stapp said at the time that the wine country’s largest city was “kind of like an overdeveloped cow town.”
But Santa Rosa is changing quickly.The city, located along Highway 101 and just over an hour’s drive north of San Francisco, is attracting a new type of high-end brand. Fashion retailers Anthropologie, Vuori, and Warby Parker; Disneyland’s famous Salt & Straw ice cream; Southwest Airlines; Shake Shack; and, perhaps in the near future, self-driving taxi service Waymo.
“People are realizing that we’re the fifth largest city in the Bay Area and we’re trying to live up to t