Moving to Bay area from Midwest - need advice

[artemis78]

With the exception of downtown Walnut Creek, it's also extremely difficult to find places to live in that part of the East Bay where everything is within walking distance (which is exactly why people live there---larger lots and homes, less urban, etc.) But if walkability is important, you'll probably want to stick to Oakland/Berkeley and surrounds (Alameda, Albany, El Cerrito, Emeryville) or to the downtown districts of the larger suburban cities. You can check out individual addresses on walkscore.com to get a better sense of walkability, too. I'd look for anything above 75---areas like Rockridge are in the high 90s.

Also, Emeryville runs a number of shuttles from the MacArthur BART station, so if you live somewhere near BART, you can always do BART-to-shuttle instead of driving, too. They run pretty frequently, especially during commute hours.

[gayguyfromdenver]

aaronlee8, you might also want to check out the Lake Merritt area of Oakland. I lived there for 2 years and loved it. It's a great area with several grocery stores, a great little retail strip which includes a really neat independent movie theater -- the Grand Lake Theater. The Lake Merritt Bakery is also worth checking out for your morning coffee and a pastry. I used to love getting up early on the weekends and "walking the lake". Also, it's a short ride to downtown SF on the BART from Lake Merritt. I believe it was like 12 mins or something ridiculously short like that. Best of luck!