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| *Travel Tips>>>San Francisco Travel Tips |
Where should I live in the San Francisco Bay area? |
Travel Info We're moving to the Bay area in a year and will be starting a family shortly thereafter. So while I know that no one place is likely to have all of these characteristics, I would like to move to an area that has as many of these characteristics as possible: 1. Rental housing with at least 3 bedrooms and rents no higher than, let's say, $3500 per month. (We'll never in our lifetime be able to buy a house out there). 2. A safe neighborhood with safe parks nearby for kids to play in. 2. Good public schools with active parents. 3. I want an area that is neither too wealthy and stuck up, nor too low-class. We both have college degrees and value education very highly, and want to be around like-minded people. At the same time, we both prefer to stay away from the country club, keeping-up-with-the-Joneses mentality. It doesn't matter what part of the Bay area it is - we just want to know as much as possible about as many different areas as possible. Thanks! Travel Tips Here are some of the qualities that generalize the Bay Area: Eastbay - the portion of the eastbay that touches the water (Oakland to Hayward) is primarily industrial and not the nicest part of the bay area, but has its charm (this is where I grew up). The housing cost is lower than other parts of the bay and there are plenty of college educated individuals around (this IS where UC berkeley lies). Good middle-class living. Further from the water (valleys - Pleasonton, Dublin, Livermore) are the wealthier, safer, and generally more expensive homes. Here you will find more white collar professionals (and quite a few snobs, but its very nice and clean and has some of the best schools). The city of Fremont lies between the two extremes of the Eastbay. Southbay (San Jose, Santa Clara, Milpitas, Cupertino) - has a plethora of good jobs, new homes, and is a nice mixture of technology (silicon valley) and restaurants. It might have the safest neighborhoods for how large of a population it has. Has the highest number of engineers in the area, so there are plenty of educated people around. The area is starting assemble a lot of places to hang out and have fun in. It also has some of the largest and nicest malls in the bay area. Northbay - (Marin, Sausalito, Corte Madera, Santa Rosa) - might be the safest part of the bay area - but at the cost of being the least dense, and the most boring. But it does have a very serene feel to the area and definately has an upper-middle class feel everywhere you go, without the valley snobby feel. The school are, of course, very good and this area reports the lowest crime rate every year. Its also the closest section of the Bay to Napa's Wine Country. Pennisula and San Francisco (SF, San mateo, Daly City, South San Francisco) - SF might have the highest density of educated people in the bay area, but it also has the largest problems when it come to crowding, overpriced housing and NO FU*king parking. San Mateo and San Carlos are close to SF and are good alternatives with what is considered the best school districts in the bay area. The people are generally well-educated and liberal. Good place to live, and close to all the action of SF. Hope this helps - I love the bay area. Others look on craigslist.org You'll probably want to look at the East Bay area, like Walnut Creek/Concord/Orinda. I grew up in the sunset district of San Francisco, it sounds to me like you need to consider more things. Primarily commute to work if you are taking BART or other public transportation methods it's fairly easy to get around most of the Bay Area in about an hour and a half. I wouldn't know about the public schools as I went to privet schools my entire life until college. Good luck with your search. Well it must matter where since, if you have a job, you dont want to spend an hour each way commuting do you? Once you know where your job is, I might suggest Palo Alto, Berkeley or Corte Madera in Marin. Those are all fitting your requirements but traffic is really a problem here so I urge you to at least know whether you will be working in East Bay, North Bay or San Francisco and peninsula (I group the latter two together ) then focus in on one of the 3. Ross in Marin County is lovely but a bit out of the city and probably very expensive Well if you wan't good schools go to San Ramon.Not too expensive, good air quality, a litttle too remote but otherwise pretty good |
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