What areas in El Cerrito are safe? (Berkeley, Richmond: crime, houses)

[twelve_volt_man]

My wife and I are moving to the East Bay area in the spring. We are looking at houses in Berkeley, Albany, Kensington, and El Cerrito. El Cerrito looks slightly more affordable than the other areas, but I am thinking this may be due to the fact that it borders Richmond.

I was hoping someone could let me know what areas of El Cerrito are safe. I know "safe" is a relative term. For me, I have never lived in an area where we needed to lock doors, or be worried about cars getting broken into, etc.

If anyone could let me know what areas are worth looking, (ie Stay south of Street X and east of Street Y)

Thanks in advance for the help!

Joe

[sonarrat]

Any part of El Cerrito will be infinitely better than the Richmond Iron Triangle, but generally you'll want to be further south and further east just to be away from the mess starting at Cutting & San Pablo. El Cerrito is a very safe, very pretty town which benefits hugely from its attractive location between the bay and the hills.

[18Montclair]

OMG...the view from those hilltop areas are just lovely.

[cicerone]

El Cerrito has two BART stations. Live closer to the Southern one and/or up in the Hills and you'll be fine.

[sergeyn]

I was hoping someone could let me know what areas of El Cerrito are safe. I know "safe" is a relative term. For me, I have never lived in an area where we needed to lock doors, or be worried about cars getting broken into, etc.

In El Cerrito you MUST lock doors and make sure that you don't leave anything in your car. There is absolutely no place in El Cerrito where you can leave anything unlocked! Please understand that El Cerrito is right next to Richmond-- the most dangerous city in California by some accounts. No street in El Cerrito is far enough from that sad place. Even in the luxurious areas up in the hills, you sometimes get armed robberies. Check out the El Cerrito police website for weekly crime reports. But that's city for you-- it's always like that, almost anywhere in the world. The rich and the poor side by side, by what magic can isolation be sustained?

Now if you must live in El Cerrito, it's mostly a hills(East) versus flatlands (West) kind of deal. The farther from the flatlands of the city of Richmond, the better. I would definitely stay away from anything West of Richmond Avenue. South also is, in my opinion, safer than North, but I can't think of a clear boundary between South and North. However, definitely stay away from anything within several blocks of El Cerrito Del Norte BART station-- that's a magnet of criminality.

Now the intuitive thing to do may seem like running as high into the hills as possible but I don't think it's the best approach, unless you go above (East of) Arlington Ave. The thing is that there are a lot of very rich people up in El Cerrito hills and they're likely to attract the criminal element that tends to concentrate nearby. So unless I could go over the hills (East of Arlington), I'd stay in the East of the El Cerrito flatlands, instead of the Western slopes of the hills. Streets like Lawrence or, say, Pamona, come to mind. This is my strictly private opinion, though. I will re-iterate that trouble occasionally happens in every single corner of EC, you cannot run away from it, period. There is no magic force field between the flatlands of Richmond and their surroundings!

Having said that, I still appreciate El Cerrito. It has a nice cool climate. It is close to culture and many jobs. It is not a boring cookie-cutter suburban community, it has some originality. And if you avoid obvious risk behaviours (not locking your house or car or walking along empty streets when no one is around), I think you can be quite content there. What I said above may sound scary but in everyday life I don't think about potential dangers all the time. The weekly armed robberies that someone else experiences in El Cerrito do not make me lose sleep.

[twelve_volt_man]

That was the kind of information I was looking for.

Anyone else--Please feel free to chime in, also if you know a neighboring area (albany, berkeley, kensington) please lte know where to look and where to avoid.

Joe

[skatealoneskatetogether]

El cerrito is relativley safe. Its no different that the berkeley hills/oakland hills/san leadro hills. There is definatly the "spill over crime" from neighboring richmond.This entails home burglaries and car burglaries typically, although there have been armed robberries. But this is not a phenomena and is typical of most affluent inner city/urban area's. Compared to neighboring communities el cerritto is by far the best choice. Kensington (affluent) by the way sends their children to el cerrito high school.

[sonarrat]

At one point I was using the El Cerrito del Norte BART station on a daily basis to come up from the peninsula and transfer to the WestCat J bus, late at night and on weekends too. It certainly doesn't feel like a "nice" area, which might be because it's more heavily used by Richmonders than the Richmond station itself is. I didn't witness any criminal activity though, and I had ample opportunity..

[tggrbounce9]

I lived and grew up in EC for most of my life. My mom still lives there and there are NO problems. Stay in the hills or near and or around Schmidt Lane or Manilla on the hill side of Richmond St. Up on the Arlington is a nice area too.

[geek girl]

I miss you guys so dam much! I am stuck in dam texas, you all keep the bay area going.