From: maslak@unix.SRI.COM (Valerie Maslak)
Newsgroups: ba.general
Subject: Re: housing question: avoiding suburbia in Silicon Valley
Date: 15 Aug 92 00:13:07 GMT
Organization: SRI International, Menlo Park, California


Well, I know how you feel......the thought of miles and miles of
houses all alike made me concerned about being in the Peninsula,
too. (I came from Boston).

But there are actually a lot of areas at various prices and
distances that should satisfy you. I'm assuming that you want a
nice, non-tract atmosphere, maybe some old tress, maybe a local
walking-distance shopping area with cafe and bookstore and a few
interesting restaurants. This we have!!!

Get yourself a Peninsula map:

Mountain View actually has a downtown that has been "improved" in
the last few years yet remains a nice walking-shopping-ethnic-dining
street.  It is Castro Street, and there are a number of decent older
small homes nearby. Some folks turn up their nose at that area, but
it has a lot to offer. 

I live in an area of Palo Alto called Crescent Park, which is
lovely, mostly old, big trees, very nice. Close to downtown Palo
Alto for cappucino and bookstores. (Downtown Palo Alto is almost too
much of a downtown to my tastes, but it's cosmopolitan in its own
way.) Crescent Park centers on the area bounded by
San Francisquito Creek on the north, Middlefield Road, down to
Channing and east over almost to 101.
This area is not cheap, however. The area near downtown around
University Avenue over to El Camino is a bit less
expensive but busier.

There are several other nice areas of Palo Alto, some but not all 
of which are slightly
less grand: Old Palo Alto and
Professorville (north of Page Mill Road between Alma and
Middlefield, mostly expensive), College Terrace (just south of
the Stanford campus, west from El Camino over to Junipero Serra Boulevard,
north of  California Avenue which is the local shopping area, less
expensive) and Barron Park (west of El Camino
over to Foothill Expressway, south of Page Mill Road and north
of Arastradero, no real local shopping area here).

Most of Los Altos is suburban but older, nicer suburban, with a very
nice little downtown centered on Main and State Streets off San
Antonio Road at Foothill Expressway. Also not inexpensive. Some
people like it better than Palo Alto.But downtown closes up at 6pm.
Like a flat Montclair?

Atherton is out of your price range, I'm afraid.
Probably so are Woodside and Portola Valley, although there is 
(maybe) an affordable area of Portola Valley called
Los Trancos Woods, off Alpine Road, west
of 280, that is a web of tiny roads up in the hills, rustic to the max.
No walking distance shopping, but very rural atmosphere.

Menlo Park is a lot like Los Altos on the west side of El Camino,
slightly less fancy on the east side of El Camino.
Shopping area is Santa Cruz Avenue. 

A bit further north is Redwood City. On its far west side are
several areas that are woody, hilly, not as steep as Montclair
and less structured, but nice. Look around Alameda de las Pulgas
and up to the west from there, like the Emerald Lakes area.

I don't think you want to be too much north of Redwood City unless
you like to commute but San Carlos and Belmont also have nice
older areas in the hills on the west side.

Now, if you really want to be out of the suburban sprawl, you could head
up over the hill to La Honda, which is up hwy. 84 and on the other
side of Skyline. Long drive, though, and no real shopping.
Pretty rustic, but yuppifying.

Further afield to the south, 
there's an area called Monte Vista in Cupertino off of 280 at
Stevens Creek, but other than that
you have to go to an area of San Jose called
Willow Glen to get away from tract homes. And that's a bad
commute.

Much further south there's Los Gatos and Saratoga.


Good luck.

Valerie Maslak
Newsgroups: ba.general