Came to the Bay Area when I entered UCB in 1988 and instantly knew I was Home.
Currently live in Oakland and have worked in Marin & SF for the past 10 years.
What do I do for fun? Movies, movies and more movies: the PFA, Castro, Stanford, Red Vic, Balboa, Roxie, Landmarks, 4 Star, Parkway, Rafael Film Center, etc. There’s never a time when there isn’t something out I want to see (though catching up with them before they leave is the toughest part).
Inevitably, whenever a NorCal Dopefest is scheduled, I’ve always got a conflict. But I’m always game…
I live in Oakland. I moved up here from Santa Cruz, where I went to college, hoping for find a job that broke the poverty line. It turns out that I just fucking love it here. I’m head over heels in love with Oakland and I’m having the time of my life. Just the food alone was worth the move. I’m still working on the whole decent job thing, but at least the prospects look a lot better. Before my long cold years in Santa Cruz (a place that evokes a great amount of sadness, longing, and relief for having escapted), I lived in Sacramento, where I grew up.
My great loves in life are food and travel. Beyond that, I watch and occasionally make movies, walk around a lot, go to punk rock shows and dance parties, and going on often-ill-fated adventures all over town, usually as part of some hair-brained scheme to save some money (Friend: “Hey Sven, I hear there is a place in some bizarre corner of Albany that throws out really good bread on Sunday nights at three AM. Want to take the bus there and hop a fence?” Sven:“Sure!”).
I’ve lived in Central or Northern CA for the last 30 years or so. Prior to that it was SoCal. I left SoCal because I was a kid and my family moved and decided to take me with them.
Currently I live in Santa Cruz. It’s really nice in some ways, but way too fucking expensive.
I guess I still qualify, since my legal residence is in northern California; even though I’ve spent the last three years at least 2k miles away from the U.S.
Born in San Clemente, lived in Mission Viejo until I was seven, then moved with my family to beautiful Redding, Ca. Also known as “Know where Sacramento is? Three hours north of that. Yes, almost to Oregon.”
Born in San Francisco, raised in Oakland and a bunch of other East Bay and Contra Costa cities/towns. After leaving the state for years and years, came back and settled down in Sacramento where I intend to stay forever. Wish I had the money to move back to San Francisco though…
I grew up in Chicago, left after 25 years and lived in San Jose for about 13 more years. Now I’m down here in Gilroy, about 30+ minutes south of San Jose.
I live in San Francisco now, but I went to school at Berkeley, lived for a few years in San Jose, and lived for a few more (very recently) in Sausalito.
I love the weather (yes, even fog), the food, and the numerous opportunities for hiking in open space. Relatively easy access to skiing and the ocean. I’d be down for a dopefest, but I find myself working a lot of weekends these days. Hopefully that will end soon - I’m planning on leaving this job by mid-November.
Born and bred in the Monterey area, often considered part of at least the economic sphere of the bay area. We align ourselves with Northern California and the Bay Area in particular. Even more Bay Area presence with commuters who live around here but work in Silicon Valley. I technically live in a small city north of Monterey called Marina. We get as much fog as the Sunset district of SF does, but it’s still a nice little town to live if you’re family oriented.
I like the area, but it’s a bit of a cultural/social void. It’s not bad, but if you like going out it’s not really the place. We always say to people: Move to Monterey if you’re retired, raising a family, or over 60. There’s some good restaurants here though, and it is a pretty diverse place. For fun my friends and I usually head to San Francisco a few times a year. San Francisco for most of us is like a second home.
Lived in Davis for a good couple of years while hubby got his bachelors. I hated the apartment, the price of everything, and the uppity attitude of the citizens. I’ll tell you what I really do miss about Davis though: 2K Thai- the best Thai Food in the world.
Now, as with twoflower, I’m also in “them thar hills” in the little gold rush town of Sonora. The internet is still a developing concept here…
Moved to SF ( Richmond District ) in 3rd grade from NYC ( Washington Heights ), moved to Michigan ( Ferndale, outside of Detroit ) in 5th grade, back to the Bay Area for good for 8th grade. Went to High School in Alameda, lived there or San Francisco ( the Sunset ) until ~2 years ago.
I’ve been all over the country - the Bay Area remains my favorite place, despite its flaws ( of which expense of course tops the list ).
That’s close enough to count as neighbors … howdy neighbor! (I’m in Pine Grove, a few miles uphill from Jackson)
We have internet over here in Amador, though. Our tiny little Volcano Telphone Co. is actually quite state of the art … I got my DSL line and it works great!
I’m originally from WA state, but came down to Davis for grad school, and then Pleasanton and Sunnyvale for aerospace work.
That was the 90’s, and now I’m back, this time at Stanford for a PhD. My wife and kids like it here, too, so if things work out we’ll be staying long-term this time.
In addition to the kid’s activities, we also do some hiking, biking, running, camping - at least anything that doesn’t require too much of a drive - we reserve longer trips for traveling or (mostly) visiting relatives.
I’m SoCal born, bred and educated. Then I met my Sacra-tomato-area born and bred wife. I used to always make fun of her; jokes about her sharing a bedroom with cows and her brother dating sheep. When the young-uns started appearing and the benefits of having free grandma babysitting became too attractive, we moved back to Ms. Stochastic’s hometown. I now proudly call this place home, with cowbells on.
I enjoy that it’s not as crazy-hectic as LA is (yet). And being only 90 minutes from the bay area or Tahoe is a real plus for those impromptu weekend get-aways. But mostly, I appreciate the fact that the people seem more “real” here; there’s not so many of the plasticy, showbiz-enamoured, flashy, who’s-got-the-most-expensive-toys-and/or-biggest-boobs types like you see down south.
Santa Cruzian here. Although not native, and I might not even count since I’ve only been here for three years (yup, UCSC student). I love Santa Cruz, even though it’s so vastly different from Los Angeles. Sometimes I feel a bit too isolated, but the campus is beautiful, the classes are great, and I love being here. And I never want to leave. Because that would mean medical school, and that would be just another step closer to real life. Sigh.
