City of Benicia - http://www.ci.benicia.ca.us

The City of Benicia is a Bay Area City located adjacent to the Carquinez Strait, which is part of San Francisco Bay. A waterfront City of 28,000, Benicia is known for its small town charm, history and high quality of life. Benicia offers an abundance of leisure and recreational activities.

BUSINESS SUCCESS

• Benicia has the lowest Solano County crime rate and one of lowest in U.S. for cities under 30,000 population.
• Daytime population of 25,992 (total resident population of 26,865).
  
• The average household income is estimated at $98,113 annually for 2008 (highest among Solano County cities).
  
• Major companies headquartered in Benicia include Dunlop Manufacturing, Insight Glass, Interhealth, and Pacific Ozone. Companies with a significant presence in Benicia include Valero, Bio-Rad, Nationwide Auctions, and Bebe. There are hundreds of businesses operating in Benicia.
  
• Benicia is home to a number of petroleum support industry businesses. There is also a growing sub-cluster of nutritional supplement developers/manufacturers within the food and beverage manufacturing cluster.
  
• Benicia's unemployment rate is approximately 3%.
  

QUALITY OF LIFE

• Benicia is one of Money magazine's "Best Places to Live 2005" (August 2005).
  
• Solano Magazine calls Water's End and Downtown two of its "Best Neighborhoods". (2008)
  
• Nick Jr. Family Magazine recognized Benicia in April 2004 as one of the "10 Most Playful Towns in America" (p.44).
  
• History is alive in Benicia - it was the third California city to incorporate, the third California State Capitol, and the only historic capitol location where the original building still stands!
  Benicia has more parks per capita than any other Solano County City.
  
• The schools are ranked in the top 15% in nation by SchoolMatch, a private corporate site location firm. The Benicia Unified School District's test scores are the highest in Solano County.
  
• Named Best Place to Raise a Family according to a San Francisco Chronicle survey. 38% of households have children under age 18 at home.
  
• Benicia was recognized by Money magazine as one of the "Best Places to Live on the Coast" (June 2005).
  
• Benicia is noted for our arts community. American Style magazine ranked Benicia #7 of the "2005 Top Art Spots", in the small town category (June 2005, p. 50).
  
• Benicia was one of San Francisco magazine's featured areas in the November 2001 article "A Change in the Hood - 15 Bay Area communities that are hipper, cheaper, and more neighborly than anyone knew" (p.76).