One of the things we love about Sebastopol and other towns like it in Sonoma County is how diverse the living experiences can be for a city with a population of only 7k or so. Sebastopol has a thriving city center so if you want to live in the downtown area and have a short walk to restaurants/bars, cafes and galleries then it’s available. If you prefer a suburban experience of homes on denser blocks with lots of families, yards and parks then Sebastopol has got you covered. Finally, if you want a rural and remote lifestyle, with a beautiful home deep in the hills and forests of the area then it’s here for you. It’s hard to believe but pound for pound it’s hard to beat Sebastopol for its choices for how you choose to live. 

Sebastopol is also noted as an arts center and relative to other Sonoma valley towns (but not by bay area standards) you’d call it quirky. 


Pound For Pound The Coolest/Quirkiest

The Best Thing About Sebastopol?

This is a tricky issue that most of the beautiful Sonoma Valley towns face. Wealthy Bay Area residents come up to wine country and fall in love with the bucolic landscapes and slower lifestyles. So, they buy homes up in towns like Sebastopol, which drives prices up, reduces the full-time population and ultimately prices out families who might otherwise have been able to live and work in-town. It’s a well-trodden complaint from locals who have valid issues with how expensive the area has become at the same time their own homes have risen in value. What’s to be done about the fact that the town is so lovely everyone wants to own a piece of it? Development is one path, but of course that has the downside of increasing the population of an area that would like to preserve its small-town vibe. We simply want to note what long-time locals will site as the biggest issue facing Sebastopol. 

2nd-Homers

The Worst Thing About Sebastopol?

Unlike most Sonoma Valley towns, Sebastopol is known as an arts-centric place. Lots of locals are artists themselves or at the vary least throw themselves headlong into the culture of counter-culture art and so that artsy/hippie vibe is stronger here than in other wine country towns. In fact, Sebastopol feels less like a wine country town and perhaps more like a groovy throwback to an earlier era in the Bay Area. There are tons of festivals throughout the year including: The Goddess Crafts Faire, the Gravenstein Apple Fair, the Northern California Women’s Herbal Symposium and more. It’s an interesting place in that you have an intersection of arts, farming, tech and even some conservative pockets all integrating into a small town with seemingly little strife. If you’re up for anything this could be your place. 

Check out what the locals do for fun through the local 
**[calendar of events](https://www.sebastopol.org/community-calendar)**


Lifestyle of Sebastopol 

Many locals of course work in the wine industry and enjoy short-ish commutes to work. Many newcomers work from home and so face no commute. If however you are going to live here and try to commute to one of the tech hubs you will be unhappy. Sonoma is a beautiful town that is built for people who work in the agricultural/wine/hospitality industries or the newly crowned, untethered class of those who don’t need to commute anywhere. That is the worklife culture of Sonoma and really much of these bucolic wine country towns. 


Worklife of Sebastopol

If you want to skip the fanciness of Napa or even the growing tourist energy of towns like Healdsburg or Sonoma then you should put Sebastopol on your shortlist. As noted it feels like an outlier in the valley with a bit of something for everyone and much that lives outside the wine country culture.  


Keep it Real

Why You Should Move Here Now? 

Downtown is centered around The Barlow Market District. This is a really fun 12-acre outdoor market featuring local food stands and first-class restaurants, craft breweries and distilleries, cafes and bakeries and tons of boutique shopping from local artisans. This is in fact ground zero for the commercial enterprises of the arts scene of Sebastopol. The rest of Downtown also has a decent supply of single family homes, apartments/condos so the city plays host to young professionals (often artists/service folk), families and empty nesters/retirees. Interestingly the downtown homes are sometimes the best value and the most expensive homes are more on the outskirts and in the hills. 


Young Professionals/Families/Empty Nesters/Retirees

Downtown

Sebastopol

**Moving to west Sebastopol/close to Freestone fire risk?**

I live in south west Sebastopol (off Bloomfield) and can attest that the risk of actual fire isn’t what you should be worried about. Loosing power is the larger issue.

When we have fires, it’s usually in some parts to high winds, and when that happens PG&E has been known to turn the power off, some times for multiple days at a time in the very worst cases.

I’ve had to evacuate my house I think 3 times in the last 5 years due to the threat of fire, but I’ve never really felt my house was in any actual danger of burning down. The air quality where I live is fantastic, plenty removed from city pollution. Not much you can do when it’s fire season though, the whole county will be covered in smoke unfortunately.

On a different note, my wife and I love Sebastopol! We’ve lived in SoCo for the majority of our lives (both 26) and have found Sebastopol to be the perfect fit for us! If having your choice of 7 different grocery stores is the kinda thing your into, this is your place!! Lol, locals will get it.

**Anyone heard of Forrestville**

Live in Santa Rosa or Sebastopol. We moved from the Bay to Sebastopol 12 years ago and love it. It’s a pretty liberal area and very laid back. We’re an interracial couple and live in town. Plenty of different activities to choose from too. Close drive to Santa Rosa and Petaluma for nightlife/entertainment. Just be aware a lot of places close by 8pm especially farther into west county.

**Anyone heard of Forrestville**

It's cute and very small. Unfortunately their only high school just got closed down so that tells you the dwindling amount of young people there. I would suggest as a WOC you live in Sebastopol, Windsor, or the west side of Santa Rosa. All these are short drives and depending on what part of those cities you live, it's a nice drive with no traffic. I will say my favorite deli sandwiches are from Speers Market in Forestville and there are some great Russian River access points there.

Exploring possible places to live. Would Santa Rosa be a good fit for me? ( description in post)

- 31 yo single woman with no pets
- income will probably be around 80k ( I just graduated and have no experience so I'll be getting the lower end of the salary range)
- I'm hoping to work in a hospital doing in patient occupational therapy but I'm open to other options
- Very outdoorsy person- I LOVE hiking. I plan to get a bike when I move too. I would like moderate walkability so I can wander around on the weekends.
- Looking for a little bit of nightlife, some danceable bars and places to hang out with friends
- Looking for a place with a variety of things to do. I'm finally done with school and I'm ready to explore different things now that I will actually have free time.
- Looking for an LGBTQ friendly area. San Francisco isn't far so it doesn't necessarily have to be a wide dating pool. I want an area where the hospitals and amenities will be safe to access. I'm in Oklahoma right now and my god, the contempt the staff has is terrifying.


The major cities/towns are LGBTQ accepting, if not friendly, but the rural countryside can be so-so/iffy. Guerneville is (I assume it still is) a popular place for LGBTQ, but the town occasionally floods every several years. Sebastopol is another LGBTQ friendly town; it's a great, artsy place with a small-town feel.

Lots of outdoorsy things to do, but I have no idea if the campgrounds have reopened.

However, once you're exhausted the outdoorsy stuff and the wine and beer tasting, I'm not sure what else there is to do. I'm not sure I'd categorize the area as "young and vibrant" (but I'd love to be wrong). Lots of older people here (I think I finally qualify as one). Nightlife is nearly nonexistent, and most places close by 9pm, although there are a couple coffee houses and pizza shops open late. I'm not sure, but I've heard that Petaluma has something resembling nightlife.

Cost of living here is outrageous. Housing is crazy high, food prices are high, and gas prices are going up and up (that $6.30/gal for gas is not wrong -- I think it's going higher, too).

All three major hospitals in Santa Rosa are just about on top of the huge-*ss earthquake fault that runs roughly parallel to 101. I think they say that there's a 33% of a huge earthquake happening in the next 50 (or was it 100?) years.

And then there's Fire Season and the possible evacuations.

Sebastopol, California

Bar Fight

Looklyloo Score: 84

We're on it!