Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Hmmm....was also going to suggest the Santa Rosa area. Many small places to lives such as Rohnert Park, Petaluma, Windsor, Sebastopol but still get the city feel of SR. Plus an hour away from SF for the big city feel. Yes, there is crime here (show me a place where there isn't) but that is in pockets which you can easily spot.
I think you should seriously consider North Berkeley. For me personally, it would be a bit to radical left wing and it tends to attract a few looney people, but if you are into that political scene, or can overlook that aspect of the community, it has everything you are looking for...college town, within 20 min of SF, public transport (train, subway, bus) lots of cottages/townhomes, arts/non profit/education scene, fairly safe as long as you live in north berkeley, walkable in the flats, great restaurants in all price ranges. The population there is around 100k.
I think you should seriously consider North Berkeley. For me personally, it would be a bit to radical left wing and it tends to attract a few looney people, but if you are into that political scene, or can overlook that aspect of the community, it has everything you are looking for...college town, within 20 min of SF, public transport (train, subway, bus) lots of cottages/townhomes, arts/non profit/education scene, fairly safe as long as you live in north berkeley, walkable in the flats, great restaurants in all price ranges. The population there is around 100k.
Yes, Berkeley and Santa Cruz compete for the most wacko/liberal prize. (I'm a liberal so I'm not putting down Berkeley.) I think the OP would find Berkeley really out there, really wacky a little crazy, lots of homeless people, plenty of people protesting, students at Berkeley taking over buildings on campus to protest the latest issue. By comparison Santa Cruz is pretty tame. I think it's more older hippies down there who have integrated into the mainstream. It's still very friendly to different ideas, just a little more subdued than Berkeley is. I've never spent much time in Berkeley because their reputation is a bit off-putting. I prefer Santa Cruz because people there don't seem to have the need to always prove how open minded and liberal they are.
@ny2california. Palo Alto again sounds ideal. It is a college town (Stanford), has great resturaunts,yoga studios,close access to the hills(hiking,running,backpacking).
Thank you all! tstieber - San Francisco would be ideal (I fell in love with the city when I visited), but I'm not sure that I can find a house/cottage to rent for under $2000. I would have to adjust my ideal living situation to find an apartment in San Francisco. I'm not sure if it's worth a cross-country move to be paying the same amount or more for a small apartment. I can do that in NY. The laid-back aspect (which I definitely felt) would be nice, but I'm just not sure. I guess I can do more research.
batransplant - I wasn't super-enamored with Berkeley, but I was only near UC Berkeley; is that considered North Berkeley? The radical element is a bit of a turn-off, but if there are areas that are a little more "sheltered", it would seem ideal. In your face politics is the exact opposite of what I'm looking for - I want laid-back, friendly or at least polite.
If I were to compare, Santa Cruz was more preferable to Berkeley, but I also feel that having a car in Santa Cruz is probably a necessity.
Palo Alto seems interesting because of Stanford, but may be a little too expensive for my needs.
Pushing60 and sforwt - The cities near Santa Rosa are places I hadn't considered (I didn't know about them), but I will do a little research on them. I like the idea of being relatively close to wine country. The issue of crime is relative. I live in NY, but I've never had an incident, despite living in some sketchy neighborhoods. I think you need to be smart. Having said that, it would be nice to live somewhere where I could let my guard down. I've earned it.
Of course, a lot of this depends on where I can get a job, but having all this information gives me the opportunity to make an informed choice.
Benicia. Cute town that is truly close to everything. ON the north side of the bay. If you do check it out you also need to know that Vallejo which is very close is not the place you want.
As you go up 101 from SF you first run into the Marin area which might not be a bad place for you from th sounds of it - however can be rather pricey. There are several little towns throughout the county there all with their own personalities.
From Marin you then run into Sonoma county which is where Petaluma, Rohnert Park, Santa Rosa, etc are. A bit less expensive, towns more spread out. RP is a college town but not sure that it really has what you are looking for. Petaluma might.
There is transportation to SF though it will take longer than 30 minutes to get there.
Walnut Creek in the East bay area might be another place you might want to check.
Really the only place you would not need a car would be SF. Anyplace else in the bay area you are most likely going to need one even if you do ride your bike most places.
As far as crime - well unfortunately that is everywhere. But yes there are areas that are worse than others such as Vallejo, Richmond, parts of Oakland and SF.
As far as cultural events I also believe they are pretty much everywhere. Some you just have to look for a bit more than others.
I'm looking to relocate from NY to Northern California (San Francisco area to Santa Cruz area) next year. I would like to live in a smaller city/town (population under 1 million), that is relatively safe, has a good arts/cultural scene, and good restaurants. Very important is walkability/bike-ability. I'd like to rent a small house (or an apartment in a small complex) for under $2,000 a month.
Is this impossible?
If you raise the rent to $2500, you would find that there are a lot of places in the Bay Area that would fulfill your needs. However, $1500-$2000 is very doable in a lot of the more 'suburb' type places.
I vote for Walnut Creek and Lamorinda (Lafayette, Moraga, and Orinda). Both areas don't feel too populated, but they are pretty quiet and nice. Downtown Walnut Creek is walkable, and there are cultural events every so often. However, the benefit of these two areas is that they are also near BART stations, with San Francisco never being too far away if you needed a big city fix.
Berkeley, I live here now and I would say its probably not very safe and way too expensive. Also, as I get older, I'm beginning to hate college students more and more, especially ones that are big-headed and arrogant.
I moved out here from Jersey City about 6 years ago, so I kinda understand where you are coming from. Have you checked out Berkeley or Oakland? There are very few sections of Berkeley that I DON'T like and there are some really nice parts of Oakland that sound like the right fit for you (the areas around Lake Merritt in particular).
In both cities, you have a long list of the amenities you mentioned that you are looking for. Berkeley is a big bike city and you'll have a lot of company on the roads. I've even seen people who bike to restaurants in the evenings. You have BART to get you into SF ($7 round trip, a bit pricey for the distance, but cheaper than parking and tolls) in Berkeley and Oakland. There are lots of cute neighborhoods in both cities with all sorts of different types of housing.
You might also try Albany and El Cerrito. These have more of a "residential" feel, but if you live near Solano Ave, then you'll have plenty of things that you can walk to, let alone bike to.
Most places north of SF is suburbia, period. You would be car dependent in Rohnert Park, not to mention there isn't much in the way of culture there or things to do beyond going home and going to sleep or shopping at strip malls and big box stores. As the poster said, it is a planned community (i.e. bedroom community). People live here and commute to where they work. If that's what you want, then its great. But it doesn't sound like that's what you are looking for. That said, I don't think that Santa Rosa would be much better for you than Rohnert Park. There is a downtown, but there isn't a whole lot there and again, you'd be car dependent for most of the things you need to do, including grocery shopping and clothing shopping.
I don't know anything about the Peninsula (i.e. the area south of SF going down to San Jose), so I can't offer any opinion on anyplace down there.
I suggest taking a walk around Berkeley and Oakland. I think you'll find that you really like it. We did.
Yes, Berkeley and Santa Cruz compete for the most wacko/liberal prize. (I'm a liberal so I'm not putting down Berkeley.) I think the OP would find Berkeley really out there, really wacky a little crazy, lots of homeless people, plenty of people protesting, students at Berkeley taking over buildings on campus to protest the latest issue. By comparison Santa Cruz is pretty tame. I think it's more older hippies down there who have integrated into the mainstream. It's still very friendly to different ideas, just a little more subdued than Berkeley is. I've never spent much time in Berkeley because their reputation is a bit off-putting. I prefer Santa Cruz because people there don't seem to have the need to always prove how open minded and liberal they are.
This post is very interesting. You say you haven't spent much time in Berkeley, yet you are able to tell the OP all about what it would be like to live here? You comments about Berkeley indeed show that you don't really know anything about Berkeley or what it would be like to live here. Your exaggeration of the "negatives" about Berkeley are downright amusing.
In any event, despite what this person has "heard" about Berkeley, traffic doesn't shut down every day for protest marches (I've only been here several months but have yet to see any and have never been inconvenienced by any). I think Berkeley has calmed down a bit since the 1960s/70s. Yes, there are homeless people, but homelessness is a fact of life. You can run away from it, but that won't make the issue go away. The homeless don't bother anyone (not that I've seen) and any time I've been asked for change or something to eat, its been in a very respectful way. That said, if seeing homeless ANY people really bothers you or disgusts you, then Berkeley may not be for you.
Like I said, come take a walk around. Based on what you (the OP) has said, I think you will like it.
batransplant - I wasn't super-enamored with Berkeley, but I was only near UC Berkeley; is that considered North Berkeley? The radical element is a bit of a turn-off, but if there are areas that are a little more "sheltered", it would seem ideal. In your face politics is the exact opposite of what I'm looking for - I want laid-back, friendly or at least polite.
There is WAY more to Berkeley than the UC campus. Campus life is all about emotion and energy. It would be sad if the students weren't protesting about something. Imagine someone based their impression of NYC on just a visit to Times Square, South St. Seaport, or even Central Park. They would not have a very well rounded view of what NYC life is like. People in Berkeley are generally VERY laid back and quite polite and friendly. There will always be people with anger management issues or people who are just plain bitter, no matter where you go.
Most of Berkeley is NOT the UC campus (in fact, that represents only a small portion of it). As with most college campus areas, when you are in the UC campus area, you will see a lot of "low-budget" stores, cheap lunch spots, "tobacco" accessory shops, countless places to buy sweatshirts and t-shirts, etc. The Campus is considered more of Central Berkeley, just east of Downtown. You should check our Elmwood (roughly the area around College Ave. between Derby and Alcatraz), North Berkeley (north of University and south of Hopkins), the Gourmet Ghetto (along Shattuck between Rose and Virginia), Westbrae (area between Hopkins and Gilman streets), and Northbrae (area near the east end of Solano, Hopkins St, The Alameda, and Marin Aves). There are other neighborhoods, but once you get to see those, you'll find the others as well as the areas that border these neighborhoods.
Of course, you may decide that you want to be down the peninsula in a place like Palo Alto or even as far down as Santa Cruz. The few issues I have with Santa Cruz are that you are 45 mins from San Jose WITHOUT traffic and almost 90 mins from SF (again without traffic), so for me personally, this puts me a bit too far from a major international airport and city. I also think that it is a bit lacking in quantity of cultural activities, but I'm guessing this is more a reflection of the city's size than its desire to offer these types of activities. It also isn't a very diverse city in terms of population.
There are a lot of great places to live out here. The best way to decide is to walk around. I would even strike up conversations with people in local coffee shops. People are very approachable and love to talk about where they live. You'll find that most people you talk to are transplants themselves and will understand your desire to move out this way. Most will be happy to offer their suggestions and impressions to you.
Another thing to remember is that since you are renting, you won't be tied down to anything for any long period of time. So if you move somewhere and don't like it, you won't have to live there very long. You may even be able to find a month-to-month lease, which would be even better for you in the near term.
Welcome to the west coast!
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
You might also think about
. But yes there are areas that are worse than others such as Vallejo, Richmond, parts of Oakland and SF.
