Sep/Oct 2023
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Letter From The Editor
This August marks my 20-year Cali-versary, a term dubbed by another transplant to this golden state. The exact date is lost to the analog existence I was living in 2003—no cell phone, nothing to post—buried in some journal entry somewhere. What I will never forget is driving long stretches of highway 80, in a Volvo…
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Meet An Artist: Filmmaker Ian Nelson
Meet An Artist: Filmmaker Ian Nelson While growing up in the beautiful and diverse landscape of Sonoma County, Ian began exploring his interest in creating various forms of art, from drawing to playing and writing music to filmmaking. During his time at Santa Rosa High School, Ian learned and developed the basic skills of filmmaking…
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Where Are They Now?
Sculptural painter Nell Hergenrather, Made Local Magazine’s very first featured artist, has continued to expand her artistic ambitions and offerings. Find her at Art Trails from Sept. 30-Oct 1 and Oct. 7-8 in Studio #69 at 1365 Kowell Road, off West College in Santa Rosa. Her show, Coastal, is hanging at Spinster Sisters through October…
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Park Place
October 22, 2023 will mark 10 years since the tragic death of 13-year-old Andy Lopez, who was fatally shot by a Sonoma County sheriff’s deputy near an overgrown empty lot in Southwest Santa Rosa’s Moorland neighborhood. In a highly populated area with a dearth of parks and open spaces for miles in each direction, the…
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Cafeteria Dreams
How Sonoma County schools are seeking to replace prepackaged vended food with farm-grown produce. Photos – Paige Green Photography You are what you eat. And for the 30 million children in the US who rely on a school lunch program, that’s even more true. What these growing kids eat not only impacts their health but…
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Orange You Glad It’s Fall?
Autumn in Sonoma County is positively gourd-geous, and with more pumpkin patches than you can shake a broomstick at, there are plenty of opportunities to carve out some fall family fun. From mom-and-pop u-picks to activity-packed haunts with carnival vibes, there’s something here for every-boo-dy to enjoy this season. I really love fall. Maybe it’s…
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From Ecuador With Love
Grand Central Cafe is more than a coffee shop. Owners Natalie and Juan Carlos Vinueza opened it during the waning days of the pandemic, and what began conceptually as a cafe, evolved into a colorful business that serves coffees and mochas as well as organic empanadas, and sells imported Ecuadorian cacao and artisanal items. A…
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Car Wars
Six months after the Tubbs Fire, my then-husband and I received a registered letter from our landlady notifying us that we had 60 days to vacate our two-bedroom rental. We didn’t have to worry about cleaning up the linoleum in the kitchen, she wrote, since she was planning an extensive remodel that included new flooring.…
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Hope In The Spotlight
What is your organization’s mission? Our mission is to equip and empower students and adults to create schools and communities that are safe, welcoming, and inclusive. What project(s) are you most urgently working on right now? The Safe School Ambassadors and the Restorative Practice training for educators. Our flagship program is the Safe School Ambassadors®…
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Confessions of a Germophile
I’ll tell it to you straight. The majority of food in my adolescence came from a plastic bag, cardboard box or drive-thru window. My health-conscious, home-ec teacher mother was pretty tuckered out raising her fourth and fifth child as a single mom, and like many of us these days, convenience became her priority in the…