Best place to live for crunchy hippy types near SJSU (San Jose: transfer, neighborhoods)

[mgerring]

I'm moving from Sacramento to San Jose in August to go to San Jose State, and I'm currently looking for a place to live. Here's what I'm looking for-

-Close to stuff to do with other college-age people
-SJSU accesible by bike or public transit
-Close to grocery stores, restaurants, etc.
-Laid back, 420 friendly
-More local businesses than chain stores
-Farmer's markets

Where's my best bet for a place to live?

[sonarrat]

Santa Cruz. No contest. There's an express bus right to the SJSU campus.

[bigdumbgod]

If you don't know anybody down here, then you might engage with the local folks in the various dispensaries around here. You can end up with a 420-friendly Victorian right next to SJSU if you play your cards right (fyi: the Grateful Dead's first ever show occurred in one, allegedly on Seventh St.) Otherwise, check out the SC mountains.

[zitsky]

Originally Posted by sonarrat

Santa Cruz. No contest. There's an express bus right to the SJSU campus.

This is a great answer. San Jose isn't known for being a granola lovin', hippie kind of town. It's a typical small city with some interesting areas but it's pretty middle class and boring. Folks here might have suggestions for specific neighborhoods that are more like what you want. Your interest in being close to campus limits the kinds of hippie type of neighborhoods you can consider. You might want to consider transferring into UC Santa Cruz or UC Berkeley after a year, if that's an option. You picked the one town in the south bay that is about as far from a granola/hippie lifestyle as you can possibly imagine. I imagine it's a bit like Sacramento... nice, small, middle class, and boring.

[DeusEx]

Originally Posted by zitsky

You might want to consider transferring into UC Santa Cruz or UC Berkeley after a year, if that's an option.

Santa Cruz will be significantly easier to transfer into than Berkeley, although still won't be easy, per se, from a CSU.