Santa Cruz, over 40 single (San Jose, Napa: restaurant, beach, smog)

[495neighbor]

Originally Posted by NewbiePoster

Bingo! North Bay. (Though most locations will be a lot warmer than Santa Cruz. I don't know if that's an issue for you.)

Calistoga. Tiburon (pricey!) St. Helena or Ross. Maybe Pt. Reyes (small, quaint). Napa. Those aren't areas with a good start-up culture, though, AFAIK.

Those look like pretty towns. Looks like Santa Rosa has a lot of festivals. Doesn't appear to be many co-offices in the area or start-up culture.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by 495neighbor

Those look like pretty towns. Looks like Santa Rosa has a lot of festivals. Doesn't appear to be many co-offices in the area or start-up culture.

No, that's not where the start-up culture is, but that's where everything else you were looking for is.

Someone mentioned a town in the Santa Cruz mountains for micro-brews; there are some nice cafes, jazz venues, and possibly a good restaurant here and there, tucked away in the small towns above Santa Cruz: Felton, Bonnie Doon, and others. Those amenities aren't gathered together all in one spot, you have to search them out. But because those communities are so small, there's a real neighborhood feel about those local hang-outs.

[NoMoreSnowForMe]

By start-up culture, do you mean techie start-ups? Like Ebay, Yahoo, Facebook, etc.? That's only found in the SF Bay Area, really.

What do you mean by farm-to-table? Everything on the restaurant tables came from farms LOL! So you mean a restaurant owned by a farmer? Then you'd have to go to where the farms are. If you just mean vegan or organic, you can find that anywhere in the SF Bay Area. If you mean farmer's markets, you'll find those all over, too.

Parks and recreation abounds even right in the middle of the urban areas.

Maybe Saratoga? Next to mountains, cute cafes, upper income residents, great farmer's market, full of techie workers, probably, easy commute to Silicon Valley employers, pretty easy drive to the beach.

[NewbiePoster]

Originally Posted by 495neighbor

I'm very curious about that town. It seems to have everything on paper -- mountains, close to beach and not far from major employment areas and yay an organic grocery store.

The Santa Cruz area has a locally-owned version of Whole Foods, that's popular. It grew out of a local co-op.

[495neighbor]

Originally Posted by NoMoreSnowForMe

By start-up culture, do you mean techie start-ups? Like Ebay, Yahoo, Facebook, etc.? That's only found in the SF Bay Area, really.

By start-up I was thinking not just software but also also technologies biotech etc. More new small businesses like those found in a sandbox or enterprise center, ideally in a co-office setting. Not so much the established dot-coms.

Originally Posted by NoMoreSnowForMe

What do you mean by farm-to-table? Everything on the restaurant tables came from farms LOL! So you mean a restaurant owned by a farmer? Then you'd have to go to where the farms are. If you just mean vegan or organic, you can find that anywhere in the SF Bay Area. If you mean farmer's markets, you'll find those all over, too.

Farm-to-table, I meant locally grown, from independent agriculture, CSAs.

[495neighbor]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

No, that's not where the start-up culture is, but that's where everything else you were looking for is.

Someone mentioned a town in the Santa Cruz mountains for micro-brews; there are some nice cafes, jazz venues, and possibly a good restaurant here and there, tucked away in the small towns above Santa Cruz: Felton, Bonnie Doon, and others. Those amenities aren't gathered together all in one spot, you have to search them out. But because those communities are so small, there's a real neighborhood feel about those local hang-outs.

I am definitely okay with having hidden gems spread out and I don't mind driving to spots. I'll have to check out some of those towns you mention when I come for a visit.

[495neighbor]

What about these places?

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by 495neighbor

What about these places?

No. Just no.

[NoMoreSnowForMe]

Originally Posted by 495neighbor

By start-up I was thinking not just software but also also technologies biotech etc. More new small businesses like those found in a sandbox or enterprise center, ideally in a co-office setting. Not so much the established dot-coms.




Farm-to-table, I meant locally grown, from independent agriculture, CSAs.

I feel like I don't speak your language. Is it a New England thing? I don't know what a sandbox or enterprise center is. Or even a co-office setting. These must be Boston buzz words? I don't get this lost when I read the SF or San Jose forums and they're talking about the techie stuff. I'm old, but I don't get your buzz words.

Biotech - Genentech comes to mind. Again SF. I think they also have a facility around Fairfield. But Fairfield is not a start-up culture kind of place.

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

No. Just no.

LOL. Emeryville is in a great location being right across the bridge from SF. I haven't been there in years, but my understanding is that it's kind of warehouse-ish. Crocket and Pinole are bedroom suburb type of towns.

I really think SF is where you want to be. If you can't afford to live in SF, then rent somewhere like Concord (safe and boring, but affordable) and take BART into the city.

[Ruth4Truth]

Actually, Emeryville has the coffeeshops and restaurants the OP is looking for. There are some very pleasant neighborhoods there. And Berkeley, the heart of the farm-to-table restaurant movement, is just up the street, so to speak. But the condos in Emeryville overlook the railyard. It's noisy, which is why it's cheap. And yes, it's an old warehouse and industrial district that's transformed.

OP, I, too, am mystified as to your buzzwords. The Mission District in SF has a lot of shared offices and may be a secret pocket of start-ups, but a lot of the activity there is non-profit. Rents in the Mission are more affordable than elsewhere in SF, but that's en EXTREMELY relative term in the SF context, lol.

Maybe our start-up culture isn't quite the same as the start-up culture you're used to. Or maybe it's just that there are different buzzwords in CA.