I've gotta a little something for you from the City of Vallejo. The odd thing about this city is that they actually filed bankruptcy in 2008 because the entire city government was insolvent. When they said the city was broke they weren't kidding!
The City of Vallejo is the largest city in Solano County, California, United States. The population is approximately 115,942 and is the tenth most populous city in the San Francisco Bay Area. Vallejo is located on the northeastern shore of San Pablo Bay. Vallejo is divided into five main areas, which include West, East, North, South, and Mare Island.
West Vallejo is the oldest and most historic section of the city, and stretches from I-80 and Sonoma Blvd. to Mare Island and the Vallejo waterfront. In old town Vallejo, East-West streets are named after USN battleships (named after states), North-South streets are named after counties, and alleys between East-West streets are named after old, defunct car companies. The order of East-West streets appears at first to be random but actually follows the commissioning order of USN battleships.
The downtown and waterfront areas, located in West Vallejo near Mare Island have undergone extensive transformation and development as many people from more expensive cities like San Francisco have migrated to this area. Due to the city declaring bankruptcy, many projects have stalled, however. Nevertheless, a large parking structure to accommodate the ferry and bus system was recently completed and is helping redraw attention to Vallejo's old town on the west side.
The city's three historic neighborhoods are in West Vallejo which includes (1) Saint Vincent's Hill Historic District; (2) Vallejo Old City Historic District, also in West Vallejo; and (3) the Bay Terrace subdivision, located within the boundaries of the Vallejo Heights neighborhood. The residential buildings are detached single-family houses, semi-detached two-family houses and semi-detached two-flat houses, distributed fairly evenly along the street. A sense of individuality among the houses was achieved by using fifteen variations on six basic plans, while visually harmonious streetscapes were created through the use of the Colonial Revival style. This distinctive architectural style of the housing visually distinguished the boundaries of the Bay Terrace district from the surrounding neighborhood. Although the subdivision is not currently on the National Register of Historic Places, it does meet the "significant" requirements under criteria A and C for evaluation.
East Vallejo is the largest and most populated, containing newer neighborhoods of the city, which has undergone considerable growth since the late 1940s. East Vallejo begins on the east side of Interstate 80 and includes the Manor Neighborhoods such as Tennessee and Steffan Manor, Silverview, Skyview Terrace, Granada Hills, Greenmont, Somerset Highlands, and Northgate neighborhood near Blue Rock Springs Park. In the northeast corner of Vallejo is the Hiddenbrooke community, centered around Hiddenbrooke Golf Club.
North Vallejo
North Vallejo, located near Highway 37, has a number of housing subdivisions including the Lofas-Lakeside, College Park, College Hills, and Country Club Crest housing tracts. One of the city's largest government subsidized housing projects (Chabot Terrace) was located here during the war years of the 1940s.
South Vallejo is located south of York and Marin Streets. The southeast area of Vallejo includes Glen Cove, a neighborhood located where Interstates 80 and 780 meet, near Benicia. It boasts views of the Carquinez Strait, including the westbound Carquinez Bridge. Most of the home construction in this area was completed in the 1980s but includes some of the most expensive housing in the city. Glen Cove is home to Waterfront Park.
South Vallejo also has another historic area "Sandy Beach", the first area in Vallejo to be settled. Although this area is located in South Vallejo, Sandy Beach is actually unincorporated Solano County. The houses here, located on the shore at the mouth of the Napa River, were formerly fishing shacks originally built in the 1800s. The oldest known house in Vallejo, the Winslow House, built in 1860 by a merchant marine, George Greenwood, of Maine, and in 1891 was purchased by Isaac Winslow, remains in its existing historic condition on Winslow Avenue. The property was originally 700 acres and is now 3/4 an acre. It is also the home of the oldest Pepper Tree in California (non-native). South Vallejo has other historic buildings, including a rare 1869 historic mansion, the only one of its kind left in Vallejo. The Starr Mansion, named after its builder, Abraham Dubois Starr, sits on top of a hill and offers panoramic views of the city of Vallejo, the waterways of the Napa River, Mare Island and the picturesque hills to the east.
Mare Island, former home to the oldest Naval Base west of the Mississippi and decommissioned in 1996, has the newest homes in the city as well as some of the oldest. Touro University California is located on the south side of Mare Island. As one of the nation’s oldest decommissioned shipyard and naval bases, Mare Island has a rich history and contains many National Historic Landmark buildings, including a 19th-century industrial brick warehouse, the Coal Shed Artists Studios, Officers Mansions, designated historic landscapes Alden Park and Chapel Park, the oldest golf course west of the Mississippi, and Saint Peters Chapel, a nondenominational church built in 1901 that boasts the largest collection of actual Louis Comfort Tiffany stain-glass windows on the west coast.
