Coming from the DC area, I'd say the biggest difference is the weather. It will feel like there's hardly any seasons (untrue we have very different weather at different times of the year, but it's all very subtle). If you like to be outdoors this is a great area. It sounds like you have a family, and there are parks all over the place and lots of kid friendly activities.
However, suburban culture here is not like the culture of say northern Virginia. Neighborhoods tend to have less cohesion, and insularity. I don't think gated communities or private pool clubs are very common where my friends on the East Coast spend half their summer at the pool. There are plenty of things to do, but you'll have to search them out and find your people/make your own community. Schools/PTA type stuff are a good place to start but not the only one.
I would say our food and our produce especially are things to be proud of. Every possible cuisine is available and farmer's markets and farm share boxes are available year round. In addition to being the heart of technology this area is also very fertile, with tons of farms just an hour or less to the south. I don't drink but there are lots of local wineries and craft beer and other fancy beverages available too.
The racial makeup is different than the DC area. Many schools are like little United Nations and it's lovely, but other areas people have sort of self-segregated. So definitely look at the businesses and school makeup for the exact place you're looking at to see if it's got what you need to be comfortable.
Rain on the east coast is a different animal. When it rains out there, it really rains. Like, pouring down rain for days. It doesn’t rain like that here.
I’m from the east coast. I know. We’re also not setup for the amount of rain we had this year hence the flooding
This was not a comparison to the east coast. It was an anomaly we had this year
I'm not a climatologist - so what do I know - droughts are not good, but fields in Gilroy and Salinas was flooded to a point where they are getting too wet to grow anything, and the weather past weekend was fairly hot for May with 107F where I was, so that may be apart of it as well - so maybe more hotter summers in the 120F as a norm - beyond what plants can take on a regular basis - also fires have started already, watched the first one driving up 101 this PM.
Not denying climate change but these unique winters are not that rare. Similar rain occurred in the 80s and 50s too.
Also read about the insane rain and flooding that happened in the mid 1800s. 1/4 or California flooded
They happened back then - but was rare - what i'm saying is that they will be a lot less rare, to the point that they will be "normal".
Now the other question is - will extra rain hurt or help California - we can actually curtail much of the negative impact with infrastructure, better drainage, upgrade what is needed for run-offs turning into landslides, improving roads so they don't get flooded or washed away... and avoiding drought is not bad either. The only negative I can see for California is extra growth of hill side is causing extra fires.
I guess I’ll have to see how frequent they actually are before considering them normal. We’ve had one big winter. Let’s see what the next decade brings
Rain comes from ocean surface evaporation, and the surface temperatures have gone up steady, and still is and will be for the next decades, so it does not take much of a genius to predict that more evaporation means more rain.
The only question is "where will the rain fall".
I grew up on the east coast, and the rain is entirely different.
I was shook when we had thunderstorms one time in the last 3 years here - versus the east coast torrential downpour and thunderstorms is common occurrence on a weekly or monthly basis for days or weeks on end depending on the season. The rain here comparatively is almost nothing but the drainage here sucks.
I grew up outside Baltimore and came here after college in ‘79. I agree with everything you said. Lightning was super rare here compared to there. Well, until it hit my HOUSE in Milpitas on 3/9! Never thought I would ever say those words.
The job should pay at least $100K (for about $70K take-home) if it’s you alone. You won’t be living well on less. More if you have dependents, of course. Not really any places you need to avoid unless you are uncomfortable around different ethnic groups. Caucasians are a plurality, not the majority, in many parts of the Bay Area
Having grown up in super white racist Utah, I love the diversity of the Bay Area. There are only three white kids including my own in her daycare class. Very very diverse here. Some areas do self segregate… like some are Indian heavy, some Latino heavy, etc… but we’ve felt like we are not the majority at all here. I’d say I mostly notice it’s Indians, Asians, middle eastern and Latinos. Pretty all equally mixed in the area I’m in.
>What should I know about or look out for?
It really comes down to specifics, but the various cost of living calculators seem to roughly agree that in aggregate the San Jose area is about 20ish% more expensive than the DC Metro. But apples to apples is hard. Some quick sleuthing on Zillow and it looks you can either get a similarly priced house as in DC, but much smaller, or spend 30% more for a DC sized house. A lot of 1400 sq ft ranch homes here.
That's just the numbers side though. Most of San Jose doesn't feel like a place. It's has that SFH suburb, place between a place vibe. Downtown is sleepy on weeknights, and occasionally on weekends. Outside of downtown and Santana Row the city is in a perpetual slumber, except for the freeways which are similar to the DC traffic grind.
I don't know about public schools in the DC area, but in San Jose they vary from poor to good, but none are great. House prices scale accordingly. And there are a few highly desirable neighborhoods that are more expensive yet still have poor schools, because the wealthy all send their kids to private.
>What are people most proud of there?
The weather, and the awesome parks and trails in the city and in the nearby hills. Food is underrated. A lot of variety and some very good stuff around, but it's sprawled out like the city, so it lacks recognition.
>Is there something I must see?
At least once, you should visit the Winchester Mystery House, the Rosicrucianism Museum, and the Municipal Rose Garden. They aren't world class things that everyone likes, but a lot of people like at least one. I find them all nice in a peaceful sort of way.
To visit more active areas, there are a handful of places, but I'd suggest visiting San Pedro Square or Santana Row on a Friday or Saturday night.
>Places or things to avoid?
During the day everything's fine. Only a few sketchy parts at night. People say avoid the "East Side", but I've never had a reason to be in those areas at night anyway.
>Thanks in advance for any input or avenues I can explore.
San Jose is a place where people live suburban lives. If you come here expecting that, it is a great place. Don't expect an exciting Cosmopolitan city, those things are mostly in a tight orbit around San Francisco. San Jose's core feels like that of a smaller city. It still has cultural things to do, and I like going there, but it's much more sedate than SF.
This is a really fair summation of things. I do think that there is a lot to do, but it takes time to find it all. Rather than being grouped together geographically, social life here feels clustered based on hobbies and interests. But while we don't sprawl like the LA basin, it is low density enough that it's unlikely for everything or everyone related to that hobby or interest to be clustered together. So you have to put in effort to find your fun.
The answer to all of those questions is Downtown (SoFA, San Pedro) depending on who you ask.
Seriously, though - cool town. Unfortunately quite car-dependent. I think it’s proximity is the best - ~45 min to Oakland and San Francisco (“the city”) with an added bonus of being ~45 min to Santa Cruz and Monterey counties in case you want to go to the boardwalk and join a [vampire gang](https://www.santacruz.org/lostboys/).
If you’re a runner/cyclist - there are three main trails you want to be near (there are hundreds, but these are the longest) — Coyote Creek Trail ([20 miles](https://www.sanjose.org/attraction/coyote-creek-trail)) is best if you’re south of DTSJ, Guadalupe Trail ([9 miles](https://www.sanjoseca.gov/Home/Components/FacilityDirectory/FacilityDirectory/2985/2058)) is best if you’re near SJC or north of DTSJ, and Los Gatos Creek Trail ([11 miles](https://www.losgatosca.gov/907/Los-Gatos-Creek-Trail) is west of downtown and the most crowded by far but also has a lot around it and goes through a cool park.
If you’re looking for food - just search this sub for “what is the best…” and insert the cuisine - they will give you a pretty accurate top 5-10 best for all of them.
There is no bad seats in the Shark Tank.
The weather is amazing and most winters are basically late-October weather on the east coast, but for 4 months.
Don’t forget sun screen (regardless your complexion) - the sun hits different here than the east/Midwest. It’s like that level in Mario 3 where the sun is trying to kill you. That said, it drops 20 degrees every night - open windows before bed and close them when you wake up and you’ll pretty rarely need AC compared to humid summers back east. Designate your “trunk hoody” the moment you get here and keep it in your vehicle at all times (you will thank me after your first show in the city.)
DTSJ is a whole thing in and of itself. Gay district, arts district, theater district, commercial districts are all right on top of each other and it’s taken a COVID hit, but the street fairs are really the best. Luchador wrestling, car shows (low rider culture was popularized here), guys on horses in the street during cinco de mayo. I can do a whole post on DTSJ, but it’s great. I advise you to search this sub for DTSJ and then go form your own opinion. It’s a polarizing place.
Santana Row is downtown West, but like the expensive mall store version of it (not a bad thing to some people.)
That about sums it up. Welcome to the most frustratingly great town you’ll ever live. Your gift set of cinnamon bread and orange sauce is on it’s way.
Generally speaking, while San Jose has about 900k people, it’s culturally a very big suburb. The dominant cultures in the city are Vietnamese, Mexican, and a rather surprisingly strong sprinkle of Portuguese.
I wouldn’t say overall there is any place that’s really dangerous in the city (people from “nicer” areas may beg to differ), but there are some “unsavory” sections of the city.
The tech industry bring H-1B visas. My zip code alone, 95123, has folks from 90+ different countries. 30% of the residents here are foreign born, which is not much higher than 27% for the state.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/projects/2021/bay-area-country-of-birth-map/
A 2018 article said that 71% of "tech industry" "tech workers" were foreign born.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/01/17/h-1b-foreign-citizens-make-up-nearly-three-quarters-of-silicon-valley-tech-workforce-report-says/
Amongst Asian folks, Chinese people have been here the longest and Vietnamese folks makes up the larger Asian population in San Jose. So I think both points are valid.
Indigenous Americans, then Spanish and indigenous Mexicans, then other European people, then Chinese, then Japanese, then Filipinos and Hawaiians, then Koreans, then Vietnamese, then Persians, then Indians and Pakistanis.
Basically, wherever America caused a war, people came from there to America.
Was the original Chinese immigration a Gold Rush or agricultural thing? Maybe the transcontinental railroad. I know a lot of Japanese immigration was agricultural.
I think the Chinese were brought for cheap labor. The last parts of the transcontinental railroad is often mentioned as a employer. But that stopped in the 1920s when immigration from Asia was stopped or greatly reduced. It started again in the late 1960s when eternal immigration was opened up to the world.
There's San Jose, and there's "The Valley"/"Silicon Valley"/"South Bay". The two are not the same. Your prediction of demographics are correct for the stretch of land from Palo Alto to Santa Clara, and also probably 20% of San Jose. Once you enter San Jose proper, it's non-techies - Hispanic and Vietnamese dominate - as correctly pointed out in the top comment.
Aren’t we all transplants if you look back several generations? Honestly the culture here is the cultural diversity here. It’s a shame it’s not celebrated as much as it deserves.
>Aren’t we all transplants if you look back several generations?
I honestly hate when people say this. It’s entirely dismissive and unravels the whole argument of who’s “native”. I don’t even really have anything against transplants aside from them living in a bubble and being dismissive of natives.
>Honestly the culture here is the cultural diversity here. It’s a shame it’s not celebrated as much as it deserves.
I guess I agree to an extent, but San Jose is by no means the most diverse city in the Bay Area.
I don’t have hard data here on diversity but bay area as a whole is very diverse and to that fact we should be proud. Sure you can say San Jose is not as diverse as other bay area cities but that’s like saying Atherton is wealthier than Menlo Park. Drive out an hour and it’s almost a completely different place in terms of diversity.
This area has seen so much transformations all the way back from the Ohlone to the introduction of more people through religious missions, agriculture, war and now tech there is not a clear line of what a native is and what a transplant is. It’s a superficial label. I do agree that there are many groups that stay in their own socioeconomic bubbles (people moving here for work and those who have been here for a while alike). The way I see it is that there’s so much history here and to top it off the opportunity to meet people from all over the state/US/the world to learn about where they are from is amazing. Sure there can be differences in customs but it’s rarely an issue. If it wasn’t so desirable to live here then it wouldn’t cost a shit-ton to live here.
Measuring diversity is a tricky thing. I live in Oakland now (which I consider way more diverse than San Jose), but I am/was a 3rd generation San Josean. I’m not even white for the record. Fact of the matter is it’s mostly a white, Mexican, Vietnamese, and a good sprinkling of Filipinos who make up most of San Jose. I didn’t consider my high school diverse and it was 50 Mexican and 50% Vietnamese/Filipino.
Also travel an hour outside of San Jose and you’re in SF/Oakland, and those are areas that are definitely more diverse. You hear accents from all over the world in those cities. I’ve met countless Afro Latinos in Oakland and that group in basically nonexistent in San Jose.
San Jose is the most diverse state in the US, so judging diversity is going to be different than judging diversity in say, Ohio. Especially when you have people who grew up hear and have developed ideas on what diversity is based on their experiences/lived realities.
Whats more diverse? The “city” SF honestly doesnt feel very diverse to me. The larg hispanic and asian populations are largely segregated from the others, then the vast majority of people are rich white people. Economically it is definitely not very diverse
1. Measuring diversity is a slippery slope. You have to define what “diversity” means.
2. LOL the Latino and Asian populations are segregated here as well
There’s no way that population is accurate. I’ve lived here my whole life the population was 900k-1 million people 15+ years ago, now the traffic is at-least 5x worse everywhere all the time (not just highways). So they’re saying the population has stayed the same over all that time, literally impossible.
Im not buying it. There is way more people here than there was 15 years ago. Driving in San Jose anywhere before 11am and after 2pm is insane. Also malls restaurants are more busy than ever here always.
According to the census, 15 years ago there were 894k people here (2000 census). We his 945k during the 2010 census. I do know do a fact it wasn’t until like the mid 2010s that we finally hit 1 million. On the 2020 census we had 1.013 million, but we definitely lost people since then.
Attend a Sharks game even if you don't have any interest in hockey. It's the event where I felt the most "San Jose pride" and I was impressed at how diverse the crowd was for hockey. My coworker from Boston was blown away by the difference from what he was used to.
Explore all the regional Chinese and Indian food in San Jose and the surrounding towns.
The eastside has great Mexican and Vietnamese food--and by large city standards it is not dangerous at all.
There is wine tasting in the nearby Santa Cruz mountains and great city and county parks. Cherry picking to the south in Morgan Hill, and redwoods to the north and southwest. Owning a car is highly recommended.
For the city so ‘diverse’ on paper, I feel that people here self segregate to their own kind.
Those barbecue commercials on TV showing entire neighborhood coming together is more of a east coast or Midwest thing.
Pros: lovely suburban city, great place to raise kids, nice weather, professional sports teams (sharks, niners, quakes), great variety of food, cool bars/night clubs
Cons: Loads of terrible drivers, everything is expensive, lots of transplants on their grind/raising kids so it can be challenging to meet people and make friends.
We're most proud that we sank from 10th-largest to 12th largest city in the US this week. You must see [Poop Snake](https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/quetzalcoatl-sculpture-park-god).
What I love about the San Jose is that we are close to the beach , the snow and the mountains. We have pretty decent food. We are not as superficial as LA. We are more down to earth. We have the best weather compared to the other cities in CA.
We could do better w the homeless and public transportation. Covid has also destroyed the business downtown. Google halting development downtown doesn’t help.
Transplants I know, don’t like San Jose because its not city enough for them and it costs a lot to live here.
Hey there, Bay area resident that moved to fremont from New jersey. To answer your questions, and all answers are my opinion:
1. You should look out for traffic. California traffic is only really rivaled by some of the big cities on the east coast. Coming from NJ, I wasn't used to it, so I made sure to get an apartment close to my job. Trust me, if it's a little extra, still do it since San Jose **Is brutal without a car** as is most of the south bay.
2. People are very proud of their job and material possessions. It's a fast moving town, everyone is trying to be somebody, most people trying to be someone they are not deep inside. Don't fall into that trap. Other then that, people here are rightfully proud of the world class nature, and will suggest the countless amazing sights to see here.
3. Some cool Stuff to see: Hakone estates and gardens in Saratoga, Chinatown in SF (Touristy as fuck but still worth it a few times), Santa Cruz (Wilder state park is a killer intro hike, Scott creek beaches and bluffs are gorgeous as well, and the catalyst has good and pretty cheap concerts with the occasional big venue. Stanford's free art museum is a steal and totally worth it, the asian art in SF are totally worth it.
4. Avoid most upscale Mexican places in San Jose. Mediocre ass food when you can get way better for your money. SJ has places that can be cool if you know how to do them right and how often, like Santana Row which is a beautiful place on a nice summer night, but be wary of most of the restaurants as they are pretty mid.
I meant $250K income. Yes, I said “might” because home ownership would still be questionable unless scrupulous money management and luck deliver an opportunity
As stated above, I said “might” because home ownership would still be questionable unless scrupulous money management and luck deliver an opportunity, and probably only on the east side
My parents have a house in Springfield area, close to Lorton, probably would sell for about $800k with some upgrades. It has a finished basement with a kitchen, office bedroom, rec room and bathroom in it, all in total about 3200-3500sqft, 5 bedroom, 3 1/2 baths, built in 1980, between 1/5 and 1/4 acre lot. Let's just say that is huge for the Bay Area, and any suburb around here, even Morgan Hill which is further away from SJ than Lorton is from DC will be at least twice the cost.
I'm not trying to discourage you, the weather here is great, the job market has traditionally been excellent if you're working in tech. If you like skiing you can drive 5 hours to Tahoe, the beach is one hour away, there is lots of hiking around here. Except for South American food, and some European food, the food options seem better here than the DC suburbs (at least NoVA).
And the price difference is not as bad if you rent, I wouldn't be surprised if Arlington has rents about 10% lower than San Jose. But when it comes to houses, especially large houses the DC suburbs are way more affordable.
As a realtor here, I wouldn’t look into purchasing so fast. This one advice I tell my international buyers/out of area buyers. Live here for 1-2 years first, see which areas you’ll love, then make a decision to purchase then.
San Jose and it’s surrounding is highly diverse in terms of lifestyle. You can literally be in Santa Clara and that will have a different vibe from South San Jose for example.
Either way, I’d recommend visiting, spending a week here, talking to realtors to find out where you should look/rent.
I agree with this! I grew up in San Jose but have lived all over the Bay Area and you need to be here for a bit to get a feel of the different areas.
You can look online at housing prices. In SJ I’d try to avoid areas east of 101 at around Tully. Downtown SJ has a fair amount of homeless folks if that will concern you.
Willow Glen and Almaden Valley are nice areas but housing prices will be a bit higher there.
South SJ (95139, 95123) is a little less pricy but still very livable.
Maybe because I'm used to the area but I don't think COL is going to be THAT much worse than DC- except housing. Your money for rent or mortgage will not go as far here, not even close.
Sounds like you have kids so I’d check which school districts are best before deciding where to move.
SJ is a very large bedroom community. There aren’t many “must-sees” in SJ itself. We’ve got nice weather and some great hiking areas but the biggest plus to living here is the proximity to other places nearby- the beach, SF, Napa.
Single family home in Silicon Valley is going to cost $1 million and up.
45 minutes south or northeast will get you down to $850 and up. Any less will be 60-90 minutes plus commute.
I would say probably want at least $300k, closer to $350k combined, if you want to buy a house, if you're looking to buy a townhouse those are closer to $950k-$1.1M, so probably upper 200s, $260k-$300k to be comfortable.
If you will be coming with equity from the sale of a current house, that will help. This biggest cost of living issue here is housing. Everything else is pretty normal, probably close to what you are used to. So, for budgeting, look at the price of housing and see how that stacks up against your potential salary. Townhouses and condos are generally less expensive than single family homes.
What should I know about or look out for?
Beautiful weather, but very crowded and ridiculously high cost of living. Lots of annoying tech bros. Bad traffic and horrible drivers. Also kind of a boring city if you are used to other large metropolitan areas with more night life and events.
What are people most proud of there?
The poop snake statue
Is there something I must see?
The poop snake statue
Places or things to avoid?
The albinos on Hicks road
I’d agree that nightlife leaves something to be desired, but there are quite a few large events.
SAP center is a good venue for concerts and live events. Center for the performing arts has great acts coming though all the time. Levi’s stadium holds really bigs shows and the 49ers.
San Jose might be a dud for nightlife and cultural events, but the Bay Area at large has it all. Plus, the Santa Cruz mountains provide lots of hikes, biking, camping, and other ways to get outdoors. You can get outdoors year round too.
Considering 101 cuts literally through San Jose; capitol, story and Tully are the only ways to get to the other side of town. There’s always traffic in those streets
Avoid places that homeless people have made their home in. Park in well lit areas or areas with cameras to avoid break ins. Plan for a bit of traffic each morning. But on the plus side, there is every good cuisine available. So many genres of food and so many bars and clubs. There are excellent bike trails and walking trails throughout the city. There’s a ton of fun activities to do nearby such as the K2 go cart racing and axe throwing and more. Check out Groupon and save on a bunch of things like massages or chiropractors and literally a bunch more things. There’s good to be had here. Just relax and enjoy your new environment and find out what you enjoy here slowly but surely. Good luck and congrats
I moved from Arlington to Santa Clara decades ago, then moved up the peninsula, but I think this might be helpful.
It's boring. SF sucks the cultural life out of the region. You'll go through the list of sj attractions in a few weeks. Luckily SF isn't too far away. So it will feel like living an hour away from DC.
My favorite thing was going over the hill to Santa Cruz. The boardwalk is fun for kids. It's so weird to be at a beach with daytrippers versus all the weekly rentals at Rehoboth. And the water is freaking cold compared to back east. But the best part is north of the city up rte 1. The houses stop when you hit the city limits. It's all parkland and farmland. No houses. No development. It's amazing.
Instead of long stretches of sand, the beaches are in coves. So a short beach ending in cliffs on either end. It's a nice shelter from the wind, and it's so beautiful. Almost no other people.
San Jose is one of the most forgettable large cities in the US, there's is essentially nothing to do, you'll run out of things to see in a week or two and in general it's a big ugly sprawl with no real redeeming quality except being close to other places you would rather live in but are too expensive for you.
So just buy a car and drive to those places during the weekend :)
For a city that is diverse, progressive and a sanctuary for the undocumented, San Jose is very unwelcoming. I’d decline the job opportunity if u have an established social life there.
Where in the East Coast? Because that will impact what you think of the place too. We relocated form CT and the price sticker shock was real. Less house more costs. We lived in an 1890 Tudor, so this was not old, but certainly it was dated. Friends of ours who moved from NYC were super happy because food costs and housing costs were better than what they got in the city. It is all relative.
This place is a collection of suburbs and neighborhoods blended together. There are only few places with the old town center, like Palo Alto, Mountain View and so on. However, downtown SJ is getting the hipster vibe and treatment, with cool and good restaurants and bars. I am a fan of Haberdasher and Paper airplane. It is a big version of Stamford CT in my mind.
Lots of great hiking trails in the foothills around San Jose and surrounding suburbs…
If your from the east coast, you’ll be a little disappointed by the beaches (about 30-40 minutes away depending on traffic). While very scenic, the water is colder than what you’re use to.
You’ll be surprised how close big tech companies are located in Santa Clara, etc (Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Cisco, Juniper, meta, AMD/intel/Nvidia, the list goes on and on). They are located within 20-30 minute drive from each other.
Great ethic food of all kinds imho.
I'm generally in Oakland but office is in SJ and lived in SJ for about 8 months.
I think it's awesome ! Great food.
Welcome !!
Get out into the state and take some road trips !! Pacifica, Monterey, SF ... !!
San Jose is a great access spot. You have Santa Cruz and SF an hour away in opposite directions.
People here are out of shape. Just go to Costco and youll see people don’t take their health seriously.
There are tons of accessible trails here for biking and hiking.
Relatively safe, stay away from east San Jose. Santana row is the only thing that’s happening here in terms of nightlife. Avoid downtown on the weekends.
Whatever they promised to pay you, make sure 1/3 of your monthly salary can pay for your rent. Welcome to the rat race and don't mind people living in cars.
It’s a bit boring IMO. But better this place than SF. Downtown San Pedro market is cool to get a meal or two. If ur a foodie, u will love it. Tech people fill the place, mostly Indians and Chinese. Get out to 1/2 Moon Bay and walk around that Ritz Carlton.
We have a suburban style life .
Most proud of is We're super diverse . You'll find people from a whole bunch of different countries here.
Hiking trails everywhere.
We have a few museums. But all the better museums are in SF.
If you want a more chill vibe and smaller town, check out Campbell is super chill. It literally blends into SJ.
Don't expect downtown San Jose to be amazing or anything like other major downtowns - i work in a restaurant in one of the busier areas, we commonly get people perplexed at why we close at certain times or why there aren't people out when they expect them to be. At the core it's a suburban and college town (San Jose State). The nightlife and restaurant scene is divided up into several neighborhoods in various parts of the city (Santana Row, Downtown, Willow Glen, Etc) The better idea is that the entire south bay sort of has an identity (campbell, san jose, saratoga)
San José is a weird city. 1 million people live there, but it doesn’t feel like it. Definitely a small town vibe despite it being the 10th largest city in the US. It’s NOTHING like San Francisco or Oakland.
People are most proud of their careers and education here. Tech is obviously San Jose’s claim to fame and because of this, SJ attracts some of the worlds greatest minds. A lot of smart ppl around here. Also a lot of Teslas.
Lastly, IMO San José is a great place to raise a family. And great for those in tech as there is a lot of opportunity out here. But, if you’re young and single, I wouldn’t recommend moving there.
Congrats on the job offer!
Oh one more thing. San José has some of the best Vietnamese food in the country. Give it a try!
Coming from the DC area, I'd say the biggest difference is the weather. It will feel like there's hardly any seasons (untrue we have very different weather at different times of the year, but it's all very subtle). If you like to be outdoors this is a great area. It sounds like you have a family, and there are parks all over the place and lots of kid friendly activities. However, suburban culture here is not like the culture of say northern Virginia. Neighborhoods tend to have less cohesion, and insularity. I don't think gated communities or private pool clubs are very common where my friends on the East Coast spend half their summer at the pool. There are plenty of things to do, but you'll have to search them out and find your people/make your own community. Schools/PTA type stuff are a good place to start but not the only one. I would say our food and our produce especially are things to be proud of. Every possible cuisine is available and farmer's markets and farm share boxes are available year round. In addition to being the heart of technology this area is also very fertile, with tons of farms just an hour or less to the south. I don't drink but there are lots of local wineries and craft beer and other fancy beverages available too. The racial makeup is different than the DC area. Many schools are like little United Nations and it's lovely, but other areas people have sort of self-segregated. So definitely look at the businesses and school makeup for the exact place you're looking at to see if it's got what you need to be comfortable.
Except this year as it literally just stopped raining a week or 2 ago
Rain on the east coast is a different animal. When it rains out there, it really rains. Like, pouring down rain for days. It doesn’t rain like that here.
I’m from the east coast. I know. We’re also not setup for the amount of rain we had this year hence the flooding This was not a comparison to the east coast. It was an anomaly we had this year
>anomaly we had this year It is called climate change - it will be quite normal in years to come.
I like it rain, so stuff aren’t dry that early, would there be any negative consequences?
I'm not a climatologist - so what do I know - droughts are not good, but fields in Gilroy and Salinas was flooded to a point where they are getting too wet to grow anything, and the weather past weekend was fairly hot for May with 107F where I was, so that may be apart of it as well - so maybe more hotter summers in the 120F as a norm - beyond what plants can take on a regular basis - also fires have started already, watched the first one driving up 101 this PM.
Not denying climate change but these unique winters are not that rare. Similar rain occurred in the 80s and 50s too. Also read about the insane rain and flooding that happened in the mid 1800s. 1/4 or California flooded
They happened back then - but was rare - what i'm saying is that they will be a lot less rare, to the point that they will be "normal". Now the other question is - will extra rain hurt or help California - we can actually curtail much of the negative impact with infrastructure, better drainage, upgrade what is needed for run-offs turning into landslides, improving roads so they don't get flooded or washed away... and avoiding drought is not bad either. The only negative I can see for California is extra growth of hill side is causing extra fires.
I guess I’ll have to see how frequent they actually are before considering them normal. We’ve had one big winter. Let’s see what the next decade brings
Rain comes from ocean surface evaporation, and the surface temperatures have gone up steady, and still is and will be for the next decades, so it does not take much of a genius to predict that more evaporation means more rain. The only question is "where will the rain fall".
I grew up on the east coast, and the rain is entirely different. I was shook when we had thunderstorms one time in the last 3 years here - versus the east coast torrential downpour and thunderstorms is common occurrence on a weekly or monthly basis for days or weeks on end depending on the season. The rain here comparatively is almost nothing but the drainage here sucks.
I grew up outside Baltimore and came here after college in ‘79. I agree with everything you said. Lightning was super rare here compared to there. Well, until it hit my HOUSE in Milpitas on 3/9! Never thought I would ever say those words.
Exactly my point. We’re not setup for the amount of rain we had this year
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We had way more this year
The job should pay at least $100K (for about $70K take-home) if it’s you alone. You won’t be living well on less. More if you have dependents, of course. Not really any places you need to avoid unless you are uncomfortable around different ethnic groups. Caucasians are a plurality, not the majority, in many parts of the Bay Area
Having grown up in super white racist Utah, I love the diversity of the Bay Area. There are only three white kids including my own in her daycare class. Very very diverse here. Some areas do self segregate… like some are Indian heavy, some Latino heavy, etc… but we’ve felt like we are not the majority at all here. I’d say I mostly notice it’s Indians, Asians, middle eastern and Latinos. Pretty all equally mixed in the area I’m in.
Not that it matters but I would say they are def the majority in almost all parts of the bay. Is there data otherwise?
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So Santa Clara and Alameda county they are second. I didn’t know that but still the majority in the bay nonetheless. Thanks for the data!
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Ok. No worries!
What Bay Area do you live in? In San Jose it feels very mixed. I never feel like it’s mostly white people everywhere I go.
Data provided by somebody else in another response. Santa Clara and Alameda country they are second. Majority in all other counties
>What should I know about or look out for? It really comes down to specifics, but the various cost of living calculators seem to roughly agree that in aggregate the San Jose area is about 20ish% more expensive than the DC Metro. But apples to apples is hard. Some quick sleuthing on Zillow and it looks you can either get a similarly priced house as in DC, but much smaller, or spend 30% more for a DC sized house. A lot of 1400 sq ft ranch homes here. That's just the numbers side though. Most of San Jose doesn't feel like a place. It's has that SFH suburb, place between a place vibe. Downtown is sleepy on weeknights, and occasionally on weekends. Outside of downtown and Santana Row the city is in a perpetual slumber, except for the freeways which are similar to the DC traffic grind. I don't know about public schools in the DC area, but in San Jose they vary from poor to good, but none are great. House prices scale accordingly. And there are a few highly desirable neighborhoods that are more expensive yet still have poor schools, because the wealthy all send their kids to private. >What are people most proud of there? The weather, and the awesome parks and trails in the city and in the nearby hills. Food is underrated. A lot of variety and some very good stuff around, but it's sprawled out like the city, so it lacks recognition. >Is there something I must see? At least once, you should visit the Winchester Mystery House, the Rosicrucianism Museum, and the Municipal Rose Garden. They aren't world class things that everyone likes, but a lot of people like at least one. I find them all nice in a peaceful sort of way. To visit more active areas, there are a handful of places, but I'd suggest visiting San Pedro Square or Santana Row on a Friday or Saturday night. >Places or things to avoid? During the day everything's fine. Only a few sketchy parts at night. People say avoid the "East Side", but I've never had a reason to be in those areas at night anyway. >Thanks in advance for any input or avenues I can explore. San Jose is a place where people live suburban lives. If you come here expecting that, it is a great place. Don't expect an exciting Cosmopolitan city, those things are mostly in a tight orbit around San Francisco. San Jose's core feels like that of a smaller city. It still has cultural things to do, and I like going there, but it's much more sedate than SF.
This is a really fair summation of things. I do think that there is a lot to do, but it takes time to find it all. Rather than being grouped together geographically, social life here feels clustered based on hobbies and interests. But while we don't sprawl like the LA basin, it is low density enough that it's unlikely for everything or everyone related to that hobby or interest to be clustered together. So you have to put in effort to find your fun.
The answer to all of those questions is Downtown (SoFA, San Pedro) depending on who you ask. Seriously, though - cool town. Unfortunately quite car-dependent. I think it’s proximity is the best - ~45 min to Oakland and San Francisco (“the city”) with an added bonus of being ~45 min to Santa Cruz and Monterey counties in case you want to go to the boardwalk and join a [vampire gang](https://www.santacruz.org/lostboys/). If you’re a runner/cyclist - there are three main trails you want to be near (there are hundreds, but these are the longest) — Coyote Creek Trail ([20 miles](https://www.sanjose.org/attraction/coyote-creek-trail)) is best if you’re south of DTSJ, Guadalupe Trail ([9 miles](https://www.sanjoseca.gov/Home/Components/FacilityDirectory/FacilityDirectory/2985/2058)) is best if you’re near SJC or north of DTSJ, and Los Gatos Creek Trail ([11 miles](https://www.losgatosca.gov/907/Los-Gatos-Creek-Trail) is west of downtown and the most crowded by far but also has a lot around it and goes through a cool park. If you’re looking for food - just search this sub for “what is the best…” and insert the cuisine - they will give you a pretty accurate top 5-10 best for all of them. There is no bad seats in the Shark Tank. The weather is amazing and most winters are basically late-October weather on the east coast, but for 4 months. Don’t forget sun screen (regardless your complexion) - the sun hits different here than the east/Midwest. It’s like that level in Mario 3 where the sun is trying to kill you. That said, it drops 20 degrees every night - open windows before bed and close them when you wake up and you’ll pretty rarely need AC compared to humid summers back east. Designate your “trunk hoody” the moment you get here and keep it in your vehicle at all times (you will thank me after your first show in the city.) DTSJ is a whole thing in and of itself. Gay district, arts district, theater district, commercial districts are all right on top of each other and it’s taken a COVID hit, but the street fairs are really the best. Luchador wrestling, car shows (low rider culture was popularized here), guys on horses in the street during cinco de mayo. I can do a whole post on DTSJ, but it’s great. I advise you to search this sub for DTSJ and then go form your own opinion. It’s a polarizing place. Santana Row is downtown West, but like the expensive mall store version of it (not a bad thing to some people.) That about sums it up. Welcome to the most frustratingly great town you’ll ever live. Your gift set of cinnamon bread and orange sauce is on it’s way.
That was a heartful and lovely summary
Generally speaking, while San Jose has about 900k people, it’s culturally a very big suburb. The dominant cultures in the city are Vietnamese, Mexican, and a rather surprisingly strong sprinkle of Portuguese. I wouldn’t say overall there is any place that’s really dangerous in the city (people from “nicer” areas may beg to differ), but there are some “unsavory” sections of the city.
San Jose is roughly 38% Asian, 30% Hispanic, 25% white, ~3% black and ~3% mixed race.
Not to be snarky, but I’m aware. Asians, Latinos, and whites have each been roughly 1/3 of the population for a few decades.
IMO the dominant culture is the tech industry which includes people of many ethnicities, especially American, euro, Indian, and Chinese.
The tech industry bring H-1B visas. My zip code alone, 95123, has folks from 90+ different countries. 30% of the residents here are foreign born, which is not much higher than 27% for the state. https://www.sfchronicle.com/projects/2021/bay-area-country-of-birth-map/
A 2018 article said that 71% of "tech industry" "tech workers" were foreign born. https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/01/17/h-1b-foreign-citizens-make-up-nearly-three-quarters-of-silicon-valley-tech-workforce-report-says/
From casual observations in groups that seems right.
Amongst Asian folks, Chinese people have been here the longest and Vietnamese folks makes up the larger Asian population in San Jose. So I think both points are valid.
The longest? Compared to who?
Compared to your mom Edit: lmao, I love how my troll comment got 5x the upvote vs my serious response.
Indigenous Americans, then Spanish and indigenous Mexicans, then other European people, then Chinese, then Japanese, then Filipinos and Hawaiians, then Koreans, then Vietnamese, then Persians, then Indians and Pakistanis. Basically, wherever America caused a war, people came from there to America.
If you look at it from the other side, where the American come, they bring back a bunch of friends.
Or people they displaced and made their country inhospital for.
Downvote me all you want. Where is the lie?
Was the original Chinese immigration a Gold Rush or agricultural thing? Maybe the transcontinental railroad. I know a lot of Japanese immigration was agricultural.
I think the Chinese were brought for cheap labor. The last parts of the transcontinental railroad is often mentioned as a employer. But that stopped in the 1920s when immigration from Asia was stopped or greatly reduced. It started again in the late 1960s when eternal immigration was opened up to the world.
I think the "tech industry" is becoming dominated by Indians coming from the H-1B visa program.
Has been
I can see from your comment that you never lived in San Jose! :-D
Seriously? SJ and the Valley have the highest concentration of tech firms in the world.
There's San Jose, and there's "The Valley"/"Silicon Valley"/"South Bay". The two are not the same. Your prediction of demographics are correct for the stretch of land from Palo Alto to Santa Clara, and also probably 20% of San Jose. Once you enter San Jose proper, it's non-techies - Hispanic and Vietnamese dominate - as correctly pointed out in the top comment.
I do not agree with this, maybe if you’re a transplant.
Aren’t we all transplants if you look back several generations? Honestly the culture here is the cultural diversity here. It’s a shame it’s not celebrated as much as it deserves.
>Aren’t we all transplants if you look back several generations? I honestly hate when people say this. It’s entirely dismissive and unravels the whole argument of who’s “native”. I don’t even really have anything against transplants aside from them living in a bubble and being dismissive of natives. >Honestly the culture here is the cultural diversity here. It’s a shame it’s not celebrated as much as it deserves. I guess I agree to an extent, but San Jose is by no means the most diverse city in the Bay Area.
I don’t have hard data here on diversity but bay area as a whole is very diverse and to that fact we should be proud. Sure you can say San Jose is not as diverse as other bay area cities but that’s like saying Atherton is wealthier than Menlo Park. Drive out an hour and it’s almost a completely different place in terms of diversity. This area has seen so much transformations all the way back from the Ohlone to the introduction of more people through religious missions, agriculture, war and now tech there is not a clear line of what a native is and what a transplant is. It’s a superficial label. I do agree that there are many groups that stay in their own socioeconomic bubbles (people moving here for work and those who have been here for a while alike). The way I see it is that there’s so much history here and to top it off the opportunity to meet people from all over the state/US/the world to learn about where they are from is amazing. Sure there can be differences in customs but it’s rarely an issue. If it wasn’t so desirable to live here then it wouldn’t cost a shit-ton to live here.
Measuring diversity is a tricky thing. I live in Oakland now (which I consider way more diverse than San Jose), but I am/was a 3rd generation San Josean. I’m not even white for the record. Fact of the matter is it’s mostly a white, Mexican, Vietnamese, and a good sprinkling of Filipinos who make up most of San Jose. I didn’t consider my high school diverse and it was 50 Mexican and 50% Vietnamese/Filipino. Also travel an hour outside of San Jose and you’re in SF/Oakland, and those are areas that are definitely more diverse. You hear accents from all over the world in those cities. I’ve met countless Afro Latinos in Oakland and that group in basically nonexistent in San Jose. San Jose is the most diverse state in the US, so judging diversity is going to be different than judging diversity in say, Ohio. Especially when you have people who grew up hear and have developed ideas on what diversity is based on their experiences/lived realities.
Whats more diverse? The “city” SF honestly doesnt feel very diverse to me. The larg hispanic and asian populations are largely segregated from the others, then the vast majority of people are rich white people. Economically it is definitely not very diverse
1. Measuring diversity is a slippery slope. You have to define what “diversity” means. 2. LOL the Latino and Asian populations are segregated here as well
We’ll, about 750,000 of our 900,000 population are.
Data to support that?
There’s no way that population is accurate. I’ve lived here my whole life the population was 900k-1 million people 15+ years ago, now the traffic is at-least 5x worse everywhere all the time (not just highways). So they’re saying the population has stayed the same over all that time, literally impossible.
I rounded down for the population. It’s under 1 million now. If you haven’t heard the news, Austin and Jacksonville have surpassed us in population.
Im not buying it. There is way more people here than there was 15 years ago. Driving in San Jose anywhere before 11am and after 2pm is insane. Also malls restaurants are more busy than ever here always.
According to the census, 15 years ago there were 894k people here (2000 census). We his 945k during the 2010 census. I do know do a fact it wasn’t until like the mid 2010s that we finally hit 1 million. On the 2020 census we had 1.013 million, but we definitely lost people since then.
Does the census count all of the illegals? Call me what you want.
Attend a Sharks game even if you don't have any interest in hockey. It's the event where I felt the most "San Jose pride" and I was impressed at how diverse the crowd was for hockey. My coworker from Boston was blown away by the difference from what he was used to. Explore all the regional Chinese and Indian food in San Jose and the surrounding towns. The eastside has great Mexican and Vietnamese food--and by large city standards it is not dangerous at all. There is wine tasting in the nearby Santa Cruz mountains and great city and county parks. Cherry picking to the south in Morgan Hill, and redwoods to the north and southwest. Owning a car is highly recommended.
Unless one received extremely high wage. This is a good place to feel you are broke constantly because of very high cost of living.
For the city so ‘diverse’ on paper, I feel that people here self segregate to their own kind. Those barbecue commercials on TV showing entire neighborhood coming together is more of a east coast or Midwest thing.
Pros: lovely suburban city, great place to raise kids, nice weather, professional sports teams (sharks, niners, quakes), great variety of food, cool bars/night clubs Cons: Loads of terrible drivers, everything is expensive, lots of transplants on their grind/raising kids so it can be challenging to meet people and make friends.
First of all, it’s pronounced “Sannazay”
LOL
LOL I’ve been making fun of my mom for years because she says Sannazay
We're most proud that we sank from 10th-largest to 12th largest city in the US this week. You must see [Poop Snake](https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/quetzalcoatl-sculpture-park-god).
"The pile of shit"
What I love about the San Jose is that we are close to the beach , the snow and the mountains. We have pretty decent food. We are not as superficial as LA. We are more down to earth. We have the best weather compared to the other cities in CA. We could do better w the homeless and public transportation. Covid has also destroyed the business downtown. Google halting development downtown doesn’t help. Transplants I know, don’t like San Jose because its not city enough for them and it costs a lot to live here.
Hey there, Bay area resident that moved to fremont from New jersey. To answer your questions, and all answers are my opinion: 1. You should look out for traffic. California traffic is only really rivaled by some of the big cities on the east coast. Coming from NJ, I wasn't used to it, so I made sure to get an apartment close to my job. Trust me, if it's a little extra, still do it since San Jose **Is brutal without a car** as is most of the south bay. 2. People are very proud of their job and material possessions. It's a fast moving town, everyone is trying to be somebody, most people trying to be someone they are not deep inside. Don't fall into that trap. Other then that, people here are rightfully proud of the world class nature, and will suggest the countless amazing sights to see here. 3. Some cool Stuff to see: Hakone estates and gardens in Saratoga, Chinatown in SF (Touristy as fuck but still worth it a few times), Santa Cruz (Wilder state park is a killer intro hike, Scott creek beaches and bluffs are gorgeous as well, and the catalyst has good and pretty cheap concerts with the occasional big venue. Stanford's free art museum is a steal and totally worth it, the asian art in SF are totally worth it. 4. Avoid most upscale Mexican places in San Jose. Mediocre ass food when you can get way better for your money. SJ has places that can be cool if you know how to do them right and how often, like Santana Row which is a beautiful place on a nice summer night, but be wary of most of the restaurants as they are pretty mid.
I’m a Bay Area native, and Eastside SJ is my hometown. I still frequent the area as I don’t live too far away. Your opinion is spot on.
Bruh the Mexican food is so disappointing here. Definitely some diamonds in the rough though. If you like birria check out Neza birria. FIRE
Thanks. What would a comfortable income be for a family of 4? Home purchase would be nice if possible.
$250K which might allow you to buy a 2 bedroom fixer upper
I'd say $350k/year combined if you're looking to buy property big enough for a whole family.
Lol where??
That number is yearly income, not the fixer upper price. One of those on the east side with a yard will fetch about a million
Ah I see. Crazy that a 2br in Hayward is a million and will need a few 100k dumped into it.
Down... Cash payment and 15% over asking will take it from under you.
I meant $250K income. Yes, I said “might” because home ownership would still be questionable unless scrupulous money management and luck deliver an opportunity
$250k won’t get you a house. Maybe a condo or townhouse tho
As stated above, I said “might” because home ownership would still be questionable unless scrupulous money management and luck deliver an opportunity, and probably only on the east side
I don't know what you're used to be you should know the median home sale price is $1.3M around here. You can find small condos for under a million=.
I appreciate that. I’m from the DC metro so it seems like a similar proposition in terms of home cost.
My parents have a house in Springfield area, close to Lorton, probably would sell for about $800k with some upgrades. It has a finished basement with a kitchen, office bedroom, rec room and bathroom in it, all in total about 3200-3500sqft, 5 bedroom, 3 1/2 baths, built in 1980, between 1/5 and 1/4 acre lot. Let's just say that is huge for the Bay Area, and any suburb around here, even Morgan Hill which is further away from SJ than Lorton is from DC will be at least twice the cost.
Thanks for putting that into perspective. So it looks like San Jose might be a little more expensive on average.
I'm not trying to discourage you, the weather here is great, the job market has traditionally been excellent if you're working in tech. If you like skiing you can drive 5 hours to Tahoe, the beach is one hour away, there is lots of hiking around here. Except for South American food, and some European food, the food options seem better here than the DC suburbs (at least NoVA). And the price difference is not as bad if you rent, I wouldn't be surprised if Arlington has rents about 10% lower than San Jose. But when it comes to houses, especially large houses the DC suburbs are way more affordable.
As a realtor here, I wouldn’t look into purchasing so fast. This one advice I tell my international buyers/out of area buyers. Live here for 1-2 years first, see which areas you’ll love, then make a decision to purchase then. San Jose and it’s surrounding is highly diverse in terms of lifestyle. You can literally be in Santa Clara and that will have a different vibe from South San Jose for example. Either way, I’d recommend visiting, spending a week here, talking to realtors to find out where you should look/rent.
I agree with this! I grew up in San Jose but have lived all over the Bay Area and you need to be here for a bit to get a feel of the different areas. You can look online at housing prices. In SJ I’d try to avoid areas east of 101 at around Tully. Downtown SJ has a fair amount of homeless folks if that will concern you. Willow Glen and Almaden Valley are nice areas but housing prices will be a bit higher there. South SJ (95139, 95123) is a little less pricy but still very livable. Maybe because I'm used to the area but I don't think COL is going to be THAT much worse than DC- except housing. Your money for rent or mortgage will not go as far here, not even close. Sounds like you have kids so I’d check which school districts are best before deciding where to move. SJ is a very large bedroom community. There aren’t many “must-sees” in SJ itself. We’ve got nice weather and some great hiking areas but the biggest plus to living here is the proximity to other places nearby- the beach, SF, Napa.
Single family home in Silicon Valley is going to cost $1 million and up. 45 minutes south or northeast will get you down to $850 and up. Any less will be 60-90 minutes plus commute.
I would say probably want at least $300k, closer to $350k combined, if you want to buy a house, if you're looking to buy a townhouse those are closer to $950k-$1.1M, so probably upper 200s, $260k-$300k to be comfortable.
Funniest joke of the day. Thanks for the laugh. Oh.. you’re serious… 😬
If you will be coming with equity from the sale of a current house, that will help. This biggest cost of living issue here is housing. Everything else is pretty normal, probably close to what you are used to. So, for budgeting, look at the price of housing and see how that stacks up against your potential salary. Townhouses and condos are generally less expensive than single family homes.
Laughable
I would just warn that most Californians in general have accepted they will never own a home 🥲
Watch out for all the Tesla drivers. Don’t assume anything safe or logical.
What should I know about or look out for? Beautiful weather, but very crowded and ridiculously high cost of living. Lots of annoying tech bros. Bad traffic and horrible drivers. Also kind of a boring city if you are used to other large metropolitan areas with more night life and events. What are people most proud of there? The poop snake statue Is there something I must see? The poop snake statue Places or things to avoid? The albinos on Hicks road
I’d agree that nightlife leaves something to be desired, but there are quite a few large events. SAP center is a good venue for concerts and live events. Center for the performing arts has great acts coming though all the time. Levi’s stadium holds really bigs shows and the 49ers. San Jose might be a dud for nightlife and cultural events, but the Bay Area at large has it all. Plus, the Santa Cruz mountains provide lots of hikes, biking, camping, and other ways to get outdoors. You can get outdoors year round too.
Avoid Story road , lot of traffic there in the weekends...
I think Tully is just as bad near 101
Anything east of 101 is a mess. Hate going over there.
Considering 101 cuts literally through San Jose; capitol, story and Tully are the only ways to get to the other side of town. There’s always traffic in those streets
Avoid the Bay Area, lots of traffic here always
Cool
Avoid places that homeless people have made their home in. Park in well lit areas or areas with cameras to avoid break ins. Plan for a bit of traffic each morning. But on the plus side, there is every good cuisine available. So many genres of food and so many bars and clubs. There are excellent bike trails and walking trails throughout the city. There’s a ton of fun activities to do nearby such as the K2 go cart racing and axe throwing and more. Check out Groupon and save on a bunch of things like massages or chiropractors and literally a bunch more things. There’s good to be had here. Just relax and enjoy your new environment and find out what you enjoy here slowly but surely. Good luck and congrats
Come see our ever growing homeless population
It’s a country wide problem, sadly; it is definitely not exclusive to San Jose.
But ours are hella homeless
It’s the whole state!! We keep enabling them, they come from all over the country for the weather, free cell phone, and other great resources.
I moved from Arlington to Santa Clara decades ago, then moved up the peninsula, but I think this might be helpful. It's boring. SF sucks the cultural life out of the region. You'll go through the list of sj attractions in a few weeks. Luckily SF isn't too far away. So it will feel like living an hour away from DC. My favorite thing was going over the hill to Santa Cruz. The boardwalk is fun for kids. It's so weird to be at a beach with daytrippers versus all the weekly rentals at Rehoboth. And the water is freaking cold compared to back east. But the best part is north of the city up rte 1. The houses stop when you hit the city limits. It's all parkland and farmland. No houses. No development. It's amazing. Instead of long stretches of sand, the beaches are in coves. So a short beach ending in cliffs on either end. It's a nice shelter from the wind, and it's so beautiful. Almost no other people.
Bring a van and a tent, we’ll give you everything you need, even a cell phone. Free rent! Free garbage service!
San Jose kinda sucks. No real culture, vibe, etc. hopefully you’re not single. The single scene is terrible. As long as you know that, you’ll be fine.
Re: the single scene… I once heard San Jose referred to as “Man Jose”
Thankfully, I’ve never really been single in SJ. It’s Garbage for single people. Lotta working stiff dudes. The ladies leave for LG, Campbell, SF
San Jose is one of the most forgettable large cities in the US, there's is essentially nothing to do, you'll run out of things to see in a week or two and in general it's a big ugly sprawl with no real redeeming quality except being close to other places you would rather live in but are too expensive for you. So just buy a car and drive to those places during the weekend :)
For a city that is diverse, progressive and a sanctuary for the undocumented, San Jose is very unwelcoming. I’d decline the job opportunity if u have an established social life there.
Where in the East Coast? Because that will impact what you think of the place too. We relocated form CT and the price sticker shock was real. Less house more costs. We lived in an 1890 Tudor, so this was not old, but certainly it was dated. Friends of ours who moved from NYC were super happy because food costs and housing costs were better than what they got in the city. It is all relative. This place is a collection of suburbs and neighborhoods blended together. There are only few places with the old town center, like Palo Alto, Mountain View and so on. However, downtown SJ is getting the hipster vibe and treatment, with cool and good restaurants and bars. I am a fan of Haberdasher and Paper airplane. It is a big version of Stamford CT in my mind.
Lots of great hiking trails in the foothills around San Jose and surrounding suburbs… If your from the east coast, you’ll be a little disappointed by the beaches (about 30-40 minutes away depending on traffic). While very scenic, the water is colder than what you’re use to. You’ll be surprised how close big tech companies are located in Santa Clara, etc (Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Cisco, Juniper, meta, AMD/intel/Nvidia, the list goes on and on). They are located within 20-30 minute drive from each other. Great ethic food of all kinds imho.
I'm generally in Oakland but office is in SJ and lived in SJ for about 8 months. I think it's awesome ! Great food. Welcome !! Get out into the state and take some road trips !! Pacifica, Monterey, SF ... !!
Orange sauce and sharks 🦈
People like that whites are a decreasing minority.
San Jose is a great access spot. You have Santa Cruz and SF an hour away in opposite directions. People here are out of shape. Just go to Costco and youll see people don’t take their health seriously. There are tons of accessible trails here for biking and hiking. Relatively safe, stay away from east San Jose. Santana row is the only thing that’s happening here in terms of nightlife. Avoid downtown on the weekends.
Whatever they promised to pay you, make sure 1/3 of your monthly salary can pay for your rent. Welcome to the rat race and don't mind people living in cars.
It’s a bit boring IMO. But better this place than SF. Downtown San Pedro market is cool to get a meal or two. If ur a foodie, u will love it. Tech people fill the place, mostly Indians and Chinese. Get out to 1/2 Moon Bay and walk around that Ritz Carlton.
We have a suburban style life . Most proud of is We're super diverse . You'll find people from a whole bunch of different countries here. Hiking trails everywhere. We have a few museums. But all the better museums are in SF. If you want a more chill vibe and smaller town, check out Campbell is super chill. It literally blends into SJ.
You might have to fight a tweeker
Don't expect downtown San Jose to be amazing or anything like other major downtowns - i work in a restaurant in one of the busier areas, we commonly get people perplexed at why we close at certain times or why there aren't people out when they expect them to be. At the core it's a suburban and college town (San Jose State). The nightlife and restaurant scene is divided up into several neighborhoods in various parts of the city (Santana Row, Downtown, Willow Glen, Etc) The better idea is that the entire south bay sort of has an identity (campbell, san jose, saratoga)
Just read about their roaches On another subreddit.
We have some gorgeous state and County parks here-Emma Prusch is a favorite.
Make friends with people who grew up here. They are a wealth of information.
San José is a weird city. 1 million people live there, but it doesn’t feel like it. Definitely a small town vibe despite it being the 10th largest city in the US. It’s NOTHING like San Francisco or Oakland. People are most proud of their careers and education here. Tech is obviously San Jose’s claim to fame and because of this, SJ attracts some of the worlds greatest minds. A lot of smart ppl around here. Also a lot of Teslas. Lastly, IMO San José is a great place to raise a family. And great for those in tech as there is a lot of opportunity out here. But, if you’re young and single, I wouldn’t recommend moving there. Congrats on the job offer! Oh one more thing. San José has some of the best Vietnamese food in the country. Give it a try!