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Jeremy Hays: OK. Jeremy Hays: OK. Jeremy Hays: So I'm going to start with that first question that that we went over just before. Jeremy Hays: Was your family from Sonoma County? If not, where were they from?

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Art Hollingsworth: Our family, my family is. Art Hollingsworth: Raised in originally in San Francisco, my history is from the state of Washington in Seattle is where we came from, and when I was. Art Hollingsworth: 10 years old. Our family came from Seattle. Art Hollingsworth: To San Francisco, where my parents established some residents.

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Jeremy Hays: And were they in what kind of business? They weren't. I was gonna ask if they were in agriculture, but they weren't. Jeremy Hays: In San Francisco. Art Hollingsworth: No, my not in San Francisco. My my father was an entertainer during World War Two. They were in the nightclub business in Seattle. They entertained the troops and when the. Art Hollingsworth: The war was over. There was no troops left to entertain, so they moved to San Francisco to start over, and we started a whole new life in San Francisco. My father went from being a a major entertainer to driving a yellow taxi cab.

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Jeremy Hays: And how did you end up in Rohnert Park? Art Hollingsworth: I grew up in San Francisco, went to school there, attended City College of San Francisco, met my wife. Art Hollingsworth: And we ran away and got married at age 18 up to Reno and we started our life together in San Francisco, which was good. But San Francisco didn't provide us the things that we needed. I had a family moved to Sonoma County. Art Hollingsworth: So we migrated to Sonoma County in 1959 in Santa Rosa, and we wanted to have a place to live. Rohnert Park was just begin to advertise on the radio. I'm trying to remember the man that he was.

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Art Hollingsworth: Sports figure and they were selling homes in Rohnert Park for $500 down and very little a month, which intrigued us when we had. We started our family, so we bought a house in 1960. Art Hollingsworth: And we borrowed $500 from a member of the family and bought a house in Rohnert Park. Art Hollingsworth: I remember the street name was Alta Ave. we paid $10,000 for the house. Art Hollingsworth: And the house payment was $80.00 a month.

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Art Hollingsworth: Which met our budget. Yeah, yeah. That's from today's perspective. That's an amazing story. An amazing it is. So people who tell young people today that how we got our first house and what we paid for it, they can't believe it. Art Hollingsworth: Now, that same house that we bought in 1960 last year sold for $525,000. My gosh, so when you move somewhere. Jeremy Hays: Even if you, even if the price is. Jeremy Hays: Right for a.

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Jeremy Hays: House. I imagine you know that you look to make sure that the. Jeremy Hays: The neighborhood the town is somewhere you want to move to and the price is right and the neighborhood isn't one you want to move to. You usually don't. So what was it about Rohnert Park that you said we want to move here? This is the place we could live. Well, actually, the the motive and the reason that we came here is because we could afford to live here and. Art Hollingsworth: They were all new houses. Art Hollingsworth: In fact, when we moved in, I believe there was only about 400 homes in the entire city. If you're familiar with the city of Rohnert Park, it's built in sections ABCD and so forth. And when we moved in, they only had a.

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Art Hollingsworth: Section and that was. Art Hollingsworth: Made-up of Adrian, which is the Main Street and then the. Art Hollingsworth: North Corner was an A section and so there wasn't very many houses. There were no stores, there were no place you could shop. There was no gas stations. We were totally dependent on the city of Catani, which would at that point in time was not incorporated. It was part of the county. Jeremy Hays: And so you moved here.

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Jeremy Hays: You moved into a brand new House. You're starting a new life with your with your. Did you have kids at the time, by the way? We had. Yeah. I think we had a couple of kids at the time. So you were starting your new life with your new family and Rohnert Park, as you described. It was a place that was just houses at the time. So. So what was that? Jeremy Hays: Like usually people live where there are stores and and and schools and and that kind of thing. Jeremy Hays: What was it like to live in a place where you had to go to another town to do your shopping and and so on? Art Hollingsworth: It was very difficult at the time Rohnert Park was made-up of young people buying houses for $500 down and having very little money to live on and not a place to shop. We had to go out of the.

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Art Hollingsworth: Go to Santa Rosa or Cotati to chop. Art Hollingsworth: Most of the young people were struggling. They didn't have a lot of money. It was very difficult to have anybody except a check from the people that lived in Rohnert Park because the reputation was the check would not clear the bank. And so it was very difficult to. Art Hollingsworth: Shop and the only place really if we needed a gallon of milk or something for the children, we had to go to Catada or Santa Rosa to buy it. And we had. We had to drive. It wasn't a. Art Hollingsworth: This was buying gasoline was only $0.25 a gallon, so it was not a problem at that time.

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Jeremy Hays: Your feeling at the time, positive though, and hopeful it was a difficult to take care of practical matters as you were just describing, but did you feel sure that Rohnert Park was going to develop into a place that was a a city that you were you were happy in that you could be? Jeremy Hays: You could take care of your business and that kind of thing. Art Hollingsworth: Yeah. Thinking back when we moved with a family, we were desperate to have a place where we could live. We could afford to live. And our concern at that point in time was not what we were going to do with the city. It was what we were going to be able to do with our family, to raise them properly and the the city of Rohnert Park was a place where. Art Hollingsworth: But they began by developing some parks. They had some recreation programs they had.

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Art Hollingsworth: Things for our family to do and it started out. That was our total purpose of living in the city and hadn't really been interested at that point in time in anything but surviving. And once we got settled in, we. Art Hollingsworth: Met new friends we house saw how things were trying to develop in the city, the struggles we were having. That's when we began to be more interested in what the city was going to do. Art Hollingsworth: At that point in time, but up till that point in time, we were just struggling like anybody else to survive. And what were you doing for work, art? What was your profession at the time at that point in time? I was a marketing representative for a wholesale sundry company. Art Hollingsworth: I was traveling Sonoma County, Marin County and Napa County, selling zippers and buttons, and.

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Art Hollingsworth: Pencils and pens to stores. Jeremy Hays: I guess at the time there were no customers in Rohnert. Art Hollingsworth: Park none? Absolutely none. All my customers were out of Rohnert Park. I'd leave the leave the city every day and go out to somewhere else. Alan Fitch (AF): Excuse me for jumping in a small request, everything is fine, but sounds sounds good if you could each allow like one heart to beat between the end of the question and the beginning of an answer that gives the editor a.

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Alan Fitch: Place to cut. Art Hollingsworth: Oh, all right. OK. Alan Fitch: OK. And same same for you try not to. Alan Fitch: Overlap because that makes it difficult to use that piece of audio for the video at least.

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Jeremy Hays: Got it, got it. Perfect. OK, thanks Alan. Jeremy Hays: Where was I? Jeremy Hays: One of the main goals that Paul Dallas and Maurice Frederickson talked about in the beginning was how. Jeremy Hays: Rohnert Park would be a city with its own economic base. And did you see activity and an effort on the part of the city to develop its own core of businesses and and and industrial companies and and that kind of thing?

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Art Hollingsworth: I I think that I would like to approach it this way. Nobody was interested in Rohnert Park in 1960. Commercial people, I think as I began to remember, we were desperate to have a place to go to the store to buy gasoline, but we couldn't. Art Hollingsworth: They they were not interested. The reputation of the city hadn't grown yet. Art Hollingsworth: Paul Gollis was had a great imagination of what he would like the city to be, and I think it was not. Probably until they started to get ready for incorporation. We took that vote in 19. Art Hollingsworth: 61 I think at the end of 6162 to become a city, that's when we began, interest became interested in trying to find the industry and businesses that would come to the city. Other than that, they just look at us and kind of say, well, it's just a housing project.

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Jeremy Hays: Uhm, the do you remember to prepare for this interview and and and for these series of interviews I read a lot of. Jeremy Hays: Clips and old stories in the press, Democrat and in the Rohnert Park Press. And I remember, but I don't remember the year or the name of the store that at one point it was a big deal when the first kind of grocery store market opened. Do you remember that? Art Hollingsworth: That I remember that very, very much. The Cissus market sister was a Italian family and good old Sonoma County family. Interesting family they. Alan Fitch: Can I get you to start that one over again and just say?

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Alan Fitch: The first market to open. Art Hollingsworth: OK. Yeah, yeah. The first, the first market of the first form of any industry was just a supermarket and that was just a major step forward for the city of Rohnert Park. Art Hollingsworth: We were so happy we had a place to. Art Hollingsworth: Get up and go to the store on Saturday and we didn't have to drive out of town and we took our families and that was a young Bob sister was a young guy and he fit in with the rest of the young families that were in town.

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Jeremy Hays: He come from out of town to open. Art Hollingsworth: The market, I think they were Sonoma County. Art Hollingsworth: People I was. I wasn't as familiar with him as other than the fact that he opened that store, we were all. Art Hollingsworth: Happy about it.

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Jeremy Hays: And going from there, what were the kind of the first other types of businesses that opened gas station that kind of thing? Art Hollingsworth: They they opened the Chevron Gas station that was right across from where the supermarket was at this, they started that shopping center. The market was the anchor. And I recall some of the things that came after that, there was an A&W root beer stand that came just around. Art Hollingsworth: The back of the store and that was good because now we had a place to go buy hamburgers and we didn't have to leave the city to do that. Art Hollingsworth: UM, following the my memory serves me right. Following systems market, they've built an extension onto that shopping center.

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Art Hollingsworth: And a man by the name of Art Roberts, who became very involved in city politics, was a pharmacist at the drug store right to the right of the supermarket. And that became another focal point for us. We could go in there and buy greeting cards and prescriptions. Art Hollingsworth: And again, we didn't have to drive out of town and we got to know him. It would be. Art Hollingsworth: Became more of a a personal thing with everything that came to Rohnert Park. This people get to know them by first name. It's now you go into the store and you're lucky if sometimes if somebody will come and ask if they can help. But during those days, everybody was a neighbor and they live in town and. Art Hollingsworth: It became a very, very pleasant place to live very slowly, but it it did happen.

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Jeremy Hays: Can you talk a little bit more about that, about what it felt like to be part of a city that was actually starting to come together as as a group of neighbors and businesses and people whom you knew? Can you talk a little bit? Art Hollingsworth: More about that as the city began to develop it, it developed through. Art Hollingsworth: Mainly, I think that those days the recreation program for young families with children growing up sports basketball can't remember the name of the Catholic League, that the Cy. Art Hollingsworth: OK.

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Art Hollingsworth: It was at CYO or something that the kids could play basketball. They played softball, baseball. We had a high school that came down. I can't remember when the ranch taught high school came, but we began to become a community where people were interested in what was going on. Art Hollingsworth: With each other's family? Not. Art Hollingsworth: Just struggling with what they were going to do to exist from day-to-day, but they could have fun on the weekends together and and they began to pull the community together, made us interested in where our community was going. I think that was the first time that as a young family I was really interested in what was going to happen within the city. Art Hollingsworth: Because I was involved with it and my children were involved with it.

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Jeremy Hays: UM. Jeremy Hays: Did you listen? I asked. One other question. Was it strange? I mean, you had grown up in in San Francisco. Basically. This is a city with this history going back to the, you know, gold rush and and and before and. And was it odd or strange to be in a city that was entirely new, that had no history? Art Hollingsworth: Even did was that? Did that have any make any impression on you at that point in time? I would say that 90% of the of us have lived in Rohnert Park came for a very economic reason that we could afford to be. We weren't. We weren't concerned with, you know, how it looked, what kind of a city it was going to be. Art Hollingsworth: Yet didn't pay any attention because living in San Francisco, you were just.

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Art Hollingsworth: Part of the Big city and you just kind of worked around, did what you had to do more and thinking about what I could do for the city because we were not thinking about the government or we were just there, living, going to school, doing what we had to do to exist until it wasn't for me and our family personally, that we really became. Art Hollingsworth: Interested in our community until we were part of a community that was interested in us, they needed us. They needed us to. Art Hollingsworth: For jobs, when they needed people, they needed us to do shopping here in town and it was a struggle to shop in town because everything was outside there. We had no place to buy clothes, no place to buy shoes, and then we, as as a result of that, getting back to. Art Hollingsworth: The things that helped us develop the Community was we had another store that opened up that was a boon to the city.

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Art Hollingsworth: To the citizens in town because it was called TG and Yi. Think was the name of the store and it opened up next to the supermarket. The big another big store. And now we had a place to go and buy diapers and shoes. And it was. Art Hollingsworth: Great place that brought the community together more and then you go to these places and you meet your neighbors and you get to know what's going on. So as that began to develop, and that was in the probably mid 60s that those things began to happen. I don't remember the dates Pete Callahan. Art Hollingsworth: Be able to give you most of that history. He's going to be just an absolute great man for the dates. He's got a great memory. He's coming in next. Jeremy Hays: He's what he's coming in next, yes.

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Art Hollingsworth: Oh, good. Yeah. He's he'll remember all the dates and all the names of all the people. And he's just a walking dictionary. What? Where was Jesus? And then TG and. Jeremy Hays: Y where where actually where were they located? Art Hollingsworth: At the point in time, it was the center of town. It was Adrian and southwest. Art Hollingsworth: Blvd. On the corner there.

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Art Hollingsworth: Southwest was a Main Street going through town and Adrian Adrian went from north to South and southwest went from east to West. Jeremy Hays: The SSU, which was then called Soma State College, I believe not Sonoma State University came to town and then it was in temporary quarters and then eventually in late later in the 60s it went to where it is now. Jeremy Hays: What was that like for the city? I mean, that's a pretty big thing for a city that had only houses and was, you know, really small and was just starting to grow, to have a, you know, a State College, come here. What was that like for the city? What? What did it mean for? Art Hollingsworth: The city my own visualization, visualization of what the university was at the port.

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Art Hollingsworth: First came they built some buildings behind Sisas market. Uh, some large buildings in the university met there, and it was kind of. Art Hollingsworth: Nobody really took it serious when it was during that period of time when the hippies time was going and most of the students were very liberal, they had they were not thinking the way young families were thinking. In those days it. Art Hollingsworth: Was totally. Art Hollingsworth: The opposite of of the imagery that we had when we came these kids.

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Art Hollingsworth: With different ideas and they were going to into the building, they would come and go and they. Art Hollingsworth: Excuse me? They were living off. It wasn't a campus, but they were living in a trying to think of the name of the Grove that they lived. They bought their little trailers and camps and they. Art Hollingsworth: A had a area outside the Pete would know the name of that and they would go over there and stay and they really didn't fit into the community that we started at that point in time and they stayed there for. Art Hollingsworth: Gosh, I can't remember until they started to build the campus and where the campus is now and they were nice buildings. They finally came in and when they started, built the university, they we had another group of people that came in and rented those buildings and it was kind of a.

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Art Hollingsworth: Immune where they another group of strange people came into the community that really didn't fit in, but they were there and uh, they did the best they could to fit into the community, but they were totally. Art Hollingsworth: You know, differs night and day. Art Hollingsworth: So the university began to grow, began to grow slowly, but with the help of the cooperation, and I can't remember all of it. Pete will tell you the names of the presidents and they. Art Hollingsworth: Begin to develop the university and as you can see, the university now is a major university and has developed to be something we're very proud of. It was hard for young people to be proud of what was going on because they didn't relate at all.

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Jeremy Hays: You want some water? Yeah. Alan Fitch: Grab some. Alan Fitch: We want you to be comfortable at least as much as possible. Art Hollingsworth: This is easy, but I don't want.

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Art Hollingsworth: Don't do I do twice a week. I do sessions down in Oakland, 4 hour sessions of talking, usually about 3 1/2 hours. Yes. What what? What for? Oh, I'm. Art Hollingsworth: Work in the Mormon temple there and I do two nights a week where I do the work in the side of that temple and it requires me to do training. Art Hollingsworth: For for say 4 1/2 hours of which most of the time it's about 3 hours of speaking yes. Jeremy Hays: It's a lot.

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Jeremy Hays: Of speaking. Jeremy Hays: So you're used to this. Jeremy Hays: Alright, you're doing great. Art Hollingsworth: It's nothing. There's nothing wrong.

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Art Hollingsworth: Just making is not doesn't bother. Jeremy Hays: Me. You're doing great. You're doing great. Was there actually conflict art between the Central State College students and the and the residents of the city? Or was it mostly just? Jeremy Hays: That they stayed apart. Art Hollingsworth: I don't remember much conflict. All I remember was that people would, when I was outside the community, they they had heard about it. There was articles in the paper about some of the challenges that they were giving to the city. And when they came to some of us, it was an embarrassment that they have them there because of what they were doing.

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Art Hollingsworth: It really did at that. Art Hollingsworth: From my own personal statement, I was so caught up in feeding my family and surviving at that beginning of my time here that I just didn't pay that much attention to, and I know that there was challenges and we would. I was, I would travel these three counties, people would say I heard about this and this. Art Hollingsworth: Happened and that happened. I said, you know, I don't know where it's going to go, but eventually it's turned out to be very good. And that's because of the leaders that we had at the time in the community. Pete Callahan, who you are going to interview. Art Hollingsworth: Shortly was probably the catalyst for most of that happening. Pete Kellen and Jimmy Rogers and they were two mines and and they were a lot of times at odds with Paul Golis and Maurice Fredericks. They were on the on the other.

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Art Hollingsworth: Side of they had one idea of how to develop the city. Pete Callen and Jimmy. Art Hollingsworth: Rodgers and those that were here had a different direction. They wanted to go and so they were not always in the friendly mood to one another. Alan Fitch: Jeremy Hays: Can you talk a little? Alan Fitch: Excuse me for a second. One thing I request if I could, of you please don't mention that Pete. Callen is going to be interviewed or.

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Alan Fitch: Art Hollingsworth: Or like that, OK. Alan Fitch: It's going to get sliced and diced. Alan Fitch: And so there may not. Alan Fitch: Be any reference at all.

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Alan Fitch: Art Hollingsworth: OK. Alan Fitch: So it's better if you just say. Alan Fitch: His name and and. Alan Fitch: What he did?

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Art Hollingsworth: Yeah. All right now. Jeremy Hays: Can you just to follow up on that subject? Art, can you talk just a little bit about what the you have to go into a lot of depth, but what the different visions for the city were at the time? Art Hollingsworth: Well, I now you're going back into my memory that that, you know, I wasn't paying much attention at the time, but the challenge was Pete Callahan was the the election was in 1960. Art Hollingsworth: One the other 61 or 62 to make the city to make it into a city.

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Art Hollingsworth: And they they. Art Hollingsworth: At that point in time that it was whether or not Cotati and Rohnert Park were going to be one city, that was, that was one thing on the ballot, but they separated Cotati didn't want anything to do with the city of Rohnert Park at the time. Art Hollingsworth: And as you can see, the results of the difference catalia has one image in the city of Rohnert Park has another image, and looking back at the time, I think it was a wise move because the the getting to how katani relates to the university it makes. Art Hollingsworth: A place for the people, the young people in the university to go and to settle and to as little shops and and places for them to to be so I think as a result of that. But I don't think that was a result.

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Art Hollingsworth: Of of Callahan or Pete Golis, Callahan wanted to develop a city that, like city of Santa Rosa and I and I can't remember what all the vision of was. Paul golas. But they were in conflict many times. That's the direction they wanted to go. I think that. Art Hollingsworth: I think when you interview some of those others that were directly involved with day-to-day politics, you can get the answer to that. Jeremy Hays: One of the things that Ronald Park has always been given a hard time about is that it doesn't have a center. There's no sort of downtown kind of area, and when you, you know, you, you moved here when you were were and your family were growing up here. Was that something that you missed? Was it something that you. Jeremy Hays: Wondered about was it something you hoped would happen in the future?

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Art Hollingsworth: My own, my own personal opinion about downtown for City of Orland Park. It doesn't need one. Art Hollingsworth: If we go through the various cities in the Northern California, all of those cities that have a downtown have got challenges that they're having challenges, they they can't meet. And to this day, if somebody would ask me, do we need to center a downtown in the city of Rohnert Park, my answer would be no. Art Hollingsworth: UM. Art Hollingsworth: That we don't need that because of the way people Live Today. They don't want to go downtown and don't have a place to park and park it with parking meters and have to spend that money. But that's my own personal opinion. But still that people want to have a a downtown area and I personally don't know what that would accomplish for them, so.

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Art Hollingsworth: We want to talk about downtown, if if I was on the Council again when I was there. I always said no, I'm not going to vote for a downtown area. I remember going to San Jose one time and their downtown was derelict and other cities all the way up in the state of California, the downtown. Art Hollingsworth: Where a problem areas they couldn't, you know, because of the big box stores downtown was not a place to go, was a challenge. So they have now made a a contract with the company and I don't know who. Art Hollingsworth: Is that is going to build a downtown where the State Farm building was and that is not happening the way that they think it should happen. So it's a challenge I, you know, that's my feeling about downtown. I think the city, the way it's been built, the where the parks and the way it's laid out, we can do without a downtown. Jeremy Hays: That's another that's on the other side. That's the way Rohnert Park was intended to develop was these discrete these, you know, these these neighborhoods with their own school and pool and park and and.

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Jeremy Hays: That was, I imagine, that was something that really, there was a nice part of when you when you moved to the a section, you had your own. It was a built in neighborhood. Art Hollingsworth: Yeah, there was a park there of a park and then in 19, I think it was 69 or late 60s, I was, they made a committee to develop the how we wanted to develop city. So I was a committee chairman for the development of Rohnert Park and the future of how we wanted. Art Hollingsworth: It to look. Art Hollingsworth: And so that's when we sat down and and designed the city.

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Art Hollingsworth: We had a school in every neighborhood. We had a park in every neighborhood. We designed places for the swimming pool, for athletes, athletics. We have the the golf course that we put in. We made all of the amenities that were necessary to make this as a great place to live in a very friendly place to live. Art Hollingsworth: And so it has grown that way and it's got to the point now where I think it's matured. People love to come to Rohnert Park. They like to. Art Hollingsworth: Live here and as you travel. Art Hollingsworth: From my opinion, as I used to travel and people say, where do you live? And I'd say Rohnert Park and they would say, well, where is Rohnert Park? We've never heard of it. Now anywhere I travel now and people ask me where I'm from, I say I'm from Rohnert Park, and they always have something nice to say about the city.

00:29:51.000 - 00:30:21.000

Jeremy Hays: That kind of makes me think of, you know, because the people, the reason that a city is a good place to live is really. Jeremy Hays: The people. Jeremy Hays: In the end, so you moved here in 6060 and the by the time you ran for the Council, the city had been in the time you joined the Council in 78, the city had been. Jeremy Hays: Was kind of grown up by then. Troy, how would you describe the typical resident at that time of Rohnert Park?

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Art Hollingsworth: Well, at that point in time when I it in the late 70s is when the northern part of the city began to come north of of the Expressway, you've got the E section over in that area. You've got S section, you've got D section. Art Hollingsworth: And you've got F section and and those are the all of the more the more pricey homes at the time. Up until that time in the 70s, the houses were selling for. Art Hollingsworth: A house that sold for over $40,000, a lot of money, and then they begin to build these houses in the northern part of of the city. The price of those houses began to be 60 and $70,000 and the type of people that could afford those homes where people who were established, they had the good. Art Hollingsworth: Occupations they came here and felt very comfortable because it was a good place to live. But of course that bring their families. There were schools a.

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Art Hollingsworth: City parks, golf courses, bowling alleys, all of the things that they wanted to do but and. And I can't remember when we built the the Community Center that place to go to seek plays and things of that nature so. Art Hollingsworth: The difference was when when I came, it was out of desperation just to find a place to be to survive. These people came to find a place to live that they could do things and have recreation. Jeremy Hays: Cities sort of on the same note cities do I give enough time between that answer? OK, cities developed differently, and a lot of cities developed. They have an idea for one section of town downtown, say, and then another section is kind of just happens the way it happens. And then. Jeremy Hays: People start to develop another section and and there's there's not as much kind of.

00:32:20.000 - 00:33:18.000

Jeremy Hays: Planning or order to it, you know. But Rohnert Park had a very particular vision right from the beginning. And then and actually successfully followed that vision. You have different neighborhoods or lettered neighborhoods, each with its school and pool. And that was it. Hard to. Jeremy Hays: Stick to that vision. Art Hollingsworth: Of how? No, it wasn't hard because the people that had that vision were the people that were in government at the time and and began to be in a position to make sure that we could follow that vision and make. Art Hollingsworth: Happened. For instance, the city is divided by residential and commercial by a Hwy. 101 and everything on the east of the highway was for the family and for residents. Mostly everything on the West side of the freeway is commercial, where all the stores and.

00:33:18.000 - 00:34:19.000

Art Hollingsworth: And hotels and motels are the nice thing about the city is we weren't hammered by something that was built in the 18190. Art Hollingsworth: Hundreds that was in an old building. We were all have all new buildings and we could take advantage of new laws and things that would allow us to make tax money. For instance, in the development of this city, we have no place to buy a car, new car. We don't have any. Art Hollingsworth: Car dealerships, so therefore we don't have the sales tax revenue that comes from selling cars. So to offset that. Art Hollingsworth: The city began to find out that there was wise to build hotels or motels where we get a 11:50 to 13% room tax. We make more money on room taxes than we would if we sold automobiles. So it's one of the advantages of being a young city and being able to watch.

00:34:19.000 - 00:35:10.000

Art Hollingsworth: The economics of the other cities, we could develop things that would be beneficial to the city. Jeremy Hays: OK, so in that way you learned from the experience of other cities, what were some other ways that, I mean, as a new city, I imagine you kind of look around and you think well, how are people doing things, how is it, what's working, what's not working? What are some other ways you learned, whether it was something working or whether it was something that wasn't working, that you learned from other cities, especially in Sonoma County like Santa Rosa? Art Hollingsworth: Or, you know other. Well, let's take a city like Santa Rosa from my from my own vision. There's very parts of Santa Rosa that people don't want to go into. They don't want to live in that. They're they're challenged because they're afraid to be on the streets at night. Art Hollingsworth: We don't have that challenge here in this city. I'm sure we've got challenges with law enforcement that I'm not aware.

00:35:10.000 - 00:35:37.000

Art Hollingsworth: Of, but I think there's parts of the city that we feel safer in than they would in the city of Santa Rosa, where they've had to, they've built their homes at, the people have moved out. Art Hollingsworth: Many bigger homes and all those homes are sold being sold to people. Art Hollingsworth: Who are just barely existing and it's hard to raise their families, and there's nothing for them to do so. Art Hollingsworth: They have challenges that they have to deal with. One of the challenges that's.

00:35:37.000 - 00:36:17.000

Art Hollingsworth: Big now in. Art Hollingsworth: All of the cities in the county as homelessness, Santa Rosa gets all the advertising and the city of Orland Park has their challenges also. So we're dealing with those kind of issues which are new issues for U.S. economic issues. We pretty much got those in line and for following that. Jeremy Hays: One of the things that you know, even back in the days of the Community services district before the city incorporated Paul Golis and and and also Maurice Fredersen talked about the. Jeremy Hays: You know, Rohnert Park was for.

00:36:17.000 - 00:37:08.000

Jeremy Hays: The guys and the families who couldn't join golf courses elsewhere but could but worked in them. It was for sort of working class families. Can you talk a little bit about that? Was that your vision of the the city in the beginning as well? And and? Art Hollingsworth: Well, I don't know if it's my vision. Art Hollingsworth: But it was my savior. You know, when we had a young family, we raised eight children in town. And economically speaking, when we first got started, it was very difficult to raise those. Art Hollingsworth: And I give Paul Golas Maurice further credit. They built the city where I could afford to bring my children and where I could raise them and afford to do the things that we had to do that. But I think that's where their vision ended. They that's what they wanted, but they didn't in visualize how they were going to do it.

00:37:08.000 - 00:37:43.000

Art Hollingsworth: When it got beyond that point, the city now has the way in. Art Hollingsworth: My own opinion. Art Hollingsworth: The way it is, it's it's a full grown city with all of the amenities that it should have and probably some that we would like to have. But no, we don't have a Country Club, but we have two golf courses. No, we don't have to have, we don't have a Symphony, but we have a Symphony hall. Art Hollingsworth: No, we don't have all of the schools that we, we don't have a Santa Rosa Junior College, but we have Sonoma State University.

00:37:43.000 - 00:38:28.000

Art Hollingsworth: So my own opinion is that those original pioneers including Paul Golas and Maurice Fredericks and Pete Callanan and Jimmy Rogers, and everybody that had a vision, are seeing that vision come to light. By the way the city has developed and what's going on within the city. Jeremy Hays: So let's bring it forward a little bit. You moved here and and 1960 you said you and then later on in the 70s you ran I think once or twice for Council, you joined the Council in 1978, you stayed there until I'm looking at my hand because I wrote it. Jeremy Hays: On my hand till 94. Jeremy Hays: Led you to start to run for the Council. Why did you decide to take that step?

00:38:28.000 - 00:39:37.000

Art Hollingsworth: Well, I I got on the 1st, I got involved in in the Planning Commission prior to the City Council in 1970, I started an insurance brokerage in the city, so I was. Art Hollingsworth: Their 24/7 doing business in the city with the citizens of the city and getting all kinds of questions and opinions as I was in their homes, I would be selling auto insurance and homeowners insurance and life insurance to these people. And we've got to be talking about where the city. Art Hollingsworth: He was going in this that part of the period of time I became President of the Chamber of Commerce began to be more interested in what was going on within the city. In fact, when we brought State Farm Insurance to the city, I remember going up to Santa Rosa because city of Santa Rosa was not allowing. Art Hollingsworth: State Farm to increase their parking and increase the size of buildings. So we made them an offer to bring them down here and they gave them the property and peak Helen could give you more on that but.

00:39:37.000 - 00:40:24.000

Art Hollingsworth: State Farm came here, which was a coup for us, and they took that big parcel of land and we brought in another class of people that were professionals that worked for State Farm that lived in the city. The thing that drew me to that is I became more interested because I personally now had. Art Hollingsworth: An interest in what was going to happen in the economy of the. Art Hollingsworth: And looked at it from a different perspective. So I got involved in the Planning Commission, served on that until I went on the Council, and then I think from all of the various aspects of the experiences that I had in the city would be able to see the vision of what I really wanted to have happen. Art Hollingsworth: In my life for my wife and myself, and for our children.

00:40:24.000 - 00:41:19.000

Art Hollingsworth: The comfortable thing that that I think I had in our family had in that the families in Rohnert Park had all of my children. Eight children went to the same grammar school to the same junior high school, and they all graduated from the same high school. They all lived in a community, didn't have to move. They were not interrupted. Art Hollingsworth: They could stay here and we're involved in the community and and so that's what I feel is important about this city. It was a place to come and to live and to be comfortable. Jeremy Hays: That's a really different what you just described with your children just growing up their whole life here in the city, same neighborhood is really different from the when you first what you described was the situation in the beginning where people, you know, nobody checked with, you know, people checks would bounce. And I heard that the city was referred to as the. Jeremy Hays: Land of the midnight movers at some point because people.

00:41:19.000 - 00:41:52.000

Jeremy Hays: Would up and leave in. Jeremy Hays: The middle of the night pay their. Jeremy Hays: That's a that's like night and day. It is. So what were some? Jeremy Hays: What were you? You've talked a little bit about this, but if there's some other things that that come up like you just to mention them. What were two 3/4 of the most important things that happened in the OR, you know, in the 1st 10 years of of the city that that helped shape make Rohnert Park. I mean I imagine State Farm was a big thing. I don't know if.

00:41:52.000 - 00:42:30.000

Jeremy Hays: That was in the 1st 10 years. No, that wasn't in the 1st 10. Art Hollingsworth: It came later. Well, it came. Yeah, in in the 70s. I'm trying to think of those dates. Art Hollingsworth: I think the important the the, the, the 1st and most important thing that that I remember happening in the city is when we got a supermarket and that's just a small thing. But when you're in the city, you're not like on an island isolated from everything else and you've got to get up in the middle of the night and drive to Santa Rosa to buy a court, a quart of milk for your kids. Art Hollingsworth: So you can get them to sleep at night. That's a major issue and I.

00:42:30.000 - 00:43:24.000

Art Hollingsworth: You know, being a typical young person at that time, struggling to exist. Art Hollingsworth: The only thing that we had in our mind was can we exist? Are we going to be able to pay our PG&E bill when it comes to that was my major goal when we were with all those children to be able to pay our in an $80.00 a month house payment to think about that today? I mean, if you don't make $80.00 an hour at work. Art Hollingsworth: Something's wrong, so it's changed. And and that was a challenge for us. Just to pay that $80.00 in those days. But we didn't make a lot of money. Art Hollingsworth: That was an important thing for us. The city, as as we began to be more affluent, there were things for us to do. For instance, I wanted to play golf. There was a golf course for us to to do that, the kids wanted to go to the movies. We built a.

00:43:24.000 - 00:44:18.000

Art Hollingsworth: An area where we now have a movie theater. There's other things that they want to do for recreation. You want to go bowling? The city began to develop things that would be. Art Hollingsworth: Reasons for us to stay and to be something that that we could be involved in the challenge between city of Rohnert Park and the city of San Francisco where I grew up, or living and interest in what was going on in the city. Art Hollingsworth: Was to the little neighborhood where we live, lived. And that was it. In the city of Orlando. Art Hollingsworth: You can meet your neighbor in the in the store. You don't even know who they are, but all of a sudden have a conversation and you're saying, well, where do you live and why? How long have you been here and gives meaning to being a citizen of the city of Rohnert Park? I think that's very important.

00:44:18.000 - 00:45:33.000

Jeremy Hays: Yeah, that's a that's a great point that you make. What what are what are and what are some of your favorite memories? Are they the same kind of thing, the market opening, you know? I mean, they could involve just meeting a family across the street, who you, who you become lifelong friends with or do you have like any, you know, when you look back in those days, really favorite memories. Art Hollingsworth: Well, one of the things that now our family is very religious family we something else that we had to do was we when we wanted to attend church we had to go to Petaluma. What's where we attended church. So one of my fondest memories was that. Art Hollingsworth: We want to have a church in Rohnert Park and and so they built all the churches in the northern end of town, the Catholic Church and the Baptist Church and all the other churches. But one of the things that I would like to have had it's a church right in the middle of town. Art Hollingsworth: And was involved in securing that property for the church. We built the church round and Country Club so that we just have to drive around the corner to go to church. So it was a very important activity for us to do that. So my one of the greatest things that we did was to help to build or personally help to build that.

00:45:33.000 - 00:46:23.000

Art Hollingsworth: Church here in town and we use that church all the time, once a week, and there's other families in this community that built their churches in town and they use their churches. Art Hollingsworth: So I think we've built a city or have been part of building a city that people want to live in and stay in. They when they got to move away, they go away and then they come back. Art Hollingsworth: Schools and churches kind of similar in the way that they're really important to people putting their roots down, right and the the if you go out now to the ranch at Catholic High School, they just build the building. I can't remember how much it cost, but where they, I can't think of any other high school in Sonoma County. Art Hollingsworth: Or in the area that's got the building of the facilities that we have here in town.

00:46:23.000 - 00:47:03.000

Art Hollingsworth: The you know, as as a citizen of the city of our part, I'm very proud of what we've done. I think we can look back over the years and we're sure we've made some mistakes. We've had some challenges in trying to develop the city, but if you stop and look around at what we've got and what you see and what we're able to do, I think we've done a good job. Art Hollingsworth: In the city. Jeremy Hays: To me is a good point to. Jeremy Hays: A good conclusion for now if you want to take a break or anything like that. I mean, that's a great. Or if there's are there things that you want to talk about still when you came came here.

00:47:03.000 - 00:47:39.000

Art Hollingsworth: No, I don't know. I I probably all night we could think of things that you know, bring back memories that you're you're still recording. OK. But I think you've got some interesting things coming up in your next interview that's going to be a fun interview. Jeremy Hays: Looking forward to that, what would you ask Pete? Art Hollingsworth: You can ask Pete any question and he will tell you the daytime date and purpose. Now he and I. Art Hollingsworth: Play golf twice a week. We have for the last.

00:47:39.000 - 00:48:30.000

Art Hollingsworth: 25 years and if if you can capture on the video the sincerity of Pete Callahan's and and he's the catalyst for where the city got to be. Art Hollingsworth: He, he and I would buttheads every once in a while because he was strong and he was in charge and I was on the Council and the mayor and I was in charge. And so you have some challenges, but he was always 1 willing to compromise to for the good of the city and and I don't think he had any personal gain out of it. Art Hollingsworth: And help to devote what you see is what I'd say, 90% of it's his vision. Jeremy Hays: And just ask quickly, were there are there things that you wish could have gone differently or or things that that you you you thought?

00:48:30.000 - 00:49:14.000

Art Hollingsworth: No, at at this point in time, uh, the I don't see anything any different. The only thing that I wish we could have done and this is the city of it, was to have a Bart system that would come all the way from the Bay Area to here. That would have been good on the freeways. Art Hollingsworth: The biggest challenge that we have now is going South to San Francisco and the. Art Hollingsworth: Way and being stuck if you ever get on those freeway going North and South on a Saturday, I'm going to take you sometimes 45 minutes ago, 14 miles from Nevado to Petaluma. It is awful and they're fixing that. I mean, I'm amazed that, you know, I mean just. Jeremy Hays: Yeah, it's awful.

00:49:14.000 - 00:49:46.000

Jeremy Hays: Just in the last 10 years, it's become like double the traffic or something like that. It's just awful. Art Hollingsworth: Yeah. So I try to keep, well, the other things is I've tried to keep my business. I was out of the city for 15. Art Hollingsworth: Years 82 to 97. It was my offices were in Marin County and then I came back up to Sonoma County in 97 and been in business here with my insurance brokerage ever since. Now getting ready to retire. Jeremy Hays: What year did you come back?

00:49:46.000 - 00:50:29.000

Art Hollingsworth: I came back in 97, moved my offices back here. Jeremy Hays: So you were down there for most of the time that you were on the Council? Yeah. Yeah. Did did you? You know, you when you joined, you had one way of looking at the city. Then you joined the Planning Commission and then you on the Council for a long time, did what did you learn about the city during those years that you wouldn't have known otherwise? Art Hollingsworth: I was. Art Hollingsworth: I learned that it was a. It was a challenge to #1 be involved in, in making government efficient by utilizing the laws and ordinances that were established by the state of California and to to operate within those.

00:50:29.000 - 00:50:59.000

Art Hollingsworth: Laws so that we would be able to not be challenged and what we were going to do. Art Hollingsworth: I learned of of the fact that there are people that had. Art Hollingsworth: Ideas for the city that just were not good for them and we had to make decisions as to what we are going to do about it. Jeremy Hays: Did I just had a question on top of my mind?

00:50:59.000 - 00:51:27.000

Jeremy Hays: I passed. For me it was. I crossed the line of 50 and then I started to to my memory, started to wander. Art Hollingsworth: Well, just what do you become to be in your 80s? Alan Fitch: Jeremy Hays: I think unless Alan, do you have anything that occurs to you that you? Alan Fitch: The only catch all question I ever ask and if you want to answer it, look at Jeremy and that is, is there anything that's run through your mind while we've been chatting here that you want to be sure to say.

00:51:27.000 - 00:52:13.000

Art Hollingsworth: But that won't happen until I leave. Art Hollingsworth: You're always saying I should have said this. I I thought about this. No, the thing that I that as a as a young man growing up in the city, San Francisco and then coming here. Art Hollingsworth: I personally am proud of the city, not necessarily what I did for it, but that I was able to participate in the growth of this city and to see the people that are going to the excuse me university going to the college and they're going to the high school and are living in the Community using all of these facilities that. Art Hollingsworth: During my period of time, kind of passed through our hands so we can make decisions.

00:52:13.000 - 00:52:44.000

Art Hollingsworth: I am proud of that. As a citizen of the city of Rohnert Park. Art Hollingsworth: And that wasn't something that I did. It was something that all of the members of the community did together, and there were challenges, types that they thought, you know, we were doing it for our own interest, but that wasn't true. I wasn't some reasons for my family, but not only for my family, but the city of Rohnert Park is my family. Art Hollingsworth: And so it it was important. So what we've done I think is good, look around and tell me what you don't. Art Hollingsworth: Like is the.

00:52:44.000 - 00:53:43.000

Jeremy Hays: City it grew real fast and then it slowed down a bit and then it hit what it is now been this way for a while. Do you think it's the right? Art Hollingsworth: Personally, I think we have too much traffic and personally I think it can get to the point where, yeah, we'd be unhappy with it. I don't think it should get much bigger. We don't have land to develop. We've got some more places to build homes, but it's almost getting to be a place where. Art Hollingsworth: The young family, like I was starting in a family, cannot come here and do what my family and I did and what many families did, cannot. Art Hollingsworth: Do that price of a home is not even under over $600,000 average. That's a lot of money, although it's probably still in terms of Sonoma County, probably still the most affordable place for this in the city. So and and I think in terms of Sonoma County.

00:53:43.000 - 00:54:34.000

Art Hollingsworth: It's a more comfortable place to live because everything is condensed into this small city space and you don't have to. Art Hollingsworth: And time on the freeway to get the things that you want. There's a couple of things that we could do and get the areas where we could do maybe a department store where we could buy clothes and shoes and things of that nature, but that hasn't happened and because of the economics, it probably is not going to happen. People were pretty skeptical early on, weren't they that? Jeremy Hays: Park would be able to. Art Hollingsworth: Grow, develop, become a good place to live, not just people in Rohnert Park. People like outside watching it as well. They laugh at us. You know. You don't have this. You don't have that. You don't have this. And now when I go and play on the golf course, everybody from out of town comes down here to play on the golf course because they can afford it and they can get on the golf course.

00:54:34.000 - 00:54:56.000

Art Hollingsworth: Problems people from all over come and do things in our city. You know the intent plays at the Cultural Center that we have. I think we've provided a city that is good for the citizens that are here and invites people from out of town to come and enjoy life. Jeremy Hays: Thanks, Art. You're welcome. That was great. I really appreciate it.