Marin vs East Bay (San Francisco, Walnut Creek: apartment, schools, income)

[wave9x]

Marin is just an awesome place to live, extremely beautiful, safe, great weather, and so on. The commute to downtown SF is very easy. It is called the high speed ferry. I did it for four years and it beats the East Bay commute hands down, which I have also done. I work on the Peninsula now so I had to move from Marin, which was an incredibly hard thing for me to do.

[davdaven]

I work in San Rafael, live in Berkeley, and have friends who live in Walnut Creek. Here are my thoughts:

A good chunk of Marin has very little to offer unless you are affluent. Novato is the possible exception, but it is a sleepy hick town in comparison to other parts of the Bay Area and the commute to SF would be 1.5 hours each way by Golden Gate Transit commute bus. The Terra Linda neighborhood of San Rafael is more appealing, but the commute is still over an hour each way, and as with Novato, the schedules are limited.

Walnut Creek is somewhat upscale but still has a good cross section of humanity, and it has a much more appealing and thriving business district in its downtown area. Also, it's on a BART line that will get your husband to SF in 45 minutes. Trains can get really crowded, but it's still an okay commute.

Considering you have friends in Marin but want a good town with a good commute, why not consider Albany or El Cerrito? Heck, even Berkeley would work for what you need. While Albany and Berkeley are at the top end of your price range, you can find something rather appealing in El Cerrito. Although El Cerrito's public schools aren't as good as the ones in Albany, they're still decent. Also, you are way closer to Marin at that point and your husband's commute is only a smidgen over 30 minutes.

[ttocs99]

Walnut Creek is great for families, and the commute is super easy to SF. I lived there for 7 years, and loved every second of it. Though there are 60,000+ people in WC, it still feels like a small town community. The summers get much hotter than in the city, but the lows are usually very similar to SF. So on a typical day, SF may have a 75high/55 low and WC would be 90/55. Like said in another thread, it's a dry heat, but I still had an AC in the living room and one in the bedroom, but it wasn't like east coast heat with the humidity, it was very bearable. Also, a very beautiful area, and extremely convenient if you wind up near Downtown WC. I was lucky enough to be 3 blocks from BART and 4 blocks from downtown WC, so it was easy to walk to all of the stores and restaurants. Heck, Kaiser Permanante (the hospital) was walkable from where I lived, about a half a mile from my apt. Just a great place to live.

[NoMoreSnowForMe]

How often would you really see your friends and family during the week? And is hubby going to really feel like doing much on the weekend if he's exhausted from 5 days of a horrendous commute?

I vote you move somewhere like Walnut Creek (like someone else said, also check out Alameda - love that town).

Then, invite your family to come to your house for barbecues :-) If you move to WC, maybe you'll have an available pool everyone can swim in during those hot summer days...

If that's not a possibility, at least you will be driving to visit your friends and family during off-commute hours. Your hubby shouldn't be exhausted from his commute, then trying to gather energy to go visiting, if you live somewhere with a nice commute for him.

[GalacticDragonfly]

Honestly, the East Bay has good transportation service, its more vibrant, the weather is better, and it's one of the largest metro-suburb hubs.
Marin is (as some other person stated) only good if you're wealthy and loose with money. Because it's relatively boring, not-so vibrant, and it's secluded away from the rest of the Bay in terms of subway/transportation (and cultural) aspect. If you have to live in Walnut Creek thats great, but there's other areas you could check out as well.
More towards the big cities like Oakland or Berkeley. (Berkeley is a tad expensive, but great school system). Oakland has great suburbs and a big downtown (although be wary of East and West neighborhoods). Surrounding suburbs like El Cerrito, Albany, Alameda, are pretty good.
But to me, living in Marin is like living in Orinda if it was isolated and boring.

[72bug]

I have lived in both areas. For your criteria I think Walnut Creek is the better option. Better commute, better schools, more central location. San Rafael is beautiful but Walnut Creek has more to offer. Plus it's the center for shopping and nightlife for the whole outer east bay. The drive between the two cities is only 35-40 minutes with no traffic. You'll still be able to visit your friends/family easily.

[StrangeAsAngels]

I don't know the Larkspur ferry is nice...

I'd pick Marin but I LOVE Marin.

[Allypc]

We lived in Marin for five years before relocating to orinda (just west of walnut creek) last year. The two areas are very different, in my opinion. First of all, how important is living near the water? You can see and spend lots of time near the water in Marin but it is a trek from walnut creek. Second, as a poster above alluded to, Marin is wealthier, more liberal, and more sophisticated than walnut creek. San Rafael is somewhat less desirable than other Marin towns such as kent field, tiburon, greenbrae, larkspur etc because of the school district, as you mentioned, but it's more affordable. Novato doesn't even feel part of Marin because it is removed from the rest of Marin. It doesn't seem to have the same things to offer. That said, I have heard there is one neighborhood in particular there that's very family friendly and you can get more for your money so might be worth checking out.

In terms of weather, walnut creek is very hot in the summer. In Marin, it will depend on where you are. Parts of San Rafael have perfect weather; parts can be foggy. Overall Unless you like extreme heat San Rafael weather is better.

Another big difference is the interest of the people in both areas. Marin draws a lot of people who really thrive on outdoor sports such as mountain biking, surfing, and paddle boarding, all which are worse in the east bay (much to my husband's dismay). More people work from home there and spend part of their days doing these things. In my experience in the east bay, people are more into following sports on tv. It's not to say people here aren't active and in shape, but it has more of that sports team feel.

In terms of traffic, I can only say that the east bay has the worst traffic of anywhere in the Bay Area. BART would make the commute to SF better. By car, you do not want to leave SF later than 1:30 or 2 to be safe. By car, Marin is significantly better.

We moved to east bay because we thought it would be friendlier, more family oriented and down to earth: a better place to raise a family. I think it is, but we do miss the water, the beauty of Marin, the quaint towns, the hiking and biking trails, and the more sophisticated feel overall. We personally would never live in the east bay without kids whereas plenty of people choose to live in Marin for a variety of reasons.

[Allypc]

Also, one more thing I should mention...f we had family and a network of close friends who altogether felt like our community, I would pick Marin because of the things I mentioned- water, beauty, less traffic, more open space, more liberal, greener mentality, overall vibe. But we are a small family without family nearby and wanted a community to create that larger family feel for our children. East bay seemed more likely to meet those needs. If you can spend time in both areas to see which feels more like YOU, I think it will help. My friends moved from Marin to orinda and couldn't be happier. As the hisband said, "people in Marin are just so important."

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by wave9x

Marin is just an awesome place to live, extremely beautiful, safe, great weather, and so on. The commute to downtown SF is very easy. It is called the high speed ferry. I did it for four years and it beats the East Bay commute hands down, which I have also done. I work on the Peninsula now so I had to move from Marin, which was an incredibly hard thing for me to do.

This. There should be public transit to the ferry. Don't assume you'll need a 2nd car. I agree with the other poster, too, that Walnut Creek is hot in the summers, and colder in the winters, and can get ground fog in winter. Marin is really beautiful with easy access to nature, beach, redwoods.