What BestPlaces Users Say about Concord
Background information: Concord, California is a city located in Contra Costa County with a population of over 120,000 residents. It is known for its diverse community, plentiful outdoor recreational activities, and relatively affordable cost of living compared to other cities in the Bay Area.
Concord is a great place to live. It has a lot to offer in terms of outdoor activities and beautiful landscapes. The downtown area is also very charming with great restaurants and small businesses. - Maria G.
I've been living in Concord for the past 10 years and I love it here. The city has a great sense of community with friendly and welcoming residents. There are plenty of parks and green spaces for families and pets to enjoy. - John P.
Concord has a fantastic location - close enough to San Francisco for a day trip, but also surrounded by the natural beauty of Mount Diablo. The schools in this city are also top-notch, making it a great place to raise a family. - Samantha R.
I relocated to Concord a year ago and I have been pleasantly surprised by the diversity and culture of this city. There is always something to do, whether it's attending a festival or trying a new restaurant. The cost of living is also reasonable, especially compared to other cities in the Bay Area. - Carlos M.
based on 22 ReviewsGet to know Concord with the latest comments and reviews from people who live in or have visited Concord
A Decent Place to Live - 10/2/2021
I've lived here for 13 years. Concord has easy access to Walnut Creek and Pleasant Hill and is about 25 minutes from Oakland, and 45 minutes from San Francisco.
Summers are getting really hot in recent years. In the past 2 years, wild fire in the nearby areas had caused Air Quality Index (AQI) to go above 80 and remain at an elevated level for weeks on end.
Traffic is usually slow and congested as is with most other cities nearby.
The city goes have a lively downtown square and weekly farmer
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Great city, very conveniently located in SF area - 10/23/2019
I moved to Concord 20 years ago and have loved living here. It has a charming central square downtown that hosts farmers markets two days a week. I love the Music & Market weekly concerts in the summertime. The city is very conveniently located -- close to other cities in central Contra Costa County like Walnut Creek and Pleasant Hill, and it's easy to get to cities like Berkeley, Oakland, and San Francisco by BART. It seems like a nice, safe city to me. I've never experienced any crime here. The only negative is the traffic on 680 from people commuting past Concord to get to and from SF. The weather is great. It's hotter in the summer than most parts of the foggy Bay Area, and I like that. It's a treat to go outside on a summer night and not have to wear a heavy coat, as you do in San Francisco.
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Great suburban city for young families and seniors - 8/3/2019
We Moved to Concord from the Los Angeles area in 1982 as a young couple starting a family. Concord has been a great place to raise kids. Low crime and great people. Beautiful parks. Weather is about perfect. Hop on BART and be in San Francisco in an hour. 3 hours to Tahoe or Monterrey. 30 minutes to the wine country. Now that we are getting older, we appreciate Concords proximity to top notch hospitals.
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CONCORD: the good, bad and the ugly. - 8/4/2018
I've lived in Concord for 14 years. The summers are hot (this summer, in the mid 90s for most of the days so far). Air conditioning is a must. The winters are mild and it only rains about 18 inches per year here. Some folks on my street are choosing to let their lawns die because of recent droughts and threats of water rate increases or rationing. The housing prices are high and getting higher. A big Bay Area earthquake could change that, though. The city leaders will allow housing to be built anywhere, anytime. They have no problem tearing down historic older homes to build several McMansions on a tiny property. Terrible city planning, in my view. There is also a future plan to build 12,000 homes on a nearby Naval Weapons Station, so that construction project will be a mess for many years. Traffic is intense and there are two main freeways passing through Concord. Both are jammed, so that makes the city streets busy at commute hours, too. The City Government
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Concord- Great, flawed and affordable - 8/2/2018
Some of these reviews are clearly from parts of Concord that is either in low income or more urban. As such it can result in more crime and some questionable people.
Also, some of these people who reviewed are from Walnut Creek or Pleasant Hill, from experience are bunch of SNOBS just because they live in that area which quite frankly Pleasant Hill is just a bunch of track homes. Walnut Creek and the whole California is ridiculously overpriced. So for hard working people Concord and the likes can still provide a piece of American Dream. How racist can you be suspecting people of color as illegal because they don’t fit your white privilege mold. Yet when they need to buy their toilet paper they go to our Costco.
Here is the run down in Concord, like any other city there’s the bad and the good.
Pros: Can still buy a decent house albeit more from the 50s/60s at $600-$650k. Sometimes even under $600k.
There’s public transportation. Bart
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Necessary to visit sometimes if living nearby - 5/14/2018
Here is my take on the order of suburbs. I’ve lived in the Bay Area from 1997-2017 and had kids in 2013. Concord comes at the end.
SF is the most extreme (exciting culturally, artistically, and socially. Jobs abound. Temperate with outrageously different weather pockets, some parts unsafe and dirty, some parts okay for families, ALL very expensive. And parking is an issue for every outing). Seems to me most easily accessible for ppl without children. The proximity to SF will dictate home prices.
I’m assuming the reader will be working in SF and will talk about the eastern suburbs. There is also a northern option (Marin area) that offers a ferry for commuting. And a southern option (Daly City, Pacifica and Belmont). Foggier weather and more driving rather than public transportation.
For the Eastern suburbs, first comes Oakland. Great restaurants. Beginning to be more gentrified. Adorable pockets (that are almost as expensive as SF). Unsafe
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ah the good ol' days.... - 4/8/2015
I have lived in Concord my entire life (38 years). When I was a kid the place was wonderful. Open spaces, low crime, affordable housing, good schools. Concord is now a HORRIBLE place to live. The crime, gang activity and scary, begging homeless people are out of control. The rent is insanely expensive and the traffic is ridiculous. Three of my 14 year olds classmates where either stabbed or shot this past year. The school system is so bad that I had to take my oldest out and homeschool him until we leave this place.
The city is depressing at best, terrifying at worst. I hate to say it, but this place has been flooded with drug dealing, section 8, gang banging, welfare recipients that have brought their criminal, transient, dirty lifestyles with them and ruined my home town.
My husband and I are currently getting ready to move to Calaveras County, about 2 hours away. We are choosing to leave our families and everything we've ever known behind to make sure that
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Not a Small Town - 1/26/2013
I don't know how anyone could classify this as a small town. This is bordering on urban. It used to be a suburb, but because of the economy, impoverished groups have moved in bringing with them problems such as gang violence, drugs and unemployment. Don't look at this place as a healthy place to raise your children, unless you want them exposed to gang warfare, street drugs and a multitude of diseases that the large immigrant population brings because they are not innoculated against such things. Yes, they are hard working people. Are they hear legally? Most likely not. Do we owe them healthcare and an education? Its up to you. Your child's education may suffer because programs that normally receive funding like music and sports are left begging because children of immigrants come to school hungry. You will not be able to relax here. I felt constantly on edge wondering if my car would be there in the morning to take me to work. Other, more dangerous groups are moving into this
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Lots of great stuff to do in Concord - 11/4/2011
Small-city life is good in Concord. A great downtown park-Todos Santos Plaza-is home to weekly evening concerts in the summer, regular farmers' markets, and other fun events. Public parks, with 24/7 baseball fields, soccer, tennis, swimming and bocce (!) are strategically scattered throughout the city. Water world for the summer and Lime Ridge open space for the fall make the whole year great.
The Concord Pavilion (Sleep Train Pavilion? SF Chronicle Pavilion?) has a regular lineup of jazz, classical, country, blues and rock.
Cal State East Bay and Diablo Valley College (really in Pleasant Hill) provide higher education, as well as speakers, live theater and educational events. There’s shopping from the groovy to the grand, and, did I mention lotsa dining, from dives to the divine?
I raised three sons there, and only left, after 35 years because of a change of careers, with reluctance.
Did I mention perfect weather?
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Northern California - 11/24/2010
The weather in northern Ca is outstanding. not cold and not hot. an hour to the beach and a couple of hours to the mountains provide an ideal place to live and have
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