Morello Ave, Martinez

Morello Avenue offers a little bit of everything, as far as southern Martinez is concerned. To begin, it is a back way into Pleasant Hill if you want to avoid getting on the freeway and negotiating the tricky Highway 4 to 680 interchange. At its most southern section, Morello Avenue takes over where Chilpancingo Parkway leaves off. Morello at this point is a curving hilly road that negotiates a few undeveloped hills in this Contra Costa range. Soon however you have a series of newer homes filling the surrounding hills and Morello turns into a nice upper middle class residential street twisting down towards the southern section of central Martinez.

The houses along the length of this residential section all seem to be in that single storied Ranch/Mediterranean style that has been so popular in California for the last twenty years or so. It is very nice, though a little bland, and by a quick survey, Martinez seems to be relatively reasonably priced for a location so close to the City (homes seem to be in the $300 thousand range).

As you get down to Highway 4, you find a busy shopping area with a Hollywood Video, gas stations and fast food joints, a supermarket and a drug store. Everything that you need for suburban living.

North of the highway and this shopping area, the character of Morello changes. Homes are more middle class and slightly more run down. There are also fewer of them. In the final stretch before Morello ends at Pacheco Blvd., you even find the fields of a winery. There are also two schools in this area, Morello Park Elementary (just off Morello at Morello Park Drive) and New Vistas Christian School.

At the corner with Pacheco there is a hardware store.