© McCormack's Guides
City and Unincorporated Town,
Contra Costa County
Zip Codes: 94582, 94583
Bedroom
city with a strong base in white-collar and high-tech jobs. Now kicking into a
second building boom on its east side. Thousands of homes built, thousands more
to be built over 6,000 acres. www.mccormacks.com
New
schools going up as residents arrive. Quail Run Elementary opened in 2006. Live
Oak Elementary and Dougherty Valley High School to open in 2007. Gale Ranch
Middle School to open in 2008.
Crime low,
scores high, arguments about growth and traffic many but its generally
accepted that the housing is coming. The real question is how much and how will
schools and amenities be provided.
Click for regional or detailed map
Middle-class
plus but because San Ramon is so favorably situated, rents and prices have
soared and pushed the area higher up the scale. The new housing consists of
single and clustered homes, townhouses and apartments. With the housing market
cooling, prices will probably drop but compared to other towns San Ramon will
remain upmarket.
Population
59,002. Median age 37. Kids and
teens under 18 make up 26 percent of residents. Family town.
In 2001,
Chevron moved its headquarters from San Francisco to San Ramon. www.mccormacks.com
Local
jobs, many of them high-paying, short commute other reasons why San
Ramon, socially, has ascended.
The new
housing is coming in as master-planned. These endeavors lay out sites for parks
and schools and, by parkways, try to bring traffic quickly to the freeways.
Bollinger Canyon and Dougherty Roads are the main boulevards.
Some maps
will show the new developments inside the city limits, others outside. The area
is known locally as Dougherty Valley but may also be called Gale Ranch or
Windermere or The Bridges or after Shapell, one of the major developers.
The county
government is the controlling agency for much of the planning. As the tracts
are built, they are annexed usually to the City of San Ramon one of the
points of irritation. San Ramon would like take over everything.
Commute
great if you have a local job; tiresome if you drive to San Francisco or the
original Silicon Valley but recent freeway widenings will help the latter
drive. www.mccormacks.com
BART
(commute rail) stations in Walnut Creek, 15 miles to north, and Dublin, just to
the south of San Ramon. County Connection runs buses throughout San Ramon and
the Central County. In 2006, the bus service was extended to Dougherty Valley.
Social
amenities steadily improving. Stores, restaurants, service shops, movies and
other conveniences are following the money to the San Ramon Valley and
the Amador Valley.
The former
is in Contra Costa and includes Alamo, Blackhawk, Danville and San Ramon. The
latter is in Alameda County and takes in Dublin, Livermore and Pleasanton.
San Ramon
is located between Dublin and Danville and the three cities flow into one
another (and into Pleasanton). If you can't find what you want in one town,
drive to another. Malls in Dublin and Pleasanton. Towns beloved by giant
bookstores: Borders in San Ramon and Pleasanton; Barnes and Noble in Dublin.
These stores go where the college-educated go and where high-scoring schools
are found.
San Ramon
is served by San Ramon Valley School District, which also includes Alamo,
Danville, Diablo and Blackhawk. School scores generally land in the top 10
percent in state. See Schools. www.mccormacks.com
All or
almost all of the schools have won state and national awards for being
academically advanced and well run.
Voters in
1998 passed a $72 million bond to renovate almost all schools in the district
and to add classrooms. Crowding has been a problem at some schools but relief
came in 2002 in the form of $260 million bond to build and renovate schools.
Builders also chip in for schools. For enrollment information, phone (925)
552-5500.
The district, like many others in the
state, is struggling to come up with program and operational funds. Voters in
2003 by about 1 percent turned down an operational tax; then to the relief of
many passed it in 2004. Parents are expected to kick in for electives and
sports. Many tutors have set up shop in the Valley and found a market in
parents who want to give their kids the extra push.
As schools
open, attendance boundaries at other schools might be changed and your children
may have to transfer. Ask about this. Occasionally home construction outpaces
school construction and some kids have to attend other schools for a while.
Once home
to the large pear orchards, San Ramon was a late bloomer. Well after 1950, it
remained a farming village with a scattering of homes. In 1970, the population
barely broke 4,000. www.mccormacks.com
In the
1970s, the town zoomed into suburbia, adding over 18,000 residents. In the
following decade, it added 13,000 and in the 1990s, it took on another 10,000
or so, many of them through annexations.
Contra
Costa and suburbia in general came out of World War II hesitant about housing.
The first homes ran to two-bedroom, one-bathroom affairs, one-car garages, flat
or gently sloping roofs.
Going into
the 1950s, the public took heart, encouraged by the baby boom and the G.I. Bill
(which guaranteed loans). Homes eased up into three bedrooms and two baths and
larger garages. The initial homes accrued equity, creating the conditions for
another move up.
San Ramon
blossomed at a time when public confidence was taking another leap four
bedrooms, three baths, two stories. In the 1990s, walk-in closets came along
but lots got smaller. The newest homes favor the Mediterranean look: creamy
stucco and tile roofs.
San Ramon
sits at the end of a long valley hills to east and west, many of them
in parks. Mt. Diablo stands tall to the east, a pleasing vista, especially in
winter when snow caps the peak. www.mccormacks.com
In the
1980s, Bishop Ranch came to life, 585 acres of office park that includes
Chevron and AT&T complexes and many office, high-tech and bio-tech
buildings. About 30,000 people in 350 firms work in Bishop Ranch.
High-tech
firms also flocked to Pleasanton, Dublin and Livermore. These are firms that
cities kill for: Sybase, Safeway headquarters, etc. They bring in people who
spend money, support schools and the arts, and make the town work smoothly and
pleasantly.
To bring
planning under local control, San Ramon incorporated as a city in 1983 and
since then has worked to build a cohesive community with services to meet the
demands of citizens. The city has annexed Bishop Ranch and Canyon Lakes, an
apartment-home development.
In 2008,
the state tallied 23,559 residences: 14,656 single homes, 2,563 single
attached, 6,329 multiples and 11 mobile homes. Older tracts are just east of
freeway but entering the east hills, homes become spanking new. Estimated
buildout for San Ramon, 96,000.
San Ramon
has hotels and a major hospital, the San Ramon Regional Medical Center, and a
John Muir Hospital clinic. Arterial streets have been improved and widened. San
Ramon is building a city hall next to Central Park. www.mccormacks.com
One
homicide in 2005. Zero in 2004. For previous years, 1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, zero between 1985 and 1997. Crime low.
San Ramon contracts with the sheriff for police protection. See Crime.
In 2006,
the city council, to save money and to get more control over policing, voted to
sever the sheriffs contract and set up its own police department. Switch to be
made in 2007.
Besides school sports, activities
include baseball (Pee Wee, Little League, American Legion), roller skating,
golf, basketball, tennis, youth wrestling, swimming, biking, soccer (youth and
adult), softball, including girls league, football, ice hockey. Asian Indian
and Persian dance classes. Among additions, responding to the interests of the
new residents, a regulation cricket field.
About two
dozen town parks, two regional parks. Mt. Diablo State Park has so much open
space that, even with new development, San Ramon retains its country flavor.
Large, private sports club. Skate park. All-weather track at High School.
Ice-skating, I-MAX theater in Dublin. New park on Bollinger Canyon Road
sports fields. Two dog parks, one for large, one for small. Motocross track,
playground. Big social event of year: a black-and-white ball that raises money
for charity. Basketball at Central Park, five on five, competitive. Whiffle
ball league for adults.
Rail
tracks used to run through the San Ramon Valley. The trains are long gone, the
rails have been ripped out, and the track turned into the Iron Horse Trail.
Very popular with hikers, bikers and skaters. The trail runs down to Dublin and
connecting to other trails, to up to Pleasant Hill and Concord. Many people
hike the Iron Horse, then detour into the coffee shops. Annual Primos race
along the Iron Horse raises money for the schools. www.mccormacks.com
City
council has hooked parks to schools and funded school projects that can be used
by residents. These include swim center with warm-up and wading pools and an
olympic-sized pool. Community center has auditorium, ballet studio, club
rooms. Community symphony and
chorus. Senior center. City spends extra to keep library open extra hours.
In 2006
Diablo Valley Community College, which offered classes in an office building
near the freeway, opened a campus in Dougherty Valley. The facility is twice
the size of the office center and will offer more classes.
Cal State
University-Hayward, the UC-Berkeley Extension and UC Davis and other colleges
also offer classes or programs.
Transit
center: buses, car-poolers meeting place, parking spaces, bathrooms. Rail
service (Pleasanton) to San Jose. Two freeway jobs recently completed that make
a big difference: the Interstate 580-680 interchange at Dublin and the widening
of Interstate 680 on the way to San Jose. Traffic riles people and fuels much
of the anti-growth sentiment.
Chamber of
commerce (925) 242-0600.
San
Ramon library has an extensive collection of jazz recordings and memorabilia. www.mccormacks.com
Dedicated in 2004, a Wall of Honor memorializing individuals who died in line
of duty (military and public safety) or for the good of others. First plaque
was for Tom Burnett Jr. who died on September 11 in effort to stop hijacking of
Flight 93 that crashed in Pennsylvania. Second was for Kyle Crowley, a Marine
corporal killed in Iraq.
Bishop
Ranch has its own bus system.
For
Trader Joe's, you have to go to Danville. But San Ramon does have a Whole Foods
that will allow you to eat healthy or deliciously unhealthy: marinated kabos,
tri-tips, rack of lamb. Store is located next to Borders Books.
The new
developments mix apartments, single homes and townhouses in ways that deviate
from the cutter-cutter subdivisions. Not by much; this is not radical suburbia.
But in the eternal and perhaps impossible quest to fit cars to housing, these
places find new ways to stash the vehicles. The housing also experiments with
new designs, for example, small porches out front. Inside the homes, decorators
are moving to accommodate flat-screen televisions which are being hung
almost as art. Flat screens are moving into the bathroom, over the tub.
These
developments are being built in stages. As one section is sold out, another is
opened. In the nature of this method, many of the stages take on neighborhood
identities. www.mccormacks.com
So much
construction is taking place that the street maps are falling behind. Drive
Bollinger Canyon Road and follow signs. For more new housing, drive Bollinger
to Dougherty down to Dublin (Alameda County) and go east on Dublin Boulevard.
Dublin is building a lot on its east side.
Sticky
fingers. Almost every school runs a fund-raising operation, managed by
volunteers. Two were caught cooking the books, the first at Twin Creeks
Elementary for $46,000, the other, at Pine Valley Middle for $75,000. The first
got 75 days in jail, probation and restitution, the second, 90 days home
detention and restitution.
A little
earlier, the president of a youth football league pleaded no contest to
embezzling $14,000.
As
Dougherty Valley develops, the city has shifted in some services, including
free busing to a seniors center. The Dougherty area now has community center,
parks and a police substation. In the plans, a shopping center with stores and
services.
San
Ramon Regional Medical Center is increasing its emergency rooms, to 21 from 8. www.mccormacks.com
First
synagogue in the San Ramon Valley opened in 2006. Called Beth Chaim, it is
located on Camino Tassajara and Holbrook Drive.
Congrats
to Ozma Ferren, a teacher at Golden View Elementary in San Ramon. An education
trust thought so highly of her and two other Contra Costa teachers
that in 2006 it gave her an award and $10,000 to be spent as she wishes.
In 1998,
a family willed its farm to the city. On the farm was an old tractor and one
thing led to another to a collection of tractors and farm implements and a sort
of farm museum. Aficionados gather at the farm to restore and polish and
admire.
City web
site: www.ci.san-ramon.ca.us
