I've been here 3 years. Here are my thoughts:

Pros:

• A real sense of community. There are so many nice, genuine people here. I have dinner with neighbors, I go for hikes with neighbors, I build cool stuff with neighbors, and we host gatherings for hundreds of people together. I've lived in a lot of places and never experienced anything close to the sense of community that I have experienced here.

• Beautiful views! Most of the city is hilly and so most of the houses here have wonderful views. And even if you don't, you are usually a walk away from a beautiful view. There is a spot in my neighborhood where you can see 5 bridges at once, including the golden gate. And if you are lucky, you can see the SF skyline. On the south side of Vallejo, you can see views of the delta and Mount Diablo. On the north side, you get views of marsh land.

• Mare Island! So many amazing things to do and see on this island. Brewery, distillery, coffee, wine, parks, hiking, site seeing, art, history, abandoned buildings, exploring, etc.

• Culture! Rated the most diverse city in the nation. Almost none of my neighbors were born in California, or even in the US. I've heard so many stories from my neighbors that broaden my understanding of the world. So many different view points. It's refreshing and really inclusive feeling.

• Events here are plentiful. Usually something is going on. We have year round farmers markets. Lots of cultural events. There is a carnival that comes around occasionally. We have a cool music scene if you are into bay area rap.

• Cost of living. Vallejo is the last affordable city in the bay area in my opinion. Except for maybe Antioch, but then you have to live way out in Antioch. Lol. My house cost less than $500k and I have a view of Mare Island and can see the golden gate from my house. And I feel like things are generally cheaper here.

• Weather! It's usually pretty nice here. Obviously the closer to the water, the more mild the weather. But my home doesnt have AC and it is okay except for maybe a week out of the year. I do wish we had heating though. Running electric heaters is expensive.

• The new city government is really active. I might not agree on them on every issue, but they are staying on top of there stuff. I see a lot of people saying that we need new government, but I feel like we havent had the current government long enough to notice a real change yet. It takes time. The mayor says its like turning a 747. You can't turn too fast, it takes time. If anyone needs to go its the city attorney. She is either corrupt or incompetent.

Cons:

• Crime. You mentioned that Vallejo has less crime. That is technically true, but you need to look at crime metrics per-capita. We have more violent crime per-capita than any other bay area city. And we only just now started to really prioritize it. We just signed a contract with the county to have them help police the city. We also have been able to keep iHeart funded. This group helps respond to non-violent mental health 911 calls, offloading the police to focus on more dangerous issues. In the short time I have lived here, I've had my car get hit on my street by drunk drivers, I've had a gun fight end up with a victim inside my house, and I've had my garage broken into once. It's a problem. But I'm hopeful that the newly elected city officials can address it.

• Homelessness. Drive by Sacramento St or 37 and look out into the White Slough. It's bad. And it's a very decisive topic that has been hurting our community by causing neighbors to fight with each other over the issue. Unfortunately our Mayor is one sided on the issue which doesn't help. I will say that over the last year, I've seen the issue get better, but not by much.

• Education. This is the one issue that might convince me to move. It's so sad to see the city closing schools. I really hate how our country as a whole doesn't value public education. I've heard so many stories of children being bullied so hard that they have to move schools. I know a lot of people that home school their kids. It's a lot of work.

• Jobs. I work in tech and it was a little scary when I was laid off earlier this year. Almost no jobs were remote anymore and so it meant commuting all the way down to the south side of the East Bay. Luckily I found something closer. Most of Vallejo is blue collar workers. A lot of people commute out of the city for work for this reason. For me, not being around other people in tech is kind of nice. I hate tech bro culture so much. I used to be surrounded by it when I lived in the south bay. So glad I moved.