Nicest Downtown Areas in the Bay Area (Richmond, San Mateo: rentals, townhomes)

[TheseGoTo11]

DT Walnut Creek is hard to beat for that. Lived there for a few months without a car and was able to Uber/Lyft/BART/walk wherever I needed.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by derek_u

Looking for a cozy 2 bedroom condo right in a downtown area where we wouldn't need a car to get around. Price range would be around $1-1.2 million. Which of those places would work for that price?

You can look at the RE listings. It also depends on how big a downtown you want. Menlo Park has a very cute, beautiful downtown, but it's small. Palo Alto's is larger, but tends to be overrun by university students from Stanford. You could check out Los Altos and Los Altos Hills, as well as some of the other Peninsula suggestions.

[sav858]

Originally Posted by Faithfullizhe

Danville is beautiful and Alamo

No public transit aside from a bus line and few condos in Danville. Alamo doesn't have a downtown.

Walnut Creek is the best bed in that area with by far the most amenities and public transit (free shuttle/bus line) to and from BART.

[clongirl]

Benicia and Alameda come to mind.

[davdaven]

Los Altos, Campbell, Danville, and Alamo do not have good transit service, nor does Benicia. However, "downtown" Alameda (Park Street) does. Just because Alameda doesn't have a BART station doesn't mean it has bad transit service. In addition to frequent Transbay bus service to SF, it has more than one local bus line running every 15 minutes or better all day every day, with evening service a little less frequently and limited 24-hour service in case you are a night owl. In fact, most of Alameda (main island, not Bay Farm Island) has high quality service like this. There is ferry service too.

If you want to be on the east side of the Oakland hills, Walnut Creek will be your best bet. Besides BART and a free downtown shuttle, there are a handful of decent-but-not-great bus lines. No 24-hour service out that way, though. Central Concord has good transit service too, but based on your price point, it looks like you want something a little nicer (i.e., Walnut Creek).

[silverkris]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

You can look at the RE listings. It also depends on how big a downtown you want. Menlo Park has a very cute, beautiful downtown, but it's small. Palo Alto's is larger, but tends to be overrun by university students from Stanford. You could check out Los Altos and Los Altos Hills, as well as some of the other Peninsula suggestions.

In answer to the bold, not really. I live there - Palo Alto isn't really a college town, not like the University of California is to Berkeley. You gotta remember that Stanford has a far smaller student population than UC. Maybe at most you'll see a bunch of students, hospital staff at the Trader Joe's in PA since it's across El Camino Real from the Stanford campus.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by silverkris

In answer to the bold, not really. I live there - Palo Alto isn't really a college town, not like the University of California is to Berkeley. You gotta remember that Stanford has a far smaller student population than UC. Maybe at most you'll see a bunch of students, hospital staff at the Trader Joe's in PA since it's across El Camino Real from the Stanford campus.

OK. Maybe it just seems overrun at mealtimes, lol, lunch especially. (Pre-Covid)

[roadwarrior101]

Originally Posted by silverkris

In answer to the bold, not really. I live there - Palo Alto isn't really a college town, not like the University of California is to Berkeley. You gotta remember that Stanford has a far smaller student population than UC. Maybe at most you'll see a bunch of students, hospital staff at the Trader Joe's in PA since it's across El Camino Real from the Stanford campus.

I would agree with this statement. Downtown PA definitely has more of a high end feel vs Berkeley. When we lived in the Silicon Valley, my wife and I would often go out there for a nice dinner (Evvia, Tamarine, etc.). Not that you can't find that in Berkeley, but it always felt a lot grittier to me. Sure, there are a lot of trust fund babies at Stanford that would go high end as well, but I always felt it was more of a professional feel with some college students sprinkled in.

[silverkris]

Originally Posted by roadwarrior101

I would agree with this statement. Downtown PA definitely has more of a high end feel vs Berkeley. When we lived in the Silicon Valley, my wife and I would often go out there for a nice dinner (Evvia, Tamarine, etc.). Not that you can't find that in Berkeley, but it always felt a lot grittier to me. Sure, there are a lot of trust fund babies at Stanford that would go high end as well, but I always felt it was more of a professional feel with some college students sprinkled in.

Yup. I am a Cal alum and yes, in my student days Berkeley was definitely more gritter than toney Palo Alto (though less so today). Stanford seems to be much more of a self-contained campus than UC, so there are relatively less students roaming downtown PA than UC kids walking around downtown Berkeley.

[sera]

Piedmont ? My parents lived in an apartment on Howe Street, around the corner from Wells Fargo Bank. An Italian deli across the street from the bank, it still a desirable town? What about the Grand Lake area in Oakland ?

Graduated from Oakland Tech (Technical) High School, weather ideal. Moved to Concord, April/May, starting to warm up. July, if I remember, 90 * cool, 100+ hot.