Looking for advice for california cities to move to (San Jose: apartments, renting)

[chrismetalrock]

Im currently living in phoenix, ive lived here for about 3 years, and like most, love it but i dont want to go through another summer here hehe. Im looking for a coastal california city with IT jobs ( im sure all major cities have plenty.. ) but what importiant to me is climate. i was looking at some apartments in san jose - basically 'college aged people' looking for a 3 bdrm area for under 1500 a month. dont laugh cause ive seen some cheaper i just dont have any idea if its ' a bad neighbourhood' so where are some nice areas. also im a total nerd so im also looking into ISP's / download-upload speed and anything related to methods of 'downloading' that might be blocked i would like to be made aware of.

thanks for any responses.

[MagicTouch]

Have you thought of the major companies around El Segundo?? Boeing, Raytheon, Northrup Grumann, Lockheed Martin, Aerospace. I work for one of the above in the IT field. You can also look at Monster.com, Careerbuilder.com and Dice.com for companies that are hiring IT personnel and are located in or near a beach city.

Good Luck to you on your search...

[mysticaltyger]

Nice areas of San Jose would include: Willow Glen, Cambrian, Almaden Valley, parts of West SJ that border Saratoga, parts of Evergreen area.

Ordinary "nice" areas would be: Berryessa, South San Jose (sometimes called Blossom Valley), parts of West San Jose, parts of Evergreen area, North SJ.

Places you don't want to live: Edenvale, East San Jose. East SJ is not a "slum" in the traditional sense that there are constant gang shootouts (although the crime rate is higher there)...but the quality of life is just not very good because it is full of poor people from the 3rd world who live 10 people to a house...which these neighborhoods were not designed for. One thing to look out for: some places in East San Jose that are not too far from South San Jose will bill themselves as "South San Jose". So always take a good look at any rental.

Also, there are dumpy pockets here and there even in some nice neighborhoods (such as Willow Glen), so make sure you take a good look at any place you're renting.

As far as ISP speed goes, I'm not sure. But you'll fit right in with all the geeks here in Silicon Valley.

The weather in SJ is great, though. Low to mid 80s in summer. High 50s in winter. Lots of sun most of the year (although there can be some gloomy / rainy periods in winter).

[chrismetalrock]

thx for the reply. as far as 50s in winter i was told 60s, but i wasnt born in phoenix, i lived in syracuse ny 17 years, which is 4th for cities with most cloudy days a year, 171 days with precip, you can see why i went to phoenix lol, anyways good to know i appreciate the neighbourhood information. just out of curiosity are there any good venues/ concerts in san jose or do most semi-popular bands go to bigger cities like la, or san francisco ( if that sounds stupid remember i never lived in ca b4)

[bellafinzi]

Originally Posted by chrismetalrock

i lived in syracuse ny 17 years, which is 4th for cities with most cloudy days a year

Wrong! Syracuse is ranked 26th cloudiest city based on the number of cloudy days a year. Strange how false information spreads over the internet.

Cloudiest Cities in the US

When you say "171 days with precip", that's only because ONE flake of snow falling from the sky on a winter day actually counts as "precip". Since there are so many days in the winter with a dusting of snow, Syracuse rarely has a "precip" free day in the winter. Syracuse has many days that count for both "partly cloudy days" and "precip days".

[chrismetalrock]

thanks for randomly spamming this post.
anyways this is one source that ranks syr 4th and 5th for rain/snow
Interesting United States Weather Facts and Extremes
this site ranks syr 6th for least amount of sunshine
Climate Extremes - Western Regional Climate Center (WRCC)


i could go on but i wont because i dont live in ny and wont ever again .....
point being why go on that rant instead of contributing something helpful

[bellafinzi]

Originally Posted by chrismetalrock

thanks for randomly spamming this post.
anyways this is one source that ranks syr 4th and 5th for rain/snow
Interesting United States Weather Facts and Extremes
this site ranks syr 6th for least amount of sunshine
Climate Extremes - Western Regional Climate Center (WRCC)


i could go on but i wont because i dont live in ny and wont ever again .....
point being why go on that rant instead of contributing something helpful

You're links don't even support your first post where you said "Syracuse... is 4th for cities with most cloudy days a year"

And your first link is in conflict with your previous post. It lists the 10 cloudiest cities and Syracuse is not even in the Top 10. In the second link you previded, it lists cities with "Least % Possible sunshine" and Syracuse is ranked 6th there. But that is much different from cities with the "most cloudy days a year".

[california_guy110]

San Jose isn't coastal although I think its maybe a half hour drive from Santa Cruz, as far as climate, anywhere in northern California is quite different from southern California at least during the winter as it rains and gets colder.

[wulfruna]

Many people (if working in San Jose) commute from Santa Cruz. A bit more affordable living there.

[tahoesash]

Pretty sure that San Jose will have rockin wifi speeds everywhere you are! I'd just use SBC for phone/DSL, I don't know of any widespread downloading limits there at all just use the normal protocols. Also try Mountain View perhaps? More of a bedroom community though. San Jose sounds like it will fill the bill!