mid 20s, single, straight male moving to San Jose... Where should I live??
Dec 4th 2012, 3:49 pm
#121
Banned
Joined: Jun 2012
Posts: 1,065
Re: mid 20s, single, straight male moving to San Jose... Where should I live??
Your lawyer is probably a chain-smoker
Dec 4th 2012, 8:02 pm
#122
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Jun 2011
Location: Los Angeles
Posts: 6,159
Re: mid 20s, single, straight male moving to San Jose... Where should I live??
And don't be concerned about aggressive contributors...just relax. There's a lot of good info wrapped up in tough love
Dec 5th 2012, 6:08 am
#123
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Jan 2011
Location: West Sussex - did 3 years in the US...
Posts: 577
Re: mid 20s, single, straight male moving to San Jose... Where should I live??
In response to your initial post and assuming you actually sort your visa situation out and move here for one year, I can offer the following advice...!
Mountain View = good sized downtown area. It's where Google employees tend to work so a large population of software engineers. You pay a lot for the accommodation you get.
Sunnyvale = Not a lot going on... at least in the two months I've lived in the South Bay
Campbell = smaller downtown than Mountain View but good nightlife (this is where I've just moved to) and cheaper rent
Los Gatos = Really nice and really expensive!
San Jose = not a lot going on
Santa Clara = pretty cool central location. Not figured out if there's a 'downtown' area yet.
Santana Row = pretty pretentious and expensive. Not seen any 'hot' women in the couple of trips I've made up there. There's a pub with 150 beers on tap that I want to try out though!
Milpitas = avoid!
Cupertino = Good for schools so most people with kids try to get in the catchment area for this
If you figure the visa out and want to touch base send me a message. I'm a 30 year old single straight guy, just moved out here on a 3 year L1A
Mountain View = good sized downtown area. It's where Google employees tend to work so a large population of software engineers. You pay a lot for the accommodation you get.
Sunnyvale = Not a lot going on... at least in the two months I've lived in the South Bay
Campbell = smaller downtown than Mountain View but good nightlife (this is where I've just moved to) and cheaper rent
Los Gatos = Really nice and really expensive!
San Jose = not a lot going on
Santa Clara = pretty cool central location. Not figured out if there's a 'downtown' area yet.
Santana Row = pretty pretentious and expensive. Not seen any 'hot' women in the couple of trips I've made up there. There's a pub with 150 beers on tap that I want to try out though!
Milpitas = avoid!
Cupertino = Good for schools so most people with kids try to get in the catchment area for this
If you figure the visa out and want to touch base send me a message. I'm a 30 year old single straight guy, just moved out here on a 3 year L1A
If I were young, single and 20, gay or straight, I'd move to San Francisco and avoid the south Bay entirely. Round here is very-much a dormitory town - people are here for one reason and one reason only, and that's to work.
Most are planning their escape at some point - either to go back to their "home" country, to move schools, buy the house they can't afford here, etc. Plus there are a number of quite solitary ethnic groups - the different groups live parallel lives even to the point where entire teams at work will be from the same part of their home country.
East San Jose is a dump and you should really avoid at all costs. Central San Jose is OK, but has a horrendous homeless issue. Other comments agreed with as above.
Unless you are in one of the newer developments, coming from the UK will be quite a shock into how "dilapidated" the housing stock looks - do not be fooled; many of those have value by their location even though they look like the bungalows at a tired English seaside town.
A friend of mine in her late 20s was shocked at the lack of "anything to do" when she moved over from the UK to the South Bay - she ended up moving up to San Francisco and then commuting down. It is true - this is a mostly work/family area - with house prices up in the millions and many of the Asian families sending their kids to private schools at around $30k/year plus buying extra lessons, the focus here is very, very private. Frankly, they don't do much because even on high tech-industry salaries, at the end of the month there is nothing left in the kitty !
