Where to live for young Indian family close to San Francisco downtown? (San Jose: neighborhood, public schools)

[timsi]

Originally Posted by capoeira

I suggest adding Mountain View to your list. Mountain View is right next to Sunnyvale. Mountain View has an interesting walkable downtown. It is a 45 minute ride to SF on the Baby Bullet Caltrain. Caltrain is a more comfortable ride than the packed cattle cars of the Bart system however the Caltrain express train runs only once an hour. If you could find a location walkable to the Caltrain station in Mountain View that would be ideal.

Thank you very much - Mountain View does look interesting indeed. I will add that to the list.
I was just on the caltrain website - could you explain to me the difference between the 3 types - 100 local, 200 limited-stop and 300 baby bullet? are they all the same with different stops reducing as the number goes up and hence the speed?
Guess with caltrain I will also need to factor in the walk from the stop on 4th St.. which isnt TOO bad but still need to factor it in.
When i was in SF, we did use Caltrain once and it was nice!

Originally Posted by capoeira

Places like Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Dublin & Fremont are all around 55 to 60 km. from San Francisco so there is no getting around the long commute from these places. San Jose is even farther so it is not recommeded.

So - does that mean BART & Caltrain both run at around the same speed? Given that BART from Fremont to powell is under 50mins and the fastest caltrain from mountain view to powell is around that too. Both nearly the same distances.

Originally Posted by capoeira

Berkeley might be a good choice for some but personally I would not want to deal with the huge traffic jam every weekend on the 80 freeway whenever I want to go somewhere. I suggest looking for a place within San Francisco to minimize the commute or a place in Mountain View/Sunnyvale or Fremont for the best access to the Indian community. You could try living close to work in SF for a year and take your time finding the location with the ideal school for your child.

Think I'll have a try of Berkeley just to see what it's like. Does seem to tick the right boxes.
How bad is the 80 freeway on the weekends? and is that the only way in to SF downtown from there?

[04kL4nD]

80 is AWFUL during the weekends. You are better off taking side streets to get to Oakland and then taking the FasTrak lanes.

[18Montclair]

Originally Posted by timsi

Thanks a lot ..
We've come to the conclusion that we'll need to relax our commute requirement i.e. settle for a suburban location about 40-50min away from downtown (powell station) via reliable public transport. We'd also like to live in a location which is in walking proximity to the station - so we dont have to drive to it.

Newer apartments are nice to have but not a must.
Safety is of course the top priority.
Suburban locations with parks, lakes etc are obviously preferred.

What we are thinking of doing is to try out a few short-term (10-15 days) apartment rentals at some suburbs before committing to any one.

Here is the suburbs that I've shortlisted basis what I have heard so far...
- Fremont
- Pleasanton
- Dublin
- San Jose
- Sunnyvale

How does that all sound?
Is there any on the list that aren't worth looking at/do not meet our criteria?

thanks for all your help guys....

These places are all quite far from San Francisco and your commute could be nightmarish if the train breaks down. San Jose and Sunnyvale are actually quite impractical for people commuting to San Francisco.

Fremont, Pleasanton and Dublin are also quite a haul all the way to the city.

And none of these places are really known for their walkable proximity to transit. At all.

But I digress.

[artemis78]

OP, do you need to go to SF every weekend? Most of the East Bay families we know tend to stay on the East Bay side on the weekends, except for special events, so the traffic is less of an issue. If you want to go into SF regularly on the weekends, it would be worthwhile to live near a BART station unless you really need your car there. I would check out the areas within walking distance of North Berkeley BART (Northbrae, Westbrae, Gourmet Ghetto, etc.)--they seem to check off all your boxes, put you near the West Berkeley Indian community, and would give you easy access to San Francisco by train if needed. There are also Transbay buses that run from many Berkeley and Oakland neighborhoods into San Francisco during the week (and on a couple of lines on the weekends); these are actually one of the nicest ways to go, as they can use the carpool lanes and they have plush seats and WiFi. If you do look at the Elmwood area in Berkeley (also very nice, though quite expensive these days), it's served by the Ashby BART station--closer than Rockridge BART for the most part. I do think trying out different areas for a short time is a great plan, too--many of the communities on your list differ hugely from one another.

[gnomatic]

Originally Posted by timsi

Thank you very much - Mountain View does look interesting indeed. I will add that to the list.
I was just on the caltrain website - could you explain to me the difference between the 3 types - 100 local, 200 limited-stop and 300 baby bullet? are they all the same with different stops reducing as the number goes up and hence the speed?

The baby bullet is the only way to go if commuting from MV to SF, the other trains takes much longer. I think the baby bullet only runs for rush hour on weekedays. I personally prefer Caltrain from a comfort point of view, but delays are not uncommon on Caltrain. For a daily commute, Bart is better, especially if your husbands office is near Powell station.

If you want "Indian" neighborhood, I suggest Fremont over Berkeley, even though Berkeley is much more vibrant, urban and closer commute to SF. Fremont is pretty quiet and suburban, but you will find much more amenities like Indian grocery stores, restaurants, activities (ICC is nearby in Milpitas). Most of my Indian friends that have kids live in Fremont. There are quite a few apartments/townhouses within walkable distance the Fremont BART station.

[timsi]

Originally Posted by 18Montclair

And none of these places are really known for their walkable proximity to transit. At all.

Just did a brief search on the internet and looks like Fremont, Dublin, Pleasanton all have plenty of apartment buildings within a 2 mile radius of BART...
I also like the look of Mountain View, which has caltrain!

[timsi]

Originally Posted by artemis78

OP, do you need to go to SF every weekend? Most of the East Bay families we know tend to stay on the East Bay side on the weekends, except for special events, so the traffic is less of an issue. If you want to go into SF regularly on the weekends, it would be worthwhile to live near a BART station unless you really need your car there.

I think we'll be about the same i.e. commute to SF for special events etc.
Regardless though, we will want to live within walking distance of a station since my husband will be commuting to the city everyday for work and I will be commuting often as well 2-3 times a week.

Originally Posted by artemis78

I would check out the areas within walking distance of North Berkeley BART (Northbrae, Westbrae, Gourmet Ghetto, etc.)--they seem to check off all your boxes, put you near the West Berkeley Indian community, and would give you easy access to San Francisco by train if needed.

Thanks! I will REALLY appreciate that!

Originally Posted by artemis78

If you do look at the Elmwood area in Berkeley (also very nice, though quite expensive these days), it's served by the Ashby BART station--closer than Rockridge BART for the most part.

Thanks.. i will take a look at Elmwood as well.

[timsi]

Originally Posted by gnomatic

If you want "Indian" neighborhood, I suggest Fremont over Berkeley, even though Berkeley is much more vibrant, urban and closer commute to SF. Fremont is pretty quiet and suburban, but you will find much more amenities like Indian grocery stores, restaurants, activities .

Thanks. I think we'll take a look at both.. Berkeley does seem to tick off more boxes than Fremont.

Originally Posted by gnomatic

ICC is nearby in Milpitas.

Just read up on ICC... thanks.. it helps. Didn't know something like that existed

[18Montclair]

Originally Posted by timsi

Just did a brief search on the internet and looks like Fremont, Dublin, Pleasanton all have plenty of apartment buildings within a 2 mile radius of BART

Yes but having apartments don't make an area 'walkable', especially in these^^^ places. Good Grief. LOL.

For your own sake, you should visit these areas in person first and not decide based on the internet.

I also like the look of Mountain View, which has caltrain!

Living 40 miles from your job is not nearly as easy as you think, and once you get into the City on CalTrain, there's a big chance you'll still need to catch a bus to get to your job location.

[timsi]

Originally Posted by 18Montclair

Yes but having apartments don't make an area 'walkable', especially in these places^. LOL.

Well - the kind of apartments we'd want to live in. this is coming from internet searches, forums (this & others) and suggestions from colleagues + they are all close to BART.

Originally Posted by 18Montclair

For your own sake, you should visit these areas in person first and not decide based on the internet.

But of course! The idea is to decide what locations we want to try out.
I did say earlier "What we are thinking of doing is to try out a few short-term (10-15 days) apartment rentals at some suburbs before committing to any one."


Thanks for your help.