Lafayette

City, Contra Costa County

© McCormack's Guides

 

Zip Code: 94549

Prestige town, population 24,087. School scores very high, crime low. Good commute. Built over hills and valleys. www.mccormacks.com

The La in Lamorinda (Lafayette, Moraga, Orinda), the three towns that occupy, despite claims from others, the top rungs of Contra Costa society.

Lafayette started as a farming community and after 1950 evolved into a suburban town. By 1960, the population stood at 7,114.

At this time, the town was governed by county supervisors who were much more pro development than Lafayette residents. In the 1960s, the supervisors went wild with housing and by the end of the decade the town counted 20,848 inhabitants.

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In 1968, Lafayette said, enough!, incorporated itself as city, and took control of its planning and development. Since then, residentially, very little has been erected in the town but the city has steadily improved Mt. Diablo Boulevard, the main drag, and made other improvements around town.

The county government built to what the market wanted. When the market wanted large ranchers, they were built. When it wanted small and plain tract homes, it got them. The county didn’t fuss over sidewalks and curbs and gutters. It didn’t have a parks department. www.mccormacks.com

As a result, Lafayette is still short of neighborhood parks. The kids often play on the school grounds. Many of the arterial streets still lack curbs but for safety reasons, the city is putting in sidewalks and marking off bike lanes.

The town has its high-end housing, large and well appointed, especially in the hills. But it also has thousands of standard tract homes, three bedrooms.

So what makes Lafayette so hot?

The answer lies about seven miles over the western hills: the University of California at Berkeley.

In the 1950s and 1960s, charmed by the hills and open space, many people affiliated with the university moved into Lamorinda, creating university communities and a social milieu that prized education, culture and, later, fine dining and whipping your body into shape. Following them came stockbrokers, doctors, lawyers, executives, bosses and a variety of professionals. www.mccormacks.com

The result: an interesting cosmopolitan town that with few exceptions has never met a school tax it didn’t like. The first was a close loss that was passed the next time out. The second exception, money to fix playing fields and language labs, also was a close loss. Another try was made in 2002; it passed.

In 1999, voters approved a measure to maintain educational quality — extra money to continue small classes in the upper grades of the elementary and middle schools. In 2001, the high school district renewed a parcel tax to retain teachers and programs, such as art and music and in 2002, it passed another renovation bond. In 2005, still another tax increase was passed, this one for high-school programs. Still more, in 2007 and 2009 — taxes to maintain programs.

Children attend schools in the Lafayette School District. Teens move up to Acalanes High in the Acalanes district. Over the past five years, every school in the two districts has been overhauled and modernized. Through fundraisers and donations, parents every year raise hundreds of thousands for programs that enrich every day instruction. If you’re a parent, you are expected to volunteer for school programs, help where you can with school activities and put up some bucks. See Schools.

Almost all grade levels are scoring in the top five percent in state rankings. Lafayette sends many students to the University of California and to top private universities, Yale, Harvard, Stanford, etc. This dedication to academics appeals to many professionals and parents will tell you routinely that they moved to Lafayette for the schools.

Rare for a school district, Lafayette clusters some of its high I.Q. elementary kids in separate classes so they can move faster. www.mccormacks.com

Bentley, a private school, has opened a high school on Happy Valley Road, near the BART station. Town also has a Catholic elementary and another private school that goes up to the fifth grade.

Lamorinda kids ride school buses. Cost about $300 a year per student.

Quiet but effective backup system to the schools: tutors and family counselors. Many have set up shop in Lamorinda.

One the lowest crime rates in the county but in 2005, because of two murders, crime became an issue. See Crime.

The wife of a prominent lawyer was slain at home. A teenager who lived nearby was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. www.mccormacks.com

Earlier, a 90-year old woman was raped and murdered at her home. At that time, a magazine firm was selling door to door. Police filed charges against one of the salespeople, a man with a record of burglary, robbery, assault and drugs. He was found in a Missouri jail, held on a robbery warrant.

Upset, the city council asked voters for money to hire more cops. In the November 2006 election, 60 percent of Lafayette’s voters went for the tax increase. But two-thirds approval was necessary; measure failed.

Zero homicides in 2008, 2007 and 2006. For previous years, two in 2005, zero between 1999 and 2004. One homicide in 1998, zero in 1997, 1996, 1995, 1994, 1993 and 1992, one in 1991, no homicides in previous six years, reports FBI. Many homes subscribe to private security service. Lafayette contracts with the sheriff’s department for police protection.

Compared to the rest of the cities in Contra Costa, the commute is very good but it has problems.

Highway 24 passes through the downtown and leads right to the Bay Bridge. At the Caldecott Tunnel, a bottleneck, traffic often jams. It also backs up, sometimes for over a mile, at the Bay Bridge. www.mccormacks.com

Construction of another tunnel in the Caldecott hills is underway. When completed, it should greatly speed traffic.

Also underway, replacement of the east span on the Bay Bridge. When finished, in a few years, this should also help but this bridge will always congest traffic. At peak hours, it just carries too many vehicles. Another problem: San Francisco, hostile to the car and lacking space, has shorted parking.

BART passes through Lafayette with a stop in the downtown. Most times, it will be the faster alternative to San Francisco. If you work in Oakland or Berkeley, you will be inconvenienced but home usually within 30 or 40 minutes. Downtown traffic in Lafayette is often congested for a few blocks — irritating but no threat to your sanity.

Away from the downtown, especially on the east side, traffic sometime snarls on the two-lane roads that travel through Lamorinda. The three towns have made many minor improvements but no one wants to widen the arterials to four lanes. Some people fear this may encourage development.

Many kid activities, a lot of them organized by parents. The most popular seem to be soccer and swimming, Little League, football, dancing and gymnastics. Schools and amateur groups stage plays and musicals and dance performances.

Lafayette Reservoir; boating and fishing, favorite of hikers and joggers. Many people begin or end their days with a stroll around the reservoir.

Regional park nearby. St. Mary’s College and UC-Berkeley; culture and sports. www.mccormacks.com

In the evenings, trails are filled with walkers and joggers. On weekends, many head for the amusements, events and museums of San Francisco and Oakland. Every summer Orinda stages Shakespeare and other plays at an outdoor theater. Well done, professional casts.

In the 1990s, Lafayette added about 400 residents. Regional planners are guessing that over the next 20 years or so the town may increase its population by 1,500 — peanuts!

The state in 2009 counted 9,511 residential units, of which 7,560 were single homes, 294 single attached, and 1,657 apartments. Almost all the rentals are in the downtown, along Mt. Diablo Boulevard.

Although built modestly, many of Lafayette’s tract homes have been remodeled and added a room or two. Level of care high.

• Of the three Lamorinda towns — Lafayette, Orinda, Moraga — Lafayette has the best shopping and the best choice of restaurants.

Most of the restaurants are located along Mt. Diablo Boulevard or one block removed, around Lafayette Circle. Lafayette has restaurant clusters — the largest near the BART station — some with outdoor dining, but no restaurant row, nothing that says this is the town center. Minor drawback.

• Stores include a Trader Joe's and upscale market (Diablo) with a large meat counter. Under construction for several years but mysteriously just short of completion, a Whole Foods market.

• Recently opened, a new library with a learning center. Cost $40 million, lovely addition to the town.

• Lafayette borders Walnut Creek, by far the best shopping-dining-entertainment town in the central county. About 90 restaurants. Macys, Nordstrom, Tiffany's, Barnes and Noble, movies, plays, concerts, and more, within a 5- to 15-minute drive of Lafayette residents.

• Lafayette also borders Rossmoor, one of the first retirement communities built in California. Because of Rossmoor and the presence of so many affluent elderly, down through the years the central county has attracted many doctors, therapists and medical workers who specialize in the care of the elderly. Also many facilities in that line. www.mccormacks.com

• Several years ago, Lafayette and Walnut Creek persuaded local veterans to give up their halls, which were old and in need of repair, in exchange for a new hall in Lafayette. The hall, which has a large dancing or dining room, has turned out to be a pleasant ornament for the town, attracting weddings, charity bashes and a variety of events.

• Protest. In 2006, some people planted crosses on a hillside across the street from the Lafayette BART station — a protest against the war in Iraq. More crosses followed along with stories in the media and a lively discussion of the war.

• Potholes. In 2007, voters were asked to impose a tax of $150 per parcel to fill potholes and cracks in the roads and install new drains. Two-thirds approval were required; the measure went down with 63 percent voting yes. Among arguments against: people with multiple cars should pay more than people without cars or solo cars. Orinda fought for a similar measure. It also lost by about the same percentage. 

• Although small, St. Mary's College often fields basketball teams that make the NCAA playoffs. Many games are sold out. In summer, private firms run kids sports camps at St. Mary's.

• Large health club-gym, just off Highway 24. Very popular; at times, has waiting list for memberships. Smaller clubs in center of town. Although almost never mentioned in town literature, these clubs and churches and cultural-ethnic groups — the Jewish Community Center just over the Lafayette border — give a lot of buzz to the town's social life and sponsor many activities. Often the churches, having more flexibility than public agencies, will be the only ones organizing basketball leagues for the adolescents.

• On its west side, Lafayette comes close to large regional parks (miles of trails and open space) and two reservoirs, one of which is stocked with trout.

• Mutterings. One of our writers has friends in Lafayette. At least some residents think the cops, with their new laser radar guns, have gone ambush happy. Like nailing you for doing 33 mph in a 25; little slack, which is unusual in California. The CHP  allows 10 miles over the limit. But begrudgingly some Lafayette residents like the tighter enforcement — safer and more revenue, especially from Moraga motorists, who have to pass through Lafayette to reach the freeway. Other ambush favorites: the stop signs. Lafayette has many bushes, behind which lurk the cops.

• Every year or so, about 10 snow-white pelicans with black wing tips visit Contra Costa County and fish the local waters, winging from the Martinez waterfront to ponds and lakes around the East Bay. In early March 2010, they set down for a few days at the Lafayette Reservoir and delighted bird watchers.

City web site: {http://www.ci.lafayette.ca.us/}

Lafayette Elementary School District: www.lafsd.k12.ca.us

Acalanes Union High School District: www.acalanes.k12.ca.us

March 8, 2010