yeah this kind of sucks but it’s good to hear now-it sounds like the commute would be hell.
I’m in a relationship where one of us is getting a job in San Fran, and my job, which is fun, is in Sac. I might have to turn them down
I can’t help but notice your title spells it Sacremento. Makes me think this was a subliminal editorial comment as it is pretty close to excrement…
This isn’t a half bad idea. In fact I believe there’s an Extended Stay right near Ikea in Emeryville (small town sandwiched between Oakland and Berkeley, mostly shopping and condos). It would also make a good jump off spot to the city the east bay and points east. Also, it’s been a few years since I moved to the valley but isn’t SF to SAC the counter commute direction?
The Nut Tree must always exist. It is required.
I’ve never lived in CA, but in a past life I had a 1:20-2 hour commute each way, depending on time of day and whether or not I took the train. Once a week something went wrong and the 1-way trip became 2-3 hours. It sucked, but if I needed a job I would do it again. Anyhow, after a few months they let me work from home one day a week, and that one day made a huge difference. It meant it wasn’t night after night of coming home and being in my place just long enough to eat, sleep, and shower. It I only had to go to the office 2x per week then I wouldn’t even worry about time spent commuting. I might worry about other factors, like cost of owning/parking a car I really didn’t want, and how well this would really work out with my boss, but on those points I’m sure I can’t add anything that you’ve haven’t thought about yourself already.
Meh. I drive an hour and 45 minutes to work each and every day. It’s not that bad.
Well, obviously this is a personal thing, but I wouldn’t want to spend such a significant amount of time behind the wheel. I actually used to commute ~an hour and 20 minutes every day, and what made it bearable was that it was on public transit. I got a LOT of reading done.
Also, I would peg this drive at actually being closer to 2 hours, and that’s in good traffic. And there would probably often be pretty bad traffic at times.
I had a neighbor when I grew up in Berkeley who commuted to Sacramento several times a week. He gave that up in the late 80s, if memory serves.
I spent one summer in Berkeley around 1998, driving up to Sacramento every day for some work. The traffic wasn’t bad, but it just got so tiring to leave so early and come home late. I did this for maybe 2 months and was thoroughly fed up with the drive halfway through. The idea that one would actually live in SF (like the City) and do the drive on a consistent basis is a pretty bad idea.
I haven’t been there in a while, but if you’d have the money and the patience for a long commute like that, one might want to consider living in some place like Novato or San Rafael.
Holy crap, no. It’d take 1.5 hours to get across the bleeping bay bridge and another 2 hours to Sacratomato. It’s a really, really crappy commute; I dread that part of the drive when we go to Tahoe.
Also, as noted by other posters, the cost of living in SF is very high and there are other nice places to live that wouldn’t be such a hard slog to Sacramento.
That makes a big difference in my opinion – you have a reason to want to be near SF, rather than just an aversion to Sacramento. If you picked a spot in the East Bay where you could take the train to Sacto, and your SO could take BART into SF, and you only have to do it 2x/week, it might not be so awful.
But if you have to cross the bay from SF to get to the train, or if your job in Sacto isn’t near the train station & required you to take local transit from the train station to your office, I think you would quickly live to regret it.
Amtrak says the scheduled trip from Emeryville to Sacramento is a full 2 hours each way, and costs $48 round trip.
Trouble is, you could live in San Fran and have that big commute only 2 days/week and everything is fine. For a while. But pre-hire agreeements like that can have a way of disappearing. Oh maybe your current boss is ok with it, but what if he/she leaves and new guy isn’t. Then you’re doing it everyday and you’re screwed. Or you have this “big favor” hanging over your head and it clouds your working relationship.
Well if it is only two days a week, take the train. Don’t drive as you’re looking at more like 4 hours versus 1.5 hours.
Aww, what’s next - Casa de Fruta?
Sac to SF is probably going to be a longer than 1.5 hour commute unless you are in an odd time slot. I worked in Fresno but had to go to union city a couple times a month, I would either come in the night before or aim for off peak times like hitting livermore around 9-10am once most of the ugly traffic was broken up. Traffic can be brutal around the east bay. I knew people who had 1.5 hour commutes from northern Oakland to Union City. One drove like 2.5 hours a day in from somewhere near modesto.
That said, there are alot of nice small towns, some of them have turned into bedroom communities for the bay area like Tracy, Morgan Hill/Gilroy, even Hollister to a degree. Google maps has literally hundreds of little towns a few miles off the main freeways that might suit you. Don’t forget the wine country too.
I was born in Sacramento - great city by the way and miss it often, and lived in San Francisco for many years until the LA crowd destroyed its outpost character. I assume you chose San Francisco because you like living in a more urban city. You will not find anything as urban as San Francisco until LA or Portland.
I would not drive that commute twice a week. I would take the train. Many have WiFi connections. About 2 hrs each way. But over time you might find that is not worth it.
My advice to you would be to give the downtown Sacramento victorians a chance. I miss walking to work everyday past a cool, truly bohemian coffeehouse with all the trees and people riding their bikes. To me, that is pleasant urban living. San Francisco used to be that way!!!