after SF, what city offers a more 'urban life style' in Bay Area? (San Jose: condos, townhouses)

[esv]

Hi everyone

we're a young couple without kids used to urban life style (we've lived in Barcelona, Paris and Zurich) moving next month to Bay Area.

Everybody is telling us to live in SF city, but I thing is a long commute to Palo Alto (my job is there), so, now we're just wondering what city would be the less 'residential/quiet/boring' (sorry for the expression) aside from SF city?

If you, yourselfs, are Europeans or you know someone from Europe living in Palo Alto/Mountain View/San Mateo.... what do you/they feel it'd be the best choice for a couple like us??

We've read that Mountain View has a nice downtown, good restaurants, some night life,...

Also, here, in Switzerland, we basically walk/bike everywhere. Is it also possible there or we'd definitively need 2 cars?? because, what about public transport? not much, I guess. We've seen smth called CAL train that looks convinient to go to SF from time to time... and what about the light Rail Service??

Also, we're wondering how this 'condo/communities' thing works... we don't have much of that here in Europe. It looks kind of nice; normally with a pool and a fitness center... maybe is even a good place where to start and meet people, right? We've seen many in MV (Avalon/Oakwood/Birch Creek) not far from CAL Train, or Standford Villa in PA,... any advice there?

Well, as you can see we're quite lost. It's our first experience in the Sates and we're aware we need to adjust to a completetly different system... so, any tip would be more than welcome!

ESV & MBV

[Lulu101]

I've heard Yuba City is good.

[vdy1985]

Berkeley, Oakland, Dt Palo Alto, Dt Mountain View (small but nice), Dt San Jose. And that is it, roughly in that order.

[hsw]

PaloAlto itself is a more intellectually rich, cosmopolitan setting than City of SF....many Stanford grad students/faculty (who are from all over US and RoW) and many well-known tech billionaires live in PA

PA rents are similar cost to City of SF; many single yuppies (or couples w/o kids) who work in SiliconValley prefer to live in City of SF simply b/c more upscale condos and townhouses are available in City; restaurants in City are far superior to anything in PA area...and drive from City to SV is one of fastest, most scenic in world (e.g., ~35mins to cover the 35mis from SF to MenloPk)...and many SV financiers and engineers are car nuts who rather enjoy driving their new AMGs and Ferraris on 280 fwy for their daily commute

Nightlife sucks in either SF or PA or any part of region...most simply go to BeverlyHills area or LasVegas or Manhattan for a wkend when in mood for serious nightlife or shopping or hedonism....

That said, suspect majority of SV's most notable engineers and financiers choose to reside in PA and neighboring suburbs (Woodside, Atherton, etc), rather than City of SF...

[krudmonk]

hsw, why don't you just copy and paste your one post instead of typing it over?

SF to PA is not far if you just get on the train.

[nutleynut]

The commute from SF isn't bad, but I think you want to be able to go carless. I think if you tried it out You'd find Palo Alto satisfactory. Otherwise all of your other options, berk,Oak,SJ, are actually a Longer commute to Palo Alto than SF.

[footballer0607]

If you lived in Berkeley or Oakland then that would definitely offer an "urban" lifestyle...over 150 languages are spoken in Oakland! Also, Berkeley has a lot of people from other countries since the university is there, but then again that would make it a little bit harder to commute to Palo Alto for work. I don't know what you consider a "long" commute, but by American standards SF to Palo Alto is not long at all. If you lived in Berkeley or Oakland it would be very easy to go to SF because of BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit), our version of a subway system...BART doesn't take you directly to Palo Alto, though.

BTW...Yuba City is way too far away, I'm pretty sure.
Hope that helped!

[krudmonk]

There is an unfortunate distance between any SF BART station and the Caltrain terminus, though. A transfer would be very significant, timewise.

[jman650]

Originally Posted by Lulu101

I've heard Yuba City is good.

Yuba City is 2 hours north of the Bay Area. Why must you insist on polluting SF threads with your lack of knowledge? Go away. Why are you here, Arkansas???

[esv]

Hi everyone!!

many thanks for the advices. I think even if Oak or Berkeley sound great, working in PA is not the best choice. Rather to live in the city of SF itself, right?? I heard that normally the commute form South SF is not less than an hour, though... that the main highway is always congested.

Anyway, seems at the beginning better try to find a nice community in DT PA or MV and let's see from there.

'See' you around :-)

ESV

PS - by the way, In your opinion what's more alive... DT PA or MV??