If living in Pacifica, Sunet, Richmond, Sausalito, or ?, how's the commute to SF? Do cabs work? (San Francisco: apartment)

[pbrb]

Bah, can't correct misspelling of Sunset in title...

It's looking like my move is actually going to happen, so we've started really looking at places to live. We've narrowed it down to the Sunset, Richmond, Sausalito, or Pacifica. Both of our jobs will be in/near the financial district, so I was hoping I could get some input on the commutes from these areas, or suggestions for other places to live within the same price bracket for rentals and an easy commute. Also, we chose these areas because they have easy access to surf, which is a big factor for me.

Sunset/Richmond should be fairly easy, as I hear there are bus lines or an easy bike ride to the financial district. Sausalito and Pacifica are further, but cheaper and have good access to surf. The big downside to Sausalito and Pacifica is nightlife. Is it possible to take a cab from these areas into the city to go out, and then take a cab home? If so, it might not be that bad. In Chicago we usually walk somewhere to grab dinner, then jump in a cab to go out in whatever neighborhood we're meeting up with people at.

Anyone have nay other ideas of places to live? We value proximity to surf, have a dog and 2 cats (hard to rent with animals), walkability, and price.

[mayorhaggar]

A) Just so you know, the pacific beaches around SF are generally very foggy, windy, chilly and gray yearround. Most of the year it's going to look like this: Ocean Beach in Fog | Flickr - Photo Sharing! Even when it's not foggy it's at least very cloudy, and when the sun comes out the stiff winds from offshore keep it chilly. That said, there are plenty of happy surfers who live near the beaches who enjoy riding the waves, but you will definitely need a wetsuit yearround.

B) I would count out Sausalito, as far as I know it's not really convenient to any surfing spots because it's on the inner Bay side of Marin. Muir Beach and Stinson Beach are a long drive away on a very winding and slow-going 2-lane section of highway 1. And it's over the bridge which means $5 each time you go to SF. Taking a cab there from SF would definitely not be cheap.

C) The Outer Sunset and Outer Richmond in SF are very, very sleepy compared to SF, especially nearest the beach. On the plus side it's super quiet and very easy to park a car on the street (something that is nearly impossible in many parts of SF). On the minus side, you pretty much have to drive everywhere because there isn't as much public transit, and there aren't many places to do your shopping. And there's not many places to wine and dine, though if you go to the Inner Sunset or Inner Richmond there are a lot of good restaurants and bars. Public transit to downtown SF can be a drag from the Outer Sunset/Richmond. From the Outer Sunset your main options are the N or L metro lines which are really unreliable and get really crowded. From the Outer Richmond the main option is the 38L bus which runs pretty reliably but gets super crowded. Both options take a while to get to downtown and after a few weeks of that you will be tired of it. The best option is probably the express buses like the 31AX or the 16X but they only stop at a few locations.

As for biking, it is about 7 miles from Ocean Beach to downtown SF, and there are a lot of hills in the way, and there's no dedicated trails so you'd be riding in the street and dealing with traffic and stop lights the whole way. I wouldn't really consider it an easy ride but maybe you would. Mainly make sure you have somewhere to park your bike when you're at work, if you lock it up on the street it will disappear very quickly. I know the city has been setting up bike lockers around downtown though.

D) Pacifica could be alright but it's definitely a sleepy beach town. Lots of surfers go there. You could drive to the Colma BART station which is an easy and quick commute to downtown SF.

[Isebiel]

Just a quick warning -- compared to Chicago it is very hard to get cabs in San Francisco. In Chicago the cabs are everywhere around the Loop and they essentially stalk you. Here, I have at times called multiple cab companies, waited 30 minutes to 2 hours, and once only got a cab because the traffic backed up enough that the empty cab, headed for the airport, stopped next to me as I waited in the rain and I must've looked pathetic enough. This was in SOMA, so it's not like I was out in the boonies. I've heard its impossible to get them to come out to Richmond.

The city doesn't give out enough permits, so the cabbies can cherry-pick the best fares. This usually means to/from the airport. There is a taxi line in front of the Hyatt near the Embarcadero, so you can generally get one there, but last time I tried that there was only one cab there, the driver nearly had his license pulled by an inspector right as we got in (his paperwork wasn't displayed properly), and then he couldn't find my ridiculously easy to find address. I've pretty much given up on cabs.

[pbrb]

I understand the coldness/fog. Oddly enough, that's a huge step up from where I currently surf - the best waves are in the middle of winter with air temp in single digits and water temp just above freezing.

Ah, that sucks, I didn't realize it was impossible to get cabs to take you to the Richmond/Sunset districts. I'm OK with riding my bike on the street with cars etc, but tough public transportation options doesn't sound too great. Though, public transportation in Chicago can be pretty awful too, so I dunno how much worse it can really get.

Good to know about Sausalito, we'll cross it off our list. Someone my girlfriend knows lives out there and she recommended it since she lived there for a while. Good info.

[rkwalton]

I lived in the Richmond for two months after I moved back from Seoul. Getting a cab out there? Hell. And I was coming from a city where I could walk out of my apartment and, maybe, wait a few minutes at most to successfully hail a cab. It was a hard adjustment back. You can call for a cab and they'll come and get you, but the best bet in the Richmond is to get yourself close enough to Geary where you can just hop on the 38L (not the regular 38) and that can take you into the Market corridor and Financial District. In the Sunset, you'd get yourself on that N line, so you could hope on the express train in (again, not the regular; I used to date someone who lived out there and, at that time (late 90s) the closer in you are the less likely you were to get on the train.)

Sausalito you can take the ferry. Pacifica? I guess you could take a cab to the nearest BART station, but I know they have commuter buses that take folks to BART during rush hours (not sure what the deal is on off hours). You'd have to check the bus lines that run down there.

[mayorhaggar]

In SF you really have to choose between having an easy commute and being near the beach. Even going small distances with Muni can be hell, especially the Metro light rail trains--they always seem to either not run enough of them so they're super crowded, or they run too many of them and they get stuck in the Market Street tunnel and stop-start the whole way. And then the trains break down pretty often which basically shuts down the entire system. Muni buses are always crowded and they run through traffic 100% of the time (the light rail lines at least have their tunnels, though again most of the time they move like molasses through them) and SF has a lot of traffic so the buses can be pokey. So if you choose to be way out by the beach within SF you will have to put up with an annoying and long and unpredictable public transit ride to work each day. But you'll be able to walk out the door with your board and go get in the surf. Really I think the best option is to live at the extreme west end of the Richmond, just north of GG Park, and ride the 31AX to work. I used to live in Chicago and Muni is a joke compared to the CTA. The El at least is fairly reliable and runs pretty often during the day, and the CTA buses are really reliable and usually not that crowded compared to flaky and super-crowded Muni buses.

Other than that I think Pacifica would work but do some research about how easy it is to get to the Daly City or Colma BART stations. You'd probably have to drive and park at BART which could be iffy, or you could take the SamTrans bus from Pacifica to BART which might not be a great option. But from there it's a short train ride, about 20 minutes, and BART is waaaay more reliable than Muni and moves waaaaay faster.

For nightlife, from Pacifica it would be easy to get to downtown SF by car, just hop on the highway, no bridge tolls for one thing. Or you could park at Colma or Daly City BART which would be easy outside of rush hour, and take BART into SF, just keep in mind it stops running after around midnight or so. It's probably quicker to drive to downtown SF from Pacifica than from the Richmond or Sunset, at least you have a highway you can take.