I did a search on this topic and the posts are a little dated, so pardon the old/new topic. Work is offering me a relocation from St. Louis to the San Jose area, and obviously it seems like a no brainer considering I’m reasonably young (30), my girlfriend is on board w/ the idea, and my family & friends (who I am very close with) are also on board.
Any caveats? What are the good areas to live for young professionals?
Thanks in advance!
For the riding you’d want to move to palo alto, woodside, los altos, that kind of area. For fun stuff to do and an urban environment you have to go to San Francisco. Mountain View has a fun downtown but it’s quite small. If living in SJ you definitely have to er…bring your own female with you.
It’d be a good move though. The weather is hard to beat. The number of available races is hard to top. The riding is really and truly awesome. So are the number of other triathletes/cyclists etc. I highly recommend it.
ya san jose itself is kinda rough for cycling/running. up 130/mt hamilton is a decent climb, but the long rides with limit traffic is limited. but the woodside/palo alto area is terrific and its easy to see 1,000 cyclist on a decent weather weekend
If living in SJ you definitely have to er…bring your own female with you.
Yes, remarkably, there are no interesting, single females in this city of 1,023,083 people.
oh come now. You know what I mean. The odds are not really good for single men in San Jose. It’s not that there aren’t any awesome women in SJ, just not as many as the men who are looking.
Let me know if you have any specific questions about the area as my store is located in Palo Alto and I live in Menlo Park.
What are the main things that you and your g/f are looking for in terms of training, nightlife, commute time, etc? Even if you don’t end up staying permanently it is a great place to experience and explore.
.
Make sure they pay you enough to accommodate the cost of housing. That said, it’s so expensive because the area is amazing. Swim in the ocean, bike in the mountains, run on the trails in the redwoods.
Good luck!
Very few people are going to get paid equivalent dollars here versus most other parts of the US, it should be more like a calculation of how much purchasing power is one willing to give up to live here. 
I just moved up here to Norcal. Holy crap the cycling here is unbelievable.
There are no less than 5 cycling clubs doing rides every single day of the week, at all levels here. If you’re not working, there’s a group ride to be found every day 7 days per week. And the routes are spectacular (climbs galore!)
It’s the first time I’ve ever considered becoming a pure cyclist. Even in LA, I never came close to considering it, but up here, I think I’d prefer pure cycling to tri!
OWS is a bit hard to find up here (surprisingly). No shortage of great swimmers here though with Stanford in the area and lots of good masters pool programs.
And yes - real estate here is HELLA expensive.
Menlo Park/Palo Alto is the way to go. Much more of a community feel than Mtn. View, Sunnyvale or San Jose. There is no nightlife on the Peninsula, but SF’s awesome clubs are accessible. Great riding, everything from flats to 5 mile climbs up redwood-lined switchbacks.
Tons of triathletes and lots of pros (prepare to not win your AG). Great bike shops. Lots of tri-clubs from recreational to hard-core.
Real estate is uber expensive: figure $1,500 for a 1 bed 1.5 bath 700ft^2, $1,800-$2K for a 2bd/2ba 1000ft^2. Houses start at $750K for a hut on a postage stamp (prices don’t change much along the Peninsula).
Prepare for car-shock. I moved here from Cleveland and two minutes after I arrived I saw a Porsche go by and was like “wow!” 30 seconds later another goes by…here they are commuter cars. It takes a Lamborghini to turn heads. Not everyone has a really nice car, but they are abundant.
PM me if you are looking to move out here and I can give you more data and clue you in on the good restaurants.
Let me know if you have any specific questions about the area as my store is located in Palo Alto and I live in Menlo Park.
What are the main things that you and your g/f are looking for in terms of training, nightlife, commute time, etc? Even if you don’t end up staying permanently it is a great place to experience and explore.
.
Commute time for me will vary…I’m in consulting (office will be located in Mtn View, but clients will be scattered throughout Silicon Valley so I’ll be going wherever my engagements are at). In terms of nightlife, access to cool bars/restaurants (not douchey nightclubs though) loaded w/ young professionals like ourselves (I’m 30, she’s 25) would be ideal.
I kind of have laid off triathlons the past couple years and am strictly a roadie now, so are there plenty of criteriums, circuit, and road races in the area?
Really strong roadie scene too. On my ride yesterday I saw a couple of the Colavitas and the Yahoo! Cycling team car.
The Valley has no nightlife (good restaurants and cafes though), go up to SF for that (world class).
There’s a huge number of teams; I can think of 5 based on the peninsula, and a ton of good rides.
There are at least 7 crits throughout the year you can ride to from Palo Alto. And then there are tons of races within a few hours drive. You can race pretty much every weekend without driving more than 4 hours I’d guess. And if you’re not racing then you can do morning group rides where Cadel Evans (among others) has showed up.
It’s basically cycling heaven.
Extremely strong roadie riding/racing in the area. The season starts in Jan and goes through Sept so most guys can get at least two good peaks in. When I was doing a lot of bike racing I would have about 30 race days a year and that was considered low. There are a lot of crits and a few road races. A lot of the road races require driving to the central valley but there are a few. Circuit races will be more common than road races. There is an active track racing scene at the Hellyer velodrome for variety too.
It is very common for cyclist to move out here after living elsewhere and being surprised by the level/depth of talent here. I’ve gone to local races and been a field with Zabriskie and Leipheimer before. I didn’t win those.
As for living there are a lot of good restaurants on the Peninsula. Castro St. in Mountain View is predominantly restaurants, Palo Alto has a good assortment and a couple in Menlo Park. Palo Alto has the most number of bars that I can think of and then Mountain View. Not too many in Menlo Park though. There are a lot of younger techies in the area thanks to Google, Apple, Facebook, etc. so it shouldn’t be a problem meeting those types.
Commute times will depend on where you are heading. It is very spread out throughout the area as most people have flexible hours and can avoid some of the traffic. That is in contrast to Wash. DC where everyone is on the roads from 5-7pm so the commute sucks.
Hope that helps, let me know if you have other questions.
.
I kind of have laid off triathlons the past couple years and am strictly a roadie now, so are there plenty of criteriums, circuit, and road races in the area? <<
NorCal has probably the best scene in the nation.
A few websites to get you started.
clm