Source: Contra Costa Times
[bayarea.com/mld/cctimes/4868002.htm]
On January 3, 2003 Contra Costa Times reported that "contemporary El Sobrante [CA], far from being a nowhere place, is one whose renown carries across oceans, all the way to the Punjab region of India, homeland of the Sikhs. As the site of the Sikh Center of the San Francisco Bay Area, one of the most important Sikh shrines in North America, El Sobrante rates a spot on the worldwide Sikh map... Sikhs are but one ingredient of the rich ethnic soup that the El Sobrante Valley has become over the past generation, as a visit to any neighborhood school will attest. Today's population of about 26,000 includes most of the world's cultures and faiths, says Eleanor Loynd, chairwoman of the El Sobrante Valley Planning and Zoning Committee and a resident of the May Valley neighborhood, which belongs to Richmond."