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FILE – An aerial view of Vacaville in\u00a0December\u00a02025.<\/p>\n
Stephen Lam\/AP<\/p>\n
The New York Times published a glowing profile this week on Vacaville,\u00a0a Bay Area city<\/a> that\u2019s well known, but not always celebrated. And while exposure in the nation\u2019s newspaper of record is a welcome surprise, some Solano County locals were baffled by how their bucolic city was presented to the rest of the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cFirst of all, I didn\u2019t understand why the article was being written. What was the intent? Was it to discuss \u2018vaca\u2019 \u2014 a cow? A historical perspective? If so, I don\u2019t think they went about it in the right way,\u201d Sarah Chapman, a member of the Vacaville City Council, told SFGATE on Thursday by phone after reading the piece.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Chapman said that Vacaville is an excellent community and it was nice to see it appear in a positive light, but she questioned why the profile<\/a>, published in the Times\u2019 real estate section, highlighted some areas while overlooking others.\u00a0<\/p>\n For instance, Chapman noted that the section on the area\u2019s education relegated the Vacaville Unified School District to a single sentence, but promoted the merits of its private, charter and Christian schools in more detail.\u00a0<\/p>\n The councilmember also objected to how the Times only mentioned nearby Vallejo<\/a> to portray it as suffering from a \u201creputation for violent crime.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Make SFGATE a preferred source so your search results prioritize writing by actual people, not AI.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t think there was a need to provide a comparative to the other cities in the county,\u201d Chapman said. \u201cEach of the cities that make up Solano have their own culture and bring something positive to the lives of the residents. We\u2019re all neighbors.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Interstate 80 bisects Vacaville and almost 700,000 vehicles<\/a> pass through the area every day. Due to this repeated exposure, the city is sometimes reduced to what\u2019s visible from the car window<\/a>. It\u2019s why nearly every time someone writes about Vacaville, they mention the Nut Tree<\/a>. Vestiges of the celebrated roadside destination (where Gov. Gavin Newsom\u2019s divorced parents would\u00a0meet for handoffs<\/a> when he was child) are still apparent, even though the Nut Tree closed 30 years ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Times article makes an effort to steer away from the interstate and spotlight Vacaville\u2019s downtown along with a few long-standing businesses. Nevertheless, it bungles the geography. The article\u2019s subhead notes that\u00a0Vacaville is an option for living \u201cnearby\u201d both San Francisco and Sacramento, when these cities are more than 50 and 30 miles away, respectively, through some of the Bay Area\u2019s most high-traffic corridors (the article recommends taking the train). Later, it overlooks the town\u2019s abundant open space, limiting its recreation options to Napa\u2019s Wine Country and Lake Berryessa<\/a>, both located in a different county.<\/p>\n Whether intentional or not, the profile reduces Vacaville to just another place between places. With regard to the city\u2019s vibe, the Times wrote, \u201cVacaville has a refreshing lack of prevailing culture.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n