Coverage
Every part of Martinez, and around the strait.
Most of the town is about 18 minutes away, from the old centre at twelve to Virginia Hills at twenty-seven, where the road goes round rather than through. Pacheco, Pleasant Hill, Concord, Lafayette, Benicia across the bridge and Hercules run a little longer, and each area page carries its own figure.
Martinez neighborhoods
Inside Martinez
Downtown Martinez
~12 minThe old county-seat blocks around Main and Ferry: brick and timber shopfronts with offices on the floor above them, the courthouse and the legal and title firms that follow it, and front doors that carry a bronze lock buried in the edge of the leaf rather than a cylinder punched through its face. Ten minutes from the van, the shortest run on this map.
Local pageWaterfront & Marina
~14 minThe flat ground between the tracks and the water: the marina and its parking, boat sheds and lay-up yards, storage buildings and small workshops with steel doors in steel frames. Thirteen minutes from the van, and much of this work is a lock hanging in the open rather than one screwed to a house.
Local pageAlhambra Heights
~15 minThe slope directly above downtown: tall wooden houses with deep porches, turned posts and bay windows, narrow lots with a flight of steps up from the sidewalk, and front doors that have been repainted every few years since the house went up. Fifteen minutes from the van.
Local pageAlhambra Hills
~24 minUp the valley south of town where the lots widen out: houses set well back from the road, driveways of a hundred feet and more, detached garages and workshops behind them, and a gate on one flank or both. Twenty-four minutes from the van.
Local pageMuir Station
~17 minThe flat part of town on the south side, where a bungalow, a fourplex and a house divided into two flats stand on the same block, and a larger share of these doors are rented than owned. Seventeen minutes from the van, a minute under the citywide average.
Local pageVine Hill
~19 minThe postwar streets on the north side of town, running toward the water: single-story houses on flat lots, wide driveways, a service door in the side of the garage, and households a good many of which work to a shift rota rather than to office hours. Nineteen minutes from the van.
Local pageMorello Park
~21 minThe streets laid out in the seventies on the north-east side: two-story houses on regular lots, a two-car garage at the front of nearly every one, a fenced yard behind, and hardware bored to sizes that anything sold today is machined for. Twenty-one minutes from the van.
Local pageVirginia Hills
~27 minThe far southern corner of the coverage: streets that leave the valley road and loop around the slope, houses stepping up and down from the curb, driveways that pitch away from the road, and the longest run to any Martinez address. Twenty-seven minutes from the van.
Local pageAround the strait
The cities beside it
Pacheco
~14 minThe small unincorporated place immediately south-east, strung along the boulevard: contractors' premises, service yards and small businesses on the road itself, with older houses on deep lots behind them. Fourteen minutes from the van, quicker than half the streets inside Martinez.
Local pagePleasant Hill
~18 minThe town south over the ridge, reached down Pleasant Hill Road and Taylor Boulevard: flat streets of postwar houses with attached garages and fenced yards, shopping blocks along the through roads, and small office suites behind them. Eighteen minutes from the van.
Local pageConcord
~21 minThe biggest city on this map, east of Martinez along Highway 4: long residential grids either side of the through roads, shopping blocks and office suites among them, light industrial units toward the freeway, and parking lots that stand full from morning to evening. Twenty-one minutes from the van.
Local pageBenicia
~26 minThe town directly across the water, reached over the bridge: nineteenth-century houses on the grid above the waterfront, a main street of shopfronts with offices above them, and an industrial park out at the eastern edge. Twenty-six minutes from the van.
Local pageLafayette
~24 minThe town south over the ridge, reached down Pleasant Hill Road: houses tucked up the side valleys under mature trees, lanes that climb away from the through road, and a compact downtown of shops and small offices. Twenty-four minutes from the van.
Local pageHercules
~29 minThe town west along the shoreline highway, at the outer edge of the service area: subdivisions built from the eighties onward on smaller lots, attached garages, side gates, and shopping blocks along the through road. Twenty-nine minutes from the van, the longest run on this site.
Local pageOpen 24 hours, 7 days
Say whether the key meets a keyhole or a cylinder, and the rest of the call is quick
Martinez and the towns around the strait, around the clock. What sits in the edge of the leaf decides the work and the work decides the number, which is settled on the phone with the $89 visit and any late hour already inside it. It reads the same on the receipt. Ninety days on the labor, a rebuilt bronze case covered the same as a new lock.