Point San Pablo, Richmond, CA

Point San Pablo is unlike any other neighborhood in Richmond, mostly because it barely functions like one. It occupies the far tip of the city's northwestern peninsula, reached by a winding shoreline road off the I-580 approach to the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, past Point Molate and a couple of miles of undeveloped coast. This is industrial and maritime land more than a residential grid: the heart of it is the Point San Pablo Yacht Harbor, a funky, off-the-grid marina community of liveaboards, boats, and a waterfront restaurant. What it lacks in services it makes up for in setting. The peninsula has panoramic views across San Pablo Bay toward Marin, Sonoma, and Napa, hills covered in eucalyptus and coastal chaparral, and enough isolation that deer wander the roads. For a certain kind of person, the remoteness is the entire point. The reality check is significant. This is not a conventional place to buy a house. It is far from shopping, schools, and transit, the surroundings are industrial and exposed, and getting anywhere means the long drive back along the shore. It is a curiosity and a hideaway more than a neighborhood in the usual sense.