Where to live (with good schools) for a commute to Dogpatch?
I'd love some opinions/advice, since we're moving to the Bay Area with two grade school-age kids and I've never been there before. We are relocating from overseas in June/July, for a job that's in Dogpatch. We missed the San Francisco school lottery, and since we don't know anything about the area it looks like the simplest thing would be to try to rent somewhere on the Caltrain with good public schools, like maybe San Mateo/Burlingame/Belmont. Does that sound right? And should we be looking at Lamorinda/Oakland/Albany too, or would commutes to Dogpatch be terrible? Should we write off the North Bay? Many thanks for any advice you might have on what areas we should check out, especially since we'd be moving at the end of the school year and trying to get school slots last-minute. Obviously, we're clueless, and I'm finding this forum so helpful...
Parent Replies
I think your first instinct is a good one since the 22nd Street Caltrain station is located in Dogpatch. It would minimize the amount of time you spend getting from the station to your work.
If you took BART in from the East Bay, you'd then have to get to Dogpatch, probably from the Embarcadero BART station, either on a Muni train (about 25 min), biking (15-20 min) or walking (hourish). One thought is to drive and pick up people with Casual Carpool (google if you don't know what it is) to use the carpool lane. After dropping your passengers off, drive to Dogpatch. I don't know the parking situation and the drive home could be tough.
Similarly if you took the bus or ferry from Marin, you'd see similar times getting to Dogpatch from the Transbay and Ferry terminal. I'm not sure I'd consider driving in from Marin unless you can avoid commute times.
If you have the money, definety try to find a place in the city to rent. Commuting really eats up so much time and is pretty awful. We moved from SF to El Cerrito and are really regretting it. Avoid all contra costa schools and Oakland is very bad too. Berkeley is supposed to be better, but SF schools are great. Even if you missed the lottery your kids still can go to the nearest public school with an opening. We once moved into the city mid year and were given several good choices for school placement. Good luck, be careful as east bay schools are really frustrating! South Bay might be better and north bay schools tend to be very good.
You may still want to consider Albany and Berkeley. Both Albany and Berkeley publics schools are very good, and there is AC Transbay bus that takes you directly to San Francisco Transbay terminal.
I'd beg to differ with the previous poster's opinion that El Cerrito schools are bad. El Cerrito schools are totally fine, elementary, middle and high school.
Anyway, Dogpatch is easiest to get to by Caltrain, so looking along the Caltrain route as you mentioned would be a good idea. Finding housing might be your biggest issue, so I would focus on that first, and have trust and confidence in your kids that they will be able to succeed at any school.