EPTMoving to Oakland - Page 6
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JiYan
United States3668 Posts
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NonY
8751 Posts
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Vod.kaholic
United States1052 Posts
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prodigalsun
United States85 Posts
Good luck on your move and I hope you find some great digs! | ||
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Zlasher
United States9129 Posts
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terrio
United States14 Posts
Buy a couple bicycles. Disclosure: I was a student at Berkeley for seven years and lived in Berkeley for six of them. It is awesome. Final edit: Getting to the Children's Hospital from North Berkeley is not very easy unless you live close to Solano or Shattuck, as the 18 (AC Transit Bus) runs along those streets to within blocks of the hospital. You could consider Temescal as well, given that it is slightly easier to get there from that area without transit. | ||
Alex.IGN
United States1050 Posts
On April 18 2012 02:27 harrypl0tter wrote: Walnut creek. Walnut Creek is an awesome place to live and is only 15 min away from Berkeley | ||
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jmbthirteen
United States10734 Posts
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SchfiftyFive
United States131 Posts
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GloPikkle
United States197 Posts
Regarding the hate towards Oakland, it really depends on where you want to live in Oakland. I grew up in Walnut Creek, went to UC Berkeley for undergrad, and lived in Berkeley for a few years after that. I currently live on the other side of the Bay but I head over to the East Bay for work and for getting good food so I'm pretty familiar with the area. The areas that you mentioned in Oakland are great! Piedmont/Montclair/Rockridge has a lot of early 20th century homes so there's a lot of charm there. The food scene in Oakland is AWESOME. Lots of small neighborhood restaurants and dives with a vibrant upscale restaurant scene as well. You're in close proximity to BART as well as the major freeways (580, 880, 24). The rent is going to be comparable to North Berkeley/Albany. Your neighborhood demographics will mostly be upper middle class families, yuppies, and hipsters. Crime is no where near as bad as people say in Oakland as long as you stay away from certain areas at night. However if you DO venture out at night in those areas, then it's probably as bad as people think. Stay away from West Oakland, outside of Jack London, Chinatown, East Oakland by Merrit College, and south past Laney. The general rule in Oakland is the more trees you see, the better as the blighted areas are very urban looking. The Oakland hills are beautiful and the view of the bay is even better. I lived in Berkeley for 7 years and I loved it! Definitely check the area around Solano Ave. and Gilman as that's where most of the places to eat and things to do are. The best thing about Berkeley (in my opinion) is there is probably no better place in the Bay Area to get groceries. If you're coming from San Antonio, you'll probably be blown away by the freshness and variety. I regularly cross the bridge and drive 20 miles to go grocery shopping there. Between Berkeley Bowl, Tokyo Fish Market, the Neighborhood Butcher, The Cheese Board, Monterey Market, you can probably find anything you could want. Downtown Berkeley is very college-ey so you'll find lots of cheap places to eat. The more upscale shopping area is closer to the 80 at 4th street and there are tons of small boutiques and shops. I don't recommend living on the other side of the Berkeley Hills closer to Walnut Creek, Lafayette, whatever since you guys are a younger couple. You'll be really bored as there's not too much to do as it's pretty deep into suburbia. If you need to find cheaper rent, you can look a little North of Berkeley into El Cerrito and El Sobrante/San Pablo, but if you do, make SURE that you're closer to the hills. Generally the further North and West you get from North Berkeley, the more ghetto it gets culminating in Richmond being the most ghetto ever. If you have any questions, let me know through PM and I can give you my email address and I'd be happy to help you out! | ||
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GloPikkle
United States197 Posts
On April 19 2012 09:18 Alex.IGN wrote: Walnut Creek is an awesome place to live and is only 15 min away from Berkeley This is true, however with traffic considerations, it could be more like 30-45. Highway 24 is a very heavily commutted corridor and rush hour traffic through the Caldecott tunnel is horrid. | ||
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GloPikkle
United States197 Posts
On April 19 2012 08:57 terrio wrote: Piedmont and Montclair will probably be quite expensive. I would suggest something within a mile and a half of the North Berkeley BART. Generally, prices are more reasonable in that area, you will find small houses for rent, and it will be close to public transportation. Buy a couple bicycles. Disclosure: I was a student at Berkeley for seven years and lived in Berkeley for six of them. It is awesome. Final edit: Getting to the Children's Hospital from North Berkeley is not very easy unless you live close to Solano or Shattuck, as the 18 (AC Transit Bus) runs along those streets to within blocks of the hospital. You could consider Temescal as well, given that it is slightly easier to get there from that area without transit. I agree that Temescal would be a good location. However it's a bit closer to Telegraph that you might want to be... Stay as East as possible. | ||
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GloPikkle
United States197 Posts
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Athacliath
United States1 Post
When you come out to see the area, I would be happy to talk with you about my experiences in and around Berkeley to give you a feel for the various areas, or to give specific feedback on craigslist options! PM me for my personal email address. Edit: Yes, I did just finally make a TL account to give housing advice, haha. | ||
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[Tribes]
Canada61 Posts
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staples2
United States216 Posts
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BlitchizSC2
United States306 Posts
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Ambidexter
United States23 Posts
On April 19 2012 07:38 Liquid`NonY wrote: Thanks everyone we've been reading every post and you've helped us get quickly acquainted with all the neighborhoods in the area and the towns a little further out. Right now we're leaning toward North Berkeley / Berkeley Hills and most of the East side locations like Piedmont, Montclair, Rockridge and up to Claremont. But Berkeley is our #1 area right now. I hope I haven't offended anyone by not prioritizing the place they recommended! I lived in Oakland for 10 years after college, started my family there, only moved to south bay when my commute got too hard to balance with my family time. If I could control the world I'd move back in a heartbeat! Everyone is going to have their favorite little neighborhood in North Oakland/Piedmont/Montclair/Berkeley - which is what's so awesome about the area - there are so many of them! Personally I love the area around Piedmont/Grand/Lakeshore Avenues, North of Lake Merritt - its very walkable with plenty of things very nearby, beautiful, and regardless of what the haters say as safe as any city. But you could make the same argument for Rockridge, Montclair, and Berkeley around downtown as well. One consideration I would throw out is that Berkeley is harder to get in and out of. That won't matter so much for your wife's commute since Children's Hospital is relatively central, but if you want to get out of town at all (even to SF, Walnut Creek, or wherever) it just takes 15 minutes extra to get out of Berkeley. | ||
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Vaporized
United States1471 Posts
ive lived all over california and the bay area is def. the best part (+the surrounding areas you can drive to). im not sure how far tahoe is from the bay (real quick drive from where i live in sacramento), but its some of the best skiing in the country. not that i expect you to know how to ski being from texas (im not very good myself and i live so close), but it is fun to go up there and drink some beers and fall on your ass. edit: about the weather, my brother lives in austin and i visit him often. california heat is nowhere near texas heat trust me. berkely in particular has beautiful weather and if you can find a conveinently located house to rent i think you guys would really like it. its an interesting place, definetly not boring. if i was moving there i would try my damnedest to find a place that is close enough that your wife wont have to get on a freeway to get to the hospital. if your wife has to sit in rush hour traffic day after day it will wear on her. i lived in LA for 2 years and the traffic is the main reason i moved back to norcal. it sucks the life out of u after a while. | ||
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Mattson
Canada188 Posts
It's amazing how well some of you dance around the topic of racism.... I'll be direct. Check out the local school districts. The demographics of the school should tell you whether the neighborhood is good or not. You're obviously going to want to find a school with the lowest amount of black and hispanic students... I know this sounds incredibly racist but deep down you know it's good advice. You're gonna want to find a school with at least less than a 30% hispanic population. I grew up in south florida just outside Miami and we were 35% hispanic, 30% black, and 30% black... the lower the diversity the 'better' the community. I'm currently living in Canada as a Native American in a town that is 96% white... it's been two years since my town had a murder and you have to go back another 2 or 3 years to find another murder. LOL actually... here's better advice that just struck me... I Here's what you do. Look up the addresses to the realestate listings you're interested in. Punch the addresses into google street view. Take a look at the neighborhoods yourself. | ||
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