Lot of misinformation floating around in this thread. I work with people who live in San Francisco who have to commute to our office in San Francisco and it takes them 30-40 minutes. SF does not have the public transportation of a NYC because of all of the hills. You could end up taking a bus daily, not have to transfer, and you’re spending 30-40 minutes on a bus. Have fun riding through a jam packed Chinatown with wall to wall Asians. The Muni absolutely sucks.
As I stated earlier there is no easy way to solve your problem because of your built in constraints of kids and what it sounds like limited capital. People throwing around generic areas like “North Bay” or “East Bay” it sounds like this guy just fell off of the pumpkin truck in Kansas.
Having moved to this area from the East Coast a few years ago, I would go for Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Los Gatos, Palo Alto (more likely too much for you) and certain areas of San Jose.
You might be right about SJ. It takes me about 80-90 minutes to make it there from Sausalito with lite traffic, so I assumed it would be closer to 75 from the city.
Getting into SF from SJ is not the problem, it’s getting home. I work with someone who makes that drive every day and it takes him about 90 minutes to go from North Bay to Menlo Park which is north of SJ. If he gets off at like 2pm, shouldn’t be too bad, but any later than that and he will hit traffic.
No I’m not from here. I’ve here for a couple of years. When I drive Sausalito to SJ in real world conditions, it takes about 90 minutes based on 3-4 times I’ve visited companies there (not sure why anyone else would go to SJ unless they lived there).
He’s not going to be driving at night. It’s the commute home in the afternoon that will be a bitch. Even if it takes “only” an hour plus 40 minutes in the morning, who wants to sit in traffic that long every day?
It’s cool though, I understand why you might want to defend Man Jose.
Many years ago, I lived in Berkeley near the BART and worked in the financial district in San Francisco. I have very fond memories of the time and don’t recall the commute being particularly attrocious. The hardest part was finding parking at / near the BART station.
Some days I drove to the city and I remember there were carpool pick up spots in Berkeley where you could pick up strangers to ride with in the carpool lane across the bay bridge.
You really have no idea what you are talking about. As I stated earlier, he could be living in San Francisco and working in San Francisco and it could take him 40 minutes to get to work. Never did I say that living in South Bay is the optimal solution, but based upon the fact that he has kids and what sounds like limited funds he could rent a median to median + house with yard and put his kids in median + schools.
You doing your little drive from Sausalito to see your little small cap companies most of which have zero coverage really is irrelevant here. Look on a map where Sausalito is. Way North of SF and you need to go over the Golden Gate Bridge. The fact that you feel that logisitically Sausalito is an easy trek to SF shows how ignorant you are. Most people take a ferry when doing that trip.
I’d go with south of SF like the Daly City/Pacifica area. Farther down you go the more it turns into suburbs imo. That area should be ok for education and less expensive than San Fran. IIRC, Daly City BART to Financial District is like 40-45 minutes. BART is ok, but yes avoid the muni at all costs.
As always, check to see if they will compensate you with a BART pass.
Blake, you have a habit of reading more into posts than are there. It’s not an easy trek. It takes 15 minutes to get from Sausalito to SF on most days outside of rush hour. It should therefore take about 75 minutes to get to SJ from some parts of SF depending on where he lives and what kind of traffic there is (and there’s always traffic coming out of the city in the afternoon). It could be less if traffic is good. So it’s relevant. I’m sorry you have a difficult time with basic reading comprehension. That or you enjoy being a troll, in which case I still feel sorry for you, but I’m done with you here, it’s not worth talking to someone who has difficulty following a basic train of thought.
San Jose isn’t so bad anymore and the South Bay is actually kind of nice as a place to live, though less exciting than San Francisco itself.
The problem is the commute. Even in good traffic (as one might expect at 4 or 5am) it will take a good hour or more at least to get to the city, and the OP said they didn’t want to have a car. Even longer (2+ hours) if traffic is bad.
Quite honestly, I think you are going to need to get a car, even if you live in the city (and parking it will be a b•tch).
There really is no great option, unless you make megabux and can buy all the stuff you need. I would try to live near a Bart station or perhaps a CalTrans station (don’t know if CalTrans is feasible, but it may have been built up better since I lived there). Redwood CIty and that environs would be my bet, but I don’t know what prices are like. If your kids are young enough that they are not school-aged, you can settle down pretty much anywhere and then move to a school district once you’ve become more familiar with what’s available around there.
The Googlers in SF have a van that picks them up and takes them to work, and has WiFi in the van, so you aren’t stuck actually driving for hours, and can get work done on your commute. I wonder if some system like that might be feasible for you. I wouldn’t be surprised if some entrepreneur might set have up something like that.
I have lived in the Bay Area my entire life, and I currently live in downtown SF.
I do not recommend living in SF with children if cost is an issue, not even the sunset. You can dramatically lower your cost of living by moving to an area in the East Bay or Peninsula and taking BART to work. A huge factor that has not been discussed is, when would you get off work? Traffic really clogs the entire Bay Area after 3:30PM. You’re probably priced out of the North Bay and there is also no viable public transportation. The muni is fine for a short commute if you live near an express bus, which is denoted by an “x” after the name, i.e. 30x.
In the Peninsula you’ll want to consider areas around Millbrae, San Mateo, and Burlingame. Most people at my work that have children live in the San Mateo area. I am not as well-versed in the East Bay, but Walnut Creek, Pleasonton and Hayward should work well.
Talent is definitely in Berkeley but I think there’s a variety on display, however the larger percentage would be asian, bespectacled or not. Good thing the numbers game worked out and some good genes came through in that respect. Then again you can never count out a school that boasted this talent:
edit: how do I embed a photo?
Spent a summer at Berkeley and the BART from North Berkeley to the financial district/Embarcadero was a solid 40-50mins during rush hour, still the best option if I recall correctly. Some of the locals can probably tell you more details but driving across the Bay Bridge doesn’t seem to be appealing at all on a daily basis.
Living in a snow loving climate as well, you’ll definitely like the weather out there. Been trying to get back there ever since.
BART from North Berkeley to Embarcadero is 24 minutes, not including walking to the station, waiting for the train, etc. I also used to drive from Berkeley to SF financial district. It takes a bit more than 15 minutes in the early morning, and somewhat longer in the afternoon.
Either it got faster or my memory is all messed up from my time there. You should take it from ohai since he’s a local… I probably remembered my time to include the long ass hike from International House at the top of the hill on Piedmont to the station.
Yeah, depending on location, walking can add 10 minutes or more easily. Plus waiting for the train. Unless you do it every day and get good at timing the schedule, you will usually wait a bit for the train. All in, I can see how it might take up to 45-50 minutes.
