Nicholas Dr, Cambridge

I usually don’t make it up to this neck of the woods, but I came up here with a friend to try to help her find a place big enough for her and her kids. What little I have heard about Concord has been bad, and looking at the run down feel of some of the nearby streets I can see why a lot of people are turned off by it. However, Nicholas Drive and some of its surrounding streets look okay.

In fact, I would say that Nicholas Drive has a pretty middle-class suburban feel. The houses are a bit on the older side--1960’s Ranch style homes--but the lawns are relatively well-kept and the street looks pretty quiet. There were no obvious signs of gang activity or anything like that.

Unfortunately, I could not find any online crime reports for this neighborhood to verify my sense that it is okay. Concord as whole has an average crime rate with only a handful of murders on any given year (though last year they hit a new high with 7 murders). That is not too bad for a city with 120,000 people.

You also can’t beat the rent, with a 4-bedroom going for under $2000. That is for a 2000 foot home. About as good as it gets in the Bay Area. (Without getting really high crime rates anyway.)

The other drawback of the location, and what might be the deciding factor for my friend, however, are the schools. From Cambridge Elementary through Oak Grove Middle School and up to Olympic High, the local public schools are all fairly dismal by objective standards, with API’s of 4, 2 and 2 respectively. Unless my friend could finagle a way of getting her kids into the nearby Pleasant Hill schools she doesn’t think she can manage to live here.

Which is too bad, because it doesn’t feel like there is anything otherwise wrong with this neighborhood.