6 ms·

Cambridge/Somerville, Berkeley/Oakland, SF, Portland. You can live well without a car in Silicon Valley, though it's not a city. Maybe Austin, but I've never b

by pg 18y ago

Cambridge/Somerville, Berkeley/Oakland, SF, Portland. You can live well without a car in Silicon Valley, though it's not a city. Maybe Austin, but I've never been there, so can't say for sure. Maybe Boulder, if it's over your threshold of urbanness.

drsnyder 18y ago
I'll second Oakland. The cost of living is lower in terms of rent/housing and you can still be close to BART and lots of great parks, trails, and culture. From Oakland, you can work anywhere (just about) from Fremont to SF.
- tptacek 18y ago
  So if you lived in Oakland and your best job opportunity was in Santa Clara on Great America Parkway, what's the convenient way you'd get to work without a 45 minute car ride? Or for that matter Sunnyvale, or even Pleasanton? There are obviously lots of good reasons to live in SF/bay, but transportation really doesn't seem like one of them. What am I missing?
  - revelude 18y ago
    The right job.
  - gojomo 18y ago
    Santa Clara is not anywhere along the "Fremont to SF" easy-access claim of drsnyder. If you want to live in Oakland and don't like a 45-minute car commute, you don't take a job in Santa Clara or Sunnyvale. Oakland to Pleasanton should be reasonable by BART. The Bay Area can't compare to the USA's best train-centric cities (NY, Chicago, Boston) but beats most other domestic places for mass transit. Still, it's spotty, with some great corridors and some journeys that are really hard.
    - aaronblohowiak 18y ago
      Fun historical factoid: LA used to have a world-class train system! Good luck with its public transport now, though... "I'd have to take 5 busses and it would take 3 hours? To get groceries?"
      - gravitycop 18y ago
        LA used to have a world-class train system It was just a movie. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Electric#The_.22General_Motors_conspiracy.22 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Electric#The_.22General... Other factors that may have contributed to the decline of electric traction in the United States include [...] low revenues.
        steveplace 18y ago
        Don't forget: The plot of the 1988 movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit is loosely modeled on the conspiracy to dismantle the streetcar lines in Los Angeles.
  - jjs 18y ago
    Pleasanton, like Oakland, is in Alameda County, and the two are connected by the BART Dublin/Pleasanton Line. Santa Clara County is car country.
  - menloparkbum 18y ago
    Unless you work in the East Bay, Oakland is a bad place to live for a hacker, simply because the commute to other parts of the bay is very inconvenient. My advice for people who don't know the area is: don't live in the east bay unless you also work in the east bay. Most hacker jobs are in the south bay, followed by the peninsula and the city. The commute from the east bay to the south bay is painful, much more so than from the city to the south bay. If you work in the city, you can take BART, but the convenience of BART depends on how close you live to a station. Berkeley/Oakland residential areas are much more spread out than SF. It isn't unlikely that the station is a 30 minute walk from your house. When I lived in the east bay and worked in SOMA I had to walk 30 minutes to BART, then BART for about 30 minutes, then another 20 minute walk on the SF side. Now I live in the city and work in the same area of SOMA and I can get there in 15 minutes on the train or a 40 minute walk. I don't even want to talk about when I lived in the east bay and had to drive to Cupertino. What a driving nightmare... In summary, Oakland is NOT a great hacker city unless you can do your hacking on that side of the bay...
dnaquin 18y ago
you pretty much need a car in Austin. best public transit in Texas, but that's not saying much.
- natrius 18y ago
  Austin is pretty bikeable, and there is (limited) car sharing for the few times you actually need a car. The buses seem like they'd work well enough and were fine the couple of times I used them, but biking is faster and more fun. I think Dallas and Houston have Austin beat in terms of public transit. Dallas has plenty of rail, Houston has some rail with a lot in the works, and Austin has a commuter rail line that's about to open but doesn't actually get you anywhere without transferring to a bus that will be stuck in traffic. There's more to a good transit system than rail, but it's the best indicator I have since I've only used Austin's system in Texas.
  - quellhorst 18y ago
    I have lived in Houston for years, that city is designed for having a car. Drivers in big trucks and SUVs are very aggressive around cyclists and pedestrians. A plus is that it was cheap to live there. I did see a coworking place is located on 7th street in Austin for only $350/month.
    - stcredzero 18y ago
      I'm thinking of moving my home base to Austin. And yes, Houston is definitely designed for driving. Even "the cool shops near the university" district near Rice U is essentially just a mall with streets running through it. Things are way too spread out.
  - dnaquin 18y ago
    i came from houston. austin wins hands down. the bus system's a lot better. the houston rail line is mostly useless unless you work in the medical center. besides it's possible to bike in austin.
- utnick 18y ago
cdibona 18y ago
Cambridge is the only one with both jobs and usable public transport. If you are a decent cyclist, I may add Berkeley.

by pg 18y ago

drsnyder 18y ago

I'll second Oakland. The cost of living is lower in terms of rent/housing and you can still be close to BART and lots of great parks, trails, and culture. From Oakland, you can work anywhere (just about) from Fremont to SF.

tptacek 18y ago
So if you lived in Oakland and your best job opportunity was in Santa Clara on Great America Parkway, what's the convenient way you'd get to work without a 45 minute car ride? Or for that matter Sunnyvale, or even Pleasanton? There are obviously lots of good reasons to live in SF/bay, but transportation really doesn't seem like one of them. What am I missing?
- revelude 18y ago
  The right job.
- gojomo 18y ago
  Santa Clara is not anywhere along the "Fremont to SF" easy-access claim of drsnyder. If you want to live in Oakland and don't like a 45-minute car commute, you don't take a job in Santa Clara or Sunnyvale. Oakland to Pleasanton should be reasonable by BART. The Bay Area can't compare to the USA's best train-centric cities (NY, Chicago, Boston) but beats most other domestic places for mass transit. Still, it's spotty, with some great corridors and some journeys that are really hard.
  - aaronblohowiak 18y ago
    Fun historical factoid: LA used to have a world-class train system! Good luck with its public transport now, though... "I'd have to take 5 busses and it would take 3 hours? To get groceries?"
    - gravitycop 18y ago
      LA used to have a world-class train system It was just a movie. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Electric#The_.22General_Motors_conspiracy.22 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Electric#The_.22General... Other factors that may have contributed to the decline of electric traction in the United States include [...] low revenues.
      - steveplace 18y ago
        Don't forget: The plot of the 1988 movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit is loosely modeled on the conspiracy to dismantle the streetcar lines in Los Angeles.
- jjs 18y ago
  Pleasanton, like Oakland, is in Alameda County, and the two are connected by the BART Dublin/Pleasanton Line. Santa Clara County is car country.
- menloparkbum 18y ago
  Unless you work in the East Bay, Oakland is a bad place to live for a hacker, simply because the commute to other parts of the bay is very inconvenient. My advice for people who don't know the area is: don't live in the east bay unless you also work in the east bay. Most hacker jobs are in the south bay, followed by the peninsula and the city. The commute from the east bay to the south bay is painful, much more so than from the city to the south bay. If you work in the city, you can take BART, but the convenience of BART depends on how close you live to a station. Berkeley/Oakland residential areas are much more spread out than SF. It isn't unlikely that the station is a 30 minute walk from your house. When I lived in the east bay and worked in SOMA I had to walk 30 minutes to BART, then BART for about 30 minutes, then another 20 minute walk on the SF side. Now I live in the city and work in the same area of SOMA and I can get there in 15 minutes on the train or a 40 minute walk. I don't even want to talk about when I lived in the east bay and had to drive to Cupertino. What a driving nightmare... In summary, Oakland is NOT a great hacker city unless you can do your hacking on that side of the bay...

dnaquin 18y ago

you pretty much need a car in Austin. best public transit in Texas, but that's not saying much.

natrius 18y ago
Austin is pretty bikeable, and there is (limited) car sharing for the few times you actually need a car. The buses seem like they'd work well enough and were fine the couple of times I used them, but biking is faster and more fun. I think Dallas and Houston have Austin beat in terms of public transit. Dallas has plenty of rail, Houston has some rail with a lot in the works, and Austin has a commuter rail line that's about to open but doesn't actually get you anywhere without transferring to a bus that will be stuck in traffic. There's more to a good transit system than rail, but it's the best indicator I have since I've only used Austin's system in Texas.
- quellhorst 18y ago
  I have lived in Houston for years, that city is designed for having a car. Drivers in big trucks and SUVs are very aggressive around cyclists and pedestrians. A plus is that it was cheap to live there. I did see a coworking place is located on 7th street in Austin for only $350/month.
  - stcredzero 18y ago
    I'm thinking of moving my home base to Austin. And yes, Houston is definitely designed for driving. Even "the cool shops near the university" district near Rice U is essentially just a mall with streets running through it. Things are way too spread out.
- dnaquin 18y ago
  i came from houston. austin wins hands down. the bus system's a lot better. the houston rail line is mostly useless unless you work in the medical center. besides it's possible to bike in austin.
utnick 18y ago

cdibona 18y ago

Cambridge is the only one with both jobs and usable public transport. If you are a decent cyclist, I may add Berkeley.