Will be attending Davis, BF can get job in Pleasanton- Where to live?! (Concord: appointed)

[Platform B]

I will be attending grad school at Davis in the fall and my boyfriend could transfer to Pleasanton for his job creating a problem of where we can live! We live in Minneapolis right now. Neither of us wants a bad commute (an hour is pushing it) but we're willing to sacrifice and compromise.

The best place I could find was Benicia... anyone think this is a good idea or know any better ones?

We are late 20's, no kids or pets. I enjoy the outdoors and he likes live music. I like places with some character where you can walk or take a short bus to go out to eat-- we do not enjoy the suburbs! Safety would be another concern. Not too picky other than that. Thanks for any info/input!

[jade408]

Well Pleasanton and Davis are around 90 miles apart. Those 90 miles are full of suburbs and farm land. So you aren't going to really find what you are looking for. Benicia does have an art scene and a downtown area, and some historic charm, but it is a suburb. That's probably the best you can do in the middle of those extremes. And it is around 45 minutes to Pleasanton. Not sure what the traffic might be like.

[clongirl]

Maybe Fairfield (West of freeway is nicer) Martinez, Pleasant Hill or Concord. That commute is going to be really horrible either way.

[uptown_urbanist]

How long is your grad program? Do you have courses every day? You're in a bad situation -- that commute is going to be terrible almost no matter what you do.

You may also want to look into commuting to Davis via Amtrak. Live somewhere more convenient for your boyfriend's commute to Pleasanton, near a station for you, and he can have a bearable commute to his work, and you can get work done on the train. My friend managed to live a LONG distance from our grad school, and was able to pack all of her courses into a fairly convenient schedule, and then spent a couple of nights each week in our grad school city. You may also want to look into something like that (renting a cheap crash-pad room in Davis or something, until you can make friends who will let you sleep on their couches!), rather than make life miserable by trying to split the commute. But take Amtrak, spend a couple of nights apart -- that could make it doable, at least as a temporary fix while you're in school (or perhaps until your boyfriend could find a job closer to Davis), and you could live in a place that you both like better, and perhaps even have the time to enjoy where you live (instead of spending it all in the car).

[Platform B]

Amtrak is looking like a really good option. Then we could get by with one car and I would save on gas and insurance. I don't mind taking a longer train ride.
Grad program will take 2 years and I'm not sure on the exact daily schedule yet.
So, would his commute from Benicia to Pleasanton be really bad with traffic? Longer than 45min?
How is Martinez for living? I could get on the amtrak from that station.

[AugustRN]

We lived in Martinez for from fall 2010 to fall 2011 and only left as we needed to go back East for family reasons for several months. We loved it. We lived in walking distance to "downtown Martinez" which is really just a cute little village area with older homes, antique shops, a few restaurants. Also a Marina. Its where the County seat is. The Amtrak is right in that area also. It was very quiet and very safe.We actually left music equipment on the porch overnight once..i have no idea how we forgot it...and it was there the next morning. Rentals are cheaper there too than some other parts of the East Bay. Look on craigslist for apts as well as single family homes. For young people there is very little to do in Martinez proper at night but the mall and more nightlife in Pleasant Hill and Walnut Creek are only about 15-20min away. Its probably about an hour to Davis and 40 min to Pleasanton from there. The traffic to Davis is mostly reverse from Martinez in the morning if you do have to drive. Your BF will hit traffic though once he gets on 680. We are East Coasters and found it to be very pleasant. Best of luck in your search and on your new adventure!

[uptown_urbanist]

For what it's worth, we visited both Martinez and Benicia on a weekend (just once, so obviously I am no expert!) and while Benicia downtown had activity (and a market along the waterfront), Martinez was dead. Totally dead and quiet (albeit kind of cute and with some nice houses, just totally quiet). We thought we'd get lunch downtown and wander around, but couldn't find anything open -- ended up at a fast food place on the road into town. I would assume that there's more activity during weekdays when the government offices are open, and perhaps we just hit it on a bad day (think it was a nice day in May or June, though) or didn't look around hard enough, but we were disappointed. (although did have a nice visit to the John Muir Historic Site, which is in Martinez.)

If you don't mind taking the train, that does expand your options a bit; you could even live somewhere like Berkeley (and also therefore have easy access to the university's library for when you need it). Rents would be higher than somewhere like Martinez, though, and I don't know how unpleasant the commute would be to Pleasanton.

[eureka1]

Live in Davis and concentrate on graduate school. If your "BF" becomes your husband, work out a compromise.

[AugustRN]

Uptown...you are right about Martinez...we loved it however I can see that especially younger people would find nothing to do there in the PM. There are several cute restaurants and shops..but you have to know when they are open or you will miss them. I drive the whole county all evening for work so we loved for its lack of activity.