It can be lonely work advocating for eastern Contra Costa and southern Solano county to be included in the Bay Area’s imagination of itself. SPUR was kind enough to give me the lion’s share of an issue of the Urbanist in 2012 to make this case. There are three articles, including one by the great Chris Schildt and Jake Wegmann, which attempt to get Northern California to give some respect to the ‘Cities of Carquinez’ – Antioch, Brentwood, Pittsburg, Vallejo, Benicia, Fairfield, Vacaville, Suisun City Oakley + Bay Point. These communities provided homes for hundreds of thousands of Bay Area residents, mostly of color, who couldn’t afford the inner core of the region or who wanted better schools and safer communities just like everyone else.
Alex Schafran 