Piedmont

City, Alameda County

© McCormack's Guides

 

Zip Code: 94620

One of the wealthiest and prettiest cities in the East Bay, Piedmont, built over hills, from its beginnings has attracted the magnate, the boss, the broker, the heir, the heiress and the professional. In 2007, celebrating its 100^th year as a city. www.mccormacks.com

Crime low, scores high, remodelings many. Piedmont is surrounded by Oakland; no room to grow. In 1960, the census counted 11,150 residents. In 2008, the state put the population at 11,100.

Piedmont does build homes but very few — according to the 2000 census, zero in the 1990s and only 31 in the 1980s.

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The state in 2008 counted 3,864 residential units, of which 3,787 were single detached homes, zero single attached, 69 apartments 8 mobiles.

Served by the Piedmont Unified School District, enrollment about 2,640. Academic rankings in the 95^th percentile, one of the highest-scoring districts in the state. Piedmont High is one of the few Bay Area schools that every year scores over 600 in the math SAT. See Schools.

Since 1997, residents have passed raised taxes seven times to renovate or construct facilities or upgrade equipment or improve instruction. www.mccormacks.com

The latest increases came in 2006 when a bond was passed to retrofit buildings to make them hardier in earthquakes and easier and safer for the handicapped and a tax won to provide more money for art, music, electives and advanced placement courses.

Local newspaper in 2006 reported that the average homeowner pays $1,700 a year in school taxes (outside of state taxes that also pay for schools).

In a town that prizes the old, the schools present the most modern face. Piedmont High graduates students into the most prestigious universities in the U.S. Several private and parochial schools in Oakland and Berkeley round out the educational offerings.

One of lowest crime rates in East Bay. Zero homicides in 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001 and 2000, one in 1999 and zero between at least 1985 through 1998. Piedmont has its own police department and many homes subscribe to private security. In the 1999 homicide, wife was slain, husband arrested. See Crime.

Commute generally good. Short drives to freeways that lead to the Bay Bridge, which on most days is congested. AC Transit buses to San Francisco and to East Bay cities. BART stations nearby. If you work in Oakland or Berkeley, the commute comes down to 10 to 15 minutes. www.mccormacks.com

Piedmont, located almost opposite the Golden Gate, catches some of the fog that blows through the Gate. Not a place for outdoor pools. Here and there around town some impressive redwoods have taken hold, testament to the nourishing fog. But weakened by distance and sunlight, the fog lacks the thickness of the billows blowing into the western neighborhoods of San Francisco. By midday, Piedmont usually emerges into sunlight.

Lovely town. One park greets visitors with an edifice decorated by what looks like a Grecian urn. As symbolism goes, this kind of sums up Piedmont. Elegant. For the lucky residents, views of the Bay and Golden Gate. Homes exceptionally well-maintained. Trees galore. Former mansion serves as city hall.

Kind of place where residents varnish the garage door.

Variety of home styles, fair number of custom homes that allowed architects to show their stuff. Also small homes, especially on streets that angle up steep hills where building pads are small. Some homes, supported by pilings, hang out over ravines. Many three- and four-bedroom homes, census reports. Some mansions.

On many streets, the utility lines strung from pole to pole — a reflection of the town’s age. These days, in new tracts, the lines are buried. www.mccormacks.com

Lots to do, if not in town then nearby. Before-and-after school programs for kids, including computers, dance, music, camps. Soccer, basketball, flag football, etc. City and school district offer over 150 programs and activities for adults, from aerobics to flower arranging to yoga. Two golf courses nearby. Bridge.

All that Berkeley and Oakland have to offer. Theater, foreign movies, jazz clubs, first-class cuisine. San Francisco on most evenings can be reached within 20 minutes. Three universities nearby: Berkeley, Holy Names, Mills.

When the businessmen and their families of the 1800s tired of the bustle and grime and probably fog of San Francisco, their eyes drifted across the Bay to the farms and wooded hills of the East Bay.

Gradually they purchased lots and built sometimes magnificent homes and by the turn of the century, Piedmont had about 1,000 residents. Cable cars, connecting the hills to the rail station, spurred development, The Great Earthquake of 1906 also helped, people fleeing to what was thought to be safer ground.

About this time, the town became embroiled with Oakland in arguments over taxes, school construction and municipal services. Oakland probably could have smoothed ruffled feathers but it ignored complaints and moved quickly to annex Piedmont. Some residents said, let’s form our own city and did. www.mccormacks.com

Quickly Piedmont grew to its borders: by 1910, residents numbered 1,719, by 1920 the count went to 4,282, by 1930, to 9,333, close to what it is today.

Piedmont has maybe two dozen businesses, including several banks and one small general store, and depends on Oakland, particularly Rockridge and Montclair neighborhoods, for supermarkets, stores, restaurants, services and a library.

Old towns, old laws, Piedmont prohibits keeping of lions, tigers, bears and rhinos. You can’t wash your clothes on a public street. In modern times, laws were enacted to spare trees on sidewalks, ban gasoline leaf blowers and pooper-scoop the dogs.

No chamber of commerce. City hall (510) 420-3040.

• Every year the teens stage a bird-calling contest. Winners are sometimes invited on late-night shows (David Letterman) to sound off. In 2002, a group of choir students, many from Piedmont, visited Cuba where they found themselves feted by Fidel himself. The students said he was friendly and talkative, denounced the American media and praised Popeye, because he encouraged children to eat their vegetables. At that, one student broke into “I'm Popeye the sailor man ....” and others joined in, including the Cuban minister of culture. www.mccormacks.com

• Voters in 2006 said OK to converting a church into a theater or community center.

• Piedmont used to vote Republican but like the rest of Alameda County now goes for the Democrats. Part of this switch can be attributed to UC Berkeley, liberal. Many people in Piedmont, Rockridge and Montclair work for the university or know someone who does or are Cal grads. Part to the changing nature of the GOP. The Piedmont GOP was more in the tradition of Teddy Roosevelt and Nelson Rockefeller; less with Reagan and the Bushes.

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