I agree with everything Godders has described. We moved from San Mateo two years ago to Grass Valley. San Mateo is very nice but there are places where worse neighborhoods abut nicer ones. I like the western side (we lived on 9th ave) of the 101 much better than the eastern side. I've heard the eastern side (bay side) where houses are built on fill may have slab issues but this may be a complete myth.
Can't vouch for the schools because my oldest wasn't yet enrolled while we were there, however, there's a decent camera store down the Peninsula called Keeble & Shuchat (http://www.kspphoto.com/activepages/main.html) located in Palo Alto. In the city is the venerable Adolph Gasser Photo on 2nd street. I used to work with many former Gasser employees and the store is something of an institution in The City. But better than all of this is the Mexican food. About 6 blocks from 9th avenue was the Pancho Villa Taqueria. They make the best burritos I've ever had and their salsa bar is phenomenal ;-] Yes, I miss the food of the Bay Area. -Brendan --- Godfrey DiGiorgi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I live in Sunnyvale, about 20 miles south of San > Mateo. It's not too > far to go for shopping and dinner, occasionally; > it's a bit of a ride > for commuting but with CalTrain you can get back and > forth from where > I am to there pretty easily and with a bicycle. I > don't know it in > detail but you should look up the various city and > town government > websites, explore it with Google Earth for extensive > information. > > You identified a broad mid-Peninsula area. There are > lots of diverse > neighborhoods of all descriptions in that locale, > with a range from > rather poor and scruffy to fabulously high-priced. > Similarly, there > are many good schools, bike shops, etc. The > Peninsula is fairly hilly > in that area, once you move west (away from the Bay > side); it's fairly > flat along the Bay coastal regions and easy to > bicycle for a distance. > There's a serious rise in elevation through that > area, going east-west > between the Hwy 101 and I-280 highways it's probably > about 1800' as an > average. > > I'm not sure about camera shops around there. I know > there are some, > but the good local camera shops I do business with > are a bit south of > that neighborhood (in Palo Alto, about 10 miles > south of San Mateo). > > Ease of access to transportation, stores, etc all > depends on exactly > where you are in that area, but nothing is > ferociously distant. From > some points, you're in relatively extensive rural > territory within > minutes yet from other points you can go for miles > and not be out of > highly built up territory. > > Godfrey > > > > On Nov 18, 2008, at 9:32 AM, Scott Loveless wrote: > > > Howdy folks. I have a few questions about living > in the San > > Francisco area. > > > > First, there's about a 99.99% chance that we're > staying right where we > > are. However, there's still that slight chance > that Christie may take > > a job in San Mateo. So we've been doing a little > preliminary > > scouting. It's easy enough to look at the map and > see that we'd like > > to be very close to work - within biking distance, > which is probably 3 > > or less for Christie. The closer the better. > We've narrowed it down, > > strictly based on distance, to San Mateo, > Burlingame, Hillsborough, > > Foster City and maybe Belmont. > > > > We'll take a look at things like crime rates, cost > of living, taxes, > > etc., etc., but we'd really like to get some > opinions from folks who > > know the area. Any recommendations? Schools that > don't suck? > > Proximity to camera and bike shops? <g> As far > from the shopping > > mall as possible and still within our distance > limits? > > > > Thanks, folks. Much appreciated. > > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link > directly above and follow the directions. > -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
