Redwood City for a single straight guy ? (Hayward, Orange: theater, living)

[musicman716]

I'll be moving to the bay area from Orange County next month (Oct). I'll be working in Hayward. I'm a single, attractive, professional straight white male (44). I'm looking for a nice community that is clean, safe and decent for a single guy. I've been considering Pleasanton and San Ramon as I want to stay within a 20-30 minute commute to/from Hayward, but a friend told me about Redwood City. How's the night life in Redwood City ? I like going to bars that have live bands, good beer (on tap), good food and of course an atmosphere conducive for a single guy looking to make new "female" friends.
Your thoughts/suggestions/recommendations are greatly appreciated.

[sonarrat]

Redwood City is also known as Deadwood City by some of the locals.. I know from living there the only activity after dark is folks driving their motorcycles and lifted pickups drunk because they don't have anything better to do. I don't think any of the places you suggested would suit you, probably Mountain View would be best. Kind of a brutal commute though.

[hsw]

Only places in SF region where affluent singles tend to live are SF and PaloAlto...

Many singles who work in SiliconValley choose to live in SF's SOMA/Marina/PacHts/RussHill; drive from SF to SV is rather easy vs similar 40-60mi drives in NYC/LA/Chic regions (and many work long hrs, so commute in off-peak hrs is rather brisk, and guys often use commute time to catch up on phone calls w/other time zones)

PA is a weak compromise....PA crowd is not particularly attractive (though City of SF's talent is also weak vs LA's Westside, though gap has closed to some extent in past 5yrs), and grub/bars in PA suck....

[charliem]

I'd stay in SoCal if I were you if you are looking to find an attractive female in Hayward or Redwood city. San Ramon/Pleasanton are family heavy, not a lot of single life there. Your best bet would be to live in SF and commute to Hayward, the nightlife in SF is the best in the bay area. Most of both the women and men here are 6 &7's that think they're 8's & 9's, so I wouldn't be too picky. You should check out other threads on being single in SF bay area to get other opinions...

[18Montclair]

Originally Posted by charliem

I'd stay in SoCal if I were you if you are looking to find an attractive female in Hayward or Redwood city. San Ramon/Pleasanton are family heavy, not a lot of single life there. Your best bet would be to live in SF and commute to Hayward, the nightlife in SF is the best in the bay area. Most of both the women and men here are 6 &7's that think they're 8's & 9's, so I wouldn't be too picky. You should check out other threads on being single in SF bay area to get other opinions...

hahahahaha.....SoCal? Land of the 4s and 5s who think theyre 9s and 10s?

[gizmo980]

Originally Posted by 18Montclair

hahahahaha.....SoCal? Land of the 4s and 5s who think theyre 9s and 10s?

No... that would be land of the 4s and 5s who paid good money to become 9s and 10s.

[humboldtrat]

I wouldn't write off Redwood City as being "Deadwood City". RC does have a nice downtown around Broadway and Main that has been revitalized in recent years. There are restaurants, bars and a new multi-screen theater downtown as well a live entertainment downtown. It's true that Redwood City and the surrounding area are your basic middle to upper middle class suburban towns.

Little Fox
The Fox Theatre

And about 6 miles away is the Shoreline Amphitheater, an open air concert venue.

www.livenation.com/venue/getVenue/venueId/1022

[18Montclair]

Originally Posted by gizmo980

No... that would be land of the 4s and 5s who paid good money to become 9s and 10s.

LOL good one.

[steasdale]

Hayward is pretty suburban. I live across the Bay in the Peninsula (where Redwood City is one of the cities).

I'm not in the singles scene but some comments:

Redwood City does have a revitalized downtown. It's not bad but sorta small. Up and down the Peninsula are many towns that might not have the cachet of SF but have pleasant good-sized walkable downtown areas with some nightlife: Palo Alto, Mountainview, San Mateo. Burlingame is also good but smaller than the previous three.

Keep in mind that Peninsula cities are accessible to SF through the Caltrain (commuter rail), BART (from Millbrae), and highway 101 (about 30 minutes to downtown SF - non-commuter hours). Downside of peninsula is high cost of housing.

Also, the commute across the bridge between Peninsula and Hayward can be tough sometimes - not long but traffic.