Pittsburg Info (Oakland, Concord, Vallejo: section 8, apartment, rentals)

[BurnInTheMil]

So I've read numerous bad things about Pittsburg but have also had some info passed along by people who have lived in the area and said it's not all bad, just certain areas. That being said, I know all cities/towns will have good and bad parts, so is Pittsburg all bad?


I ask because I will be relocating in a few weeks to the area and had a place locked down in Martinez, however then found a nice home in Pittsburg for around the same price as an apt.in Martinez, but of course the home in Pittsburg has more room and no apartment neighbors. I did a Google map street view of the area and it looks decently nice. Tree lined streets, no crappy houses etc... Avoid Pittsburg all together or are some parts okay to live in?

[808m3]

I lived in Pittsburg for about 15 years. For the most part, the town itself isn't too bad. I would say there are bad parts of Pittsburg, typically north of highway 4. The south side of the freeway is much nicer, especially with newer homes that are still being built there.

I lived on the south side of highway 4, near the BART station, which was "fine" for the most part. Like any other neighborhood, there were issues with home break-ins and crime that would spill over into our neighborhood. I felt it got a bit worse the last 5 years or so, especially after the housing market crash were it was quite common to see abandoned homes, section 8 renters, and drug rehab "half-way" houses. Our personal favorite, was when a drug dealer moved into our neighborhood.

Fortunately, the drug dealer situation resolved itself eventually, but because of that, most of the great neighbors we had all moved away. We did the same, when the housing market started to pick up a bit. We've been lucky to have good paying careers, so we sold our Pittsburg home and moved to Danville.

[2sleepy]

Originally Posted by Greg10556

So I've read numerous bad things about Pittsburg but have also had some info passed along by people who have lived in the area and said it's not all bad, just certain areas. That being said, I know all cities/towns will have good and bad parts, so is Pittsburg all bad?

I ask because I will be relocating in a few weeks to the area and had a place locked down in Martinez, however then found a nice home in Pittsburg for around the same price as an apt.in Martinez, but of course the home in Pittsburg has more room and no apartment neighbors. I did a Google map street view of the area and it looks decently nice. Tree lined streets, no crappy houses etc... Avoid Pittsburg all together or are some parts okay to live in?

Where are you going to work? There's a lot of traffic driving on 4 from Pittsburg. In traffic it can take 40-50 minutes just to get to Martinez from Pittsburg. I haven't been to Pittsburg in years, but my son who lives in Martinez says that Pittsburg has too high of a crime rate for him to take a chance on living there. Here is crime data from City-Data. http://www.city-data.com/crime/crime...alifornia.html If you zoom in on the map maybe you can get an idea of the crime rate for the area where the house is that you are considering.

[WizardOfRadical]

That whole area is an armpit. Best to hedge your bets with Brentwood or Oakley. Martinez is OK.

[sav858]

Some of the newer areas south of HWY 4 are decent to "nice" (aka shiny new subdivision) but overall I would not recommend the city. The city overall is pretty low-class and has issues with crime but if you live south of Hwy 4 and in a newer area its tolerable I guess. Highway 4 in East County is terrible for traffic overall but it's not as bad as farther east (Antioch). It has a BART station so that helps for commuting. if you can find a place in Martinez or Concord (except for a few areas like Monument/Solano Way) I would go with that imo.

[BurnInTheMil]

Originally Posted by 2sleepy

Where are you going to work? There's a lot of traffic driving on 4 from Pittsburg. In traffic it can take 40-50 minutes just to get to Martinez from Pittsburg. I haven't been to Pittsburg in years, but my son who lives in Martinez says that Pittsburg has too high of a crime rate for him to take a chance on living there. Here is crime data from City-Data. http://www.city-data.com/crime/crime...alifornia.html If you zoom in on the map maybe you can get an idea of the crime rate for the area where the house is that you are considering.

If you use the city-data crime stats, it actually has lower overall crime than most surrounding towns and lower overall than the average for California in general.


But I don't know how accurate the crime stats on here actually are.

[BurnInTheMil]

Originally Posted by sav858

Some of the newer areas south of HWY 4 are decent to "nice" (aka shiny new subdivision) but overall I would not recommend the city. The city overall is pretty low-class and has issues with crime but if you live south of Hwy 4 and in a newer area its tolerable I guess. Highway 4 in East County is terrible for traffic overall but it's not as bad as farther east (Antioch). It has a BART station so that helps for commuting. if you can find a place in Martinez or Concord (except for a few areas like Monument/Solano Way) I would go with that imo.

Thanks for the info. Concord and Martinez were the main places I was looking so I'll continue with that

[smashystyle]

You're pretty flexible with your work location, right? If you post your budget and your wants, you may get a few more city suggestions.

I would pick Martinez over Concord over Pittsburgh, although there are better and worse neighborhoods in each city. Pittsburgh wouldn't be an automatic no for me, but I wouldn't move there sight unseen from out of the area. It's a city like Richmond or Vallejo where you ideally want on the ground knowledge abiut what a particular block is like.

[BurnInTheMil]

Originally Posted by smashystyle

You're pretty flexible with your work location, right? If you post your budget and your wants, you may get a few more city suggestions.

I would pick Martinez over Concord over Pittsburgh, although there are better and worse neighborhoods in each city. Pittsburgh wouldn't be an automatic no for me, but I wouldn't move there sight unseen from out of the area. It's a city like Richmond or Vallejo where you ideally want on the ground knowledge abiut what a particular block is like.

I'm extremely flexible on work location, my only "stipulation" is I have to live within 50 miles of Oakland (my actual job title city). I will be doing jobs all over, literally up to 200 miles away.


My budget for housing is right around $2K. Which I have found many many rentals in all the mentioned cities and a few more as well. It's just a matter of the neighborhood. I have never been to the area and will be flying in on Sunday (the 22nd) and will be in town until March 14th and will have to have a place reserved for my April 1st move in date

[HockeyMac18]

Originally Posted by Greg10556

I'm extremely flexible on work location, my only "stipulation" is I have to live within 50 miles of Oakland (my actual job title city). I will be doing jobs all over, literally up to 200 miles away.


My budget for housing is right around $2K. Which I have found many many rentals in all the mentioned cities and a few more as well. It's just a matter of the neighborhood. I have never been to the area and will be flying in on Sunday (the 22nd) and will be in town until March 14th and will have to have a place reserved for my April 1st move in date

How often will you be going into Oakland, and how long of a commute can you tolerate for that amount of times you need to go?

For example, if you're only going into Oakland once a week, or even less frequently, you might be able to tolerate a 1 hour (or more) commute. But if it's more frequent, you'd probably want to keep it shorter (for your sanity).

You might already know that information - but if you don't, I'd think about that as it will be a significant part of your QOL here, and will partly dictate where you can live. The reason I mention that last part: if you know you'll only need to be in Oakland very infrequently, you could even look further out and get a better house/live in a nicer area.

Also, will you need/want access to public transit (I assume you're looking at Pittsburg partly for its BART access?). If you don't want/need it that much, you don't necessarily have to live in a town that has its own BART station.