Living in SF or SJ
Hi, TC 400 @ FB MPK Moving to the bay area and trying to decided whether to live in SF or SJ with wife who is going to G in MTV. Both in 30s no kids. Looking at either Santana Row in SJ area or Dogpatch/Mission Bay/Potrero area. So far my pros and cons of each are Pro SF - Know more friends there, seems like more "activities" to do there Con SF - 1-2hr shuttle/1hr caltrain, more expensive, get rid of car Pro SJ - only 30-1hr shuttle/30min caltrain, closer to home/work, seems cleaner/quieter/nicer area, have car Con SJ - not much to do there, far from the city, have less friends there How has the commute taken it's toll on you? Is it hard to visit friends in SF from SJ? Train seems to take 1.5hr and driving seems How has it been trying to make new friends out there? Any advice would be appreciated!
commute is crazy here. better live between sunnyvale and redwood city
Thanks for the advice. Do you know if areas in between have a nightlife/things to do, comparable to SF/SJ? If anything Palo Alto was the only place that seemed to have some sort of life. The others seemed more suburban for people with families.
no idea. my nightlife is working. commute is 5 days per week + rush hours, while nightlife is 2 times per week.
Family income number plz. We want know 😜
lol take my number then x2
Wow
Oakland is cool. esp in the night. Lot of action.
Every time I hear about Oakland, it brings me back to this picture http://sfist.com/2013/07/08/map_the_bay_area_through_a_new_york.php Is it rough to live in oakland? I feel like to commute from oakland would be insane.
Yeah he’s being sarcastic. Oakland is ghetto . Especially at night stay away if you value your life and valuables
Good point. I do feel like if I live in SJ, i'll rarely go to SF. It's one of those, sounded good on paper, never happens in real life, type things. I've been thinking about the cities that are midpoint between SF and MPK/MTV. We have been slowly getting interested in San Mateo. It seems like a good mid-point with some stuff to do. Maybe good idea to think about that place more. Thanks!
That's awesome to hear! Yea we are still trying to figure out where all the shuttles are and taking that into account. Thanks again for the helpful advice!
E5? What’s your base and yoe?
Redwood City is 30 minutes away in either direction
Thanks! I never even considered/heard of Redwood City until it was mentioned earlier. I'll do some research and look around that area. Does Redwood City have a good night life? From what I can tell, it has a big city center area where everything is.
I’ve never heard of night life in Redwood City before... if my friends and I pass by Redwood City it’s on the way to SF. Places with at least decent night life outside of SF are MV, Palo Alto, San Jose, and a little bit in downtown Sunnyvale.
San Jose King/Story has a lot of action at night. You definitely either be home all day or not come home at all. Lol
From what I can tell about King and Story is that I'll most likely not come home at all. ;(
Interview in a sf company in a year. Or go to fb in sf.
The entire South Bay is boring AF. You’re life will be work and then going home, and the occasional restaurant. Buy a home in Potrero hill in SF, keep your car (nice for weekend trips to Marin or napa) and work at Google in SF or the new FB office (instagram) in SF. Edit: or come work at Twitter in SF
How’s life in SF more amusing? An ability to hang out with homeless folks at night?
@Twitter, yea I was told by the group that WFH 1-2 days a week should be no problem, but I know what they say vs what actually happens may be totally different, especially since I'll have to interact with people a lot. I'm being hiring for something very specific and I want to be in that group for at least 2 years or so, so moving groups isn't really an opinion early on. Possibly after a few years, but at that point we're planning on starting a family and will just succumb to the family areas with school districts or something. Keeping a car is nice, but I also think renting a car seems to be really easy, although most places we've looked at have parking, so either way probably won't be an issue to keep at least 1 car. South Bay doesn't seem all that bad, just not to the level as the city, and it's more in pockets than all over.
Why Santana Row area and not MV?
Doesn't seem like there's much to do in MV. We are somewhat outgoing people, and when we visited MV it seemed boring and overly expensive. If we had kids, I think it would be a different story, but without kids at the moment, that wouldn't be a worry until a few years later. Is MV better than that?
Santana Row will get old real fast, in my opinion. San Jose downtown is very meh. MV at least has some level of diversity. It’s a nice mix. If you mean you want to go to restaurants / nice lounges, unfortunately neither MV, PA, or San Jose will be as nice as SF. PA is also kind of boring after 10pm. MV at least has some green spaces to hang out with dogs and such. If you find a nice place near Castro it has good coffee shops for the weekends, decent number of bars, etc. However it’s the same for San Jose/Santana Row. honestly nothing in South Bay would compare to SF. But if I were to choose to live in South Bay, then it wouldn’t be San Jose. You might as well save on the commute and live in MV (or PA, if you like that culture better).