SUISUN CITY — Despite tough economic times, the small community of Suisun City continues to better itself.
Earlier this year, the town celebrated the opening of the Salvation Army’s multimillion-dollar Kroc Center, which gives Suisun City a state-of-the-art community center with facilities and programs for every age group.
The city is expanding its network of bicycle and pedestrian paths, with a new stretch being built along the south side of Highway 12. It also expects to see the start of construction of a much-anticipated Walmart supercenter on the east side of town next to Walters Road and Highway 12.
During the past year, the city’s oldest shopping center, the Marina Center, received a facelift, and before that, the city welcomed a new public library that replaced the one in leased space in an office building.
The historic core of Suisun City, its waterfront old town, is still a work in progress. Its economic revival has been brought to a temporary standstill by the loss of the city’s once-powerful redevelopment agency, but that has not stopped city leaders from promoting it as a dining and entertainment center.
Suisun City’s waterfront is the home of a selection of public events, ranging from wine tastings to jet ski races. Ongoing efforts by the Suisun City Historic Waterfront Business Improvement District, residents and community groups kept alive popular local events such as the Saturday night movies in the plaza and the Fourth of July fireworks extravaganza.
The waterfront has become home to a host of businesses from the Hampton Inn & Suites and The Shared Spoon to Cast Iron Grill & Bar and Babs Delta Diner. It is also a great jumping-off spot for fishermen and hunters, who want to enjoy the extensive Suisun Marsh to the south.
The east half of Suisun City is largely residential, home to a large commuter population, many of whom either travel east to the Sacramento area or west to the San Francisco Bay Area.
A combination of employee groups who continue to work hard despite tightening budgets and one-time income from city land sales allowed the city to keep up community services during the economic downturn. City leaders hope the arrival of Walmart will allow them to restore cuts.
Suisun City’s history goes back to 1850 when schooner captain Josiah Wing outfoxed Fairfield founder and clipper ship captain Robert Waterman, who thought he controlled all of the shoreline in central Solano County.
Wing found an island in the Suisun Marsh just offshore and proceeded to build a wharf and warehouse, which soon grew to become the major agricultural shipping point for the farms and orchards of Suisun Valley and Green Valley.
The transcontinental railroad came through town and cemented Suisun City’s role as the area’s center of commerce, social life and entertainment, with a half dozen hotels located along Main Street by the 1900s.
Only after the military built a major air base east of Fairfield during World War II and established government housing where Fairfield City Hall now stands, did Suisun City’s stature begin to slip. The construction of Interstate 80 through Fairfield passed by Suisun City.
Suisun City’s fortunes reached their low point in the early 1980s when a survey of San Francisco Bay Area communities listed Suisun City as the least attractive place to live in the region.
That got then-Mayor Jim Spering to formulate an ambitious plan to redevelop all of the waterfront and the crime-ridden Crescent neighborhood. Suisun City has made a lot of advances since then, but is still a work in progress.
Suisun City has a population of 27,000 people with a median household income of about $72,000.
Reach Ian Thompson at 427-6976 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ithompsondr.
Suisun City at a glance
- City Hall: 701 Civic Center Blvd.
- Website: http://www.suisun.com.
- City manager: Suzanne Bragdon, 421-7300. [email protected].
- Mayor Pete Sanchez: [email protected] (elected 2006, term expires 2014).
- Councilman Jane Day: [email protected] (elected 1986, term expires 2014).
- Councilman Mike Hudson: [email protected] (elected 2006, term exires 2014).
- Councilman Mike Segala: [email protected] (elected 1992, term expires 2012)
- Councilman Sam Derting: [email protected] (elected 2004, term expires 2012)
