Best place to live around Bay Area??

My wife and I are thinking about moving north towards San Jose/San Francisco, we've had enough of Southern California. The people here have become just too un-neighborly and we'd like to raise our newborn daughter in a more friendly, smaller-town atmosphere and do it now while she's still young. We meet a lot of nice NorCal people at Tiki Oasis every year, so I thought I'd ask this forum for help. What area should we look that is 1. affordable, 2. cool place to live, 3. outside of the major metropolitan areas?

Thank you!

Two places (that I have experience living in) that are moderately inexpensive, still have that small town feel and hold cool historical downtowns are Crockett and Point Richmond. I enjoyed both places because they were reasonably close to metropolitan places (like Trader Vics, Forbidden Island, etc), but still felt secluded and community-oriented.

Depending on where you'll be heading off to work (and at what hour), though, you might run into some traffic on your driving commute (as neither are super connected to BART, our metro-train system).

ALAMEDA! ALAMEDA! ALAMEDA!
Great small town feel with big town stores and attractions! Awesome vintage movie theater, restaurants, beach, city views, Victorians a plenty (yes, more than SF!) and of course..home to the Bay Area's premier Tiki destination!

I would have suggested Alameda (even though I haven't lived there), too, except #1 request was affordable. I could be wrong, but Alameda is reasonably pricey, even still, yeah?

I lived in Alameda for a bit and it's a great little town. I've also heard they have a great school district.

Does anybody know of a good place in the East Bay to buy an ice cream cone?

Sure, Unga. There's a chain of ice cream stores, Loard's Ice Cream, located throughout the East Bay, - they're really good! There's one here in Alameda, at the Southshore/Towne Center mall by the beach. Their pumpkin ice cream is the best I've ever had. Then there's Tucker's on Park St. in Alameda as well. And of course, there's Fenton's Ice Creamery in Piedmont, which makes great sundaes, but their ice cream quality isn't quite as good as Tucker's or Loard's. Here's Team Midnite at Fenton's:

Now, back on track for this thread, on places to live in the Bay Area. Some parts of Alameda are still affordable, but you won't be in the best school district. The closer you live to the old Naval Air Station, the lower the prices will be, generally. If you are looking to rent for a while first, you can find something affordable, though. The Bay Area is very vast and diverse, and there are lots of areas to choose from, so it will depend on your own personal preference for each area. The Silicon Valley South Peninsula area has been priced out of reach of many, even though it's mainly just suburban sprawl filled with unfirendly old timers that don't really appreciate the dot com boom and engineers that are stressed out and unfriendly in general.

One area that I've noticed a lot of people moving to is the San Lorenzo area in the East Bay, just south of Oakland. It was a semi run down area when I was going to high school in that area, but instead of turning into a ghetto, people have fixed up their homes, and the neighborhoods have actually improved rather nicely. I see a lot of younger families buying starter homes in that area. And many larger cities have Jekyll and Hyde tendencies, with really really great areas, good areas, just okay areas, and avoid at all costs areas - Oakland is a prime example. Castro Valley in the East Bay is decent, depending on the neighborhood, plus they have a big lake reservoir and park. The Dublin area out in the East Bay Valley is okay, but kind of removed from everything else. You will just have to check things out, and see what suits you. Good luck!

Ice cream cone :lol:

With affordable real estate, great small town atmosphere for raising kids, close to Yosemite and all the Gold Country towns, Tahoe, and the Bay area, yeah why do you think they call it The Central Valley, it's CENTRAL baby. (Martin loves this) some are calling it,......hang on folks,......The Inland Bay Area. From Ripon, Oakdale, Turlock, south to Fresno, (right Dwayne?) it can't be beat. Just stay cool when it gets hot.

*On 2009-10-27 09:23, TheTikiGeek wrote:*Best place to live around Bay Area??

I have some friends in the Sarasota area and they like it.

A couple of others really like Tampa.

My self, I kind of like....... wait! You don't mean the Tampa Bay do you?

On 2009-10-27 15:53, Chip and Andy wrote:

*On 2009-10-27 09:23, TheTikiGeek wrote:*Best place to live around Bay Area??

I have some friends in the Sarasota area and they like it.

A couple of others really like Tampa.

My self, I kind of like....... wait! You don't mean the Tampa Bay do you?

Hahaha...you mean there's other places outside California??? If you really want tell me good places to live in Florida I'll take that too, just in case California falls into the Pacific some day...

My wife and I moved out of the bay area around 10 years ago, but loved living there. We lived for a while in the Lake Merritt area of Oakland, and in the Walnut Creek/Pleasant Hill area. We were very happy in all 3 areas, but there were trade-offs to all 3. The Piedmont section of Oakland has great schools but expensive housing. East Bay schools are often good, Pleasant Hill is cheaper to live in than Walnut Creek and both have the BART into San Francisco depending on where you'll be working. We have friends in San Ramon and that area who like it there also.

Fenton's ice cream is pretty damn cool, no way around that.

If you visit the Walnut Creek area go to my favorite restaurant in the whole friggin' world, The Walnut Creek Yacht Club. It's worth a pilgrimage.

If you visit San Francisco, stay in Union Square and avoid the hotels around Fishermans Wharf. The Tonga Room is calling your name, don't you hear that???????? See my favorite singer, Lavay Smith, who sings every Monday at Enrico's in North Beach. And go to any Yank Sing, damn good dim sum.

Good luck!

dcman

[ Edited by: dcman 2009-10-27 16:57 ]

On 2009-10-27 14:50, Jungle Trader wrote:
With affordable real estate, great small town atmosphere for raising kids, close to Yosemite and all the Gold Country towns, Tahoe, and the Bay area, yeah why do you think they call it The Central Valley, it's CENTRAL baby. (Martin loves this) some are calling it,......hang on folks,......The Inland Bay Area. From Ripon, Oakdale, Turlock, south to Fresno, (right Dwayne?) it can't be beat. Just stay cool when it gets hot.

"Inland Bay Area" I love that one Jungle Trader, much like the real estate agents who call West Hollywood "Beverly Hills Adjacent"

Point Richmond has a nice small town feel, but it's close to the Chevron plant. I work a couple minutes away and we routinely have "shelter in place" alerts. I'm sure I've shaved a few months off my mortality by working there for the last 8 years.
Alameda is ideal unless you plan on trying to buy real estate. It's much better for renting and buying a drink at some place called Forbidden Island?
Oakland is definitely improving in some areas and the restaurant/bar scene is flourishing.

Campbell! (next to San Jose) The downtown has great restaurants and coffee houses. There's a farmers' market every Sunday.
Housing prices have come down significantly and the schools are top-notch. It's only a short drive over the hill to Santa Cruz and you can be sipping tropical drinks at Hula's in no time!

Having grown up in LA I would say anything north of Bakersfield is good (except maybe Stockton)??

PTD

On 2009-10-27 16:24, TheTikiGeek wrote:

On 2009-10-27 15:53, Chip and Andy wrote:

*On 2009-10-27 09:23, TheTikiGeek wrote:*Best place to live around Bay Area??

I have some friends in the Sarasota area and they like it.

A couple of others really like Tampa.

My self, I kind of like....... wait! You don't mean the Tampa Bay do you?

Hahaha...you mean there's other places outside California??? If you really want tell me good places to live in Florida I'll take that too, just in case California falls into the Pacific some day...

Now is the time to buy in Florida! By looking at my houses proximity to the Gulf of Mexico, in 100 years my grandkids stand to have some primo waterfront property the way the ice caps are melting.

Rockridge area between Berkeley and Oakland.

El Cerrito is unglamorous, but close to the City.

The most cost-effective may be Sacratamato.

The Bay Area is great and I'm sure you'll enjoy it if you move here. Southern CA isn't shabby either though. :) I'm guessing that since you're moving inside of CA you may not experience as big of a sticker shock as if you were moving from out of state.

In terms of reasonable price, it depends on what you consider cost-effective. The Peninsula and some of San Jose tend to be higher in the price range. For example, Mountain View has good schools but a fixer upper can start at $800k.

The East Bay tends to be a bit more cost effective (as are parts of the North Bay). For example, North Alameda, by the navy base runs 500k and up. South East end and Bay Farm, where the better schools are runs 550k (if you're lucky) up to 900k+. El Cerrito and San Leandro are charming in their own respective ways, and more cost effective, but you may have to go with private schools.

As said before, it's a balance of what your own personal preferences are in terms of areas and needs. Do you like small town environments, older neighborhoods, newer urban area, outdoor woodsy, etc. I agree with previous posters that a great suggestion is to rent for a bit. You may get more for your money in terms of area and good schools. Renting a house in the East Bay in a good area will run you $1800 to $2400 a month. Hope that helps and good luck!

On 2009-10-27 13:43, Mai Tai wrote:

Now, back on track for this thread,

That was the joke, my friend. :)

I would chime in and say if you are raising a family a little further out you have Pleasanton and LIvermore. Which have a lot of charm, lots to do and close proximity to BART to make it an easy commute into SF

PLUS there are tons of large, beautiful homes for rent for pretty good deals. You will find some areas that are a bit pricier but I have had friends rent 3-4 bedroom houses in Pleasanton for $1100 a month....so there are deals to be had. At least to start with before you commit to one area.

On 2009-10-27 23:34, Unga Bunga wrote:
That was the joke, my friend. :)

Heh heh, yeah, I know, Unga! Hence my pic of Team Midnite eating ice cream at Fenton's. I guess I forgot to end my sentence with the "laugh track of internet communication," the :)

You know, there are good places to get sammiches in the Nickel Dime as well! :D

I grew up in Moraga on the other side of the tunnel, and let me tell ya when it's foggy and cold on the other side, it's warm and sunny like SoCal there.

Reconsider moving here, unless you like 2 hour commutes. Today the Bay Bridge was closed (could be for several days) because a repair made on Labor Day weekend failed. They have been trying to fix the bridge since the earthquake 20 years ago. Tolls went up from $1 to $5 to pay for cost overruns, and it's still 5 or more years from completion. BART is OK, but overcrowded, and it doesn't serve many areas (like Alameda).

Worst commutes of my life when I lived in the bay area about 16yrs ago.... I cant imagine its improved.

There is something about lots of water and lots of bridges that really complicates day to day living...

Its the same water and bridges that makes for a wonderful and unique vacation.

Beautiful area but a pain to get around if you need to cross the water on a daily basis.

Its all a matter of what you value most but there is something to be said for stopping at the grocery store on your way home from work or knowing that you can get home after a late night out regardless of what time you go home. With public transportation and ridiculous parking costs in the city you spent LOTS of time on foot and have to carry all of your belongings with you wherever you go.

If you value a suburban lifestyle you have some hurdles in the way in certain parts of the bay area.

Dunno if you have to stay right in the bay area for work... but if not, I'd recommend Sonoma County up by Santa Rosa. What with the Sonoma Coast, Russian River Valley, and the Mayacamas, it's frickin' gorgeous and there's never a lack of anything to do.
That drive back from Forbidden Island is a little bit of a drag, though.
:wink:

Since this is posted in General Tiki, the best place to live in the bay area from a tiki perspective is anything near Forbidden Island.

If you're looking for Beyond Tiki answers, your first step is to look realistically at a list of criteria, like...

• affordable
• good schools
• short, or at least easy, commute to your job(s)
• short, or at least easy, travel to cool places and events
• nice neighborhood (low crime, community character, etc.)
• nice weather (some bizarro micro-climates in the bay area, IMO)

I'd say the area where we live near San Mateo gets almost 4 out of those 6. And there's probably a few in the bay area that hit 4 or almost 5, but it really depends on which ones are the big ones for you. Not sure if that's helpful, but hope so.

-Randy

Thank you everyone for all the great responses. I got a lot more replies than I was expecting, and have a lot to think about. Hopefully you'll be seeing us at the Forbidden Island soon, enjoying our new local Tiki bar...

If you don't mind looking North of the SF area, consider Petaluma (just North of Novato and just South of Santa Rosa/Rohnert Park). I moved up there to raise my son and it's been a fantastic town to call "home:. The town was established in 1856, has lots of that "hometown" feel (one of the few towns that still has a Veteran's Day Parade) but with a recently "remodeled" downtown area complete with a movie theater, fine dining, marina and 2 concert venues (The Mystic and the Phoenix). No tiki bars (yet) but within driving distance to SF, Trader Vics and Forbidden Island (and soon the Rum Runner as well).

Business brings me to the Bay Area a lot. To the person who suggested the town of Livermore as "charming", I wonder if you have all your oars in the water.? It's a dreadful mostly treeless concrete canyon laden with franchised fast food, gas stations, & generic power centers. Castro Valley is Bakersfield by the Bay, with County Sheriffs cruising in Dodge Chargers to nail meth heads.

Alameda is all-right-but a commuting nightmare and get used to driving 25 MPH through the whole town. Oakland has it's moments, but the adjacent neighbor"hoods" are frightening. Check the crime rates with the local PD before you make a move. I like Menlo Park, Atherton, Palo Alto & Albany. Menlo Park has the best weather in the Bay Area. Danville & Walnut Creek are okay.

Remember that once you get much north of Tiburon &, Larkspur expect the usual dog-eared hippie havens chalk full of 70's burnouts,bad food, wackos, misfits, & the usual back-water players.

oops

[ Edited by: bigbadtikidaddy 2009-10-31 00:35 ]

On 2009-10-30 22:42, FrankieGillette wrote:
Business brings me to the Bay Area a lot. To the person who suggested the town of Livermore as "charming", I wonder if you have all your oars in the water.? It's a dreadful mostly treeless concrete canyon laden with franchised fast food, gas stations, & generic power centers. Castro Valley is Bakersfield by the Bay, with County Sheriffs cruising in Dodge Chargers to nail meth heads.

Alameda is all-right-but a commuting nightmare and get used to driving 25 MPH through the whole town. Oakland has it's moments, but the adjacent neighbor"hoods" are frightening. Check the crime rates with the local PD before you make a move. I like Menlo Park, Atherton, Palo Alto & Albany. Menlo Park has the best weather in the Bay Area. Danville & Walnut Creek are okay.

Remember that once you get much north of Tiburon &, Larkspur expect the usual dog-eared hippie havens chalk full of 70's burnouts,bad food, wackos, misfits, & the usual back-water players.

wow, what a ray of sunshine!
you have a way with words, that's all i'm gonna say.
btw, we all like Menlo Park, Atherton, Palo Alto and some of the other towns you mentioned. the bad news is that they are among some of the most expensive places to buy in the bay.
you crack me up son, i'm glad you're here.
if ever we meet, drinks are on me. something with bitters.

on topic: i'm pretty sure vallejo is still the cheapest spot left in the bay area.
off topic: FrankieGillette, any thoughts on vallejo?

Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill , nice view.........

On 2009-10-31 01:22, Atomic Tiki Punk wrote:
Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill , nice view.........

As long as CLINT isn't Chasing SCORPIO!

Thortiki

Believe it or not, good ol' Huell Howser just did an episode on Alameda, and it just finished airing in the Bay Area on PBS channel 9 KQED at 2pm. It's a new episode from his show California Communities. It covers Park St. and it's revitalization, the newly restored historic Alameda Theater, Ole's Waffle Shop, Tucker's Ice Cream Shop - especially for Unga :wink:, the Blanding Shopping Center and the Estuary and "Oakland Riviera". Huell mentioned that there's two wineries on Alameda, and also "the place that makes vodka" (St. George Spirits/Hangar One), but when he went over to the old Naval Air Station, he only went to the converted aircraft hangar that is now an indoor rec center, Bladium - lame! You think he could have given Lance and they boys at Hangar One a little credit, same with Rosenblum Cellars. Oh, and he skipped Forbidden Island, too! Also, he didn't really talk at all about the U.S.S. Hornet, or the history of the Navy base, or the Antiques By The Bay swap meet. Nor did he talk about the abundance of Queen Anne Victorian houses that were brought over here by barge from San Francisco, but he briefly showed a picture or two of a few. Nor did he show the beach, or the view of San Francisco from both there and the Navy base. But overall, if anyone wants to see what Alameda's all about generally, and what it currently looks like, you should check out this video.

California's Communities #111 - ALAMEDA and those who can't find the episode on tv or online can purchase it here as a last resort.

Interesting trivia fact #1: Alameda is second only to Marina Del Ray in California for number of boat slips.

Interesting trivia fact #2: Huell is an ex Marine.

I saw that HH episode and it made me proud of my hometown! BUT, if I were him I would have gone to Hanger One (he said "that's a whole other story" - good idea Huell!), Rosenblum, and Forbidden Island. Good episode though, especially when he was in the theater.

Yeah, there are a lot of places that he could have gone to. Probably too hard to cram them into a half hour. I guess our sleepy little island town is slowly becoming more and more diverse. Evidently he's already done another episode on aircraft carriers including the U.S.S. Hornet. It would have been interesting if he would have talked about Neptune's Beach, or the extensive line of streetcars that used to be on the island, or how the dredging of the estuary canal was a practice run for the Panama Canal, or a tour of the Gold Coast while explaining in wonder that a lot of those Queen Anne Victorians were all brought over by barge from San Francisco (wow!). They could have shown a better view of San Francisco as well.

In fact, most of his older shows talk about the rich historical elements of whatever town he's currently pestering. However, if you noticed, except for the theater, Huell pretty much talked about stuff that was currently being developed, or would soon be developed - he talked about the future, instead of the past history. Which brings up an interesting point to this new series.

Huell's latest series, California’s Communities, is a 14 segment series that addresses redevelopment of California statewide, and is funded by the California Redevelopment Association, who's agenda is to expand redevelopment. It seems that most of the places that he visited in Alameda were a part of whatever the CRA and the Alameda Economic Delevopment Dept. had developed, or were planning on developing in the future. The old Naval Air Station is a good example - they spent a good 5 minutes talking about how they were going to re-develop it and integrate it back into the community, plus leave about half of it (about 1,000 acres) as a wildlife refuge. They didn't talk about what goes on there during the present day, like the Alameda Antiques Fair, or Hangar One, but what will most likely happen to it in the future. They went on and on about the Oakland estuary too. To me, that sounds like the CRA having a say in what he puts in the show.

Also, I'm sure that a state agency didn't want to fund a show that promoted booze manufacturers and tiki bars - I'm guessing that family oriented shopping, indoor field hockey and soccer rec centers, waffles, and ice cream were more up their alley. :wink: They even ended the show by talking about how Alameda is a "well kept secret that more and more people are finding every day", and then went on to gush about the history, the sense of community, family businesses, the redevelopment of downtown, and how safe and wonderful it was. It started to reek more of a marketing ploy by the City of Alameda at the end more than anything else.

Next time Huell comes to town, let's take him to Forbidden Island, Dean. He can do a whole segment on the Kill Devil list! I'm sure he'll be amazed. "You mean this is a list 97 rums that you can drink? And when you finish the list, you are a member of the Kill Devil Club? WOW!!!"

• Now it's called the KIILL DEVIL Club. And there's ALL THIS RUM. From all OVER the world. In all these EXOTIC drinks. So it's the rum and you drink the rum and you're in the KIILL DEVIL club? Well isn't that something! *

Sorry Huell if you ever read this...with all due respect and adoration. I couldn't help myself. :)

On 2009-11-11 19:40, Mai Tai wrote:

Next time Huell comes to town, let's take him to Forbidden Island, Dean. He can do a whole segment on the Kill Devil list! I'm sure he'll be amazed. "You mean this is a list 97 rums that you can drink? And when you finish the list, you are a member of the Kill Devil Club? WOW!!!"

ahMAYZing!

I'm steadfastly a city girl, and all these fine folks have weighed in much more usefully than I could have. But! I will say that once you get to town, you'll be smack-dab in the middle of not only an embarrassment of tiki establishment riches, but a rag-tag crew of the best tiki people you're likely to meet. I've had the great pleasure of meeting all sorts of warm, wonderful tiki people all over the country, but there's some sort of quality/density mojo we've got going here in the Bay Area that's special.

On 2009-10-31 01:22, Atomic Tiki Punk wrote:
Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill , nice view.........

That's true, I lived just one block below it (see arrow on map) when I was a student at the S.F. Art Institute in the early 80s:

What a lovely view indeed.

On 2009-11-14 09:19, bigbrotiki wrote:

That's true, I lived just one block below it (see arrow on map) when I was a student at the S.F. Art Institute in the early 80s:

What a lovely view indeed.

:lol:

Velvets by J. Sallin

[ Edited by: Iokona Ki'i 2009-11-14 10:01 ]