Bay-area bound

[trochee]

[ETA: Unlocked post now (and specifics removed); please feel free to point your Bay-area friends here!]

It's official as of Monday afternoon: we're going to the Bay Area. imtboo has been admitted to a San Francisco school for her chosen field.

School starts August 21 for her, so we'll be moving out of Seattle and down to the Bay Area in that first week of August, more or less.

I will be finishing up my dissertation at a desk in a research lab in Menlo Park. But D's school is downtown -- right by the Civic Center BART stop. Unfortunately, this means that one of us will be commuting a long way on the CalTrain and/or the BART. At the moment, it looks like it might be her, since at at least for the first semester she'll only have classes two (very full) days a week, while I'll be at ResearchLab five days a week.

Any suggestions or comments, from people who live in the Bay Area (or who have lived there) about places to live -- or to avoid? I think the East Bay is out for us -- the commute to Menlo Park is insane -- but we're considering paying more to live in the city, or paying less to live on the Peninsula. Any recommendations?

Bay Area roll call:
apollinax or bicoastal?
lunacow?
evan?
xaosenkosmos -- you've already sent us comments, thanks!
damidnara?
cleverpig?
I'm sure I've missed people in this roll-call. Anybody else?

Comments

[boobirdsfly.livejournal.com]

yeah i think redwood city is now out of the question , considering all i've heard.
what do you know about bernal heights or potrero hill ?

[harlequinaide.livejournal.com]

Bernal is lovely: great neighborhood feel, beautiful houses. It's a little off the beaten path, though. The buses are never far away, but there's no really convenient subway. The same is true of Potrero Hill, although the latter is slightly more convenient to roads and slightly more expensive. In fact, I think PH is less convenient to BART than Bernal.

Honestly, Bernal Height is just about my dream neighborhood: cafes, bookstore, walking distance to just about everything. It's in the city, but not of it. Glen Park is also brilliant: slightly less of the neighborhood feel, but much more convenient to public transit.