C St, Martinez

C Street is a short 4 block street located just north of Alhambra High School (by the football field) and just to the south of the Contra Costa Regional Medical Center. That, of course, makes it the perfect street for nurses with high school age kids, if they want to be within walking distance of their whole lives.

My interest in C Street has to do with a recent listing for a one-bedroom here. The street is not at all typical of the kind street you would expect to find a little apartment building. It actually looks like there are just a few houses and it ends, but actually most of these homes appear to be duplexes and in few spots they are actually small apartment with maybe a half dozen units. They look a bit rundown and shabby, but overall seem serviceable. A unit has just come on the market for $950, for a relatively spacious one-bedroom so prices seem more than affordable.

C Street also stretches a little ways to the east of Alhambra.

Overall, Martinez has relatively good schools and mostly low crime. What crime there is here is mostly small time stuff, domestic violence, stolen radios from cars--the kind of thing that happens virtually everywhere.

This isn’t a bad spot for starting a commute either. You have the Amtrak Station in the downtown area and Highway 4 just to the south. I don’t know if I would recommend it, but it seems passable.