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[quote=Anonymous]I’m the pp who moved to Burlingame. We picked it for a few reasons: (1) DH at the time had a daily commute to a lab in South San Francisco and my job required me to go once a week to my office in San Francisco (I took the train; DH took the car (he changed jobs and now teleworks full time and I telework most the time. My office moved further away but I only go in about once a month now); (2) I didn’t want to live further north / closer to the city because I was worried about feeling cold all the time / the fog; and (3) I didn’t realize how important it was for me to live somewhere with trees. Since we moved for his job (and I didn’t want to move), he gave me a lot of leeway in picking our location. The company that hired him paid for 8 weeks of temporary housing and one scouting trip before we moved. We used the scouting trip to tour a TON of daycares and get on lists and met up with a real estate agent (also company provided) for a very long day - we drove around from Golden Gate Park down to foster city. Then, after we moved, I took a few weeks’ leave and spent that time settling in, learning about neighborhoods, and finding housing. I literally went to the library and coffee shops and grocery stores in a few towns to imagine what it would feel like to live there and then narrowed down my search (pretty much Millbrae to San Mateo, given commutes and weather).

I really like some of the towns south of us like Belmont and Mountain View. A friend used to teach in the Palo Alto school system and I agree with others, based on what he said, that it can be a pressure cooker. For better or worse I feel like we’ve managed to avoid that a bit. I do find it interesting that all my closest friends here are transplants from the East coast, Canada, or Europe. I don’t know if there’s a cultural difference / vibe or if it’s coincidence.

My husband and I worry about the lack of economic diversity (though there is some lower income housing in Burlingame) and what feels like racial diversity after DC - he points out that, while there are few black students in the school system, there are many Asians (especially people with Chinese and Indian ancestry), and my 2nd grader has a friend born in Peru and another born in Egypt, so my perception of lack of diversity might be not entirely accurate.

They recently redid (electrified) Caltrain which also changed the breaking system which means (a) the new trains are cleaner (for now); (b) they have added wifi which is nice and; and (c) the breaking system means they can run trains closer together. I think it used to be something like 35 mins between trains and now is something like 25 mins, which is nice! I rode the train once here to Mountain View - there was a major (hour) delay so I wasn’t a good judge. I wouldn’t be thrilled about that commute daily, but I’m not allowed to work in public settings for my job so it might be different if it could be work time.

In terms of planes, I don’t really notice them more than in any other urban environment except in high wind days. They change the approach to the airport or shut a runway or something when it’s very windy and then we’re right in the flight path. Even then it’s not too bad and that’s just a few times a year.

I haven’t read all the posts so I don’t know I’d you have kids / their ages. There was just a major renovation at Coyote point in San Mateo (just over the border from Burlingame) and now there’s a large “beach” (kind of rocky, but still fun) on the bay.

I haven’t looked into how to set up an anonymous email I could share, but if you wanted to I’d be willing to email directly. I found the move and scouting to be really stressful! (I think this might not be relevant, but I can share thoughts on daycares / preschools in the area if it is relevant - we looked at a lot and have used two of them.)

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