City, Contra Costa County
© McCormack's Guides
Zip Code: 94549
Prestige
town, population 23,962. School scores very high, crime low but some concerns
about crime. 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.
Click for regional or detailed map
In 1968,
Lafayette said, the hell with this, 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
— figuratively speaking — 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.
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 because of two murders in 2005, crime has
become an issue. See Crime.
The wife
of a prominent lawyer was slain at home. A teenager who lived nearby was
convicted in 2006 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 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, which is building a new east span. This work will
cause delays. www.mccormacks.com
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 2008 counted 9,505 residential units, of which 7,554 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. Just about everything is
located along Mt. Diablo Boulevard. Over the last 20 years, Lafayette has
nudged and worked with the business owners and managers to improve appearances;
and it shows. Stores include a Trader Joe’s. Under construction in 2007, a
complex with a parking garage
(sorely needed), a seafood restaurant and other stores. www.mccormacks.com
• Construction
to begin in 2007 on a new library with a learning center. Cost $40 million.
Completion 2009.
•
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.
• There is
a light at the end of the Caldecott Tunnel, the bottleneck along Highway 24.
The Caldecott has three tunnels. In the morning, two tunnels point west to San
Francisco and one goes east; in the evening, two tunnels east, one west.
Another tunnel is to be bored (but the work won’t be finished for five years or
so.)
• In late
2006, Lafayette was talking about jacking up parking fees and installing more
meters to pay for tougher code enforcement — illegal signs, run-down
buildings, garbage carts left in the street after pickup day, etc. 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.
City web
site: www.ci.lafayette.ca.us
