Pinole

Open the windows of your Gateley home and feel the breeze of the San Pablo Bay on your face. A small neighborhood in Pinole, Gateley offers residents a bayside retreat near public schools, several parks and local restaurants. Homes in Gateley start at around $400,000 and can reach up to $800,000. Walking along the steeply graded sidewalks flanked by bushy vegetation and tall trees, you'll find primarily standalone townhomes and ranch-style houses with colorful facades and shingled roofs. Most homes feature 2-car garages, fenced-in yards and manicured landscaping that blends into the backdrop of the lush valley landscape. The West Contra Costa Unified School District serves the Gateley community. The youngest learners can attend Shannon Elementary School, which has an overall C-plus rating from Niche. Students can then attend Pinole Middle School, which has an overall C rating. For high school, students can attend Pinole Valley High School, which became an International Baccalaureate World School in 2019, the first of its kind for the district. The high school, which has an overall B-rating from Niche, offers award-winning performing and visual arts programs. Also, members of the American rock band Green Day attended Pinole Valley High School. Gateley residents can soak in coastal views of the San Pablo Bay from Pinole Shores Park. Covering 2,432 acres of parkland, locals can stroll along Pinole Shores Park's trails to breezy meadows filled with wildflowers or along the bay's bluffs and beaches. There are also two small parks within Gateley, both featuring playgrounds for little ones. Nearby outdoor recreation spaces include Pinole Valley Park, where nature enthusiasts can spend hours getting lost among the wilderness on the hiking trails. At the same time, four-legged friends can run around together in the open field. There's also a skatepark and a playground. For even more sweeping views of the bay, residents can spend time at Bay Front Park. At this small cove park, locals can go on hikes or sit on benches and admire the sunset over the bay. When springtime rolls around, neighbors can gather at the Pinole Swimming Pool. This community space offers a main pool, a wading pool and a snack bar. San Pablo Avenue, which cuts through Gateley, is filled with small businesses and local places to grab a bite to eat. Locals can enjoy Italian, Vietnamese, and American cuisines and plenty of ice cream places and bakeries. Local grocery stores include Sprouts Farmers Market, Safeway and Trader Joe's. At the Pinole Valley Shopping Center, where Trader Joe's is located, locals can fuel up at Peet's Coffee before dropping clothes off at the cleaners, heading into Walgreens to fill a prescription or going to the dentist. Meanwhile, along Fitzgerald Drive, residents can shop until they drop. There's Target, Best Buy, HomeGoods and Burlington. Gateley is roughly 3 miles from Interstate 80, a major Bay Area highway corridor that locals can take to travel north to Napa Valley or south to Berkeley, Oakland and San Francisco. The closest Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) train station is roughly 9 miles away.

A train runs alongside San Pablo Bay. A historic mansion stands tall upon a hillside. Independent eateries beckon residents downtown. This is Old Town Pinole, a charming waterfront neighborhood in northeast Contra Costa County. “It’s a very quaint bedroom community right off the freeway with easy access to schools, shops and anywhere you need to go,” says Gwendolyn Woods, a Realtor with Bridgeway Realty. “In this crazy Bay Area traffic, access is worth its weight in gold. Pinole is one of the top areas I recommend to families because of that access.” Interstate 80 forms the neighborhood’s south side, providing that easy access to the modern amenities surrounding the neighborhood as well as to the Bay Area’s buzzy metropolitan areas for work or play. Oakland is less than 20 miles away via I-180, and from there, the heart of San Francisco is a short drive across the water. The heart of Old Town Pinole is the downtown district, where historic buildings are home to an array of local establishments. Tina’s Place is a popular American restaurant where locals gather for conversation and mouth-watering culinary creations such as waffles piled high with comfort food favorites that include cheese, bacon and onion straws. “Tina’s has always been there; it’s a community staple,” says Woods. “It’s one of the best breakfast places around. If you don’t get there early, you’ll have to wait. That’s the kind of place it is. But it’s worth the wait.” Nearby Pear Street Bistro is a highly rated restaurant that offers a place to unwind after a busy day. “It’s a great little spot for cocktails in the evening,” says Woods. Antlers Tavern is a cozy bar that hosts open mic nights and local bands. And there’s one other downtown staple that draws a crowd every Saturday morning. “Old Town Pinole has one of the best farmers’ markets around,” says Woods. “People come from far and wide.” For more commercial shopping, residents have access to a Trader Joe's, which anchors the nearby Pinole Valley Shopping Center. Old Town Pinole is a throwback, and the benefits of its traditional identity extend to the neighborhood’s housing, which is typically priced from the low $500,000s to the low $800,000s. “Property values are strong because of that sense of community, that old-time feel,” says Woods. Ranch-style homes built in the late 1950s and early 1960s are common, and midcentury-modern designs also can be found among the neighborhood’s established homes. Custom homes offering private driveways, garages and small, neatly manicured yards are prominent among the newer housing. Notable among the residential variety is the number of homes designed with Victorian architecture in mind. The multi-level homes stand out with their steep roofs and ornate features. Townhouses with attached garages are an alternative option for those seeking maintenance-free living. Bayshore Park is a popular oceanfront green space where residents can enjoy a relaxing stroll along the Pinole Creek Trail. Pinole Creek empties into San Pablo Bay just past the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad tracks, upon which freight cars regularly pass. Following the tracks along the bayfront is the San Francisco Bay Trail, a paved path that buzzes with the activity of walkers, bike riders and skaters. Adjacent to the park is the Fernandez Mansion, a 19th-century Second Empire home that is one of the featured stops on walking tours of the neighborhood. Fernandez Park on the other side of the neighborhood features children’s playscapes and traditional athletic amenities that include ballfields and basketball courts. It also is home to community events such as movie nights and the Town of Pinole’s annual holiday festival. Children are often found playing on the state-of-the-art multi-purpose field at Pinole Middle, a C-graded institution that is one of three public schools that serve neighborhood students. Collins Elementary, a C-plus-graded school in the neighborhood, serves the youngest students. Older students attend Pinole Valley High, a B-rated school by Niche that offers the International Baccalaureate program, a globally focused course of study designed to prepare students for success in an ever-changing world.