move to the bay area!

where is a reasonable place to live around the berkeley/el cerritos area where i might be able to afford a place with a roommate on a server’s salary, or is it pretty much a given that i’d have to work two jobs and have like five roommates?

I wish everyone with this goal well in achieving it. The bay area is a fantastic place. Overall the weather is wonderful, the diversity is amazing and there is so much to do both in the bay area and in the surrounding areas. There are lots of really cool people (and a fair helping of jerks as well, but they’re everywhere.)

The best thing you can do is live near where you work or live close to public transportation that can reliably get you to where you work.

San Francisco is absolutely the most wonderful city I’ve ever lived in. There are only two reasons not to live here: it’s incredibly expensive (but not as expensive as Paris) and there is no place to park (just get rid of your car as I did, you don’t need it). Other than that, the weather is perfect, the people are wonderful and diverse and interesting and smart, the food is AMAZING, the art community is thriving again, rent is down (somewhat. As for the rest of the Bay Area…skip it. You’ll just wish you lived in The City.

I moved to the Bay Area from where I grew up (Northeast U.S.) after I graduated from college. (Two years late.) Then I moved to Paris. The Bay Area is fun for a while. Then it gagged me with all its Bay Area-ness. Paris was a relief. I still have no home, though.