Welcome to our first blog post! Cypress Self Storage, located at 207 E. Cypress Rd. in Oakley (right at the corner of E. Cypress Rd. and Picasso) is just about to start construction. We will be the newest self storage facility in Oakley, and we truly love our community. We look forward to sharing a variety of blog posts here about our passion for the community, packed with helpful tips for Oakley, Brentwood, and Discovery Bay residents. We are proud to be here and look forward to serving you. Without further ado, let's jump into our inaugural blog post.
Whether you are considering moving to the Tri-Delta area (Oakley, Brentwood, and Discovery Bay), or just moved to the area, here are some facts that will make you feel good about your decision.
1. Affordable and safe housing
According to realtor.com, median closing prices in Oakley are $477k compared to $740k in Walnut Creek, or $1.3 million in San Francisco. If you're looking to rent, the median rent price in Oakley is $2,295, which is lower than the San Francisco Metro median of $3,295, based on recent statistics in Zillow.com
While one would be hard-pressed to find an area that's completely crime free, crime rate is much lower than other areas in the Bay Area in which people are paying much more for their rent and mortgages. According to Neighborhood Scout, Oakley'' crime rate is lower than approximately 63% of California communities. However, compared to other communities of similar population size, Oakley has a crime rate that is noticeably lower than the average.
2. Improving commute
Unfortunately, as anyone who lives in the Bay Area or any metropolitan area knows, the trade-off for inexpensive rent or mortgage payments and safe living is the commute. Because most large businesses that pay higher salaries are toward the larger cities such as San Francisco, Oakland, the Tri-Valley (Pleasanton, Dublin, San Ramon), Silicon Valley, Stockton, or the Sacramento area, commuting is a fact of life for most of us.
But the light at the end of the (in some cases literal) tunnel is that the commute is improving. For those commuting westward (Walnut Creek, Oakland, San Francisco, etc.), additional lanes have been added to Highway 4 between Pittsburg and Concord, part of the nearly-complete Highway 4 Widening Project, which expands Highway 4 from four to eight lanes between Loveridge Road in Pittsburg to just west of State Route 160 in Antioch, and from two to four lanes from Lone Tree Way in Oakley to Balfour Road in Brentwood.
For those commuting to the Tri-Valley area or South Bay, Vasco road has had vast improvements that have helped avoid the bad accidents that have plagued the "Vasco Crawl" for so many years.
If you're looking to escape the confines of your car and do your part for the environment, two new BART stations in Antioch and Pittsburg are scheduled to open, that will utilize new state-of-the-art diesel-powered trains. So no more having to drive to the Bay Point station and fighting the Highway 4 traffic just to get to the nearest BART station.
3. Great restaurants and shopping
You don't have to waste gas and time going to other cities to get a great meal and shopping. Check downtown Brentwood, the Streets of Brentwood, Slatten Ranch and other venues.
Downtown Brentwood has many new and classic restaurants and lounges to try out, surrounded by smaller businesses. If you're looking for something on the fancier side, one of our favorite restaurants in Downtown Brentwood is Zephyr Grill & Bar. The Streets of Brentwood has more of a mall-type atmosphere, with more chain retailers and restaurants. But there are also some very cool boutiques and locally-owned businesses there as well.
Heading toward Oakley and Antioch, Slatten Ranch down Lone Tree Way, also has a lot of retailers, including Target, Old Navy and JC Penney. Heading west down Lone Tree, there's Kohl's, In-and-Out (yes, we have one here, too), Trader Joe's, and several other retailers and restaurants.
4. Two Water Parks and a Ton of Traditional Parks
Compared to other Bay Area cities, it gets pretty hot here in the summer. But there are not one, but two water parks nearby to cool off. The Brentwood Aquatic Center, and the Antioch Water Park (formerly known as Prewett Water Park). The Brentwood Aquatic Center on Balfour and Griffith has two waterslides, a zero-entry pool for smaller children, and deeper areas for older children and adults. There's also a separate lap and diving pool for adults and more experiences swimmers.
The Antioch Water Park has waterslides ranging from very tame (for toddlers and smaller children, who are given life vests), and more exciting and challenging slides. Both water parks are great places to have summertime children's birthday parties. If you can go during the week after 4 p.m., the rates are greatly reduced.
If water isn't your element, there are a plethora of green parks nearby. Most of the parks have play equipment for the kiddos, but they're also great places to take a jog, stroll or just hang out and enjoy the greenery.
5. Best fruits and veggies
Our area is known throughout the Bay Area for its amazing produce. Starting in spring, take a drive down Walnut Boulevard or Sellers Avenue and you'll find a lot of farms that sell pre-picked fruits and veggies at their stands, and some will let you pick it yourself. Although beware: During peak seasons (May and June), people come to the farms from all over the Bay Area, so traffic can be crazy. Plan your outings accordingly. And if you happen to have a fruit tree in your backyard that is accessible from the street, tourists are known to rudely snap up fruit from residence's trees as well.
At Smith Family Farms, you can visit their pumpkin patch and go on hayrides for pre-Halloween fun. And then following that, you can pick up a fresh Christmas tree, shop at the store for old-fashioned goodies like rock candy, almonds, and even pixie sticks (and get free fresh popcorn, coffee and cocoa), and of course, visit the Jolly Big Guy himself.
There are a lot of other farms in the Tri-Delta area that are open all year round, and starting in the spring, you can pick fresh fruit yourself. If you don't want to pick your own produce, but still want the freshness of local produce, starting in spring and through October, the Farmer's Market has many local farmers' produce, plus other food and beverage vendors. The Farmers Market is on Saturdays typically from 8 a.m. to approximately noon.
See harvest4you.com for more information.
On a slightly smaller scale, Kaiser Permanente in Antioch also holds a Farmers Market. Check the Kaiser Permanente web site for more information about its Farmers Market.
Conclusion
There's no doubt about it: the Tri-Delta area is so amazing. At Cypress Self Storage, we are proud to be part of the Oakley community. We hope you enjoyed our first blog post today, and look forward to seeing you next time! Stay tuned for more community-specific information here, specific to Oakley and Tri-Delta residents.
