Moving to Fairfield (San Francisco, Sacramento, Vallejo: crime rate, homes, school district)

[movingtopge]

I have accepted aposition in SF downtown. The job will be based in SF downtown until fall 09 and then after that it will move to vacaville. Which is nice place to move to as I have kids who go to elementry school.
I know I might have to commute until the job is in SF but I dont want a long commute when the office moves to vacaville. I am moving from LA. I dont want to move twice in one year so the I need to mve in to a safe place from where I can commute to SF and at the same time is not that far from vacaville either.

[ThumperWabbt]

If your offices are eventually moving to Vacaville, why not just move there? It'll only add about 5-10 minutes to your commute to SF (as opposed to Fairfield), and it's a decent place to live. I'm not sure of the crime stats, but I certainly feel safer in Vacaville than I do Fairfield, and there's a fair amount of things to do here.

[clongirl]

Benicia would a good half way point to SF. It's a handy (by Bay Area standards) commute and if you decide to stay there ,the commute to Vacaville wouldn't be too horrible either. Or of course you could just move to Vacaville, save yourself another move and put up with the bad commute.

[tennis368fan]

Try the Travis Unified School District area. Their high school and middle school now rates higher than Benicia's, while many of their elementary schools are almost equally ranked. Both districts are also ranked very closely overall.

One major difference between Benicia and the Travis area are the home prices. For 200K's, you can get a single family home on a relatively larger lot. You can't find home prices like that in Benicia. However, it is very suburban.

Benicia, on the other hand, is more established than the Travis area, possessing its own downtown.

[clongirl]

Travis is in the middle of nowhere, not convenient to SF and is a barren area built around the Air Force Base for military families. There is NOTHING out there and you can hear military airplanes rumbling overhead all the time. Sometimes you gotta sacrifice the marginally higher test scores for some sort of life.

[tennis368fan]

I am talking about the Travis Unified School District, which includes a wider area than just the base itself. It includes southern Vacaville, south of Alamo Drive, and northeastern Fairfield near Peabody Road. Capitol Corridor has a station located in Fairfield and runs through the southern extremes of the attendance area. Most of Fairfield and Vacaville is very spread out, so it is likely that you will have to drive a comparable distance to the highway or the train station even if you live outside of the Travis/Vanden area.

It does not look like that planes can even fly over the attendance area, unless the planes make impossible sharp turns. The two ends of the airstrips at the base are pointed away from the homes. There is a buffer zone of exclusively military residential areas, greenbelts, and empty fields separating the airstrip and civilian homes.

Benicia is a great city, if you can afford it. You will be closer to San Francisco, but when the job switches over to Vacaville, it will be necessary to commute, something that is not necessary living in Vacaville.

Oh yeah, doesn't Benicia have oil refineries? I have heard that they blow away from most of the city, but the wind direction can change constantly.

[ew3074]

I would suggest you just move to Vacaville. Commute to SF maybe painful, but after your job settles down in Vacaville, you will be happy with your decision. You pretty much can stay in Vacaville for all kinds of shopping(It has outlet too). The housing is affordable and the crime rate is low. Not too far from Sacramento where you can enjoy the city life. I live in Davis(20 miles away from Vacaville), and I sometimes need to go to Vacaville for dining or shopping. So, Vacaville would be your best bet in my opinion

[JMRtraveler]

I would say to move to Vacaville, and commute for a little while. You could take the Vallejo Ferry to SF and it would reduce your driving time; it was about 45 mins from Vallejo to the city. Beats sitting in traffic if you ask me.
I lived in Fairfield last summer and went to Vacaville sometimes, it was a safe, nice little town. More of a country feel to it than Fairfield had. Hope this helps.