Oh give me a home…
May 5, 2007 Posted by Shawn B
Yesterday a topic flew by on a Yahoo internal list. “Before Yahoo I Never Ever…”
My response was:
Before Yahoo I Never Ever… travelled this far south on the Peninsula and considered re-locating way south of San Francisco.
Essentially, the commute back and forth is whipping my hide, and this is even taking public transportation. I come out of work feeling upbeat and vibrant and then I take a shuttle in stop-and-go traffic down 101 for about 1 hr 15 mins and then walk uphill another 25 minutes and by the time I reach home, I am ready to drop in my tracks from exhaustion. Oh, that is caused in part by waking up at 5:30-6AM in the morning. Over three hours of commuting a day is far more than I could have reasonably contemplated. It’s brutal and it’s sheer madness, I tell you.
I am ready to move to the Peninsula (Menlo Park, Palo Alto) now. I know some of you would have me believe I will be forlorn should I do so, but I don’t think so. No, I will regain my boundless energy and ability to arise at a sane hour. Any tips as to hip and happening (don’t laugh) apartment complexes down South?
May 7, 2007 at 12:11 am
Hey, there’s the san mateo cal train stop. It was hip enough to be mentioned in the book “World Changing.”
May 7, 2007 at 1:09 am
Hey. I used to live in San Francisco, and commuted down south by shuttle. When I made the move to Yahoo @ Mission College I moved down here.
I regret it. Even though I have a lot more free time and I’m less frazzled, I still regret it. I am able to focus on work a lot more, so if that’s what you want, that benefit is real. But…
Maybe there are other options. I have known people who basically spent the entire shuttle ride doing email (and sometimes coding). They decided that this counted as work time, so they would get in at 9:30 and leave at 4:30. Seemed to work for them.
Maybe we have to give up the desire to be at our desk during Silicon Valley business hours (10am -> infinity). There’s always working from home, and at least Yahoo has an SF office. But maybe that’s easier for coders.
Otherwise your best bet is Palo Alto or maybe Mountain View. There’s a shuttle from the Mountain View Caltrain. Still, I worked it out and it’s still a bit of a commute from places like Palo Alto. Figure in two transit rides and we’re still talking a 40 minute commute.
And I really thought I’d be travelling back to SF a lot more. But the length of the journey discourages anything but well-planned out events. Today I had a plumbing issue that burned up a few hours at noon, which meant that my entire plans for the day in SF were sort of pointless.
So… stuff to consider before you join the legions of the Silicon Valley undead.
May 7, 2007 at 8:01 pm
Oh wow,
This really gives me the biggest pause for thought. This is the most well-written case for SF-living and commuting I’ve encountered so far. Thanks for the warning!! I guess I shouldn’t be so hasty or I might regret it.
The last thing I want to become is Shawn of the Dead!
May 20, 2007 at 6:51 pm
I’ve been doing this commute for almost two 1/2 years, and it’s only been bearable because I take caltrain on 22nd st. station to mtn. view (we then have a shuttle to the office).
I live just a 5 min. drive away from the station, and I even like the commute time on the train, so I can read and –in the afternoon, after waking up at 6 am like you– even have a nap on the way back home.
There are also the y! shuttles from the city –which I don’t find attractive, given the fact that you’d still be on the 101 a big part of the day, but they are definitely an option. And, in my opinion, a much better option than living in the suburbs