San Mateo or ? to Stanford (LPCH) by 6:45am and 6:45pm (Oakland: sublets, lease)

[Protagonista]

Hello again

It looks like I will be working at Lucile Packard for the next 3 months or more.
That means I will have to shelve living in Oakland/Berkeley for now, put my stuff in storage and look for something within 30min of LPCH to rent or sublet for 3-6months.Possibly longer.
I am looking at San Mateo since that seems to be the general consensus of the best walkable downtown within reach of Stanford, but I am open to other ideas.

My budget could stretch to $3200mo rent ($2500 is what I'd like to pay) for a 1bd or LG studio furnished or unfurnished.
I don't smoke and have no pets. My 2 GSDs died last year (15yrs old) .
I like casual,city, and moderate trail biking although I haven't done that in a while and need to get back into a bit of shape. I am currently considering women's Trek Skye Hybrids.

I imagine the toughest part will be finding a month to month or short term lease by early-mid September.There must be some sort of Stanford message board with sublets and such but I am not a student or faculty so have no access to such.

Any suggestions would be welcome.

Oh and anyone know of good places in the area to store about a 2bd house worth of furniture and boxes?

Thanks!

[HockeyMac18]

Originally Posted by Protagonista

Hello again

It looks like I will be working at Lucile Packard for the next 3 months or more.
That means I will have to shelve living in Oakland/Berkeley for now, put my stuff in storage and look for something within 30min of LPCH to rent or sublet for 3-6months.Possibly longer.
I am looking at San Mateo since that seems to be the general consensus of the best walkable downtown within reach of Stanford, but I am open to other ideas.

My budget could stretch to $3200mo rent ($2500 is what I'd like to pay) for a 1bd or LG studio furnished or unfurnished.
I don't smoke and have no pets. My 2 GSDs died last year (15yrs old) .
I like casual,city, and moderate trail biking although I haven't done that in a while and need to get back into a bit of shape. I am currently considering women's Trek Skye Hybrids.

I imagine the toughest part will be finding a month to month or short term lease by early-mid September.There must be some sort of Stanford message board with sublets and such but I am not a student or faculty so have no access to such.

Any suggestions would be welcome.

Oh and anyone know of good places in the area to store about a 2bd house worth of furniture and boxes?

Thanks!

There is: SUpost: Marketplace for Stanford Students

Anybody can look at it, but I think you might need a Stanford ID (SU ID) to post things there. I know a lot of people have used it to find housing, especially temporary housing (it will be mostly centered on places around campus, though, so keep that in mind).



Regarding where to live, I think you're on the right track. I worked at Stanford for 5 years, and of the 3 places I lived while working there (San Mateo, SF, and Alameda), San Mateo was by far the best combination of affordability, access to work, and walkability. It doesn't necessarily excel in every category over other options (e.g. It's not going to be cheaper than the East Bay or have better urban amenities than SF), but taken as a whole, I think it's the best place to live if you're working at Stanford, are young/single and want semi-urban amenities.

It has one of the best (I personally think the best) downtowns on the peninsula with most things you need for daily life, has great access to work on Caltrain, and is cheaper than most of the surrounding communities (definitely cheaper than Menlo Park, Mountain View, Palo Alto, San Carlos, Belmont, and Burlingame). It has also has good access to the East Bay (mainly by car) and SF (car, Caltrain, and BART), which was important for me (and I imagine might be important for you).

You mention you might run into problems during your housing search because you'll be looking for a short-term lease, but I think you'll be very much fine with that budget.


Caltrain is also free for Stanford staff (a great perk), and the connection to Stanford is super easy either with the Marguerite shuttle ready to take you to the hospital (X to work in morning, Y back to Caltrain station in evening), or with an easy 10-min bike ride - so this should save you a lot of money on the commute (especially compared to the East Bay, where you'll be driving and paying a $5 daily toll). Stanford also pays you not to drive, which is cool.



You also mention wanting to get into biking more, and there are a ton of great biking opportunities all over the peninsula. I used to commute home from work along Canada Rd (a really pretty ride) - and there are many good trails, such as the Sawyer Camp Trail or San Andreas trail. And most of the roads in the area are very bike friendly for road biking. If you're more into dirt trail mt. biking, you can be at some open space preserves in 20-40 minutes that offer good options (and are great places to hike).

[Protagonista]

Thanks HockeyMac18!

That really helps. I will check out your links.

Do you have an idea of how long it takes to get to LPCH if you need to arrive by 6:45am?
I do that for 2 months.
Then I have to be at LPCH by 6:45PM for 1 month.

What is the average one way commute for those times via Caltrain? I tried looking on the Caltrain site but found it confusing.
Guess I was looking for a thingy like DC Metro has you just plug in your boarding site and your destination and it gives you times and routes to get there.

[HockeyMac18]

Originally Posted by Protagonista

Thanks HockeyMac18!

That really helps. I will check out your links.

Do you have an idea of how long it takes to get to LPCH if you need to arrive by 6:45am?
I do that for 2 months.
Then I have to be at LPCH by 6:45PM for 1 month.

What is the average one way commute for those times via Caltrain? I tried looking on the Caltrain site but found it confusing.
Guess I was looking for a thingy like DC Metro has you just plug in your boarding site and your destination and it gives you times and routes to get there.

If taking Caltrain (timetable):

Southbound in the AM:
San Mateo - Palo Alto: 5:58 AM - 6:23 AM
(alternative: 5:28 AM - 5:53 AM)

Marguerite X line (timetable) - picks you up right at Caltrain stop:
6:28 AM - 6:35 AM
(alternative: 5:53 AM - 6:00 AM)

Total time ~ 35 minutes.

You'd be leaving before the peak number of trains are running, so you won't have as many options as you'd have if you needed to be at work at 7:45 AM instead.

I usually averaged about 30-40 minutes total travel time between San Mateo and Stanford (I worked in a Genetics research lab attached to the Hospital, so the same shuttle stop).

Coming home in the evening will be about the same amount of time. I assume you'll get off work at like 4 (?), so your options are about 3 trains an hour:
3:11 PM - 3:33 PM
3:38 PM - 4:02 PM
4:16 PM - 4:36 PM
4:24 PM - 4:48 PM
4:54 PM - 5:12 PM

The :16 :24 :54 pattern continues until 6:54.

You'll take the Y shuttle in the evening to get from the Hospital to the PA Caltrain station.

As an aside, even though the shuttles are really good and convenient, I generally found it better for me to bike. The bike parking on campus is phenomenal, and I liked having my bike with me during the day (so I could take it to other parts of the campus for lunch, etc.). It would also let me leave when I wanted to (as opposed to some schedule that they set). I knew it would take me ~10 minutes to get to the train, so I could just leave my seat ~12 minutes before the train was scheduled to leave, and I'd be fine.

Regarding Caltrain's site, I agree it's a little confusing. There are Caltrain apps, though, that are good at giving you an easy-to-read schedule between destinations (I use mine frequently).



For when you need to be at work at 6:45 PM, you'll probably want to drive because you won't have any way of getting home from work at a I presume a really odd time (4 AM?). There are no trains running at the hour - the first train from Palo Alto to San Mateo starts at 5:01 AM.

Parking at night in the various parking garages is free after 4 PM (until I think 8 AM the next morning?), so it's pretty easy.


Hope this is helpful.