In Napa, the center held. The old town, with its Main Street, restaurants and Victorians, is still clearly the heart of the city (but outlying shops and two malls are causing worries). www.mccormacks.com
Perhaps just as important, Napa got its postwar growth spread almost evenly over the following decades. The city built 2,400 housing units in the 1940s, 4,500 in the 1950s, 4,500 in the next decade, 6,400 in the 1970s and 3,900 in the 1980s. In the 1990s, Napa erected about 3,400 units, the great majority of them single homes. Housing styles change from decade to decade. This slow pacing has put variety into the housing choices.
The oldest housing is located in and around the downtown. Old Napa built for doctors and vineyard owners and it built for farm, service and medical workers. Just west of the downtown is a lovely neighborhood of assorted mansions, large bungalows and churches. www.mccormacks.com
To the north and south of the downtown, the streets were put into bungalows, cottages, small homes and shacks.
On the south side, many of these buildings have been purchased by the restoring middle class who are remodeling, adding a room or two, fixing up and planting shrubs and flowers. www.mccormacks.com
On the north side, with exceptions, restoration has not caught on. A fair number of homes are rundown. If your money is short and you want the Napa address, look in these neighborhoods. Napa also has mobile home parks and modular housing.
Moving out, the housing gets newer and often larger. North of Trancas Road many of the homes were built in the 1950s and 1960s and favor the three-bedroom, two-bath models of that era. This section has some in-filling with larger, more modern homes. Horse corrals, ranchettes and small vineyards and more new homes can be found on the north periphery. www.mccormacks.com
The west side of town went in for suburban handsome, large tract-model homes with occasional leaps into executive and custom. Professional landscaping. Level of care very high. Many oaks were saved. Here and there, on view lots, real mansions.
The old and initial suburban streets show their utility lines, the modern (about the 1970s) bury them. www.mccormacks.com
On the south side, there's a fairly new development that draws on the prettiness of the Napa River.
The state in 2007 counted 29,885 residential units, of which 18,079 were single detached, 2,358 single attached, 8,059 multiples and 1,389 mobiles. www.mccormacks.com
Recreation plentiful. About three dozen parks of varying sizes, movies, fishing, bowling, boating, horseback riding, several golf courses in the region. Trails wander off into hills. Art studios and galleries, little theater, a conservatory that educates opera students from around the world, symphonies, chamber music, jazz concerts, Shakespeare Festival. Home and garden show. Friday night chef market. January crab feed. Library recently improved. Usual kids sports: baseball, football, soccer; several dance schools. Teen center. Boys and Girls Club.
Town closes summer with a river festival, a night of sing-along, music by the Napa Symphony, fireworks. Napa Valley Community College. Many activities, cheap classes. In 2006, college staged the musical, Kiss Me Kate. www.mccormacks.com
For medical care, Queen of Valley Hospital, nearby St. Helena Hospital, and a Kaiser clinic. See Hospitals.
When Prohibition was inflicted on the nation, vines were uprooted, wineries closed and fortunes destroyed. Napa survived. And it will survive the natural la dolce vita of the wine country. But it will be a changed city. Chamber of commerce: (707) 226-7455. www.mccormacks.com
Wine train runs between Napa and Calistoga. Some locals dislike train and for years it was forbidden to make stops along the way. Now it can stop. Trips used to be limited to three a day; now five.
Coming north, at the city border, Highway 29 splits off a popular road called the Silverado Trail. This road travels up the east side of the town and serves the commercial-retail side of the city. Auto row. Many small stores and a large shopping plaza with Home Depot, Office Depot, Target, restaurants, supermarket. The west side, Highway 29, has a small outlet mall that is popular with tourists. The downtown also has a small mall. www.mccormacks.com
Fine restaurants ... Napa is justly proud of them. But it has its transfat side in fast-food restaurants, especially along the Silverado Trail.
Cruise Night in the summer. Draws about 9,000 cars from throughout Bay Area. NASCAR racing at Sears Point, near San Pablo Bay.
Purchased in 1997, Bull Island, located about four miles south of City of Napa, in Napa River. Conservationists hope to return almost all of land along Highway 37 in Napa and Sonoma counties to marshes and wildlife refuges. www.mccormacks.com
Napa is separated from Sonoma County by hills and mountains but several roads connect the two. With much arguing, Sonoma is opening Indian casinos that play to the tourist trade that pumps many dollars into the region.
Downtown trolley loops the shopping streets.
In 2000, the town did a little rock and rolling. Earthquake damaged about 5,000 homes in and around the city and cost residents and government and insurance agencies about $60 million. Many walls and chimneys were cracked.
At the south end of town, city has set aside 216 acres for a corporate park. To encourage local jobs and diversity, the city is laying out the welcome mat for industry. Moving farther south, the Napa County Airport. www.mccormacks.com
City web site: www.cityofnapa.org
