Hello, I'm making perpetrations for moving to California from the Midwest next September. I'm interested in moving to the Bay Area/North California area. Anyone who's from Cali have any tips and tricks for someone who is practically diving into Cali? If Also I would like to know what areas to avoid and affordable places to live. If anyone also know any good leads for IT work or convention staffing that would also be a great bonus. I'll be coming with no support from family and I don't really have friends there either but I do want to restart my life there. Your help would be much appreciated
Hi. "Affordable" and "Bay area" aren't words that go together well. One bedroom apartments, even in crappy or outlying areas, generally are upwards of $2000/month. If you want to live in SF, it can be two or three times that. If you go north, toward Santa Rosa and Healdsburg, it gets less expensive. The Sacramento area isn't too bad. ($800-1200 for a 1br in the Sacramento suburbs will get you something nice.) And if you're willing to live in the boonies, you can, of course, find things cheaper. There's a fair amount of IT in both the 101 corridor toward Santa Rosa and in the Sacramento/Folsom/Roseville area.
I heard living their isn't cheap I'm wondering. Realistically I might be looking into subletting somewhere until I can afford a place. Never though if Santa Rosa. I was more interested in Bay area because I heard it was nice there. Does these places have public transit? Or will I have to foot it to most of these places.
To put it mildly... Unless you are quite wealthy, or willing to sacrifice your quality of life for months, perhaps years... Forget it.
Do you enjoy sitting in traffic? Is your mattress made of dollar bills? If your answer to either of those is "no," don't move to California. I grew up in southern California and will never move back.
Been to SF. Some things you need to know - There are public busses but can't go on steep roads - culture there is AMAZING -Cold and foggy. And wet. - everything is expensive. EVERYTHING - You are NOT going to swim in that ocean. - Crowded. ~Love
Now, now, now... a lot of misconceptions here. First, traffic problems are real if you're in a major area (bay area, LA) and trying to get somewhere during rush hour. Not much of a big deal elsewhere, certainly not worse than comparable cities. And the bay area isn't so bad if you can avoid rush hour. If you can't... it sucks. If you do live in the bay area, it is *possible* to find cheap housing, but you have to be creative. It might be a crappy little room in an elderly person's house at reduced rent, in exchange for helping out with shopping and cleaning. Or living in a converted (or not-so-converted) warehouse; most are not firetraps as the Ghost Ship was. Or find a place seeking another roommate in a rent-controlled apartment or house in SF or Berkeley (rare but possible.) Public transit exists in most decent sized cities, but -- even in the Bay area -- probably a lot more limited than it is in many large east-coast cities, unless you're, say, in downtown SF, or live close to BART or MUNI stops. SF proper is sort of damp much of the year. The east bay (a 20 min BART ride away) not so much. Further east (Concord) not at all. And yes, you can swim in the ocean in the summer.
