UPDATED: Should Rohnert Park host 2012 Handcar Regatta?
Should Rohnert Park provide the finish line to some version of a 2012 Handcar Regatta? (Beth Schlanker / Press Deomocrat)
Should Rohnert Park become the home of the new and improved Handcar Regatta? That’s the question being asked in the Rohnert Park Towns home page poll.
Last September marked the fourth and last year the event was held in Santa Rosa, attracting 12,000 fans to the city’s Railroad Square District. But as plans move ahead to close the tracks for improvements, the growing event needs a new home.
Regatta co-founder Ty Jones reported earlier this month Healdsburg and Windsor are interested in hosting a similar event – what Jones plans on titling “Dr. Erasmus P. Kitty’s Kinetic Frenetic Opera of Mechanical Mayhem” – but what about Rohnert Park?
After all, the Regatta already has ties to Rohnert Park through an annual post-event art show, titled “SideShow,” displaying some of the handcar contraptions and related art on display at Sonoma State University’s Campus Art Museum. So, why not take that extra step and make Rohnert Park the home of a similar event?
“Rohnert Park would certainly like to be considered,” said an enthusiastic Linda Babonis, the Rohnert Park’s economic development manager.
Currently, the City of Rohnert Park has taken steps to contact the event organizers in an attempt to attract the event to the Friendly City.
“We’re certainly approachable,” she said, on this and other community events. “We love to have events that bring family and citizens together in one place.”
After last fall’s event, Jones parted ways from the core dozen organizers who are also being courted to produce a similar event as they decide what should be the next step for their production group.
Whatever the event transforms into, because of a preexisting agreement at the end of the 2011 Regatta, any future event will have a new name, according to Spring Maxfield, an independent art curator (she curated last year’s SSU “SideShow”) and one of the Regatta’s organizers.
“It really was this incredible potluck of creativity that came together, and I want to see more communities foster that,” Maxfield explained. “The Regatta was wonderful. It made huge ripples. Now, let’s see what else can grow out of that.”
Already, she said, some of the events influenced by the Regatta include Petaluma’s Rivertown Revival, and Healdsburg’s River Festival.
“It feels like there are creative popcorn kernels popping all over the county,” Maxfield said. “The more people that get out there and make their communities what they want them to be, the better, and the happier everyone will be for it.”
The Regatta “allowed everybody to play and participate and dip their toe into something else.” Could Rohnert Park benefit from a break from reality?
What do you think, Rohnert Park? Should the Friendly City play host to the 2012 Handcar Regatta under a new name? Aside from filling local hotels, cottage industries have sprouted out of the Regatta’s “old-time with a futuristic twist” style…could an event like this be just the economic jolt Rohnert Park needs?
Vote in the poll on the Rohnert Park Towns home page and leave your comments below. Find out more about the annual event by visiting handcar-regatta.com.
contact me
I would love to have the regatta in RP in some form. I would hope that it could stay true to it’s roots. The music, art, costumes and contraptions make for an incredibly fun filled day
A resounding YES! Rohnert Park has been struggling with its identity, suffering the lack of a “true” downtown. This event could help solidify the creativity bubbling up in this bedroom community and give it a welcome reason to toss off the sheets.
Sorry, just doesn’t seem like a good fit to me.
The Regatta looks to me to be over. Best move on.
Want to put Rohnert Park on the INTERNATIONAL map? Be sure there are a couple
of race vehicles sponsored by Hooters. They’ll have the safest cars, too, with all those…
bumpers.
I would follow the Regatta wherever it lands but Rohnert Park seems like a good choice. RP is closer to me than the other candidates.
I cannot believe that anyone would not want something as fun as the Regatta or another incantation that is similar. I think the naysayers are just poopy faces that have no humor genes nor any sense of adventure. They should just stay home and watch paint dry… Or come out and have some fun.
Why not have it in Windsor. Much more charm than Rohnert Park and to my mind a better venue.
Sadly, the Handcar Regatta will not occur this summer as the remaining organizers need time to re-organize. See Dan Taylor’s April 9 story for more information: http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20120409/ARTICLES/120409576
The moring they announced on the radio that Handcar or it’s new incarnation was not going to happen this year- mostly thanks to the Smart Train, the following commercial was about the benefits and virtues of Smart Train and it’s positive impact on the community. Ironic wouldn’t you say ?