Comments on: Go West, but Where?

By: Saltation

Saltation — Thu, 20 Jul 2006 17:49:14 +0000

Sunnyvale has too many vampires and is situated on a HellMouth, isn’t it?
Avoid.

By: Andy Baio

Andy Baio — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 00:00:28 +0000

I’ll put my vote in for Palo Alto. The University Ave. area has plenty of decent restaurants, and the proximity to the Stanford campus means plenty of stuff to do when school is in.

By: chrysantha

chrysantha — Sun, 16 Jul 2006 14:55:12 +0000

congratulations on your move to the BAY…
quoting this comment “Would you rather (1) have the option to drive on the weekends to find the fun stuff, –or– (2) have a mandatory drive every morning to work?” HE IS SOOO RIGHT… I grew up in SF & DC and temporarily moved the East Bay to finish my nursing degree and I will tell you now I don’t recommend living there, its not quite safe, and I live in a really sweet place called El Cerrito Hills.. besides the point.. I love San Mateo Count and Beyond.. I always wanted to live in Burlingame/Milbrae, get away from the city, safer, better to raise children in… and that’s what I still plan, I know that you are in Mountain View but the drive isn’t that far to SF! I can totally recommend restaurants when you rendevous to SF! If you aren’t vegetarian, I totally recommend ESPETUS … =)

By: Brad Neuberg

Brad Neuberg — Sat, 15 Jul 2006 16:07:33 +0000

Congrats on the new location and your marriage! Lets definently meet up and grab a beer or coffee when you get into town. Feel free to call me: 1-510-938-3263. We can chat about web stuff, OPML, the Engelbart project, etc. I'm working remotely from Paris during July, but will be back in San Francisco in August. What will you be doing for Yahoo?

Best, Brad

By: skipjack

skipjack — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 04:51:28 +0000

I would just find someplace close to work for now. The Bay area is such a diverse place it can make it hard to pick a place to live. I tell everyone to rent for a year, and travel locally alot for that year. It will give you a good idea which location suits your taste. BTW grat’s on the job.

By: Rich

Rich — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 04:51:06 +0000

Mike: I do believe I bought a guitar from you last year! I used a £20 note as collateral :) Pity you closed down, you were a good feature on the street.

Les: I was going to say "Ask Dave Beckett", and lo! He appears :)

By: Will Parker

Will Parker — Sun, 02 Jul 2006 04:30:45 +0000

I recently had a contract job at Apple, and I picked an apartment in Cupertino near Apple campus near DeAnza College along Stevens Creek Boulevard. Although Cupertino was a nice enough place to work, there are ABSOLUTELY no cultural amenities in Cupertino. No movie theaters, no bookstores, nothing but chain stores. The rental apartments and houses are fine, but you'll have to drive quite a way to get somewhere interesting.

My advice - check out the northern end of the Valley. San Mateo, Palo Alto, Mountain View -- all of these have something that passes for a liveable environment outside working hours. If you can stand a longer commute and your salary permits, consider living in San Francisco and commuting down to Santa Clara via CalTrain.

Congratulations on your wedding and your new job!

By: Yu Shan

Yu Shan — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 22:28:03 +0000

As a Yahoo! formerly from SNV office I recommend downtown Sunnyvale area around Mathilda and El Camino. It’s close to the MC office, and this is the big plus. The downtown area is being revamped by summer of ‘07 where there will be a new mall with open air walking areas. Even now it’s a pretty cute area with summer concerts and a Saturday morning farmer’s market. Walking distance to many things such as Trader Joe’s, Best Buy, Sportsmart, and Baja Fresh. Find me on backyard if you want to hear more.

By: Chris Weiss

Chris Weiss — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 20:33:30 +0000

Do ya know which Yahoo! Campus you’ll be at? Not knowing where you’re coming from, I’d think your biggest concern when you land will be traffic. (Unless you’re used to 8 miles taking 30 minutes.)

You might try checking out South San Jose (Campbell) - it’s a pretty straight shot to the Yahoo! campus by Moffet Field or the one on Great America Pkwy. Not as close as Mountain View, but not nearly as expensive.

I’d avoid East San Jose as the commute will be miserable, despite the proximity - most of the roads from East SJ to the Yahoo! campuses are feeders for highways 680 and 880, which are the main arteries for probably half of the folks who work in San Jose (and can’t afford to live there).

http://www.housingmaps.com/ is an EXCELLENT tool for remote apartment hunting. Someone’s feeding the residential listings from Craigslist into Google Maps, so you can enter your search parameters and filtered results are overlaid on the Google Map with links to the Craigslist listing. Craigslist is far and away the best tool for apartment hunting here besides just plain driving around looking for signs.

By: Ged Carroll aka renaissance chambara

Ged Carroll aka renaissance chambara — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 20:32:23 +0000

First of all congratulations, Yahoo! is a good company to work for and has some cool Yahoos like Bradley Horowitz, Joshua Schachter, my ex-colleagues Melissa, Aaron and Kathryn in Search PR (tell'em Ged said hi) and Team Flickr.

Sunnyvale is considered to be industrialised in comparison to the other towns, they are quiet and anonymous like the town in ET. As a European I found them bland areas, however I have friends who have lived there all their lives and wouldn't live anywhere else.

Don't worry too much about local amenities like dry cleaners etc as these services are provided on campus. I was amazed (or maybe it was the sugar-high of the free root bear) by the facilities offered almost like a small-town: it doesn't happen in Europe.

San Jose is trying to drag itself out of mediocrity by the boot straps with new apartment blocks and cultural stuff going up in the downtown area.

By: Blake

Blake — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 16:33:41 +0000

To those that decry the lack of good food south of SF , I protest :-) There's a ton of great places to eat in the South Bay (if you like Vietnamese, Mexican, Indian, Japanese), but I admit it's not exactly the hub of nightlife and activity.

One question to ask yourself is:

Would you rather (1) have the option to drive on the weekends to find the fun stuff, --or-- (2) have a mandatory drive every morning to work?

The 45-minute drive to SF on the weekends is not bad, and it even feels like a mini-vacation sometimes. I can't imagine SF denizens feel the same way about San Jose, for example. Certainly not on a Monday morning...

By: Mark Nottingham

Mark Nottingham — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 05:54:34 +0000

Congratulations and welcome to the fun! I've been at Y! since January, and work down the hall from Dave.

I'd plug Burlingame (where I live) or nearby San Mateo: I can walk to the Caltrain station, and it takes less than an hour, front door to my desk. It's a 20 minute drive to the city and a four minute walk to lots of restaurants, shopping, parks and a very good library.

Maybe a better way to start: what are you looking for? What kind of environment do you currently live in?

Whatever you do, don't delude yourself that you can drive any appreciable distance on the 101 on a daily basis; it's not worth it.

By: Dave Beckett

Dave Beckett — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 21:14:31 +0000

Congratulations, as I also relocated to work for Y recently, I also recommend Mountain View or Sunnyvale as good places to get your bearings. If you want to take public transport/free shuttle to work, MV has that.

Do ping me when you start.

By: Merlin

Merlin — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 15:56:05 +0000

Congrats, man! And welcome to the Bay Area.

Live in SF and take a shuttle (said the guy who works at home).

Good luck with the transition, and rock on with the new gig.

By: Jeremy Zawodny

Jeremy Zawodny — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 04:17:19 +0000

Holy crap!

I miseed the announcement. This rocks.

Which group will you be working in?

Let me know what I can do to help.