Residents in the Roseland area of Santa Rosa cast their votes for the region’s first-ever city council member Tuesday night in a historic election for the largely Latino neighborhood.
Eddie Alvarez, owner of a cannabis dispensary and manager of a jewelry store, received 2,017 votes and is poised to become the representative of Santa Rosa’s newly created District 1. His closest opponent, electrical engineer Jorge Inocencio, conceded the race Wednesday.
Roseland, a 100-year-old neighborhood located less than a mile from Santa Rosa’s City Hall, finally became part of the official city limits in 2017 through long-fought annexation. It had previously been a county “donut hole” — surrounded on all sides by the city — with its residents unable to vote in city elections.
Shortly afterward, Santa Rosa transitioned to a district elections model — requiring one city council member from each of seven new districts, spread throughout the city.
Historically, most council members had come from the wealthier, northeast region of Santa Rosa. Never in Santa Rosa’s 150-year history had there been any council members from the southeast region of town, which includes Roseland.
— Gabe Meline (@gmeline)