San Jose Environmental & Other Health-Related Issues (Palo Alto, Santa Cruz: homes, safest neighborhood)

[zachm35]

My wife and I are considering a move to the San Jose area, and wondered about several issues that are very important to us, environmentally speaking, and in regard to general health-related issues. It's just the two of us, so no children issues.

Anyone with information on the following would be greatly appreciated:
1. Pesticide use (looking for pesticide-free area)
2. Landfill locations
3. Best hospital(s) and medical professionals
4. Cleanest, safest neighborhoods (no landfills, and without pesticides!)

Thanks in advance for your responses!

[RebekahOwen]

There is no such thing. Look in your garage, how many bug killers are there? Now look under your kitchen sink, how many are there? What do you spray on your roses? and fruit trees? and under the house?
Now go look at your garbage can - where do you think that goes?
I do think that Palo Alto got 3 gold stars for being uber recycling community and Stanford is a world class hospital but landfill and pesticide free?? I think not.

[oldtrader]

There is no metro area in the U.S. that is pesticide FREE. Especially one where the weather is so good most of the year like San Jose, which makes insects of all types thrive. In fact, as the winters are mild, you don't get the winter insect kill you get in snow areas of the country. They just thrive and multiply year around. Many people living there in all neighborhoods, will have monthly professional pesticide treatments of their homes, to help them live in San Jose Area. In fact, more pesticides are used in the bay area, than much of the U.S. due to the amount of insects flying, hopping, crawling and borrowing due to the fine weather.

If you mean by land fills garbage burial sites, that is easy to avoid. If you mean landfill just filling low land to get it level not knowing where the soil came from, is not always as easy to avoid.

[511pf]

I actually don't think Northern California in general has an insect problem. Spiders and termites are common and ants tend to come inside during the winter, but it's not humid here, so other than those, we don't have too many bugs. Your most likely culprit for pesticides would be termites, as that's the standad way people get rid of them. There is a landfill in the far north part of San Jose, near where the bay ends. Not sure if there are others. Air pollution here can be a problem in the summer. In general, I wouldn't say Northern California is especially environmentally hazardous.

[rimmerama]

What do you mean by landfill locations? Like, land that has been reclaimed and developed on? Landfills in this day and age employ some pretty nifty techniques to make them as environmentally friendly as possible (and impact quality of life as little as possible). I can't think of anywhere with residential housing that would be adversely impacted by a landfill.

As for pesticides, hell, the county does aerial spraying for mosquitos, so, good luck with that one!

[jaijai]

If you want a higher (much higher!) consciousness regarding green / environment, etc. and you don't mind a rather grueling commute over HWY17 (if you're going to be working in San Jose area) c'mon over to Santa Cruz county and find a community in the county that suits you and know that the activism / awareness regarding the issues that concern you are strong.
Btw, Santa Cruz county was one of the strongest voices against the spraying for the Light Brown Apple Moth in the state of California and the spraying was halted.
It's a very green county! (and the air quality is infinitely better than San Jose) and there are safe and clean neighborhoods throughout the county although Santa Cruz proper may not be your cup of tea just 'cause it's kind of funky and people tend to have strong feelings about it both negative and positive.
I don't know about the medical / hospital scene.

[rimmerama]

Dominican is not a terribly good hospital, but there's always Watsonville. Also, watch out at the beaches, lots of the S.C county beaches get get poor ratings from the surfrider's club in terms of water quality.

Santa Cruz may talk about being green, but I don't think it's all that different. The main difference is that by virtue of being on the coast instead of in a valley, the air quality is better.

Otherwise the lifestyle is pretty similar to San Jose, except the city of Santa Cruz has a very vocal, very liberal group of people, and there's the surf culture. But San Jose was rated healthiest city in America, so in terms of physical activities, both have lots of them.

If you head to Santa Cruz, the Aptos area is nicest.

[mysticaltyger]

Originally Posted by rimmerama

Dominican is not a terribly good hospital, but there's always Watsonville. Also, watch out at the beaches, lots of the S.C county beaches get get poor ratings from the surfrider's club in terms of water quality.

Santa Cruz may talk about being green, but I don't think it's all that different. The main difference is that by virtue of being on the coast instead of in a valley, the air quality is better.

Otherwise the lifestyle is pretty similar to San Jose, except the city of Santa Cruz has a very vocal, very liberal group of people, and there's the surf culture. But San Jose was rated healthiest city in America, so in terms of physical activities, both have lots of them.

If you head to Santa Cruz, the Aptos area is nicest.

Exactly. And by commuting every day by car from Santa Cruz to San Jose, you'd actually be contributing to the environmental problems you're trying to avoid (although there are buses from SC to downtown San Jose).

[jaijai]

Originally Posted by rimmerama

Dominican is not a terribly good hospital, but there's always Watsonville. Also, watch out at the beaches, lots of the S.C county beaches get get poor ratings from the surfrider's club in terms of water quality.

Santa Cruz may talk about being green, but I don't think it's all that different. The main difference is that by virtue of being on the coast instead of in a valley, the air quality is better.

Otherwise the lifestyle is pretty similar to San Jose, except the city of Santa Cruz has a very vocal, very liberal group of people, and there's the surf culture. But San Jose was rated healthiest city in America, so in terms of physical activities, both have lots of them.

If you head to Santa Cruz, the Aptos area is nicest.

Santa Cruz county is by far cleaner and greener and as far as the "lifestyle being pretty similar to San Jose ... " .... ummmmm, hardly.
And although i like Aptos very much there are many wonderful and beautiful areas in the county that are as nice as and even nicer (of course it's subjective and depends on what kind of living situation one wants) than Aptos.
But yes, Aptos =
The main issue would be the hellish commute if the o.p. is going to be working on the San Jose side of the Santa Cruz mountains.

[rimmerama]

Originally Posted by jaijai

Santa Cruz county is by far cleaner and greener and as far as the "lifestyle being pretty similar to San Jose ... " .... ummmmm, hardly.
And although i like Aptos very much there are many wonderful and beautiful areas in the county that are as nice as and even nicer (of course it's subjective and depends on what kind of living situation one wants) than Aptos.
But yes, Aptos =
The main issue would be the hellish commute if the o.p. is going to be working on the San Jose side of the Santa Cruz mountains.

Yeah, the lifestyle is pretty similar for most folks. At the end of the day it's hard to answer - people can have radically different lifestyles in the same area - and in my opinion, the average lifestyle in Santa Cruz county is like the average lifestyle in San Jose... They're both pretty much suburban, middle class lifestyles - although, Watsonville is to Santa Cruz, what east San Jose is to San Jose.

Cleaner and greener? Cleaner? Really? Sorry, I've lived in both areas, the city of Santa Cruz is not terribly clean - just stroll down Guadalupe river and compare it to the San Lorenzo river... oi vey.

They're both nice places, but if a person's going to be commuting to San Jose, unless you absolutely must live near the ocean, I don't think it's going to be worthwhile to live in Santa Cruz.