Martinez

Martinez is the county seat, which gives it something most towns out here do not have: a real civic downtown of old brick and stone, built when the county’s business had to happen somewhere. It sits on the Carquinez Strait, so the water is part of daily life in a way it is not further inland.

Why people move here

• A historic downtown of 19th- and early-20th-century buildings, with the county courthouse and the marina a few blocks apart.
• Amtrak’s Capitol Corridor stops right downtown — trains to Oakland, Emeryville, and Sacramento without a car.
• Martinez Regional Shoreline on the strait, and Briones Regional Park covering the hills to the south.
• The John Muir National Historic Site — his 17-room house and the orchards around it, preserved on the edge of town.

Neighborhoods

Downtown holds the oldest housing, much of it Victorian and Craftsman. Alhambra Valley runs south into the hills toward Briones and stays rural in feel. Vine Hill and Virginia Hills are established areas on the eastern and southern sides.

Martinez runs its own unified district, which is worth noting — the neighboring cities are Mt. Diablo Unified, so the boundary matters here.