Vacaville to Oakland

[2sleepy]

Originally Posted by MidwestToCA

Like to hear more about Martinez.

Martinez is an old Portuguese fishing village, it's still a small town probably less than 40,000 people. It's in Contra Costa County, near Concord. You can look it up on google maps to get an idea of where it is and it's proximity to other areas. The weather is great, it's not as hot as Concord or Walnut Creek because it's located on the Carquinez Straits. My son lives there and it's a very safe town, and has a lot of waterfront bike and hiking trails. There is an oil refinery near the town but it's never been a problem, there isn't any odor coming from it, and there are train tracks running through the town and an amtrack station. The train always sounds it's horn which can be distracting until you get used to it. There is a BART station about 10 minutes away in North Concord. The downtown is cute and quaint and they have a lot of street fairs and farmer's markets on the weekends.

With the exception of Benicia and Vallejo and a few parts of Concord it is one of the few areas where you can buy a home for $275-$350 per square foot. https://www.redfin.com/city/11767/CA...t=sanfrancisco
There aren't a lot of large apartment complexes so many of the rentals are flats or duplexes, and rental prices are quite affordable: SF bay area housing, apartments, real estate, etc "martinez" - craigslist

Main Street Martinez

//www.city-data.com/city/Martinez-California.html

If I needed to live closer to the bay area I would move to Martinez in a heartbeat

[sav858]

Originally Posted by 2sleepy

There is an oil refinery near the town but it's never been a problem, there isn't any odor coming from it, and there are train tracks running through the town and an amtrack station.

That's not entirely true. It's rare but incidents have happened before that have led to health alerts, sirens going off, automated phone calls, shelter in place order, etc.. in the area. The risk is pretty small overall but there is still one as with any community that close to a refinery.

[2sleepy]

Originally Posted by sav858

That's not entirely true. It's rare but incidents have happened before that have led to health alerts, sirens going off, automated phone calls, shelter in place order, etc.. in the area. The risk is pretty small overall but there is still one as with any community that close to a refinery.

I have not heard of any of that for the past several years in Martinez. They have had flare ups but nothing serious, my oldest son worked there for about 8 years but he isn't currently there so I can't definitively say you are wrong, but I haven't heard anything like that. The problems you cite happen have happened at the Chevron refinery in Richmond though. Here is a link to all major refinery incidents in Contra Costa County. Chevron is in Richmond, Phillips 66 in Rodeo. There were two incidents at the refinery in Martinez in 2010 neither of which affected the surrounding community: Major Accidents at Chemical/Refinery Plants :: Hazardous Materials :: Contra Costa Health Services

[sav858]

The 2010 incident led to a Shelter in Place order

Tesoro's Golden Eagle refinery incident still under investigation | abc7news.com

It's rare but it's always a possibility living that close to a refinery.

[Lalato]

Martinez is great. As I said before if the Oakland worker's job is near an Amtrak stop (Emeryville, Jack London, Coliseum), then riding the train to work is a great way to commute and can be cheaper than BART (depending on destination). The Vacaville worker will have to drive no matter what.

If you're living in Martinez and taking BART... while the North Concord BART station is a touch closer, I prefer the downtown Concord station. The reason why is that the Concord depot is just south of the station which results in more frequent BART trains during the morning commute.

Back to Martinez. It's a nice little town, especially if you live near downtown. Surprisingly good coffee shops. Limited but decent restaurants. There are two main industries, the oil refinery and county government/courts. The town does tend to shut down a bit after dark so if you're hoping for a lively bar scene you'll be greatly disappointed.