Bikerrrchik

Sycamore Avenue is the main artery for the town of Hercules. It runs East to West - dead ends at the waterfront. Traffic at Sycamore and San Pablo Ave can get backed up badly when Hwy. 80 has jams - then everyone comes down to San Pablo to try to get around the jam. Makes it difficult for residents to get home sometimes...

Fortunately the City has put in street lights and signs at the 4 corners, still, you have to be careful crossing that section especially if you are turning North from Westerly side of Sycamore onto San Pablo - people turning North from the Easterly side (making a right) often cut you off - even though you have the right-of-way. It's getting better now that the signs are posted, though.

There is a Shell station on the corner - and two lots that will be built on in the next several years. the North East corner has aggressive plans for a new "live-work" community with shopping, condos, etc. Plans are currently being reviewed by the City. I'm a bit concerned about the traffic...I think the entire infrastruction will need to be re-built. But as slow as the City seems to move, I don't think we have to worry about it too much. The 4th corner is wet-lands...can't build. : )

Next to the Shell is a Kinders Meats - great place to get a sandwich or excellent meat to throw on the barbie. As well, there is the always-present Starbucks, a pizza place, Jack in the Box (our fine-dining! LOL!), WaMu, and several real estate offices...oh, and an electronics store...forget the name. I think there is a nail salon as well.

Avocet Drive in Hercules is in the heart of the newly forming "Waterfront District". We can walk to San Pablo Bay - an offshoot of the San Francisco Bay - and watch the sunset, the abundant water fowl, the ferries and other boats and ships moving across the bay, and listen to the water gently lap against the shore.

The city plan is to eventually build more shops in the form of live/work units, add a ferry and train terminal (AmTrak) and generally make the waterfront the "hot spot" of Hercules and the surrounding communities. (Pinole, Crockett, Rodeo.) You can learn more about the preliminary plans by visiting http://www.herculeswaterfront.com/. In addition, this site, http://www.tndwest.com/hercules.html, shows current pictures of the various housing developments in the neighborhood. Avocet is in the Baywood Community.

We definately could use more shopping, restaurants (although we do have an excellent Sushi restaurant and the unavoidable Starbucks), and NIGHTLIFE. We hope all that comes to fruition as the community grows. And we hope to keep WalMart OUT of our quaint, quite, community. Although that is a huge threat, it's meant for a blog later.

Overall, Hercules is a bedroom community, but rapidly growing. On Avocet, we have good neighbors, even great ones. We do have some not-so-great neighbors that rent - and we work closely with the Hercules PD to keep them in control...with the ultimate goal of getting them the hell off our street. But over all problems are few and relatively minor. We enjoy sitting on our front porch and waving at our neighbors as they are out on their evening stroll, dog walk, jog, bike ride, etc. We have a lot of open space with protected wet lands and it's quite beautiful. A creek runs through our neighborhood right along Avocet and a park is to be built around it - so no homes will be in front of ours...nice.