The Press-Democrat reports that the A&W Restaurant on Armory Drive is soon to become a dim sum restaurant. Former owners Manfred Kruck and Horst von Waaden ran a tight ship and offered homemade fare not usually found at a chain restaurant. But it was time to retire and the pair have sold. The new owners intend to open a Santa Rosa satellite of San Francisco’s Hang Ah Tea Room, billed as the oldest dim sum restaurant in Chinatown.

The neighborhood picnic announced previously for September 23 has been postponed, most likely until next spring. We hope to have the event coincide with the arrival of the new playground equipment, but it’s looking like work will occur this winter and early spring. Stay tuned for a new date.

In addition to the new exterior paint and pavement, Steele Lane Elementary has opened for the new year with remodeled bathrooms, new carpet in about half the classrooms, and new air-conditioning throughout the building. All in all, the school received over $1,000,000 in upgrades this summer.  In addition, test scores shot up this past spring, jumping from 690 to 724 (out of 1000), the first time the school has ever scored above 700.  The school is also starting 2007-08 with approximately 395 students, up from about 340 last year. Some of this is from the closing of Freemont, but Principal Barry Kelly notes that many of these new students are from the existing Steele Lane area. A new portable classroom is scheduled to be added in late September.

The exterior of Steele Lane Elementary is currently being repainted in preparation for the new school year and to fix up fading and peeling trim. It’s nice to see the School District sprucing up the place. Earlier this summer the paved playground area behind the school got a fresh coat of asphalt and has been re-lined for tetherball, basketball, hopscotch and all those other recess games.

Kudos also to Exchange Bank at the corner of Steele and Mendocino for the nice new paint job livening up the old drab beige.

Mark your calendar for September 23 when the North JC Neighborhood Association will hold its annual picnic at Poppy Creek Park (aka Steele Lane Park). We’ll be out there from 1:00-4:00 p.m. and will also hold our general meeting at that time. More details to follow. Come on out and meet your neighbors!

After a series of meetings and planning with neighborhood parents, Santa Rosa Recreation and Parks will be presenting the plans for new playground equipment for Steele Lane Park (aka Poppy Creek Park) on Saturday, July 21 at 9:30 a.m. Come on out to the park if you’d like to see the plans. Last we heard, work will begin this fall.

Explore Poppy Creek as it winds its way through the JC neighborhood and into our own North JC neighborhood via Long’s parking lot.  Thanks to the fine folks from LandPaths and Alistair Bleifuss, Creek Steward for the City of Santa Rosa, this great tour will allow us to learn more about what we can do for the two urban creeks (the other one is Paulin Creek) that flow through our neighborhood.  This 2-3 mile urban walk & talk will finish with a picnic dinner and possible project in Steele Lane Park, (hopefully soon to be renamed Poppy Creek Park).  “Poppy Creek Park” is located behind Steele Lane School at the end of Schurman Dr. off of Rowe Dr.

Meet at the park on Thursday, June 7, 5:30 p.m., The City will provide Rosie the Trolley to shuttle us to the start of our walk near the rural cemetery.  If you would like to join us, drop a line at outings@landpaths.org or call 707.524.9318 and you will be provided details on where to meet, what to bring, etc. We should be done by 8:00 p.m.

The completion date for expansion work on HWY 101 has been move to April 2009, according the the Press Democrat. Apparently the CalTrans web site has had it listed incorrectly as Fall 2008 for a while and recently realized their mistake. The three-year project started in the spring of 2006.

The Press Democrat reports that Whole Foods Market, the nation’s largest organic grocer, plans to open a second Santa Rosa store at Coddingtown Mall in the 50,000 sq. ft. space formerly occupied by Ralph’s. The new store, expected to open in the fall of 2008, will be twice the size of Whole Foods’ existing Santa Rosa location on Yulupa Avenue.

Brad Baker, president of Codding Investments, which in 2005 sold half its interest in the mall to Simon Property Group, the nation’s largest mall developer, said he hopes the addition of Whole Foods will convince Simon to move forward on a major facelift for the mall, which opened in 1962.

One preliminary version submitted to Santa Rosa officials called for an $85 million facelift that included a $27 million parking garage, a fourth anchor store, renovation of 225,000 square feet of the mall and the addition of 50,000 square feet of smaller retail shops.

The next general meeting of the North JC Neighborhood Association will be held May 15 at the Steele Lane Community Center from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Join Us and meet your neighbors! This meeting was originally scheduled for May 8 but was moved to not conflict with the public hearings on changes to the Long’s Drugs at Steele and Mendocino (see below).