Newcomers to the Santa Rosa, California area are at a disadvantage. They have no local experience with getting a car fixed or dental checkup or spa package. Missouri numbers for their old practitioners won't help. They need new ones that correspond with their new hometown: Santa Rosa. The only problem is: where do you get them? There are a number of resources that exist to help you build up your contact list. We'll tell you where to find them so you can get started building your new life in Santa Rosa.
Internet
The internet is most people's first stop for information, whether it's on how to replace a wire duct or what's going on in Santa Rosa. However, simply Googleing "Santa Rosa" will return you a lot of junk, so your best bet to find actual relevant pages is to search through human edited internet directories. The open source project DMOZ is where the Google Directory gets their listings. Then there's also the Yahoo Directory, which is mostly for businesses since it costs $300 to be included.
Phone Book
Many people who have just moved to Santa Rosa don't have the internet, though, or even an address so they can get a library card and use the free computers. These people can find what they need the old fashioned way: in the phone book. Phone books should still be attached to public pay phones, so if you need to look up a place to get your boat's keels fixed you can look in the yellow pages.
City Services
Many cities have embraced the 311 system to combine all the city services into one phone number to call. Alas, Santa Rosa is not yet one of them. To find out what number you need to call to have illegally dumped lead castings removed from the public park or to find out what events are going on in the city, look up the appropriate department on the city's website at http://ci.santa-rosa.ca.us/departments/Pages/CityContactInformation.aspx. Some numbers you might need offhand are city bus at 543-3925 and utilities at 543-4200.
Chamber of Commerce
If you're looking for any type of business, such as a shop that sells cloth diapers, a company to hook up your phone and internet, or a contractor to come and look at your house before you buy it, ask the area Chamber of Commerce for their recommendations. You can visit their office on 637 First Street or call them at 707-545-1414.
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