Solano Real Estate Scene: Rancho Solano, Paradise Valley gems of Fairfield
Mary and I raised our four now-grown kids in the same two-story Meadowlands house for 30 years on the south side of Vacaville until moving to a one-story home in Rancho Solano last year.
Over the years, I have made funny videos about the north versus south phenomenon of Vacaville. I have always thought it was funny how Vacaville natives consider their beloved north side of town superior to the south. They always brag about the weather being better, and of course, most of the older northerners that grew up in Vacaville are proud Vacaville High graduates that want their kids and grandkids to be a Bulldog and never a Will C. Wood Wildcat.
Interestingly, Richard Rico, the former owner of The Vacaville Reporter, talented columnist and artist, is not the only super senior born and proud to have been raised in Vacaville. There are a bunch of second- and third-generation folks that would never want to live anywhere other than the northwest side of their beloved Vacaville.
This generational pride in a hometown neighborhood existed in my hometown of San Francisco for 130 years until it all changed with gentrification (a different story). I often joke about how many of these people have not been on the south side of Highway 80 since it was farmland and Travis Air Force Base was called the Fairfield-Suisun Army Air Base. The name changed to Travis Air Force Base in 1951 in honor of fallen hero pilot Gen. Robert Travis after the Air Force became a branch of the military in 1947.
The same rivalry and ignorance exist between Vacaville and Fairfield. I can testify to this because after leaving San Francisco, we lived and worked in Vacaville for 31 years and I can tell you right now that the north Vacaville natives would rather move to the horribly windy and inferior south side of Vacaville than ever move to Fairfield.
Those that think Vacaville is better than Fairfield are just plain wrong.
I was one of those proud but ignorant Vacaville residents for 31 years. Yes, Vacaville is great. I love Vacaville, I work in Vacaville and two of my kids and five of my six grandkids love and live in Vacaville. I will never stop going to Pietro’s No. 1 , Murillo’s and Wren’s Café. I love the Halloween Stroll, fireworks on the 4th of July and the Christmas Tree Lighting on Main Street, but I now have a preponderance of physical evidence after 12 months in Fairfield that it is a better place to live than Vacaville.
After gaining 10 to 15 pounds sitting on my butt working from home and watching a ton of TV over the past 45 days, I finally realized last week how important Jeni and her team at Pilates By Design on Main Street in Vacaville has been to my physical fitness.
I decided to begin walking a couple miles three times per week and this is when I became absolutely convinced the Armijo Debate Club could win over Vacaville High in this argument: Fairfield is a better place to live than Vacaville.
I have walked in Rancho Solano and Paradise Valley and there is nothing that compares to these great neighborhoods and housing developments in Vacaville. If we throw in Suisun Valley, Rockville Park and Green Valley along with the shorter commute to Napa and the Pacific Ocean, and the milder weather from the cool delta breeze, it is settled, Fairfield is better than Vacaville.
P.S.: I’m just trying to be funny but at the same time serious about how desirable Fairfield real estate is today.
