[RNRebecca83]

Hi everyone:
I am moving to Bay area(Palo Alto,San Jose, SF) or Sacramento next month. Not for sure which city to live as I have to consider few issues. I will like to take some community colllege classes, and send kids to school and daycare. I heard traffic in Calif is bad. I am looking for an area that have community colleges or daycares close by. In short, Bay area or Sacramento, which area is good to raise a family? Thank you for helps!
Rebecca

[GeNURSEis2010]

Hi Rebecca!

You sure you want to move to CA? lol. The cost of living here is ridiculous. I live in the SF Bay Area. I can't speak much for Sacramento, other than the fact that when it's hot, it's hot; when it's cold, it's freezing.

You mentioned community colleges. There is the Peralta community college district, which consists of four schools (Alameda, Berkeley City College [formerly Vista College], Laney and Merritt). Merritt College has a Nursing program. Their website is: www.merritt.edu. There is also another school, Samuel Merritt College (same founder I believe), but that is a pricey private school. But very prestigious I might add. There's also Mills College, where they've implemented a program where you do two years there, and you're guaranteed to get in at Samuel Merritt for the remaining two years.

As for the child care, Bananas is a great child care referral place. Oh how could I forget the cities?! The above mentioned places range from Alameda, Berkeley (yes, thee infamous Berkeley, CA) and Oakland. These cities are within a 10-15 mile radius of each other.

I hope that helps; Good luck!!!!

[Kashia]

I also think Merrit College is good choice. Also consider a clean prestine enviornment for your children and a great nusring school.....Lassen Community College in Susanville. About 1.5 hrs north of Sac is a town Chico ( also nice, smaller and schools there) then up the mountains to Susanville. check map, you will find it near Nevada border. My son's and their families are moving back there to Lake Almanor/Chester.
Honestly...when my kids were growing up I wanted them to breathe cleaner air and be out of the city. Sacramento is very polluted. Cities along the coast have little better air quality because of ocean breeze. Traffic is hell that is all I can say..most every highly populated area. People love their cars here...that is why we have global warming. I want to stop driving. SF has great public tranportation.
But with kids I would check out above. Sacto is not a great place....dirty and dirty. But maybe farther up into foothills better....California Native 56yrs

[RNRebecca83]

Thank you guys for your suggetions! Sacramento sounds like not a best place to pick. Your suggestions helps, I may not move to Sacramento.what about living in Davis? Or Fremont? Thanks!!
Rebecca

[pc2]

I am moving to Bay area(Palo Alto,San Jose, SF) or Sacramento next month. Not for sure which city to live as I have to consider few issues. I will like to take some community colllege classes, and send kids to school and daycare. I heard traffic in Calif is bad. I am looking for an area that have community colleges or daycares close by. In short, Bay area or Sacramento, which area is good to raise a family? Thank you for helps!

I grew up in south San Jose and currently live in Redwood City which is just north of Palo Alto (much cheaper). There are several nursing programs at various local community colleges including De Anza community college in Cupertino, Evergreen college in San Jose, Chabot college in Hayward, College of San Mateo in San Mateo and Canada college in Redwood City has an accelerated program in conjunction with SFSU and local hospitals. Palo Alto is a very nice area but is also very expensive. Some areas of San Jose are very nice while other areas such as parts of the east side are not as desirable. You definitely want to take into consideration commute time. Depending on where you live the commute can be pretty bad. The commute from South San Jose heading north is generally pretty bad. The commute from Palo Alto to other local communities is generally pretty good. The weather in Redwood City is generally better than San Jose, not as warm in summer and not quite as cool in winter because of the proximity of the marine layer but the commute is a little bit worse (15 min) heading into Santa Clara, Sunnyvale or San Jose. By the way, Redwood City was voted by the national weather service to have the best climate in the continental US.

Fremont is also a nice area but commute can be bad depending on which way you're headed. Chabot college and Cal. State Easy Bay are both nearby which may be a plus.

The most sought after neighborhoods because of the quality of the k-12 public school system are Palo Alto, Cupertino, and parts of Fremont (ie, Mission school district). The State of California publishes test scores for each school. I believe it's called the STAR report. I hope this helps.

[RNRebecca83]

Thank you for your replies. I think I will be living in Fremont and work in San Jose. How is the traffic with this route? I am looking for a 2 bedroom apartment in Femont. I wonder how much that will cost me. I am trying to get an apartment that kids belong to Fremont Mission school district. Thanks again!!
Rebecca

[pc2]

I will be living in Fremont and work in San Jose. How is the traffic with this route?

The section of highway 580 that runs through Fremont is one of the worst in the bay area because it's same route for those commuting from the East Bay (Pleasonton, Dublin, Livermore) and also from the central valley (Manteca, Stockton) into San Jose, Santa Clara, Sunnyvale where a lot of the jobs are located. The traffic lightens up progressively once you get past route 237 and further away from downtown San Jose and Santa Clara.

Don't know how much rent is but you should be able to get an idea from craigslist.org and also from the online classified ads for the San Jose Mercury News.

There was an incident not long ago where the Mission school district in Fremont redrew the district lines and upset a lot of people who moved into the area thinking they were sending their kids to schools in that district. Check with the schools before signing any lease agreement.