Job in Half Moon Bay. Suggestions on place to live in the Bay Area

[MrSustainability]

Originally Posted by twins4lynn

If she has to commute to grad school she has a few options if you want to stay on the peninsula. Hopefully she would only have classes a couple of times a week.

(1) Live in Millbrae. She can walk to the BART station and take BART to UC Berkeley. You drive to HMB.

(2) Live in Millbrae. She can walk to the CalTrain station (same station as BART) and take CalTrain to SJSU. From San Jose's Diridon Station, she would take DASH (Downtown Area Shuttle) to the west edge of campus on 4th Street, or take eastbound VTA buses 63 or 64 to the northern edge of campus along San Fernando Street. You drive to HMB. (Actually for SJSU, living anywhere along the CalTrain line (where she can walk to it) would work (and you drive to HMB), so living in Burlingame, San Mateo, or Belmont would also work. Probably living in San Mateo or Belmont would be easiest for you to commute to HMB (than the other peninsula cities).

Forget about commuting to UCSC.

Thanks twins4lynn. This is really useful information. I have been looking into various public commute options over the last week to figure the sweet spot in terms of places that would be convenient to both me and my wife (in the event that she has to go to either UC Berkeley or SJSU). Your post definitely helps.

[MrSustainability]

Originally Posted by kdog

Your first post said you felt really lucky to have gotten work in HMB, and now you're saying you're not excited. So you seem a bit confused and that makes it difficult to offer advice. I've known a number of folks who worked in Silicon Valley and lived in HMB because it was cheap and offered the lifestyle that they wanted; a quiet seaside town.

To me it's astounding that somebody could call HMB boring. Living on the coast itself is already a huge attraction. As already mentioned, you have SF and the whole bay area within a short drive. You have a huge number of state parks and beaches at your disposal. If you want culture, drive 30 minutes into the city. There are even bars and restaurants in HMB with live music. Neil Young who lives nearby in the mountains used to drop in unannounced and jam at one of the bars. Here you have the ability to wake up in the morning in this paradise and be 5 minutes from work. Sounds like heaven to me.

Alternatively you might consider looking for a rental in one of the nearby mountain communities. El Granada might be another possibility and is just north up the coast a few miles.

Anyway, in summary, I would indeed be excited if I were you and embrace the coast lifestyle. Lots of us would love to be in your shoes.

What I meant in my first post about feeling lucky was regarding finding a job that I like in the bay area ( which also happens to be the epicenter of the field of my work). And my point about getting excited was concerning HMB since I was told about high rental prices and foggy weather. Any way, that aside, I do understand the charms of HMB. I did look up on some communities in El Granada and thanks for the suggestion. It would be a very good location as well to consider.

[zitsky]

Originally Posted by MrSustainability

What I meant in my first post about feeling lucky was regarding finding a job that I like in the bay area ( which also happens to be the epicenter of the field of my work).

You might want to avoid making earthquake comments on a Bay Area forum.

[bigdumbgod]

Originally Posted by zitsky

You might want to avoid making earthquake comments on a Bay Area forum.

Unless you're talking about the soccer team. That's fine.