Urban to Suburban Living in Danville California

Have you been considering a move to a more suburban location? Are you concerned about schools, about safety, about noise? Maybe even a little bit about cleanliness is Danville, California on the list of possibilities. If so, I'm going to give you my top six reasons why Danville, California should be on the top of your list of possibilities.

If you're living in an urban environment, whether it's San Francisco or San Jose, maybe even New York or Chicago, if you're considering a move to the suburbs, hang tight. I'm going to share with you the top six reasons why Danville, California should be on the top of your list. Living in Danville, California gives you all of the upscale amenities you want, along with the small town charm.

1. Danville, California is clean and quiet. Everything that you read about the suburbs is right here in Danville, California. I'm happy to say that when I walk downtown, the garbage cans are plentiful and they are not overflowing, unless there's some sort of an event like a parade or a special event going on downtown. In order to see graffiti art in Danville, you’ll have to leave Danville to see it. I truly enjoy it, but it's just not here. You'll find that most of the restaurants in downtown Danville close by 8:00 PM during week and 10:00 PM on the weekends. We do have two late night bars that will give you that fill. If you're not ready for that much quiet in your life, Elliot’s and Meenar’s do stay open until midnight during the week and until 1:00 AM on the weekends.

1. Danville has that “small town” feel. You're going to find that if you have children and your children are in competitive sports, more than likely, you're going end up seeing the parents of other children, either on the same team or the opposing team regularly on weekends.  The town of Danville has 6 parks and operates over 167 acres of Parkland. One of my favorite parks in Danville is called Osage Station Park. Osage Station Park has over 35 acres of lands. It has four tennis courts, 4 baseball fields, several soccer fields, and a beautiful paved path around the park. The Memorial rose garden is tucked away while for you to visit while you're walking around the path in between soccer games, baseball games, or even while you kids play at the playground, it offers a very peaceful serenity just around the corner from all those sports.  Osage also has a picnic area, barbecue pits, as well as a playground and more than one parking lot, cuz it does get a little busy on the weekends. This park was named after the ranch that was located there that grew Sage oranges. I've heard that there's even a few Sage orange trees that are still located in the park. I'm gonna go and look for if you've seen the Osage orange trees at Osage park, do me a favor, drop me a line down below. My number two favorite park in Danville is called Sycamore Valley Park and it's right off Camino Tassajara.  Sycamore Valley Park offers a playground area, reflection pond, basketball courts, baseball fields, soccer fields, football and there's even a hiking path there.  Just about anything you could want is at Sycamore Valley Park. And from April 1st - September 30th, Sycamore Valley offers a water park so that the kids can run around in the water park and just have an absolute ball.   Other parks in Danville include Danville South, Diablo Valley/Snake Park, Hap McGee Park (which also has a dog park) and also Oak Hill Park.

1. Danville also has an amazing Downtown area. We don't have a lot of big box stores in downtown Danville. Almost all businesses are small and locally owned businesses, which innately has a level of care and kindness that can felt in the community and is second to none. Downtown Danville has an amazing library. This library has popup book sales and even has an annual Dr. Seuss birthday party every year in March. Downtown Danville has its own theater and music venue called the Village Theater, which actually has its own art gallery inside the Theater. There are two museums in Danville.

• The San Ramon Valley Museum which tells the history of San Ramon Valley
• The Blackhawk Museum, which has an incredible car collection along with 4 other amazing museum exhibits.

If you like to golf, Danville has three country clubs.

• Crow Canyon Country Club
• Blackhawk Country Club
• Diablo Country Club

What would a small town like Danville be without tradition every year? Danville does the “Lighting of the old Oak Tree”. It's held every year, right after Thanksgiving to light up the old Oak Tree for Christmas. There's a lot of singing and hoopla! And sometimes Santa shows up right before they light the Tree. Also, every year Kiwanis supports Danville’s 4th of July Parade, but you better get there early and bring your own chair, because the seating fills up really quickly in Downtown.

In mid-April, Danville has the “Sip & Stroll” every year that's put on by the Danville Chamber of Commerce. And if you prefer in the end of April, they also sponsor the “Shops and Hops” in case you prefer beer.  These are both a great opportunity to get to meet your neighbors and to try out local beers and then rounding it out in the summer, Downtown Danville shuts off the streets to the and allows collectors to show off their Car Collections. It's a fabulous time to walk around, meet your neighbors and pop into the stores as well as to check out some Collector's Cars. I almost forgot, every single Saturday, right behind the Sycamore Valley Museum, Town of Danville has a Farmer's Market. It's every Saturday rain or shine from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM. It's also a great opportunity to try out local organic produce.

1. Danville has great proximity Nature.  Danville is located right here at Mount Diablo. Did you know that in 1805, soldiers tried to capture Indians in the marsh, just north of Concord. And then when the Indians completely disappeared into an eerie thicket in the night, the soldiers named the area “Monte Diablo” (the thicket of the devil).  Mount Diablo has an elevation of about 3,850 feet up.  On a clear day, you can see all the way to the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range. The thing that I love about Mount Diablo is the wild flowers.  They bloom in Spring and they are absolutely second to none. At Mount Diablo, you are promised to see an amazing amount of beautiful wild flowers. Now, if you go during a “Super Bloom” season, which only happens right after we get a lot of water, you will see a carpet of Orange Poppies as far as the eye can see. Mount Diablo is not only perfect for hiking, but it's perfect for mountain biking. It's great for camping, picnicking and even just admiring the views once you drive up there.  Every once in a while, down in the valley, we get the opportunity to see Mount Diablo - snow covered. It doesn't happen very often, but it is a beautiful sight!

1. If you have a family, then more than likely, you're considering both schools and safety.  Both ADT and Safe Wise has recognized Danville, California as “The Most Safe City in California”. Once again, Safe Wise analyzes reported FBI crime stats and US Census population data to rank these safest cities in each State.  Communities are graded based on the

• number of violent crimes, which include aggravated assault, murder, rape, and robbery, as well as
• property crimes like burglary, arson, larceny theft, and motor vehicle theft that occurred in each of these cities per thousand residents.

Danville, California came in in the top #1 spot with only 0.5 violent crimes per 1,000 residents, and only 6.6 crimes per 1,000 residents for property crime.  This is the lowest in all of California.  For schools, if you have kids and you're thinking about schools, you should know that there's are 6 Elementary schools in Danville and all of these have been rated either A or A+ by Niche.com. There's 3 Middle schools in Danville.  Again, all A's by Niche.com. There are also 2 High Schools in Danville, California. Both of these High Schools get an A+ by Niche.com. Now, in terms of the Elementary schools, the majority of these are walkable or within about 1-2 miles of every home in the community, same for the Middle schools.  This offers a great opportunity for the kids in the neighborhood to walk to school. The High Schools can be a bit further because there are fewer of them. Your kids might need a ride or they can always take the bus.

1. There is a huge variety of households. Everybody talks about the expense of the East Bay and how expensive it is to buy a home. There are a lot of opportunities to get INTO Danville that people don't to know about. For instance, you could get into a Townhome or a Condominium anywhere from $500,000 to $2 million.  Single Family homes are more expensive, anywhere from $2.1 to $3 million and larger estates can get up to the $6 or $7 million range.

As you can see, Danville has a little bit of everything for everyone and whatever it doesn't have is super close by if you're still considering that move from Urban to Suburban, and you think Danville, California might be right for you, Check out my video about the top 3 neighborhoods in Danville, California. We go through everything from what they offer, how much they cost, what the sizes are.