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Hello,
I am a service member that will transfer to Mt. View/Moffett Field area in February-March of 2010. I am wondering if anyone can give me insight on where to live. I have a small family (four of us). My wife and I are both in our late 30s. I am not opposed to living in a surrounding area if it meets the following criteria:
1) I don't want a long commute - would prefer to ride a bike to work
2) I want my family to feel safe
3) I want to avoid a concrete jungle living space
4) I want to rent a house not too close to major roads or highways
5) I would like to be close to parks and recreational area
First, please understand that Mountain View and surrounding communities are VERY expensive, due to the weather and fortune 500 companies like Google, Apple and NetApp and countless others being based in or near there. It will be hard to meet all your criteria without paying $3-4k (or more) per month in rent or a mortgage..
Let's look at them one-by-one...
1) I don't want a long commute - would prefer to ride a bike to work.
The pretty much limits your options to Mountain View, Cupertino, the Northern end of Sunnyvale, and MAYBE Santa Clara. The Stevens Creek bike trail will take you through Mt. View and right past moffet field, so that would be a great option if you need to live a bit further south. I believe it still officially ends at El Camino though, so if you're coming from Cupertino you'll need to take some side streets for a good stretch before you reach the trail. From Sunnyvale and Santa Clara, you can take on-street bike lanes the whole way, much of it on side streets with minimal traffic. (there's actually a way to take the Bay trail the whole way from San Jose, but it's pretty tricky, even a bit dubious at one point, so wait till you're settled in before even trying to figure out that one.
2) I want my family to feel safe
That's pretty much a given in any of the communities I've mentioned, as crime rates are relatively low for all of them. If you end up settling in East Palo Alto or parts of San Jose, those are the only places I know of with slightly higher crime rates. Even then, for a metro of it's size, almost all of the South Bay Area rates very low on crime compared to national averages.
3) I want to avoid a concrete jungle living space
You can pretty much write that one off unless you can afford to live up in the foothills (in which case you can scratch off item #2). Sunnyvale and Mt. View have pretty well-landscaped street-fronts and they definitely have some lovely parks. But no matter what, you're talking wall-to-wall houses, apartments, condos and businesses wherever there's not a road or a park. Living very close to a nice park will drive your housing costs up considerably.
4) I want to rent a house not too close to major roads or highways.
Define 'not close'. Have you looked at a map? Mountain View and surrounding communities are literally criss-crossed and surrounded by major freeway arteries.
5) I would like to be close to parks and recreational area.
Pick a park, any park. Mountain View's signature park (IMO) is Shoreline. It has great facilities and is one of very few places in the South Bay where you can easily (and legally) paddle or sail a small boat for fun. And it doesn't even stink that bad anymore. It get's crowded though. There are many other nice parks in the area as well, but again, you're going to need to define 'close'.
When I was there, I lived in North Sunnyvale, at one of the mobile home parks at Lawrence and Tasman. The pros were that I could ride my bike to work ON A TRAIL (I worked in Downtown SJ, riding to Mt. View would have been even easier). Crime was virtually non-existent, a few cases of vandalism and one burglary is all I can recall happening in my community during the 8+ years we were there. It was very quiet and slow-paced in our park, and everyone had to have their places pretty well manicured, so it did not feel junky. It had great freeway access, but you didn't hear it much due to a great big sound wall. There was a great, huge park and a lot more open space less than a mile away (Check out Baylands Park and the Bay Trail). Sound ideal??? It wasn't. It had some serious drawbacks, mainly:
You cannot rent there, actually you HAVE TO RENT and OWN. That is, first you have to buy your home (between $100k-$300k (or more) - and you can expect interest rates of nearly 10% on mobile homes -- banks hate loaning for them) and then you pay a space rent of nearly $1000 per month. We did manage to have a nice new 3-br, 2ba home for a little over 2k per month (including rent), and if you could pay off the balance, you'd just be looking at the space fee which of course is a great bargain for the area. However, the park owners/mgmt can be total nazi's and may try to control every aspect of your life, sending nasty letters if you forget to pull weeds or leave the grabage can on the wrong side of the house (no kidding, I'd especially avoid Casa de Amigos, since their mgr. is the worst ever). Also, you can sort of get stuck there, because once you're in there's no telling if you'd be able to sell your house or not to get out. We did, but if we waited another year, who knows, we could literally be stuck there now. Also the mobile park owners pretty much have autonomy to do as they please, so if they ever wanted to triple the rent they probably could, which would make your house virtually unsellable and you'd either have to pay triple the rent or just walk away from it. Nightmare scenario. Not likely but possible.
It did work well for us for many years, but we were glad to leave when we did. We ended up leaving the area (and the state altogether) because there just weren't many other really tantalizing options for us. We have no regrets, but we would not be where we are now if we had not done our time there.
If you don't mind renting (it sounds like that's actually your preference) you should just go straight over to Sahara Mobile Village on El Camino and 237. You'll likely find a 2-3 bedroom home there that you can squeeze your family into and rent month-to-month for under $2k while you explore all your options. It's right next to a great hospital, has plenty of shopping within walking distance, and is right on a trail which will take you straight to Moffett/AMES in a short ride. The same trail will take you right out to Shoreline Park, so you can have a family bike ride there some weekend and enjoy the warm CA sun and cool breezes in just about any month, even January. Hopefully you're not prejudice against Indians and other Asians, because there will be many wherever you go.
. (there's actually a way to take the Bay trail the whole way from San Jose, but it's pretty tricky, even a bit dubious at one point, so wait till you're settled in before even trying to figure out that one.
Can you let us know how to use the SCT from San Jose to Mtn View?
joeb,
Mtn View is the place for all the things you listed. I won't say you will get all 5 items in your checklist in one place, If you look in the Moffett and Shoreline areas, you will like what you find.
Can you let us know how to use the SCT from San Jose to Mtn View?
It's really hard to explain, so go to Google maps and try to follow along. From San Jose you can pick up the Guadalupe River trail which begins essentially as far south as Capitol Expwy, although it's not really contiguous until you get into downtown. That trail will take you, virtually unobstructed by roads or anything else clear north of the ariport (along the 'river') all the way into Alviso. Once there, you can get off the trail at Gold Street (might have to carry the bike for a short distance up an embankment to the street, unless they've already finished that section). Then you go south on Gold St. and turn left on an access road just before Hwy. 237. After a few hundred yards, you will be forced to turn left onto Great America Pkwy. Just before passing under 237 you will see a trail on your right. This is the San Thomas Aquino Bike Trail. Take it. It will take you west toward Baylands Park in Sunnyvale. Right after crossing over Calabazas creek on that trail, turn right to get on a gravel trail which will connect you to the Bay Trail. It will take you North, turn left, and then you will pass just north of the Baylands Sports Complex (10 baseball fields). Right at the corner before you would be forced to turn south again you will see a steel footbridge that will take you across that arm of the slough. On the other side, you are now on the official Bay Trail. Head west past the Sunnyvale Water treatment Plants. It gets a little confusing, but just try to keep heading generally west and north around the treatment ponds and canals that you will see on virtually all sides. Your goal is to get to the Northwestern corner of what the map refers to as 'Devil's Slough' (although there is no sign designating it as such). There might be a gate here, but IME it was almost always left open, and even if it is shut, it's easy to walk you bike around it. Continuew west, way that levee road, until you come to a big, locked, barbed wire gate. On the other side of it you can see the trail extending west, all the way to Shoreline Park. The fence is heavily barbed, very daunting-looking, but it only extends out about 30 feet so you can walk around it in the marsh without getting too wet or muddy. On the other side, it's pretty much free-riding the rest of the way west and south into Mountain View, around 'Joel Slough'. On the west side of that pond is the northern end of what will eventually become the Steven's creek Trail and that will take you south all the way to El Camino. If you exit the trail a little early (try Dana Ave.) you can take easy side streets less than a mile into downtown.
It took me years and several failed attempts to connect all the dots to that route. And, like I said, it gets pretty dubious at at least one point. There are a couple of other ways to make that Sunnyvale/Mtn. connection, but they're not any better, and I prefer the northern route, because I'm pretty sure you won't be infringing on base property, only Cargill Salt Co, property, which is not patrolled. It's weird, because you can walk unobstructed and without trespassing to that fence from either end, but it's locked and barb-wired and says 'no trespassing' on either side of it. The official Bay Trail organization has been saying that they plan to open it soon for a good ten years now, but you can imagine how political that sort of thing could be. If the old Moffet shoreline wasn't such an ecological mess they might be able to open that trail which would be much more direct than way than I described, and it would still be right on the water and off the streets the whole way.
BTW, there is a much easier -- and definitely legal -- way to do this, which is just to continue on the STA trail into Baylands park, then get on Caribbean there and follow the bike lane along that and other freeway frontage roads all the way over to the SC trail in Mtn. View. Check 511.org for the route map for that. But if you take 'Treedonkey's Wild Ride' you will almost definitely have it to yourself the whole way, unless of course some sort of MP of FBI patrol car shows up to question you.
Wow, this is a challenge. It used to be that there were quite a few apartment complexes oriented toward military members close to the base. They were all around the intersection of Middlefield and Moffett Blvd. But times have change and gentrification really set in. In order to be close enough to bike it, you may have a settle for a pocket that is not all that nice (e.g. Easy Street). Either that or reconsider your length of commute. I reckon there are people on base who can help ID affordable places. Do they still offer rent assistance? That would help as well.
The best solution I could come up with is to rent a townhouse in the Fair Oaks/Tasman area of Sunnyvale. Just ride your bike up Fair Oaks in the bike lane, it turns into Java and takes you straight up to Moffett Field. It's kind of an industrial area, but the grounds of the developments have nice greenery and it's a safe area with mostly young Indian families.
The best solution I could come up with is to rent a townhouse in the Fair Oaks/Tasman area of Sunnyvale. Just ride your bike up Fair Oaks in the bike lane, it turns into Java and takes you straight up to Moffett Field. It's kind of an industrial area, but the grounds of the developments have nice greenery and it's a safe area with mostly young Indian families.
Exactly. That's what I was referring to in tthe final paragraph of my previous post:
Quote:
Originally Posted by treedonkey
BTW, there is a much easier -- and definitely legal -- way to do this, which is just to continue on the STA trail into Baylands park, then get on Caribbean there and follow the bike lane along that and other freeway frontage roads all the way over to the SC trail in Mtn. View. Check 511.org for the route map for that.
Those townhouses are right next to the mobile park where I lived and I watched most of them go up in place of defunct .com offices within the last few years. If you are in a position to buy, they might be a good way to go, since that locale offers most of what the OP is looking for (except for maybe the 'no concrete jungle' thing). The only drawback is that the last time I checked they were selling for $600-800k and they're literally made out of particle board and the bedrooms were roughly the size of my car. They were all slapped together very quickly. And, yes, it's mostly young Indian families there, for whatever that's worth.
Thank you, everyone. I think compromise is in order. I recognize I am probably asking for property that is going to be waaaay out of my price range.
Basically, I have two options for housing: 1) Live at Moffett Field which is just a short bike ride to my office. 2) Live off post.
I can spend about $2500 a month on rent. From what I am hearing, I need quite a bit more to meet all the elements of my wish-list.
Truth be told, I would rather not live on base, but instead find a house at least a 1/2 mile from industry, powerlines, or major roads. And as long as it is safe, I think everything else is pretty negotiable. Oh, I need 3 bedrooms.
I am really looking for a community that my wife can join... one that is committed to sustainable living, green energy, organic food consumption, spiritual awareness, etc. Um, yes, she is in fact from Los Angeles
I have found some homes in the area that are 3 & 4 bedrooms with an asking rent of $1500-$2000 per month. This sounds nice, but according to my boyfriend-in-law, who once lived in Cupertina (sorry if I butchered the spelling), those homes "must be in struggling neighborhoods".
Thank you, everyone. I think compromise is in order. I recognize I am probably asking for property that is going to be waaaay out of my price range.
Basically, I have two options for housing: 1) Live at Moffett Field which is just a short bike ride to my office. 2) Live off post.
I can spend about $2500 a month on rent. From what I am hearing, I need quite a bit more to meet all the elements of my wish-list.
Truth be told, I would rather not live on base, but instead find a house at least a 1/2 mile from industry, powerlines, or major roads. And as long as it is safe, I think everything else is pretty negotiable. Oh, I need 3 bedrooms.
I am really looking for a community that my wife can join... one that is committed to sustainable living, green energy, organic food consumption, spiritual awareness, etc. Um, yes, she is in fact from Los Angeles
I have found some homes in the area that are 3 & 4 bedrooms with an asking rent of $1500-$2000 per month. This sounds nice, but according to my boyfriend-in-law, who once lived in Cupertina (sorry if I butchered the spelling), those homes "must be in struggling neighborhoods".
Thanks for your input,
Joe
Well, that would be west Mountain View in Cuesta Park around Miramonte or Grant, going into Los Altos. The major roads to watch out for would be El Camino Real and the freeways, 85 and 237. Grant itself is busy, but has a lower speed limit. It's a bux kind of area though. I see a 3/2 house on Cuesta Dr, which has constant traffic, for $3200 a month, which is about what I would expect. 3/1 apartment on Pamela for $1750, but old building, not updated and surrounded by stores and hotels.
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