Chugs

Thanks for all of the replies!

I just locked down a temporary place in Menlo Park, once I'm setup out there, then I can travel around and decide where I'd like to move to.

I'll have to find out when/where your meets are. Also gotta find some autox and track days there!

Kalibos

Hello Chugs,

Welcome and I hope you have a safe trip. I grew up in Jersey before moving to PR. I was living in Paterson for about 17 years. SF is not as bad as NYC in terms of driving but it's still a B$tch and parking is almost non existent. I would agree with the post above that you should sacrifice one of the things you are looking for. I believe you are asking way too much with too little. Good thing about the bay area is the public transportation. You don't neccessarily need to live in or near the city. There are a lot of good small towns near by with easy access to the BART (Our local rail system that goes all over the place). I currently live in Dublin which is part of the tri-valley area (Dublin, Livermore and pleasanton) It takes me about 30 min to get to the city with "Ok" traffic, 45 on bart. Dublin and Pleasanton is a great and safe community with a fair amount of things to do. If it's ever to boring for me I just hop on the bart and head to the city. You really don't want to be driving in the city especially if your going out to party. Not having or using the car there is way less of a headache than having it imo.

Aside from the city, there is A LOT of things to do outside of SF. You won't have any trouble at all finding something to do. There is way more to do out here in the bay area than what there is out there in NYC. Trust me...I can compare the two. I will say that the culture is extremely different and there might be an adjustment period. NYC it's more hussle and bussle where as here in Cali it's more laid back and the people are more polite...lol. The styles are different, driving is different, roads are different (better!!!), laws are different, cops are different (worse), etc... Feel free to PM me or ask me questions.

v/r
James

PS
Posted this really quick so my grammer might be off, My apologies....

shehatezme

That's great congrat! Like someone said above, I would stay away from East Bay (ie. Oakland/Berkeley/Emeryville). I am just not a East Bay person due to personal experiences with theft and crime. Menlo Park is definitely the suburbs but I think it's a great way to start. It will give you a chance to get acquainted with the area and make some friends. Hopefully this would give you an opportunity to find a suitable roommate to move your way up to SF with. The worst thing is renting a room from someone you don't know. There are some real weird motherf@#kers out there these days.

MarcoPiper

I would say the east bay (Oakland, Emeryville, Berkley) is not bad as long as you have a garage. If you're planning to park on the streets I would look somewhere else.
Have you considered the weather? If you get a place in San Francisco, South San Francisco or Daly City you will basically never see summer time. Your summer = fog. That's why I live in Oakland, with a garage, 2 Bart stops away from downtown San Francisco.
Just perfect, and while I'm in the sun top down, I look on the other side of the bridge and all I see is fog..


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Chugs

I seem to find NJ transplants everywhere I go! My friend lives in Dublin, I made a mistake earlier saying he lived in Livermore, but that's where he works. I appreciate you taking the time to reply, I am really looking forward to this move.

Exactly, I just want to get used to the area and make a more educated decision on where I'd like to live. And I hope I'll be alright with my renter, she just seems like a nice older lady.

I also need to learn about SF's bunch of little micro-climates, I definitely don't want to be living in a cloud of fog 24/7.

Chugs

I'd like to get your thoughts on this...my S2000's inspection expires in may, so I am considering getting it inspected early before I leave, which will give me two years until it needs to get inspected. My reasoning is I hear CA registration/inspection is a lot more expensive, but that's only what I've heard from a few friends. Care to shed some light on this?

With that in mind, I'm also going to be buying a motorcycle sometime when I'm out there, would I be able to register one with a NJ license, or will I have to have a CA license?

S2020

$700/week?
of course it's doable.

darkfalcon

I think you have to have it registered in CA if you have the car longer than 6 months in the state. I'm not sure if smog/inspection in NJ can transfer over to the more restrictive California counterparts.

TougeHorseman

If you are planning to be here a while I would just do it all in CA. Since you'd have to do that eventually. No sense trying to squeeze in under the radar when you will eventually have to conform.

Chugs

I have an intake that I don't have a CARB sticker for, though I'll try and get one from the manufacturer, and a Q300 catback exhaust. Also have the secondary air system delete, but have the CEL fix for it. Will I have an issue passing smog?