Where should I move to be close to Investors and free from cars?

4 points by aeschylus 16 years ago | 5 comments

Hi everyone. I'm moving to the Bay Area in May to make my fortune with the rest of you. I don't know much about the region, and I'm hoping some of you can help me familiarize myself with it.

Ideally, I would like to live somewhere that's close to capital, has a vibrant hacker community, access to high quality, organic, local food, seems big on environmental protection, and features transit oriented development. I would like to avoid owning a car if possible, being that, in principle at least, they are waste of money and liability.

Looking at the Wikipedia articles of the primary cities in the region, it doesn't seem likely to find such a place, but I'll ask anyway. I'd also be interested in hearing about the mechanics of finding/contacting/meeting investors in the Bay Area.

Thanks in advance for your help and advice.

drewda 16 years ago |

Here are a few broad generalizations:

The "tech gradient" progresses from component/hardware manufacturers in San Jose to data centers in Santa Clara to software developers around Palo Alto, to designers in San Francisco (or "The City," as SF hipsters, often call it). Of course, there are many exceptions to this rule of thumb.

Many big-name venture capitalist firms are located on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, situated in the middle of the Peninsula. With a BMW (also known as Basic Marin Wheels, after Marin County, to the north of The City), Sand Hill is easily accessed from 280, the quicker of the two Peninsula freeways. Some of the more interesting VC firms are actually located elsewhere: downtown SF, Oakland, warehouses in San Bruno, by SFO, Mountain View (in the case of Y Combinator)... Then again, given that you're posting this on Hacker News, vulture capitalists may not be your primary concern.

More and more pedestrian pockets can be found outside of SF. A few that come quickly to my mind are: - downtown Mountain View (Castro St., with an Asian market) - California Ave. in Palo Alto (with a co-op) - downtown San Jose (actually getting kinda lively) - downtown San Mateo (with a great Japanese grocery store)

All of these places happen to be on the Caltrain line, which runs from SF to San Jose (and points further south). Find a Caltrain stop and you'll find a cluster of start-ups and condos and cafes.

Much as I try to bike and walk everywhere, I've had a number of around-the-bay days, that begin in an office in Mountain View, progress to a meeting with designers in the East Bay, and conclude with an investor pitch in The City. With demo computers to schlep and a schedule to keep, unfortunately, I just gotta go with a car. But perhaps that's what Zipcar is for.

Finally, let me put in a pitch for Berkeley, where I live now. It's a little apart from the SiliValley action, which can actually be a benefit in the personal sanity dept. Easy biking, good food, nice sailing, lively city, a world-class university...

Good luck!

evgen 16 years ago |

As others have mentioned, you will fit right in to the Berkeley "scene". You are going to be taking BART and CalTrain a lot, since Berkeley has little in the way of venture capital and not a huge hacker community outside of the university. If you were willing to compromise on your principles somewhat then a zipcar membership and a place in Mountain View would probably serve your long-term goals a lot better. Caltrain is close, you are at the confluence of highways 101, 280, & 85 and you are sitting in the metaphorical heart of silicon valley. The weekly farmers market is year-round, you can bike to whole foods and some nice asian groceries, castro street has nice coffeeshops and a bit of a nightlife, you could probably walk to the hacker dojo, and an occasional car trip will get you everything else you need. The only thing it really lacks is a good bookstore, but you can train/bike to either the university bookstore on stanford campus or digitalguru in sunnyvale.

acgourley 16 years ago |

Judging you based on how you wrote the post, you seem like you would fit in really well in Berkeley. If you really are only worried about getting to see investors, you can make the trip by taking BART to Caltrain which then stops near most of them.

The city (don't let drewda fool you, most people call it that) has a few spots you could be both car-free and happy... but they are all a long bus ride from caltrain (as long as BART will take to ride from the east bay, and less predictable).

Try to avoid finding a spot where your commute will be a sf muni and then a caltrain trip - the sf muni busses and light rail have very fickle schedules so often you're going to miss your caltrain connection, then have to wait a while for the next one.

Oh and BART/Caltrain are very bike friendly.

drewda 16 years ago | |

Don't worry, I won't scoff at anyone who calls it The City. Otherwise I'd be laughing all day long at the San Francisco Comical--excuse me, the San Francisco Chronicle.

Now if you call it Frisco...

nkurz 16 years ago |

You'll probably get better answers, but I'll start since no one has who's actually living car free has chimed in.

I think San Francisco proper and Berkeley are probably the only places where living without a car is a respected choice. There are certainly people who do so elsewhere around the Bay, but I get the sense that they aren't as thrilled about it. I'm inland in the East Bay, and most here would consider a car a necessity.

Overall, judging by the standards of major cities in other countries, the public transportation isn't great. It exists, it's much better than the heartland of the US, and for certain routes is very convenient, but it won't get you everywhere you want when you want it. You'll probably also want a bicycle, friends with cars, or even a Zipcar membership.

It would help to know where you are moving from, as that might affect your expectations considerably.