Antioch

City, Contra Costa County

© McCormack's Guides

 

Zip Codes: 94509, 94531

One of the fastest growing cities in the East Bay. Population 100,361.Many new homes and more to be built once housing revives. Popular with young families because the home that costs $700,000 or $800,000 in the central county sells for $500,000 in Antioch. www.mccormacks.com

But in recent years Antioch has built large homes priced above $700,000. Prices coming down. Many homes were built on speculation and got caught in the market cooling. If you are bargain hunting, good town to shop.

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Traffic a problem. 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, they voted to allow more luxury homes in exchange for road money and sports fields.

Stores open every year. Recent arrivals include a Macys, a Barnes & Noble bookstore and a Target, and a large business park.

As families move in, schools are built and parks laid out. Although Antioch is an old town, it comes across as a modern suburb, especially on the south side where many of the new homes are being erected.

Improvements have been made to the internal roads but Highway 4, the freeway that serves East Contra Costa, jams almost daily and often backs up traffic for miles. If you work in Central Contra Costa or Dublin-Livermore-Pleasanton or even Oakland, you might find the commute endurable. If you work in San Francisco and drive, it’s a tough and often infuriating haul. One alternative: BART, which has stations in Pittsburg and Concord. www.mccormacks.com

In 2006, voters passed a transit bond that is expected to pay for the widening of Highway 4 all the way to the Antioch Bridge and for improvements to a bypass road on the south side of Antioch. Vasco Road, which leads down to Livermore and Interstate 580, has been widened to take some of the pain out of the commute.

Overall crime rate low but homicides in some years run a little higher than what’s expected for a suburban community. Ten homicides in 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, and this led to a community discussion. The city council promised to accelerate the hiring of more cops. The movie complex has hired security guards.

In 2007, following the shooting death of a teenager, the city council imposed a curfew on the young people. News reports later in 2007 suggest that curfew and other measures seem to be working.

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 will open a medical magnet high school near Deer Valley Road and the new Kaiser medical center (opening in 2007). The school will train students for jobs in medicine.

Also to be opened, an elementary school on the south side, in the Oakley area, in a neighborhood that is still attracting families.

Antioch runs several of its schools year round. See Schools.

The first city in the county to incorporate (in 1872), 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. Not overnight but gradually. Developers turned their ambitions eastward over the Diablo hills where the land was flat, cheap and plentiful. In the 1980s, the pace of development accelerated throughout the East County. Antioch in 1980 tallied 42,683 residents. www.mccormacks.com

In the 1980s, Antioch built about 7,200 residential units, the majority of them single homes, and since 1990 has constructed over 13,000 units again almost all single-family detached. The population followed: 62,195 by 1990 and 90,532 by the 2000 census. Since then, the town has added about 11,000 people.

The state in 2008 counted 33,936 housing units, of which 25,601 were single homes, 2,205 single attached, 5,861 apartments and 269 mobiles.

Being an old city, Antioch has been in the parks business for over 125 years. And the town’s suburban growth, in many instances, came in the form of master-planned tracts or neighborhoods that also paid attention to parks.

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.

Over five dozen clubs, civic, sports and cultural groups, two dozen parks, 18 playgrounds. Skateboard park. Water park with slides. Seniors center. Art center. Los Medanos Community College, movie complex. Roller-skating rink. Golf course. Marinas. Bowling alley. Fishing pier. Close to big regional park. www.mccormacks.com

Three-four hours to Tahoe, Yosemite and snow country. Amtrak stop. 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.

Two hidden but important points: 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 also built several large complexes for the elderly).

Second, 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 business center. www.mccormacks.com

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

For medical: Sutter Delta Medical Center, Kaiser Permanente outpatient clinic. Kaiser has expanded its clinic-offices and is building a medical center.

John Muir/Mt. Diablo Medical Center has opened a medical center-clinic in Brentwood near the Highway 4 bypass.

Antioch has a fair number of businesses and industries near the river and would love to attract more firms — shorter commute for residents.

Chamber of commerce (925) 757-1800.

• Many of the new neighborhoods have Mello-Roos provisions. This means that you pay a monthly tax or fee for schools and infrastructure. www.mccormacks.com

• Antioch school district is talking about asking voters to approve a renovation bond. The people paying the Mello-Roos tax might be excused.

• New idea. Run a passenger train along rail line over to BART station at Pittsburg. Called e-train. Under discussion.

• Antioch, on its south side, rolls over hills so gentle that they barely qualify as hills. But the town has a mountain side: Mt. Diablo in the distance. In the winter, the mountain catches some snow, a pretty sight.

• In discussion, 200-acre mall at the intersection of Highway 4 and 18th Street, near the entrance to the Antioch bridge.

• Wal-Mart wants to expand; from big to gigantic, or more precisely, from 130,000 square feet to 203,000 sq. ft. The store, located at Hillcrest Avenue and Lone Tree Way, also wants to go 24-hours. This looked like a done deal until neighbors protested. City hall changed its mind; no go but Wal-Mart hasn't given up yet.www.mccormacks.com

• If buying in the downtown, check out the train noise. Two railroads run through Antioch.

• New power plant to come on line in 2007 or 2008 near the river. Modern plants put out surprisingly little pollution — all to the good. On the other hand, the local utilities were supposed to demolish two old and inefficient power plants in Antioch and Pittsburg. Came summer 2006 and soaring temperatures and air conditioners humming away all day and draining energy — the utilities decided to spare the old plants and keep them as emergency backups.

• One library in downtown. Antioch has applied for state funding to build a second library near Deer Valley High School.

• Construction on a community center with gym is expected to begin in 2007. Facility will be located on southeast side near Prewitt Park.

• Historic El Campanil theater was restored and reopened downtown. It is being used for plays, musicals, movies and community events. City favors more housing in the downtown to bring in customers for stores, restaurants. www.mccormacks.com

• In 2006, town was roiled over allegations that many homes were being subsidized rented to people who did not maintain them. City officials stepped up code enforcement.

City web site: www.ci.antioch.ca.us