Cotati Today

For the past two decades Sonoma County has been growing at a rapid pace, welcoming vast numbers of new residents to the area. Many of these transplants have moved to the area in an effort to escape the crowded city life of the larger Bay Area cities to the south such as San Francisco and San Jose.


Click to see a Quicktime VR
of City Hall

This rapid growth has provided a significant challenge to the city and to the preservation of its unique charm. Managing this growth has become one of the prominent issues facing the city. While many feared that too much growth would spoil the city's small town character, others felt that too little growth would cause more and more city residents to leave Cotati to shop at newly constructed shopping centers in Santa Rosa, Rohnert Park and Petaluma. They feared that this would cause the city's share of the sales tax revenue to wither, leaving the city unable to provide adequate city services.

Throughout the 90's, Cotati has faced this challenge by effectively encouraging growth within strict limitations. In 1990 the citizens of Cotati overwhelmingly voted to curtail the growth of the city by forbidding any annexation of land beyond a fixed urban boundary line. This highly popular self-imposed limit on annexation turned the focus on development inwards. The city has worked aggressively to enhance the downtown area and to encourage business development. In the 80's the city remodeled the two-block downtown stretch of Old Redwood Highway. In 1991 the City Council voted to enact a Downtown Plan which kicked-off a series of enhancements to the city's downtown including new bus shelters, sidewalks and city benches. During this period, La Plaza Park was remodeled extensively with a new bandstand and a new playground structure. The City also has worked towards significant developments outside the downtown including a successful industrial section and on a plan for mixed-use residential/commercial development on E. Cotati Avenue by the railroad tracks.


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of La Plaza Park

Cotati today is comprised of approximately 6700 residents, over four times the population at the time of its incorporation in 1963. Both new and long-time Cotati businesses have made significant efforts to maintain and reinforce the city's distinct way of life. Oliver's Market provides locals with a fine selection of natural produce and gourmet food. Zone Music and Backdoor Disc & Tape have made Cotati a central music resource throughout Sonoma County.

And when the sun sets the music doesn't stop. Cotati offers one of the county's most vibrant nightlife scenes. Numerous nightspots offer live entertainment including the recently reopened Inn of the Beginning.


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of Downtown Cotati

Once a frequent stop for sixties' musicians playing their way up the Pacific coast, the Inn now provides a spirited venue for musicians throughout Northern California. Friday and Saturday nights downtown are lively as music fills the street and the cafes and restaurants are filled with both long-time locals and students from nearby Sonoma State University.

Sonoma State University, located just outside Cotati's city limits, has played a significant role in the City's history since it moved into its 220 acre East Cotati Avenue campus in 1966. Originally a state college, Sonoma State was granted university status in 1978. The University now enrolls over 7,400 students and is preparing itself for the 21st century by taking bold steps towards incorporating cutting-edge technology into the curriculum. In 1995 SSU made headlines by becoming one of the first universities in the nation to require that incoming students own a personal computer. Currently they are nearing completion on the Jean and Charles Schulz Information Center, a 200,000 square foot replacement to the Ruben-Salazar Library. The new information center will include an automated retrieval system for more than a million books and a computer lab that is open 24 hours a day.


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of the Church of the Oaks

Despite the new emphasis on technology, Sonoma State University still remains true to its roots as a center for political activism. Project Censored, founded by Dr. Carl Jensen in 1976, has developed a nationwide reputation for reporting the top 25 news stories that have been underreported by the mainstream media.

Having a major university nearby is certainly a cultural asset, but there has never been a shortage of culture in Cotati. In September the City and the Chamber of Commerce gather to celebrate Cotati at the annual Showcase Cotati, where local businesses puy on a "street fair" beneath the trees of La Plaza Park to showcase their wares. The city is home to the Cotati Jazz Festival each June, the newly established Cotati Philharmonic, the annual Kid's Day Parade and the internationally renowned Cotati Accordion Festival in late August.


Poster featuring
the late Jim Boggio

"Use an Accordion, Go to Cotati" say the bumper stickers that promote the Cotati Accordion Festival, one of Sonoma County's largest events and one of the most significant accordion festivals in the United States. Clifton Buck-Kauffman and Jim Boggio, local accordionist extraordinaire, invented the festival in 1991. The festival draws accordion aficionados from all over the world to La Plaza Park to participate in a full weekend of fun, food and music celebrating the beloved squeezebox.

In 1996 festival co-founder Jim Boggio died. He was considered by his fans to be the "King of the Accordion" and by Keyboard magazine to be one of the three best accordion players in the United States at the time of his death.

In 1997, a statue was erected in La Plaza Park in honor of Jim Boggio and in memory of his contribution to the city's cultural heritage and to the continuing history of Cotati.

POPUP EXHIBITS

1991 Accordion Festival poster
1992 Accordion Festival poster
1993 Accordion Festival poster
1996 Accordion Festival poster
1997 Accordion Festival poster

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