Need an apartment complex recommendation in San Mateo County? (Redwood City: lease, utilities)

[luminus]

Hey all,

Some friends and I are having a rough time. We're looking for a two bedroom in a walkable part of town, within about 5 miles from a job that's between foster city and redwood shores. We have about a $2500/month rent limit. Obviously if it includes utils that can go up - hoping to pay <$3000 total each month on rent/utilities.

We're considering foster city or redwood shores but they are obviously less interesting. We're young (25-30) and would like to be within biking or ideally walking distance to a few interesting things.

Here's the problem - we really can't go look at any places until we sign a lease because we are across the country and don't have time to go and check it out before the move date. The thing that Redwood Shores and Foster City have going for them is that they're obviously safe and family friendly. You can tell at a distance.

We know that "San Mateo is nice" and "Redwood City is nice" and "San Carlos is nice" but we don't know which, specific, apartment complexes or areas are actually "nice". It's very hard to tell because lots of places on Google Street view look decent except two blocks away you're up against El Camino or the 101 and it seems sketchy.

We loved the idea of Palo Alto but it seemed out of budget. We liked parts of San Mateo but it seemed potentially sketchy and the parts that aren't seem out of budget. We need a safe complex, and we need some good advice on not just 'areas' but actual apartments. Does anybody have any suggestions? It would be extreeeeemely helpful.

We will be signing a lease in the next two weeks. Move-in date is Nov 20.