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Sacramento has a beautiful ballpark/stadium very close the Sacramento River - RALEY FIELD. It's the AAA team for the Oakland A's. The Sacramento River Cats is the winningest team in AAA baseball - most championships - with the highest attendance over the last 13 years.
The games are very family friendly, VERY AFFORDABLE , GREAT SEATS, great fans, great food, waiter service.
San Jose has nothing comparable, unless you want to pay a FORTUNE for Levi Stadium tickets, and how sad THAT the team is in Santa Clara, yet neither Santa Clara nor San Jose gets the name - still - The San FRANCISCO 49ers - awesome win Today! - devoted 49er FAN here.
Ignoring the obvious baseball fan (and I guess not a fan of anything else)
For fans of other sports:
There is Stanford Stadium, home to the Stanford Cardinal Football team, with 50,000 person capacity, Sacramento has nothing comparable.
San Jose Sharks - local NHS team plays at SAP Center, there are major concerts here. (~18k capacity)
Earthquakes - local MLS team, currently plays at Buck Shaw stadium, moving to brand new stadium for 2015 season. (~18k capacity). Sacramento has nothing comparable.
Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, major concerts tour here too.
New Levi's Stadium just over the border in Santa Clara, future home of NFL Team 49er's. Sacramento has nothing comparable.
And if we are counting things 35 miles from the core of the city (Sleep Train Amphitheater is 35 miles from Sacramento) then San Jose has access to:
Oakland Coliseum - home of the Oakland A's an MLB team. Sacramento has nothing comparable.
Oracle Arena - home to the Golden State Warriors an NBA team.
San Francisco International Airport - Lots of direct flights around the world (anyone who has ever missed a connection or had a long layover knows how useful this is). Sacramento has nothing comparable.
I have to admit about that Apple Hill, 1/2 drive from San Jose, you get to Gilroy, and you really have to like garlic in my opinion to enjoy the Garlic Festival.
Kind of unfair to limit it to only San Jose, Santa Clara and Sunnyvale, when you're including places 35 miles away, don't you think?
Shoreline Amphitheater is 13 miles away, like a 1/3 the distance....
While San Jose metro area only has 2M people versus 2.4M for the Sacramento metro, it is much better connected to nearby metro areas, and has more to do in its own metro area.
And with respect to everything San Jose Metro area is home to a lot more major companies, and has better universities. Not to mention the weather is horrible in Sacramento, it gets into the 90s often in the summer, and 100s is not rare "On average, there are 73 days where the high exceeds 90 °F (32 °C), and 14 days where the high exceeds 100 °F (38 °C);" , practically impossible to enjoy it. I grew up in an area that used to get into the 100s on occasion, anytime the temperature went above 95, you stayed indoors with the A/C, tough to enjoy life when you're staying indoors all day, that is what I had to do when we had the heat wave here last summer for a few days. Yeah, 73 days, ouch, 73 days where you have to stay indoors.
One other thing to note is that the crime rate in San Jose is much lower than in Sacramento.
Not to mention the weather is horrible in Sacramento, it gets into the 90s often in the summer, and 100s is not rare "On average, there are 73 days where the high exceeds 90 °F (32 °C), and 14 days where the high exceeds 100 °F (38 °C);" , practically impossible to enjoy it. I grew up in an area that used to get into the 100s on occasion, anytime the temperature went above 95, you stayed indoors with the A/C, tough to enjoy life when you're staying indoors all day, that is what I had to do when we had the heat wave here last summer for a few days. Yeah, 73 days, ouch, 73 days where you have to stay indoors.
Some of the best weather in the country is in the Los Angeles Basin and Santa Clara Valley - perfect weather - on average, never gets too hot in the summer where you rarely need the A/C, or where it gets too cold in the winter where heat is marginally used. Guess what, 90% of the country has no idea what that is like because they always need some form of heat or A/C for most of the day and night.
Next to the coastal valleys of California, the next best weather in the country is in SACRAMENTO.
Describing Sacramento’s weather as horrible is simply UNIFORMED and IGNORANT.
90% of the metros in the Country - have hotter(heat index) and more humid summer weather than Sacramento.
Some places like Vegas, Phoenix, Fresno, Austin, other Texas cities, and Floridian cities have dramatically unbearable high heat or high humidity that never cools in the evening and night.
Sacramento cools daily in the summer on average 20-35 degrees!
Sacramento has by far better summer weather than 90% of the metros areas across the USA.
I lived in Cupertino near San Jose for 25 years (where I grew up). Moved to Sacramento two years ago for a new job and never looked back. With the lower cost of living I can save up much more and have a higher quality of life than an outrageously expensive area like Silicon Valley. Sacramento has all that I need, and Old Down Sac is enjoyable and has its charms. There are other nice areas nearby such as Roseville. Yes it tends to be hotter here in the summer, but it is hardly an issue for me with home and office equipped with A/C. Plus it makes for pleasant outdoor evenings. I am closer to a number of outdoor activities and to Tahoe of course. And it is not that bad of a drive on the weekends to the South Bay to visit family and friends. I'll let others have fun with the Silicon Valley rat race.
I lived in Cupertino near San Jose for 25 years (where I grew up). Moved to Sacramento two years ago for a new job and never looked back. With the lower cost of living I can save up much more and have a higher quality of life than an outrageously expensive area like Silicon Valley. Sacramento has all that I need, and Old Down Sac is enjoyable and has its charms. There are other nice areas nearby such as Roseville. Yes it tends to be hotter here in the summer, but it is hardly an issue for me with home and office equipped with A/C. Plus it makes for pleasant outdoor evenings. I am closer to a number of outdoor activities and to Tahoe of course. And it is not that bad of a drive on the weekends to the South Bay to visit family and friends. I'll let others have fun with the Silicon Valley rat race.
I think that depends on how much your job pays. The rent difference on a 2bd apartment is between 2300/mo in San Jose, and 900/mo in Sacramento, the median income in San Jose is 77k, in Sacramento is 50k, the difference is more than enough to cover the extra 16.8k in rent (the sources I found do not say if it covers utilities or not). It is kind of disingenuous to talk about the cost of living as if it makes it harder to save up, without talking about income differences. Given how much higher incomes are around San Jose, it makes sense that people can save up more here. Given that the OP is a single woman I doubt they would want to spend for more than a 2bd. Granted I have no idea how much more they would be making here themselves, a question that makes a lot of difference to living experience here.
You can call it a rat race all you want, but you will be having the more issues making the rent there if you take a 35% pay cut to live there. To avoid that you really have to go somewhere were incomes are high AND rents are cheap, but the weather would likely be unbearable 4 - 8 months out of the year.
The one thing OP's post that would worry me is that sometimes allergies can be bad here in the spring. I've seen
Some of the best weather in the country is in the Los Angeles Basin and Santa Clara Valley - perfect weather - on average, never gets too hot in the summer where you rarely need the A/C, or where it gets too cold in the winter where heat is marginally used. Guess what, 90% of the country has no idea what that is like because they always need some form of heat or A/C for most of the day and night.
Next to the coastal valleys of California, the next best weather in the country is in SACRAMENTO.
Describing Sacramento’s weather as horrible is simply UNIFORMED and IGNORANT.
90% of the metros in the Country - have hotter(heat index) and more humid summer weather than Sacramento.
Some places like Vegas, Phoenix, Fresno, Austin, other Texas cities, and Floridian cities have dramatically unbearable high heat or high humidity that never cools in the evening and night.
Sacramento cools daily in the summer on average 20-35 degrees!
Sacramento has by far better summer weather than 90% of the metros areas across the USA.
I was going to make a long response, but the truth is that is too much.
1. Describing the weather as horrible is an opinion, not a national relative measure, it cannot be UNIFORMED and IGNORANT unless it is not based on facts or true facts.
2. It is based on facts, from Wikipedia, if you have an issue with the source though you can change it. UNIFORMED and IGNORANT would be not based on facts, or faulty facts.
3. "90% of the metros in the Country - have hotter AND more humid summer weather" is a disingenuous statement, 13% of the country lives in the Northeast another 10%+ or so live in Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Seattle, Portland, San Diego, Los Angeles, and Bay Area combined. I think if you research it, you will find all of them have cooler summers than Sacramento, I think DC is the hottest of the set with 37 days over 90 degrees. So 90% of metros is some meaningless measure that doesn't speak to where people live in the country, kind of a misleading statement. One that I really doubt as well, hotter temperatures than Sacramento are hard to find, humidity is not granted.
Having said all that San Jose is not perfect weather by far, we had a heat wave last summer that lasted almost a week, all into the 90s. Last week and this week there have been days with frost outside.
Last edited by cardinal2007; 12-09-2013 at 12:23 PM..
I think that depends on how much your job pays. The rent difference on a 2bd apartment is between 2300/mo in San Jose, and 900/mo in Sacramento, the median income in San Jose is 77k, in Sacramento is 50k, the difference is more than enough to cover the extra 16.8k in rent (the sources I found do not say if it covers utilities or not). It is kind of disingenuous to talk about the cost of living as if it makes it harder to save up, without talking about income differences. Given how much higher incomes are around San Jose, it makes sense that people can save up more here. Given that the OP is a single woman I doubt they would want to spend for more than a 2bd. Granted I have no idea how much more they would be making here themselves, a question that makes a lot of difference to living experience here.
Only certain industries earn enough of a premium to make up for the cost of living. Obviously, tech is the big one. The OP stated they would be working for the community college district, which makes it unlikely their job would be in that category.
Sacramento has a beautiful ballpark/stadium very close the Sacramento River - RALEY FIELD. It's the AAA team for the Oakland A's. The Sacramento River Cats is the winningest team in AAA baseball - most championships - with the highest attendance over the last 13 years.
The games are very family friendly, VERY AFFORDABLE , GREAT SEATS, great fans, great food, waiter service.
San Jose has nothing comparable, unless you want to pay a FORTUNE for Levi Stadium tickets, and how sad THAT the team is in Santa Clara, yet neither Santa Clara nor San Jose gets the name - still - The San FRANCISCO 49ers - awesome win Today! - devoted 49er FAN here.
There's the San Jose Giants and the nearby skating rink, and San Jose State Football Team
There's the San Jose Giants and the nearby skating rink, and San Jose State Football Team
Admittedly the Giants are Class A - Advanced, versus AAA, the Giants have their AAA team in Fresno. Municipal Stadium isn't that great either, I really think if the Giants cared about San Jose they would do something better than what we have now.
SJSU Spartans do have a nice stadium though.
There are several places to ice skate (downtown probably has their ice setup for this winter), but yeah the fairground is one of the best places for it.
To answer the OP's question in short, there simply is no place that is just a more expensive version of another and nothing else. Because otherwise all the people would migrate to the second place until the cost is similar, or the second city set up gates to block everyone from entering. A place is more expensive than others because statistically, more people find the stuff they want there.
Now this does not mean the more expensive place is better for anyone. It is just statistically speaking, it caters to more people's needs. It is supply and demand. The market speaks for itself.
Quote:
Originally Posted by thatsthejam
I have a job opportunity in SJ for the San Jose/Evergreen community college district and I wanted to hear from people that have either lived in both San Jose and Sacramento or have spent/are spending a good amount of time in both. I currently live in Sacramento, but I'm not from here and I have to say that for my personal tastes of what a city is, Sacramento is dreary, small, my allergies attack me every spring and I am not satisfied here. From asking friends that have lived in SJ, it seems like it can be compared to Sacramento and I fear that if I get a job there, I will find myself still searching to have that big city feel and not staying in SJ for too long - like a 2 year maximum! The main thing that saves SJ and makes me consider it is its close distance to SF and it being in the bay. I have extended family and friends in SF and I am a single woman that needs to mingle and I know cities like SF attract many singles. So what are your opinions?
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The main thing that saves SJ and makes me consider it is its close distance to SF and it being in the bay. I have extended family and friends in SF and I am a single woman that needs to mingle and I know cities like SF attract many singles. So what are your opinions?
