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Temporary Living in San Francisco?
starmanbrand
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Registered User regular
My second quarter of grad school is a tax busy season internship. Hoping to get an internship in San Francisco. But I've never done something like this before!
I'm looking for a place for January to the first few days of April. Ideally as cheaply as possible since I wont be subletting my place in SLO.
Where should I be looking for this? I'd normally start with craigslist, but its sort of a long period for a temporary rental? Would doing like a motel thing and getting a weekly or daily rate be the best? I'm not too concerned about comfort as I'm going to be trying to be out and enjoying the city when I'm not working since I've never even visited it before.
I'm looking for a place for January to the first few days of April. Ideally as cheaply as possible since I wont be subletting my place in SLO.
Where should I be looking for this? I'd normally start with craigslist, but its sort of a long period for a temporary rental? Would doing like a motel thing and getting a weekly or daily rate be the best? I'm not too concerned about comfort as I'm going to be trying to be out and enjoying the city when I'm not working since I've never even visited it before.
starmanbrand on
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Also take a look at padmapper.com. It's the same listings as Craigslist, but conveniently placed on a browseable map.
As schuss says, don't rule out the East Bay. I also say don't rule out the peninsula. I live about 10 miles south of the city proper, and I save roughly $400-600 per month on rent based on comparable places inside the city limits.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
Padmapper is hit or miss these days though, as CL has cranked down on the data it provides. Peninsula is fine too, though I feel you need a car more there than in Oakland (if that's a concern)
Advice in this thread is super good so far, but I've gotta nitpick a small part of this.
I live in San Jose now, but I lived in the Richmond District (assuming this is what you mean in the above quoted @schuss ) for two and a half years before ending up here where the rent is cheap. It definitely depends on where you are, if you are down by Seacliff or something, yeah that is a long way from Downtown. But if you're where I was, around 4th Ave. and California, it's incredibly central in terms of bus lines available to get to other parts of the city and the 1*x routes during commuter hours or the 38L (runs most times barring the weekend) make getting downtown a <20 minute trip. You'd be pretty hard pressed to do that via BART from the East Bay. Other lines a short jaunt away from my location included the 33, 44, 28, etc. I could get to most remote parts of the city in about a half hour, usually without a transfer.
The rent there is also more affordable than most other areas of the city excluding shady places like the Bayview or the Tenderloin, or far out and inconvenient places in the Outer Sunset by the beach. Also that entire neighborhood between Laurel Heights and Park Presidio around Clement Street is just awesome in terms of shops, amazing food, several nice pubs and other drinking establishments, and parks, all within walking distance.
Since people here are all "look at the East/South Bay" it's also worth pointing out that the North Bay is going to be useless to you unless you have a car and even then rent is going to be $$$.
That's why people usually refer to the area west of Park Presidio as Outer Richmond and east of Park Presidio as Inner Richmond.
Sunset is the same way. East of 19th is Inner Sunset and relatively easy to get around by transit. West of 19th is Outer Sunset and you can live by transit only, but it is harder.
And I agree with schuss that the Peninsula is more car-oriented than East Bay or SF. You can be kinda sorta car-free if you get a really good location in the area from Millbrae to Daly City along the BART line but it can be a bit of a pain; anything south of Millbrae or too far west of BART and you're back to owning a car.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
BTW, there's really no "bad" neighborhood in SF.
Tenderloin, Western Addition, Hunters Point, and Bayview can be a little sketchy at night, but it's nothing compared to the bad parts of NYC or LA. You just have to be a little more careful walking around than you would be in, for example, the Marina.
Outer Sunset, Outer Richmond, Excelsior, and Visitacion Valley aren't as well-served by public transit so car ownership is more commonplace.
When you're looking at living out of town, this is kind of what you're looking at:
For car-free living, you basically are looking at the areas bordered by Downtown Berkeley on the North, Fruitvale on the South, and Rockridge on the East.
It's hard to really explain where the nice parts and the bad parts of the East Bay are because the East Bay has a lot of micro-neighborhoods. One minute you're in the ghetto, then you turn a corner and walk two blocks and it's all multimillion-dollar mansions.
Lake Merritt is usually a safe bet; so are Downtown Berkeley and Rockridge. Not pictured on the map are the Oakland neighborhoods of Temescal and Piedmont which are youthful-trendy and upscale-yuppie, respectively.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
@Hypatia As long as I get a SF internship, I will almost 90% for sure be working downtown (looks like google maps tags the neighborhoods as financial district or rincon hill).
I'm a little hesitant to live somewhere based on just the BART. When does the last train leave/what are your options if you miss it? I'm not sure if the firms will be busting the asses of interns, but it will be busy season so I think that I will probably be working late.
In case you're curious, San Jose and San Francisco are far enough apart that you probably don't want to be living in one and commuting to the other...