Wooded or Rural neighborhood in South Bay / Peninsula ? (or maybe further south) (Mountain View: apartment complex)

[morpheus87]

So, hello ! I am new here so please be kind.

I just got a job in Mountain View. I am looking for a place to call home, and I don't mind a commute. Ideally I would like to get a place 5-10 miles from Mtn View, but would not mind traveling up to 20 miles if I got a good place to live.

I am a single guy so I just need a small place, with your basic amenities. I don't need a ton of square feet. I don't watch TV, and I'll probably be at work a fair amount.

But the main reason I am posting here is, it is hard to figure out what a neighborhood is like from Craigslist! I have a dog (Lab, about 70 lbs.) so that limits my options.

My dog is going to go everywhere with me, to work, on walks, etc. So don't worry that I will be locking my dog in a small apartment with nothing to do.

However, I really want to find a place with some hiking trails, some forested area, some good parks and maybe some ponds for my dog to play in.

Do you have any recommendations?

Thanks in advance!

[jbunniii]

What is your budget? Unfortunately in the vicinity of Mountain View, if you want to live in a wooded/rustic area, you are looking at Los Altos and the Palo Alto hills, which are really expensive.

However, a possible alternative would be to live near the Shoreline park (vicinity of Google). It's not really forested, but it's a nice, huge park with a lot of wide open space, bike/walking trails, and ponds/edge of the bay.

Another option would be to live near the bike/walking path (Stevens Creek Trail) that runs from Shoreline park through Mountain View along the southern/eastern edge of Old Mountain View. This is a very nice path with good tree cover in some parts.

If you want a more woodsy experience, it's not a very long drive to get to a lot of state and county parks in the hills. The problem is that if you want to actually live in the hills, you will either have extremely expensive housing or a long commute to Mountain View or both.

P.S. What employer did you find that allows you to bring your dog to work? That's a very cool perquisite which I thought was more or less extinct after the dot-com crash.

[coyoteskye]

just a tip ... on craigslist, don't forget to check off that little box indicating you need a place that accepts dogs.

[zitsky]

Shoreline Park is shared/maintained by both the city of Palo Alto & Mountain View. The Mountain View side does NOT allow dogs or pets of any kind. The Palo Alto side does. You can always park on the Palo Alto side and walk your dog from there. If you want to go to the restaurant at the clubhouse (Michael's) or sit at the lake, you won't be able to do that with your dog. There is the Stevens Creek Trail (walking/biking). I don't know if they allow dogs, but I would guess that they do.

There is no significant housing right near Shoreline Park that I know of. There are a lot of apartments about 1/2 mile away on Shoreline by one of the Safeway supermarkets. I'm surprised that Google hasn't tried yet to build apartments for their employees over in that area. There are actually a few houses still there from when the area was housing or farms. I think I've come across one house at least that is a single family residence. It's strange to see it sitting among a bunch of commercial buildings.

As jbunniii said, Mountain View is only about 30-45 min or less from hiking trails and the beach. Even living there, I was able to go someplace pretty quickly where I could get back into nature. I lived at one apartment complex called Birch Creek which felt like it was in the woods (lots of birch treeks, streams and koi ponds). It's on Rengstorff but backs up on Latham which is considered a less desireable neighborhood. I never had a problem living there. I'd also recommend looking along Middlefield Road. There are a lot of trees planted in the median and around apartments there. It always feel a little more secluded than other neighborhoods.

I'm curious too about the dog situation? Are you self employed or do you have a really great employer?

[jbunniii]

Originally Posted by zitsky

Shoreline Park is shared/maintained by both the city of Palo Alto & Mountain View. The Mountain View side does NOT allow dogs or pets of any kind.

Thanks for the clarification - it hadn't occurred to me that the park might not allow dogs.