Starting Over in Beautiful Benicia…

The Benicia Herald, May 10, 2026,  by Stephen Golub 

My Wife and I Starting Over in Benicia…

I keep a playlist of positive songs that lift me up when my state of mind or the state of the world has me down. The artists range from Jimmy Cliff to the Beatles to Pink to LeAnn Rimes to will.i.am to Sting. Many playlist items are Springsteen songs (“Land of Hope and Dreams,” “Waitin’ on a Sunny Day,” “The Rising”) or Tim McGraw tunes (“Hold On to It,” “Humble and Kind,” “Live Like You Were Dying”).

Lately, partly with Benicia in mind, I’ve played country star Chris Stapleton’s “Starting Over” a lot. More on that that song a minute.

When my wife and I moved to Benicia in 2019, our impetus to start over was the potential fires threatening our Oakland hills home. Decimated by the hills’ deadly 1991 firestorm, the area had rebuilt and regenerated since our moving  there in 2001. We were reluctant to leave our sweet life in Oakland, but the danger and disruptions remained: our almost evacuating twice in the middle of the night; frequent PG&E power cuts; many neighbors’ insurance policies canceled; highly flammable eucalyptus and pine groves; narrow streets making evacuation problematic; our worrying about what each fire season might bring.

So, after almost twenty terrific years there, on a lark we began looking for a new home in beautiful Benicia. We never looked back.

Did we get it right in assessing the Oakland fire threat so seriously? For the sake of everyone still in those hills – and in view of rising real estate values and fire mitigation efforts there – I actually hope we were wrong. But even if the move to Benicia was in that sense a mistake, it was the best mistake we ever made.

Our Fellow Benicians Starting Over…

Other folks have moved here in recent years for a range of reasons: job changes; launching a new business; post-Covid opportunities to work from home: living near family members; changed financial circumstances. Some native Benicians have moved back after years away. Many newcomers have come from other spots in the Bay Area. I’ve also met residents originally from New York, Kentucky, Canada and other distant locales.

We all know examples of great additions to the community; on our little block alone, we have three newish, youngish households, including a couple of kids. Two other folks who come to mind are Kenneth and Kevin, who a few years ago started Baxters on First Street. My wife and I ate there recently. We loved every aspect of the experience: a small but roomy dining room, appealing  ambiance, a great Old Fashioned drink, delicious Brussels sprouts, a smashing smash burger, succulent scallops and one of the best and cheesiest French onion soups I’ve ever had.*

In addition to replacing a troubled previous establishment with a charming one, what the two have done is add new dimensions to Benicia’s business and community scenes. They’re but one valuable example of new arrivals contributing to  our ever-evolving town.

Even if you were born and bred in Benicia, you’ve quite possibly also started over here in some ways. To start with, congratulations to the young families welcoming new arrivals. In a more somber vein, loved ones moving out or passing on can be a seismic shift. Or, if you’ve taken in a rescue dog, a stray cat or any new pet – and bless you for doing so! – that  new family member adds new dimensions to your life.

Benicia Starting Over…

Much more broadly, even as life goes on in Benicia, in a sense our town is starting over in the wake of the Valero refinery closing. I won’t relitigate that contentious issue here today; I’ll instead focus on moving forward.

That involves considering the hard work that the city’s elected and appointed officials are doing to close our  budget gap, including accessing the tens of millions of dollars of Bay Area Air District funds flowing from Valero fines. It also features various proposals to build a stable, brighter, cleaner future. You can access those ideas in several ways, including by signing up at the city’s website for City Manager Mario Giuliani’s weekly newsletter, reading it here in the Herald and attending or zooming in on City Council meetings.

Also, as lifelong Benician Giuliani has often said, let’s “Believe in Benicia.”

Which brings me back to Chris Stapleton. “Starting Over” is about a couple moving to a new life (as the lyrics go, “out on the coast”…maybe even Benicia?) But it applies to lots of us in our own ways and to Benicia as a whole…

This might not be an easy time
There’s rivers to cross and hills to climb
Some days we might fall apart
And some nights might feel cold and dark

But nobody wins, afraid of losing
And the hard roads are the ones worth choosing
Someday we’ll look back and smile
And know it was worth every mile…

I can be your lucky penny
You can be my four-leaf clover
Starting over

The song’s call to overcome obstacles amply applies to our wonderful town, this place where we’re so lucky to live. Benicia has a lot going for it, not least Benicians believing in ourselves. We’re in good shape to seize the opportunities that come with starting over.

[*Note: Starting later this month,  Baxters’ hours expand to include lunch on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. It will thus be open Wednesday through Sunday from late morning to mid-evening, except for a 3-4 pm break. Please check the restaurant’s website and OpenTable for reservations and precise hours.]

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Stephen Golub writes about democracy and politics, both in America and abroad, at A Promised Land: America as a Developing Country.

…and… here’s more Golub on the Benicia Independent

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