Feedback on moving back to the Bay Area from Sacramento (San Jose: house, to live)

[jade408]

Originally Posted by neutrino78x

Then you should also be aware that, used correctly, it can and DOES replace a car for MANY users. Probably most users.

It can't be "used correctly" unless you are very lucky.

You can't really take transit to Cupertino and Apple's offices. You can't take efficient transit to the vast majority of Silicon Valley companies. That's why they run shuttles.

I can't take transit to the Peninsula job centers unless I can spend $12-15 each way and about 2.5 hours each way. To visit my friend who lives about 2 miles away, it would take 3 buses and a 1 mile walk to get to her place taking transit. She lives near a major thoroughfare and I am pretty well served by transit. On the weekend buses to downtown only run from 8-8 and best case once every 30 minutes. Not very good, and I live in a fairly transit friendly part of town.

Our transit is not designed to get people to their major destinations: work, school, errands, health care, groceries, social activities, etc. Our transit is designed to get commuters to work and isn't up to the task, since many job "centers" have limited to zero transit access.

How so? Because they can't afford a single family home? See above.

The middle class can't afford a family sized home. We don't even build family-sized places anymore. We have very limited inventory and it is very expensive. One of 20 housing units in my neighborhood and the surrounding ones has more than 2 bedrooms. And maybe one of four of five housing units have 2 bedrooms.

[neutrino78x]

Originally Posted by jade408

It can't be "used correctly" unless you are very lucky.

You can't really take transit to Cupertino and Apple's offices.

Sure you can. Bus 23 drops you off less than a mile away, a fifteen minute walk. You can get there from downtown San Jose on bus 323 (the limited stop version of 23) in about 45 minutes. People with Apple IDs are seen on 23 and 323 all the time, especially during commute hours.

I used to take 23 all the time when I was attending De Anza College in Cupertino. It drops you off right across the street from the campus.

You can't take efficient transit to the vast majority of Silicon Valley companies. That's why they run shuttles.

No, it's really because some of their employees feel that transit is beneath them. Those same companies usually give the employees a free transit pass.

Our transit is not designed to get people to their major destinations: work, school, errands, health care, groceries, social activities, etc.

Well, people use it for all that. I do.

The middle class can't afford a family sized home.

They can't afford a single family home. They can afford a condo or an apartment (rented or owned).

We don't even build family-sized places anymore.

Can't speak for Oakland, but here in San Jose, we have hundreds of units planned:

The San Jose Blog: Epic list of Downtown San Jose projects

[jade408]

Originally Posted by neutrino78x

Sure you can. Bus 23 drops you off less than a mile away, a fifteen minute walk. You can get there from downtown San Jose on bus 323 (the limited stop version of 23) in about 45 minutes. People with Apple IDs are seen on 23 and 323 all the time, especially during commute hours.

I used to take 23 all the time when I was attending De Anza College in Cupertino. It drops you off right across the street from the campus.

No, it's really because some of their employees feel that transit is beneath them. Those same companies usually give the employees a free transit pass.

Nope, it is because it is not efficient for public transit to serve office parks. It is too low density and the distances are too far. Even if there was a bus, it would only run once and hour and take forever. No one wants to take a bus for 60 minutes when the car ride is 10-15 minutes. Downtown San Jose is not a center or hub for the region. We live in a metro that is very dispersed and people come from every direction to get to all sorts of destinations. Unlike in places like Chicago and NYC where there is a central business distract that most people go to, places like "Silicon Valley" have no heart or hub. So it is impossible to build great transit, unless things get denser. And deser development gets consistently blocked.

They can't afford a single family home. They can afford a condo or an apartment (rented or owned).

Can't speak for Oakland, but here in San Jose, we have hundreds of units planned:

The San Jose Blog: Epic list of Downtown San Jose projects

And of those hundreds of units, very few will have 3 bedrooms. We have hundreds of units planned in Oakland as well. And In a building with 100 units, there might be five with 3 bedrooms. And in a rare case, eight to ten. That is not exactly leaving room for families.

[likealady]

Originally Posted by neutrino78x

How so? Because they can't afford a single family home? See above.

Are you trolling? Serious question.

[boulder2015]

Originally Posted by sav858

Weird, I thought you said you lived in Silicon Valley,

Yeah im confused? I thought neutrino lived in sj, not a "vibrant cultural place?"

[sav858]

Originally Posted by neutrino78x

Your links are not discussing the influence these cities have on the world. Silicon Valley is in the pantheon of the World's Great Cities. Denver, not so much. I'm sure some people in London have heard of Denver, but many more have heard of Silicon Valley.

It is actually is. Feel free to provide a ranking of the world's most influential cities that show San Jose at the top or anywhere near places like London, Paris, etc.. I'll be waiting...

[neutrino78x]

Originally Posted by jade408

Nope, it is because it is not efficient for public transit to serve office parks. It is too low density and the distances are too far.

What are you talking about? Transit goes to office parks all the time. Just for an example off the top of my head, bus 23/323, the one that goes to Cupertino from downtown San Jose, stops at many office parks.

Downtown San Jose is not a center or hub for the region.

It is one of the main hubs in Silicon Valley. Palo Alto is another; Santa Clara is another.

And of those hundreds of units, very few will have 3 bedrooms. We have hundreds of units planned in Oakland as well. And In a building with 100 units, there might be five with 3 bedrooms. And in a rare case, eight to ten. That is not exactly leaving room for families.

Yeah...unrealistic housing expectations. How many apartments in New York City have ten rooms? Who needs ten rooms?

A family with two spouses and one kid needs TWO ROOMS. If they have two kids, they need maybe three rooms (if the kids are different genders). Ten rooms is not the minimum to be considered family size by any means. That would be two rooms.

You guys need to accept that this region is a Great City at this point. If you can't get a ten room dwelling in London on a middle class salary, don't expect it here. For the same reason.

[sav858]

Transit in Silicon Valley is terrible:

"A quarter of a century ago, Santa Clara County's first light-rail train left the station as excited supporters heralded a new wave of state-of-the-art transportation to match the region's burgeoning high-tech industry.

But there was no grand celebration this month as Silicon Valley marked 25 years of light rail.

The near-empty trolleys that often shuttle by at barely faster than jogging speeds serve as a constant reminder that the car is still king in Silicon Valley -- and that the Valley Transportation Authority's trains are among the least successful in the nation by any metric. Today, fewer than 1 percent of the county's residents ride the trains daily, while it costs the rest of the region -- taxpayers at large -- about $10 to subsidize every rider's round trip."

25 years later, VTA light rail among the nation's worst - Mercury News

[neutrino78x]

Originally Posted by sav858

It is actually is. Feel free to provide a ranking of the world's most influential cities that show San Jose at the top or anywhere near places like London, Paris, etc.. I'll be waiting...

I did already.

https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content...San_Jose-3.pdf

https://hbr.org/2014/12/what-still-m...ley-so-special

Empire of the geeks | The Economist

Concentrated Economic Power and Silicon Valley

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-s...er-john-mathon

Silicon Valley has a chance to influence cyber security policy: column

I guess if you're not familiar with world politics and finance you might think that Silicon Valley is some backwater place that has no influence, but most who know anything about the subject would disagree.

[neutrino78x]

Originally Posted by sav858

Transit in Silicon Valley is terrible:

Says a guy who never uses it.

I love laughing at the losers sitting in bumper to bumper traffic, GOING THE SAME ROUTE AS ME, as I blow past them at 55 mph on Light Rail in the median of highway 87.

Half the people in New York City don't own a car. The other half claim that the subway is terrible. Except it isn't.