Seen SF and love it, now considering moving there (San Jose: how much, neighborhoods)

[Radical347]

Originally Posted by Beat02

Not to judge your lifestyle or anything, but are you planning to go out every night or something?

I don't think you have to go out every night in order to want to live in an area where there's a lot of energy. Some people are just more comfortable with that kind of vibe.

[gayguyfromdenver]

Originally Posted by NorthernCalifornia

sounds to me like NYC or Chicago are the best fit for you.

Why do you post crap like this? BostonJad has every right to move to SF/the Bay Area.

BostonJad, you might want to consider living in San Francisco proper. It's been a while since I lived there, but I'm pretty sure CalTran runs regular commuter trains to San Jose everyday. I also think Lake Merritt/downtown Oakland might be good fits for you. I used to live near Lake Merritt. No where near as much going on as SF;however, still a lot of restaurants, some bars, gyms, etc. within walking distance. You could live right on Lakeshore Blvd. in the Lake Merritt area of Oakland. Beautiful area. As I stated earlier, it has a decent amount of amenities close by. Quite a few are within walking distance. Best of luck to you!

[NorthernCalifornia]

Truthfully, you should check out North Beach or the Marina. You'll be close to lots of bars, near post-college age people and also it's convenient to downtown where you'll probably be working.

[rah]

Originally Posted by d-iron

My bad buddy, Where in SF are the HOT spots?

How about...SOMA, North Beach, and the Mission. Are those not "HOT" spots for clubbing and other nightlife? You're an SF native, but you don't know this? To be fair the Mission has only been popular for nightlife in recent years, but SOMA and Northbeach have been so for decades.

[d-iron]

Originally Posted by rah

How about...SOMA, North Beach, and the Mission. Are those not "HOT" spots for clubbing and other nightlife? You're an SF native, but you don't know this? To be fair the Mission has only been popular for nightlife in recent years, but SOMA and Northbeach have been so for decades.

Ive been out of the scene for a little while don't drink (for now) so I don't go out at night, too much temptation. Northbeach is not really know for "clubbing" dude, yes late night activites (comedy clubs,bars,restarants,strip clubs and so forth) I do like Northbeach. I honestly don't know anything about the south of market scene.

But what about San Jose buddy I heard it was banging were you just saying SF was more happening or do you have first hand experience to prove otherwise?

[jman650]

Originally Posted by d-iron

Ive been out of the scene for a little while don't drink (for now) so I don't go out at night, too much temptation. Northbeach yes forever but South of market I honestly don't know anything about that particular scene.

But what about San Jose buddy I heard it was banging were you just saying SF was more happening or do you have first hand experience to prove otherwise?

SF has SJ outdone here by a long shot. It's not even really a contest between the two.

SJ has a very limited club scene that is confined to a very small area, where SF has a separate crowd/scene for virtually anyone if you look into it. Most of SJ's clubs can pretty much be found within an approximately 12 square block area, and for the most part its just the trendy, semi-preppy top 40 hip hop crowd, split between either primarily Latin or primarily Asian depending on what club you hit up. SJ sounds like it has a lot of clubs b/c there are always new ones being named that come out, but those are usually replacing older ones that died out. Many of the clubs in downtown SJ have been renamed several times in the past 10 years. Some of the clubs there are cool, but they're nothing out of the ordinary really from what I've seen. Farenheit was probably the nicest out of what I'd been to down there.

SF otoh has many different scenes in many different neighborhoods, with a much larger selection to choose from. If you like the SJ scene, those type of clubs can be found in SF. (Suite 181 is very much like the average SJ club, as are several others.) North Beach and the Mission have nice, yet more trendy party scenes; the Marina has its own scene; there are clubs in Potrero Hill, Bernal Heights, the Castro, Downtown/Union Square/TL, Polk Gulch, the Warehouse District/Outer Bayview. Even Chinatown has some spots, and then there are local bar scenes in various neighborhoods like the Richmond and Sunset.

But SOMA is ground zero for the SF club scene. Anything from 1015 and The Endup for electronic music to all the clubs (about 10 or so) centered around 11th/Folsom that run the gamut in terms of their crowds. There are slightly more upscale spots like Mercury, Fluid and Boss and then there are dingier ones like Cat Club and Hide. Then there are what I consider to be more like beginner clubs like City Nights for 18/up and Holy Cow for 21/up. SF I think has easily 10 times as many clubs and bars as SJ, and I might even be undershooting it there.

[d-iron]

Originally Posted by jman650

SF has SJ outdone here by a long shot. It's not even really a contest between the two.

SJ has a very limited club scene that is confined to a very small area, where SF has a separate crowd/scene for virtually anyone if you look into it. Most of SJ's clubs can pretty much be found within an approximately 12 square block area, and for the most part its just the trendy, semi-preppy top 40 hip hop crowd, split between either primarily Latin or primarily Asian depending on what club you hit up. SJ sounds like it has a lot of clubs b/c there are always new ones being named that come out, but those are usually replacing older ones that died out. Many of the clubs in downtown SJ have been renamed several times in the past 10 years. Some of the clubs there are cool, but they're nothing out of the ordinary really from what I've seen. Farenheit was probably the nicest out of what I'd been to down there.

SF otoh has many different scenes in many different neighborhoods, with a much larger selection to choose from. If you like the SJ scene, those type of clubs can be found in SF. (Suite 181 is very much like the average SJ club, as are several others.) North Beach and the Mission have nice, yet more trendy party scenes; the Marina has its own scene; there are clubs in Potrero Hill, Bernal Heights, the Castro, Downtown/Union Square/TL, Polk Gulch, the Warehouse District/Outer Bayview. Even Chinatown has some spots, and then there are local bar scenes in various neighborhoods like the Richmond and Sunset.

But SOMA is ground zero for the SF club scene. Anything from 1015 and The Endup for electronic music to all the clubs (about 10 or so) centered around 11th/Folsom that run the gamut in terms of their crowds. There are slightly more upscale spots like Mercury, Fluid and Boss and then there are dingier ones like Cat Club and Hide. Then there are what I consider to be more like beginner clubs like City Nights for 18/up and Holy Cow for 21/up. SF I think has easily 10 times as many clubs and bars as SJ, and I might even be undershooting it there.

Jesus Jman did you get college credits for your club excursions you seem to know what your talking about.

[BostonJad]

Thanks for the recommendations guys. One thing I am curious about is if I decide to reside in one of the neighborhoods of SF, do I have to consider getting rid my car? It is after all the 2nd most densest city after NYC and we all know that in NYC, it ain't practical to own a car. If not, how much do the private parking rates go for?

[uptown_urbanist]

It depends on the neighborhood and your rental. We looked at a few spots that came with parking spots, but that wasn't an issue for us since we don't own a car. In some cases you can choose to rent a parking spot (and rates vary) with the building, or you can rent a private space from either a lot/garage or from an individual.

Unless you need a car for work I'd consider giving it up. It sounds like you want a bustling neighborhood, anyway, so it's not likely you're going to be living in the far outer Richmond or somewhere else where it would be more practical to have a car. There are car sharing programs in SF with cars located all over the place; you could just use one when you need it rather than deal with the hassles and expenses of owning a car in a city with tight parking and high rents.

[jman650]

Originally Posted by d-iron

Jesus Jman did you get college credits for your club excursions you seem to know what your talking about.

Lmao not exactly, but sort of! I used to promote clubs back in the 90's and I would hit up clubs at least 3 or 4 times a week. Eventually I burned out on clubbing altogether, but I still had to always go even if I didn't care to b/c friends of mine would often celebrate their birthdays at clubs. And then I ended up working 2 other jobs up until about 2 1/2 years ago that had me going to various clubs and bars all over the Bay, but 90% of the time it would be in SF. So even though I don't go to them all that often nowadays (although I just went to Fluid and EZ5 last night lol), I'm still pretty familiar with many of them. And plenty of my friends still hit several of them up regularly so I get a lot of feedback.