Bay Area short term job/suggestions/help

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warwickland
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Bay Area short term job/suggestions/help

Post by warwickland »

I may be receiving a short term stint in the bay area (three weeks), and am trying to figure out where to live, i may find out today. The job is sonoma county, so i'll probably stay in the north bay due to bridges, etc, but may move around a couple of times. As for going to SF proper, taking the 101 bus using golden gate transit seems to be the smart thing to do as the sonoma/marin county rail line isn't finished to the ferry terminal yet and is sort of a dead end in the north bay? As far as sonoma county, does anyone have any opinions on Santa Rosa vs Petaluma? Petaluma appears to be more historic.

I am thinking about staying in Marin county for some of the job to be closer to SF for dinner/evenings but wonder if that will be exhausting, like trying to get into manhattan.

BAY AREA SUGGESTIONS PLEASE 8)
Last edited by warwickland on Tue Sep 17, 2019 8:06 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: Bay Area short term job/suggestions/help

Post by warwickland »

Also Oakland? It has changed A LOT since i was in the bay area last.
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Re: Bay Area short term job/suggestions/help

Post by grovester »

We stay in Marin often as we have relatives in Mill Valley and try to use the ferries from either Sausalito or Larkspur.

We did have a car last trip since the folks were with us and didn't find the drive into SF that bad at all. Of course timing is everything.
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Re: Bay Area short term job/suggestions/help

Post by earthling »

Of course more affordable the further north you stay in Sonoma County but could understand why you'd want to be closer towards city for a short stint. Depends on which you'd rather deal with, work commute or longer city adventures.
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Re: Bay Area short term job/suggestions/help

Post by warwickland »

grovester wrote: Tue Sep 17, 2019 9:16 am We stay in Marin often as we have relatives in Mill Valley and try to use the ferries from either Sausalito or Larkspur.

We did have a car last trip since the folks were with us and didn't find the drive into SF that bad at all. Of course timing is everything.
san rafael seems to be a good choice if i want to go into the city during evenings without a bad drive to sonoma. i'd just have to make that last ferry back to larkspur after dinner or take uber (or the bus). not interested in driving into or around sf for a variety of reasons (including beer), i've spent enough of my life looking for parking in los angeles.

san rafael also looks to be walkable in its own right.
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Re: Bay Area short term job/suggestions/help

Post by warwickland »

earthling wrote: Tue Sep 17, 2019 9:23 am Of course more affordable the further north you stay in Sonoma County but could understand why you'd want to be closer towards city for a short stint. Depends on which you'd rather deal with, work commute or longer city adventures.
i'll probably "move" a couple times, so i'll stay close to the city to get my city/berkeley/oakland fix, then petaluma/sebastopol/santa rosa or something.
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Re: Bay Area short term job/suggestions/help

Post by chrizow »

here is my 2 cents:

if you're going to be in sonoma county, i honestly would not even bother with trying to pop down to SF (or OAK) , unless it's the weekend and you have all day (and maybe could consider staying overnight in the city). there is no fast, convenient, or pleasant way to get from anywhere worthwhile in Sonoma County to SF with a car, let alone transit. My recommendation is to explore the natural splendor and abundant wine/food/beer in Sonoma County itself when you're there and forget about going to SF/Oak. (Related, Sonoma County is pretty large, and most of the good stuff is pretty far off 101 so you're on 2-lane, curving highways most of the time).

Unless work requires you to stay in either Santa Rosa or Petaluma, I would say make a different choice. Neither of those cities have anything particularly worthwhile, so the pros/cons of each would pertain to their proximity to other destinations. Santa Rosa is nice b/c it's close to Healdsburg (a pretty charming little town with a lot of great food options) and the beautiful Alexander Valley region to the north, then you h ave Sebastapol/Forestville/Guerneville (Russian River wine country) etc to the west along Hwy 116 on your way to the ocean, Sonoma State Park, etc. If you haven't done Hwy 1 in this area, it is pretty epic.

Petaluma is kind of close-ish to the southern part of Sonoma county, like Sonoma town (which is fairly charming) and it has decent access over to the Napa valley (although Santa Rosa does too, maybe even better). The scenery down here is a little more arid and austere (and beautiful, warmer and more sunny), whereas up near Santa Rosa and over to the west it's heavily forested (and more likely to be wet/foggy). Both are great, just different. If you have a large amount of time in Sonoma County, I would recommend exploring all over. Lots of cool hiking and exploring to do, esp. along the coast.

Then if work has you move down to Marin County, you could stay almost anywhere but I would recommend getting farther west into the undeveloped area of the county, so you access natural splendor around Stinson Beach and (especially) Point Reyes Nat'l Seashore. From this area you could pop over the GG Bridge to SF without any problem.

As far as Oakland, it's pretty interesting. I have only really spent any time in the Temescal area and other neighborhoods closer to Berkeley. Oakland definitely has more of an edgy, countercultural vibe than SF at this point. SF is pretty amazing but the last couple times i've been out there, I have also noticed a real dire, dystopian vibe. Homeless encampments everywhere, filthy streets, tons of empty speculative development, etc., you really feel the huge disparity out there. I still really dig the far west neighborhoods like the Outer Sunset and going to Ocean Beach. The Mission retains a pretty cool feel despite extreme gentrification.
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Re: Bay Area short term job/suggestions/help

Post by grovester »

Petaluma does have Lagunitas!
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Re: Bay Area short term job/suggestions/help

Post by chrizow »

Good point!
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Re: Bay Area short term job/suggestions/help

Post by swid »

More importantly, Santa Rosa has Russian River. :-D
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Re: Bay Area short term job/suggestions/help

Post by dev49 »

As someone who goes out there a fair amount I would stay closer to your job site. You go there 5 days a week you would only go to SF a handful of times at most. It is easier to deal with the trip over to SF a couple times than a longer commute daily. If they had a BART line up there I would think differently. I probably wouldn't even try to go into the city during the week.
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Re: Bay Area short term job/suggestions/help

Post by warwickland »

chrizow wrote: Tue Sep 17, 2019 12:14 pm here is my 2 cents:

if you're going to be in sonoma county, i honestly would not even bother with trying to pop down to SF (or OAK) , unless it's the weekend and you have all day (and maybe could consider staying overnight in the city). there is no fast, convenient, or pleasant way to get from anywhere worthwhile in Sonoma County to SF with a car, let alone transit. My recommendation is to explore the natural splendor and abundant wine/food/beer in Sonoma County itself when you're there and forget about going to SF/Oak. (Related, Sonoma County is pretty large, and most of the good stuff is pretty far off 101 so you're on 2-lane, curving highways most of the time).

Unless work requires you to stay in either Santa Rosa or Petaluma, I would say make a different choice. Neither of those cities have anything particularly worthwhile, so the pros/cons of each would pertain to their proximity to other destinations. Santa Rosa is nice b/c it's close to Healdsburg (a pretty charming little town with a lot of great food options) and the beautiful Alexander Valley region to the north, then you h ave Sebastapol/Forestville/Guerneville (Russian River wine country) etc to the west along Hwy 116 on your way to the ocean, Sonoma State Park, etc. If you haven't done Hwy 1 in this area, it is pretty epic.

Petaluma is kind of close-ish to the southern part of Sonoma county, like Sonoma town (which is fairly charming) and it has decent access over to the Napa valley (although Santa Rosa does too, maybe even better). The scenery down here is a little more arid and austere (and beautiful, warmer and more sunny), whereas up near Santa Rosa and over to the west it's heavily forested (and more likely to be wet/foggy). Both are great, just different. If you have a large amount of time in Sonoma County, I would recommend exploring all over. Lots of cool hiking and exploring to do, esp. along the coast.

Then if work has you move down to Marin County, you could stay almost anywhere but I would recommend getting farther west into the undeveloped area of the county, so you access natural splendor around Stinson Beach and (especially) Point Reyes Nat'l Seashore. From this area you could pop over the GG Bridge to SF without any problem.

As far as Oakland, it's pretty interesting. I have only really spent any time in the Temescal area and other neighborhoods closer to Berkeley. Oakland definitely has more of an edgy, countercultural vibe than SF at this point. SF is pretty amazing but the last couple times i've been out there, I have also noticed a real dire, dystopian vibe. Homeless encampments everywhere, filthy streets, tons of empty speculative development, etc., you really feel the huge disparity out there. I still really dig the far west neighborhoods like the Outer Sunset and going to Ocean Beach. The Mission retains a pretty cool feel despite extreme gentrification.
good stuff all!

chris, this is great and confirms my admittedly foggy and uninformed instincts, which is to go all in on sonoma county and beyond. i am planning on doing some coast camping as well. point reyes is most definitely happening, an old “shit i wish i.”

i still have to get that big town fix...the sunset has always been missed on my past SF trips and it’s always been a desire for me to explore it a bit, so good on that! it will be fairly easy (i think) to access coming in on the 101 bus line for a day, so i’ll likely FINALLY walk around the sunset along with the botanical garden. i’ll bet that i will be happy with just that bit.

i have an ancient Not For Tourists from like 2006 for SF i’ll have to pull out for shits.
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Re: Bay Area short term job/suggestions/help

Post by warwickland »

addendum: i’ve never crossed the golden gate so the entire west coast between marin and central oregon/crater lake is unknown to me.
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Re: Bay Area short term job/suggestions/help

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warwickland wrote: Wed Sep 18, 2019 5:22 pm addendum: i’ve never crossed the golden gate so the entire west coast between marin and central oregon/crater lake is unknown to me.
if time allows you should def. go up Hwy 1 from Marin to as far north as you are willing to go. Mendocino county is great - redwoods, epic rocky coasts, very pacific northwesty!

also: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/26/trav ... coast.html
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Re: Bay Area short term job/suggestions/help

Post by grovester »

Marin just by itself can keep you busy.

Marin Headlands, Stinson Beach, Dipsea Trail, Mt. Tam
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Re: Bay Area short term job/suggestions/help

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Was at the Marin Headlands yesterday...if someone doesnt go there when they visit the bay area they have done blown it man. I dont think ive seen anything like it, and beats the pants off fishermans wharf or whatever other tourist thing. Its worth the extra little hike to go above the parking areas where everyone else is. i had a mountaintop to myself.

traffic southbound towards the city is fine at night, and i waited until after 8 to drive back north. wouldnt want to do it every day but i think i got to the gg bridge in 40 minutes.

Spent last weekend in mendocino county and i'm going back this weekend...
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Re: Bay Area short term job/suggestions/help

Post by warwickland »

so, got a dose of california reality between having two fires (and a third-degree burned homeless guy who started them) next to my jobsite (we had to actually fight one of them to prevent it from spreading onto our jobsite), traffic (mainly the horror of 3 hour commutes/car sleeping for co-workers), vast power outages and resultant chaos...after being there for almost three weeks i was ready to head home (or have a long weekend in mendocino county).

also, one of the most beautiful places in the country, without a doubt, and would love to go back for work. this is the third trip to california this year but really my first real california reality check i guess.
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Post by warwickland »

i missed out on the earthquake fun today...hopefully not prologue for something worse.
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Re: Bay Area short term job/suggestions/help

Post by brewcrew1000 »

warwickland wrote: Tue Oct 15, 2019 4:25 pm so, got a dose of california reality between having two fires (and a third-degree burned homeless guy who started them) next to my jobsite (we had to actually fight one of them to prevent it from spreading onto our jobsite), traffic (mainly the horror of 3 hour commutes/car sleeping for co-workers), vast power outages and resultant chaos...after being there for almost three weeks i was ready to head home (or have a long weekend in mendocino county).

also, one of the most beautiful places in the country, without a doubt, and would love to go back for work. this is the third trip to california this year but really my first real california reality check i guess.

Are you in the Fire Fun this week?
Also, has the homelessness in SF really that bad now? I remember going to SF about 7 years ago and i thought it was great, the homelessness was still mainly around tenderloin and city hall area but has it now spread to other neighborhoods?

This article kind of shocked me, is it really that bad there now?
https://www.city-journal.org/san-francisco-homelessness
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Re: Bay Area short term job/suggestions/help

Post by mean »

I don't know, but City Journal isn't exactly known as a conservative hit-piece rag, which was my initial thought when reading that piece. It can't be that bad, right? Or perhaps excessive wokeness makes for shit public policy in the same way that excessive anything tends to.
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