Moving to the Bay from Chicago as a Student w/Family? Violence? (San Jose: low income, real estate market)
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While I don't think Ca is as bad as you might think it is, the Bay Area, and CA in general, can have some fairly dumpy suburbs with relatively high rates of crime. It's not concentrated in just large central cities. And like I said, with that budget there is a fair chance you would have to live in one of them.
A lot of people live here so a lot of stuff happens, per capita it's not horrible but it's not exactly very low either. We have some very nice and safe suburbs, but on an income of less than $50-70K with a family of 6 you'd likely end up in a crappy one. I would finish school and move here when you have a higher income, at least $100K+.
I may have missed it, but did you say where you were going to school? Berkeley has student housing available at very reasonable prices. Other schools may have similar options, but the Berkeley option (actually located in Albany, I believe) is huge, and is intended for families just like yours (on limited budget, parent or parents in school). One parent has to be a student to qualify, but you can put your name on the waiting list before you're even accepted to the school. Not sure how many apartments they have for a family your size, but I think they have some 3-BR apartments/townhouses. If you'll be a student, you should investigate other similar options at whatever schools you're considering attending. I wouldn't make the move until you've been accepted into a program.
Honestly, on your income and with the number of mouths to feed and clothe, you'd be a prime candidate for subsidized housing in California. I don't think you have a full appreciation for how high the cost of living is here.
And if their income is under $60K, their children will qualify for the reduced fee lunch program at school. I don't think their income is quite low enough for the free program, but they will qualify for the reduced fee.
I may have missed it, but did you say where you were going to school? Berkeley has student housing available at very reasonable prices. Other schools may have similar options, but the Berkeley option (actually located in Albany, I believe) is huge, and is intended for families just like yours (on limited budget, parent or parents in school). One parent has to be a student to qualify, but you can put your name on the waiting list before you're even accepted to the school. Not sure how many apartments they have for a family your size, but I think they have some 3-BR apartments/townhouses. If you'll be a student, you should investigate other similar options at whatever schools you're considering attending. I wouldn't make the move until you've been accepted into a program.
The family housing in Berkeley is hit or miss. There are newer units that are nice. The older units are pretty crappy. But it is cheap. Not well maintained. They do have an onsite park though.
My wife isn't really crazy about Berkeley, I think she'd be ok with pretty much anywhere in the Peninsula except East Palo Alto and the bad part of Redwood city, anywhere in the South Bay except for the sketchy parts of San Jose, and anywhere in the East Bay south of Oakland except Hayward. I hear the waiting list for Pharmacy schools over there is insane, but I'm sure that, like here, they will be opening more schools in the next few years. Your guys input has been great though I think it's clear to me that the move certainly wouldn't be a comfortable one so I'll finish school here and see what the future brings.
Compared with the city of Chicago, honestly the Bay Area is a walk in the park. There are some crappy areas here and there but they are relatively small and easy to avoid, it's not like Chicago where 2/3rds of the city are really ghetto and you feel unsafe (whether or not bad things are happening). It is true though that the upper class/middle class/lower class divisions in the Bay Area are way different than somewhere like the suburbs of Chicago. It's more like Chicago itself where apartments can be expensive even though the school district is really crappy.
1) I'm preparing to go to Pharmacy school, wherever I go I'm pretty much stuck for a good deal of time so I'm thinking of completing Pharm school in California so we can move there sooner rather than many years later (if we decide to move). I wouldn't be working a whole lot, just interning, but my wife would make about 50k-60k and we'd be renting a 3bdrm somewhere, we have 4 kids - the girls are 16 and 6 and the boys are 14 and 4. Is this even possible in the Bay Area? I was thinking of somewhere like Daly City, South S.F., etc. maybe even San Mateo or would that be too expensive? I know everyone is gonna tell me I'm crazy, stupid, or both lol.
2) I am scared that California is full of gangs and sex offenders, is it actually safe to live and travel about there? I mean LIVE there, not locked in my home but out and about. I know Chicago very well and I feel like I know how to be safe here, stay away from certain small pockets and so on, is the Bay the same way? I've visited many times but never lived there long enough to understand the situation.
Hello,
I'm always surprised at the perception of California by some. California is a large and diverse state and has the largest population among the 50 states. One will find the best and worst in terms of communities. My family and I loved living in San Francisco but the housing cost is truly shocking for those unfamiliar with the City. As far as pharmacy schools there were only three (USC, UOP, and UCSF). Today, you have Touro University, Vallejo; Western Health Sciences, Pomona; Loma Linda University, Loma Linda; UC San Diego, and California Northstate University College of Pharmacy, Rancho Cordova (this one is relatively new so I'm unsure of its accreditation status).
50-60K is very tough for a family of six in California ( I have 4 kids as well) and honestly for the Bay Area I don't think its feasible. I'd recommend looking at inland California (actually you could just obtain your pharmacy degree outside of California,pass the NAPLEX, move here afterwards, and live on a pharmacist salary). One remote possibility about UCSF- there was married/ family student housing which was relatively affordable (beautiful quiet location at the top of a hill in the middle of a forest but that was years ago). Here's some info about the cities with pharmacy schools in inland California:
UOP in Stockton and California Northstate University in Rancho Cordova are in Northern California and (by California standards) are in affordable communities. It's been a while since I lived in Southern California but Pomona and Loma Linda were affordable communities in Southern California. Sorry can't give you more info about those communities. As far as schools and crime Stockton has been hard hit by crime as the city is bankrupt and the size of the police force reduced. Rancho Cordova, the city I'm most familiar with, is a tale of two cities with an older established area featuring modest neighborhoods and some hotspots/dangerous neighborhoods for crime and, newer,low crime, pleasant neighborhoods to the south. It incorporated as a city a few years ago and is one of the few cities in the area that has a budget surplus so no cutback in city services. There are other affordable communities around the Sacramento metropolitan area.
For Schools look at the API (Academic Performance Index) the higher the number the better the academic performance of students (The API is subject to debate but others can address that if they are so inclined). You may find the following link useful: California Schools Guide - Los Angeles Times
For Rancho Cordova, the neighborhoods served by the Elk Grove School District would be best.
Compared with the city of Chicago, honestly the Bay Area is a walk in the park. There are some crappy areas here and there but they are relatively small and easy to avoid, it's not like Chicago where 2/3rds of the city are really ghetto and you feel unsafe (whether or not bad things are happening). It is true though that the upper class/middle class/lower class divisions in the Bay Area are way different than somewhere like the suburbs of Chicago. It's more like Chicago itself where apartments can be expensive even though the school district is really crappy.
This is a dumb post. The Bay Area has bad areas that are just as bad as bad areas in Chicago, and has some cities with higher crime rates than Chicago.
A walk in the park? Hunters Point? Sunnydale? The east Mission? Tenderloin? West Oakland? Deep East Oakland? North Richmond? The Potrero Hill projects? Etc, etc? These places are all a walk in the park compared to Chicago? I don't think so...And 2/3rds of Chicago is not a ghetto either (Do you actually feel unsafe in 2/3rds of Chicago?), which brings me to the next point: If you live in a bad area, how big said area is doesn't necessarily matter to you, you're still in a bad area, whether it's half a square mile in size or 2 square miles in size, etc. You think someone living in the projects in Hunters Point thinks, "the southside of Chicago is way bigger than my neighborhood, therefore Hunters Point is a walk in the park!! And every other Bay Area ghetto is a walk in the park too for that matter!!1!" No, I don't think it works like that.
The reality is pretty simple: some parts of the Bay are nice, some parts aren't nice, and if you are involved in a certain lifestyle and/or poor, you're much more likely to be exposed to the not nice stuff. Same as Chicago or anywhere else.
This is a dumb post. The Bay Area has bad areas that are just as bad as bad areas in Chicago, and has some cities with higher crime rates than Chicago.
A walk in the park? Hunters Point? Sunnydale? The east Mission? Tenderloin? West Oakland? Deep East Oakland? North Richmond? The Potrero Hill projects? Etc, etc? These places are all a walk in the park compared to Chicago? I don't think so...And 2/3rds of Chicago is not a ghetto either (Do you actually feel unsafe in 2/3rds of Chicago?), which brings me to the next point: If you live in a bad area, how big said area is doesn't necessarily matter to you, you're still in a bad area, whether it's half a square mile in size or 2 square miles in size, etc. You think someone living in the projects in Hunters Point thinks, "the southside of Chicago is way bigger than my neighborhood, therefore Hunters Point is a walk in the park!! And every other Bay Area ghetto is a walk in the park too for that matter!!1!" No, I don't think it works like that.
The reality is pretty simple: some parts of the Bay are nice, some parts aren't nice, and if you are involved in a certain lifestyle and/or poor, you're much more likely to be exposed to the not nice stuff. Same as Chicago or anywhere else.
I'm somewhat in the middle on this... while I obviously agree that "the bad" in the Bay Area is truly bad, in Chicago and the Midwest in general, "bad" goes deeper than just crime or poverty. There is a level of institutional racism, neglect, economic instability, corruption and social polarization that permeates the fabric of Chicago that simply does not exist in the Bay Area. It and the rest of the Midwest was hit much harder by the recession than we were... it was basically a depression over there. Chicago's local culture is cutthroat in a way that even the worst of the worst ghettos in the Bay Area simply are not... it's hard to describe but I know exactly what mayorhaggar means. There's a level of cultural ghettoization there that is largely alien to the Bay Area with the exception of an area like Hunters Point.
I'm always surprised at the perception of California by some. California is a large and diverse state and has the largest population among the 50 states. One will find the best and worst in terms of communities. My family and I loved living in San Francisco but the housing cost is truly shocking for those unfamiliar with the City. As far as pharmacy schools there were only three (USC, UOP, and UCSF). Today, you have Touro University, Vallejo; Western Health Sciences, Pomona; Loma Linda University, Loma Linda; UC San Diego, and California Northstate University College of Pharmacy, Rancho Cordova (this one is relatively new so I'm unsure of its accreditation status).
50-60K is very tough for a family of six in California ( I have 4 kids as well) and honestly for the Bay Area I don't think its feasible. I'd recommend looking at inland California (actually you could just obtain your pharmacy degree outside of California,pass the NAPLEX, move here afterwards, and live on a pharmacist salary). One remote possibility about UCSF- there was married/ family student housing which was relatively affordable (beautiful quiet location at the top of a hill in the middle of a forest but that was years ago). Here's some info about the cities with pharmacy schools in inland California:
UOP in Stockton and California Northstate University in Rancho Cordova are in Northern California and (by California standards) are in affordable communities. It's been a while since I lived in Southern California but Pomona and Loma Linda were affordable communities in Southern California. Sorry can't give you more info about those communities. As far as schools and crime Stockton has been hard hit by crime as the city is bankrupt and the size of the police force reduced. Rancho Cordova, the city I'm most familiar with, is a tale of two cities with an older established area featuring modest neighborhoods and some hotspots/dangerous neighborhoods for crime and, newer,low crime, pleasant neighborhoods to the south. It incorporated as a city a few years ago and is one of the few cities in the area that has a budget surplus so no cutback in city services. There are other affordable communities around the Sacramento metropolitan area.
For Schools look at the API (Academic Performance Index) the higher the number the better the academic performance of students (The API is subject to debate but others can address that if they are so inclined). You may find the following link useful: California Schools Guide - Los Angeles Times
For Rancho Cordova, the neighborhoods served by the Elk Grove School District would be best.
Hope everything works out for you.
Lots of great info ty for taking the time to write this!
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