Share your "California dreaming" story that brought you to Bay Area (San Francisco: apartment, rental market)

[jupiler]

If you live here, maybe you grew up here, came for a job, or you followed your heart. If the latter is you, please share your story, and let us know how it has worked out for you.

[BayAreaHillbilly]

I was born.

[ttocs99]

Mine was pretty simple. It was a girl. I was dating a girl from Fresno CA back in 1998 (I lived in NY at the time), and after 8 months, we realized it was pretty serious. Having had already fallen in love with San Francisco on a vacation several years earlier, and being in the Financial Field, the obvious choice was to get a job in the Financial Field in San Francisco. It wasn't as easy as it seems, it took almost a year, but I finally wound up getting a great job in Sept 1999 that paid for my relocation as well (and corporate housing for 2 months in the city until I found a place to live). It was a glorious time, as I discovered all the things I still love about San Francisco today. We wound up getting married in 2001, and lived together in Walnut Creek from 2000-2006.

Unfortunately, both the job and the romance didn't last, got laid off 2 years later in 2001, and my marriage ended in 2006 and moved back to NYC in 2006. Luckily I am way over the divorce part, but my love for San Francisco has never waned. Still my favorite city in the US, and hope to move back in a few years. I vist every 2 years, and hit all my favorite Bay Area spots.

[Ms Kitty 98]

My orders from the Navy said, report to Naval Air Station Alameda California! that's where it all begin, after my first Navy hitch, I figured that was enough of the Bay Area. But it wasn't, I went back to Texas and joined the the Naval Reserve only to be assigned to the USS Texas that was home ported at Naval Air Station Alameda. On my last two week active duty training tour I then decided to relocate to San Francisco and stay with some relatives over at the Mission District. At first I was not so sure that I did the right thing, but jobs were plentiful, I was young and adventurous and there was never a dull moment in San Francisco. After different job changes and adjusting I got me a Government job over at the VA. Then we had the Earthquake in 1989 and something then told me that San Francisco was my home, I fell in love with SF.Not just anyone can live in San Francisco, it is more than a privilege to live in such a great city.

[bigdumbgod]

College friends from UCSB mostly moved back to Bay Area, girlfriend got a paid MSW program at SJSU, season tickets in the Black Hole. Bay Area is original home of thrash metal, Grateful Dead, and lots of other good music and live music-related work as well.

Had already had enough of L.A. by that time, anyway.

[EdJS]

I applied to Stanford graduate school and got accepted. So I came to the Bay Area. That was in 1984. I never left.

[bmw335xi]

When I was in high school I didn't know much about San Francisco other than its gay reputation. My cousin moved there a few years after she graduated from college and told me how much she loved it, so I went to visit and also loved it. I applied to a university in SF and lived there for two years then transferred schools because tuition kept getting raised. After four years of living in a couple cities, I decided to buy a place in SF and move back.

[VelcroQueen]

I was born in California, so living in my hometown is a matter of addiction! I don't live in SanFrancisco now.

I admit, however, that I fell in love with San Francisco the first time I visited, and that time, I lived there a couple months and attended elementary school there. I loved the city because then, it was safe to go all over town -- just my friend and me -- riding the trolleys and window shopping. I loved the people, the hills, the warf, everything that was SanFrancisco. This was in the mid-'50s.

My little town north of there is not represented here, so I rarely write in this area. Thank you for a chance.

[AlamedanBreezyRep]

Well, I'm an Alamedan boy at heart, but I live in Ireland since I was 6, I've been back to my hometown a few times, most recently 4 years ago. I will be back in the Bay Area one day, no doubt in my mind. I wish I had got the opportunity to grow up there though, I always ask my rents why did they go back to Ireland? I'll never ever get it.

[rkwalton]

I'm a born and raised Californian, but my hometown is L.A.

I fell in love with San Francisco when I took a road trip up here. I needed to get away from L.A. for a few days. I was in college at the time. I just hopped in my trusty Honda, got on Interstate 5 and didn't stop until I got to San Francisco. In fact, I checked into the Marriott on Market St.

I called a friend who lived up here. He and his girlfriend took me to a favorite spot of theirs. I explored the city and just really liked it. I'd actually always wanted to move to NYC, which I did later, but San Francisco is the closest thing you're going to get to a city where you can ditch the car and rely on mass transit (if you're near downtown, that is; not if you're in the Avenues.)

I decided I wanted to live here, so when it was time to apply to law school, I applied to only Bay Area schools. I got into a good one and that was that.

I stayed for a few years. Then followed the dream to live abroad. I did that. Moved back for a couple of months. (I had an apartment share out in the Richmond and realized should I ever move back to the city permanently, I'd either live closer in or get a car if I lived that far out.) I decided, to hell with it, NYC was next. I lived there for a couple of years, but moved back to the Bay Area at the end of the summer last year.

I've always known I wanted to put down roots here. I don't live in the city anymore and I really don't miss it between the crap parking, the cold that blows in at night and the crazy rental market. I'm close enough to go in when I want and can escape back to Berkeley pretty quickly.

I had to check off a few things off the to-do list. Now that I'm back, I plan on staying for good.