Antioch

City, Contra Costa County

© McCormack's Guides

 

Zip Codes: 94509, 94531

Used to be one of the fastest growing cities in the East Bay. But with the meltdown in housing, Antioch lost a few residents and is now adding hundreds a year instead of thousands. Population 100,957.

In the 1990s and early 2000s, when Antioch was building homes nonstop, it won a reputation as a great place for young families. Although home prices rose every year, they were still far below prices in Central Costa and many towns in the East Bay.

As the boom continued, Antioch, particularly south of Highway 4, stepped up into bigger and pricier homes and for a long while developers and speculators thought that they had found the Mother Lode of endless profits. The same with lenders — and you know where this story is going.

When the market collapsed about 2007, Antioch was caught with its hammers flying. Down, down, down went the home prices and values.

 If you are bargain hunting, this is a good town to shop. Many homes are priced 40 to 50 percent below the peak values of several years ago.

Click for regional or detailed map

Traffic a problem. The freeway and roads have been improved but Highway 4, the main road, narrows from three lanes to two, about five miles short of Antioch. Instant jams, even on Sundays. 

East Contra Costa is divided from the central county by steep hills and low mountains. All the freeway traffic flows through Willow Pass, a steep grade just west of Pittsburg. Almost every morning and evening, traffic slows to crawl as it navigates Willow Pass.

More people, more cars, more congestion. Antioch and the East County have local jobs but not many. Many people work in Oakland, San Francisco and even Silicon Valley, well to the south. After they get through the Highway 4 ordeal, there's the Bay Bridge, the Caldecott Tunnel and other bottlenecks.

Improvements are constant and are making a difference. The Highway 4 bypass, in south Antioch, makes it much easier to get around the new neighborhoods. But the commute is the biggest drawback to Antioch. Some residents spend up to two hours, each way, traveling to and from their jobs.

In 2006, voters passed a bond that to speed the widening of Highway 4 all the way to the Antioch Bridge. When this job is completed, the commute will greatly improve.

There are alternatives: County Connection buses and BART (commuter rail). BART has large stations with parking at Pittsburg and North Concord.

Unhappiness over the commute has seeped into local politics. Many residents want to slow construction until the roads and freeway are improved. The town spent 2005 arguing over measures that would expand the urban limit line. In the end, residents voted to allow more luxury homes in exchange for road money and sports fields.

On the plus side, the housing boom has brought in many stores and restaurants. Recent arrivals include a Macys, a Barnes & Noble bookstore and a Target. Not too long ago, many East County residents did their big-ticket shopping at the SunValley Mall in Concord, the Central County. No more.

Overall crime rate low but homicides in some years run a little higher than what’s expected for a suburban community.

Eight homicides in 2008, ten each in 2007, 2006 and  2005, six in 2004 and 2003, one in 2002, eight in 2001, three in 2000, three in 1999, six in 1998, three in 1997, seven in 1996, two in 1995 and eight in 1994. The counts for the previous years are seven, two, six, six, five, three, and two. See Crime.

In 2006, some residents complained to city hall about crime and rowdy teens, especially at the movie complex and at the mall. This led to a community discussion of whether Antioch was growing too fast and not providing enough police protection and amusements and social services for the kids.

The city council promised to accelerate the hiring of more cops. The movie complex hired security guards. In 2007, following the shooting death of a teenager, the city council imposed a curfew on the young people.

School rankings middling and rising. Scores often follow demographics and with the new homes, Antioch is becoming more middle class. Improvements were made to Antioch High, the old high school, so it would not contrast poorly with Deer Valley, the new school, which has a solar-heated pool, a TV studio, a theater and a science lab with a wind tunnel.

Both Antioch High and Deer Valley High are crowded but the district is not building another full-fledged high school because enrollments are dropping at many elementary schools and will soon drop at the high schools. www.mccormacks.com

To relieve the crowding and for other reasons, the district in 2008 opened a medical magnet high school near Deer Valley Road and the new Kaiser medical center. The school will train students for jobs in medicine. See Schools.

In 2008, residents approved a $61 million bond to renovate many schools and expand their libraries.

The first city in the county to incorporate, Antioch planted itself around the river and the railroads, a familiar pattern, grew slowly and by 1950 had about 11,000 residents. In the following decade, it added 6,000 people, and then metropolitan growth asserted itself.

By the 1960s, Central Contra Costa began to fill up or price itself out of the middle class. Developers turned their ambitions eastward over the Diablo hills where the land was flat, cheap and plentiful.  

In the 1980s, Antioch built about 7,200 residential units and in the 1990s about 7,100 units. The great majority in both decades were single homes. Since 2000, Antioch has built another 3,700 units. 

The state in 2009 counted 33,982 housing units, of which 26,491 were single homes, 1,361 single attached, 5,861 apartments and 269 mobiles.

The population reflects the housing numbers: from 42,683 residents in 1980 to 62,195 by 1990 and 90,532 by the 2000 census. Since then, the town has added about 10,000 people.

What you have now is an old-new city, with 47 percent of the housing predating 1980 and 53 percent following. And you have a city with some housing variety and prices.

On its south side, the new neighborhoods, Antioch has many three- to five-bedroom homes priced above $300,000. On its north side, it has many two- and three-bedroom homes priced from $150,000 to $300,000.  Many of the north streets are well maintained.

The north side brings you closer to the water and to the small shops and restaurants of the downtown, which also has a small movie house and a river promenade, a pleasant stroll.

Incorporated in 1872,  Antioch has been in the business of parks and municipal services for over 135 years. When the building boom came, Antioch and the developers packaged it into master-planned tracts or neighborhoods that paid particular attention to parks.

The city has about three dozen neighborhood parks (a lot). It  has a water park with slides, a skateboard park, a senior center, an art center, three movie complexes (one just outside city limits), a roller rink, a bowling alley and two golf courses (one public, private.) The East Bay Regional Park District owns thousands of acres to the east of the city; many hiking trails. 

Antioch was built near the junction of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers, both of which divide off into countless miles of Delta waterways. Swimming, boating, fishing, water skiing — they’re all there. The local reservoir is stocked for fishing. Fishing pier in the downtown along with a marina.

Over five dozen clubs, civic, sports and cultural groups. Rivertown Jamboree and County Fair, annual events, draw thousands. Post office includes a philatelic center for stamp collectors. City hall runs many sports and activity programs for children and teens.

Antioch has many playmates (some towns don’t). The 2000 census placed 32 percent of the town under age 18, unusually high. These demographics push the town into family-oriented policies.

Antioch has a sense of continuity. It’s not just a new suburb plopped in the middle of nowhere. It has a history, it has its old timers and older housing (around the downtown). It has its football rivalries. New or old neighborhoods, the town is generally well kept.

Highway 4 divides the town. To the north, the old town, which here and there has added new homes.

To the south, the new Antioch, which contains almost all of the new housing. The city has spent millions on its old town, which is on the water. It’s a nice place to visit and to dine but because the stores are now oriented toward the freeway, the old town, which drew its strength from the railroad, kind of limps along as a shopping center. www.mccormacks.com

Many of the big stores are located off of Somersville Road (the East County Mall) or along Lone Tree Way (Wal-Mart, Barnes and Noble, Target) near the Highway 4 bypass.

For medical: Sutter Delta Medical Center, Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, and in Brentwood, John Muir Medical Center.

There used to be some distance between Brentwood and Antioch. Now they flow into one another (and into Oakley). Residents routinely cross town borders to get their shopping done. Miscellaneous:

• If you work in Livermore-Pleasanton-Dublin or want a shorter route to Silicon Valley, Vasco Road, to the south of Antioch, leads down to Interstate 580 and these towns. This is another road is being improved but still congests.

• Old and much of new Antioch is built over flat or fairly flat land. But on its southern outskirts Antioch rises into gentle hills that offer views of the distant water. Mt. Diablo ascends about five miles to the west, a real presence in Antioch and in winter, when snow mantles the peak, a pretty sight.

• The work commute is a horror but the recreational commute to Tahoe, the Sierras, the ski slopes ... not bad. When the snow falls in the mountains, many people really get into skiing. From Antioch to the slopes, when the freeways are reasonably clear, about three hours. To Yosemite, about four.

• Another plus, Los Medanos Community College, located in Pittsburg but close to Antioch. Many classes and activities aimed at the general public. Also college level and job-related classes.

• Historic movie house, the El Campanil in downtown was restored and now presents  plays, concerts, movie classics and community events. Antioch has theater groups for adults and for kids. 

• Trains pass through parts of town. Check out noise. Something Antioch and Brentwood would like to get rid of: box cars decorated with graffiti. Global recession has slowed trade and train traffic. Railroad has parked dozens of box cars in the East County, near Highway 4 bypass.

• Several neighborhoods in the East County, including Antioch, impose special taxes call Mello-Roos. Occasionally, you will see a realty sign that proclaims, “No Mello Roos.” Translation: lower taxes. 

• In recent years, Antioch has built several large complexes for the elderly.

• Good deal of the East County is still being farmed. Road-side stands sell fruits and veggies. Farmers market.

• Struggling but still going, the annual Contra Costa fair, held at the county fairgrounds in Antioch. In its other life, the fairgrounds roars with stock car races.

• Downtown Antioch used to manufacture cardboard boxes, a necessary but odoriferous business that wafted aromas into some neighborhoods. No more! Suburban is pushing out many of the plants. The downtown used to have an old and polluting power plant. Now it has a new power plant that still pollutes but far less than its predecessor.

Antioch summed up: if you are into family suburbs, good place to look. But a town with growing pains, especially traffic. Drive the commute before you commit.

Antioch Chamber of Commerce: (925) 757-1800.

City web site (good source for rec activities): www.ci.antioch.ca.us/

Antioch Unified School District: www.antioch.k12.ca.us

Chamber of Commerce: www.antiochchamber.com

March 6, 2010