Need some advice on Northern California (San Jose, San Francisco: safe area, college, live in)

[nyr1129]

Hey everyone,

26 year old single guy, currently in NYC (born and raised here), looking for some info on Northern California areas. I'm definitely looking for something a little slower and less stressful than NYC, and cheaper! I've been craving more nature and better weather and absolutely love California. Outside of S.F. I'm not too familiar with the areas up there. I'm basically looking for a safe area that is walkable, and where I won't be the only young person. I currently live in Park Slope, population about 70,000, and honestly it's all i would need. Excellent and numerous restaurants, cool little bars, coffee shops, extremely walkable. Does anything like this exist out there?

Thanks!

[ferretkona]

Originally Posted by nyr1129

,,,Excellent and numerous restaurants, cool little bars, coffee shops, extremely walkable. Does anything like this exist out there?

Any northern city with numerous bars and restaurants puts you in Sacramento or San Francisco.
For a town smaller with a little less youth would be Monterey and Carmel. Myself I love Carmel and Monterey with a large amount of jazz bars. Carmel is a dog friendly town, many restaurants even have menus for dogs.

All of the cities I mentioned are not cheap. Sacramento is probably the most reasonable of the four. San Francisco is very expensive and not car friendly.

[Majin]

Stockton, CA

[tstieber]

You might want to check out Santa Rosa, Chico, Santa Cruz.

[larachris]

I would suggest Berkeley or Oakland (downtown), San Jose (also downtown). Any of those would still have you close to San Francisco for a work commute.

[tireeskye]

If you can be open and tolerant and don't mind a bit of chaos and funkiness, you may like Santa Cruz (or somewhere in Santa Cruz county).
Generally speaking, people tend to either love or strongly dislike Santa Cruz.
Other towns in the county are preferable to me (quieter, less impacted, less chaotic).
But i like that S.C. is close and easily accessible.
The county is open, tolerant, liberal, and it's an easy place to be yourself ... whoever that may be.
And Santa Cruz is "young" ... lots of 20's and 30's and UCSC is here so, though it's not a typical college town (in the way you might be familiar with such back east), it's presence has an impact.
And the nature on the Monterey Bay is very strong and beautiful and wonderful.
One of the reasons that i like S.C. county so much is that you can live in a semi-urban or sub-urban community but be just minutes from the coast or the mountains and redwoods.
So it's a nice combination of "civilization" and nature.


Consider a road trip up the coast.
If you're not interested in So. California (wise, imo), start somewhere on the central coast (maybe fly into Monterey) and explore Monterey county (Carmel, Monterey and Pacific Grove are 3 coastal towns in that county that you may like - and check out Big Sur just to get your heart good and open ) and then head north and explore S.C. county (get off the HWY) and then head north up to S.F. area and then explore Marin and Sonoma county.
If you have the time and money, i'd explore and feel and see for yourself.
The coast and its communities are different depending on where you are on it.

[Nineties Flava]

Originally Posted by ferretkona

Any northern city with numerous bars and restaurants puts you in Sacramento or San Francisco.
For a town smaller with a little less youth would be Monterey and Carmel. Myself I love Carmel and Monterey with a large amount of jazz bars. Carmel is a dog friendly town, many restaurants even have menus for dogs.

All of the cities I mentioned are not cheap. Sacramento is probably the most reasonable of the four. San Francisco is very expensive and not car friendly.

Or Oakland.