What can you tell me about living in San Mateo?
My husband and I live in San Francisco and have a 4-year-old. We are done with the urban grittiness of this town (we live in the Mission) and want to move where it's clean and safe, with good public schools through HS (but don't want to live anywhere too bland and suburban). He works downtown, so commute options will be abundant for him, wherever we end up. However, I work at San Francisco General Hospital in the Mission, and it's a 20 minute walk from the nearest BART station. Driving from the East Bay would be too painful for me, and I really need the easier commute since my schedule is more flexible and I will probably do all the school drop-offs/pick-up. So, we're looking at the Peninsula: Millbrae, Burlingame, San Bruno, San Mateo. San Mateo seems more affordable than many other nearby towns, and has good shopping and restaurants. Can anyone tell me what it's like to live there? How are the schools? How is the commute from there to SF? Is it family-friendly with kids riding bikes down the streets? Will two parents who aren't wealthy fit in there? Are there other places we should be considering? Any insight would be a huge help, thanks!
Parent Replies
Sorry I can't help in a positive way, but I do know from the experience of others' with "lived experience" that Boringgame's nickname is pretty well-deserved. Good luck.
I have heard very good things about Burlingame, Can't imagine living in San Mateo and having to commute to SF.
Commuting from San Mateo to SF is easy. The Millbrae BART station is right there. But, the affordable areas in San Mateo are far more like Redwood City than Burlingame. You get what you pay for unfortunately. If one area is less expensive than another, there's a reason. Having said that, San Mateo is a cute town and has a nice downtown area with restaurants and shopping. It's easy to get up to the city to go out also. In general, you want to be on the 280 side of San Mateo, not the 101 side.
I understand wanting to get away from the grittiness of the Mission, But for ease of commuting, you might want to consider the Sunset. From UCSF Parnassus you can take a shuttle to SF General. I live in the Outer Sunset and my daughter goes to highly rated neighborhood school just a few blocks from our apartment. It is much more of a suburban atmosphere with lots of families. Most likely, if you go to a local sunset school (area schools have a better shot in the school lottery) you will feed into a good middle school and have a higher chance of getting into a good high school. The rents are much cheaper than the rest of the city as well.