Davinder Sohal rises every weekday in pre-dawn darkness, heating water for his morning chai and spreading peanut butter on slices of wheat bread before slipping on shoes and sliding out his garage door around 3 a.m. for his job in San Ramon, a 45-minute trek — if he leaves before 3:30. It’s a ritual Sohal has honed over the past six years, ever since he and his family moved from Fremont to Lathrop in San Joaquin County, purchasing a three-bedroom home in 2013 for $240,000.
In September, the family of four moved from the city’s east side to a five-bedroom, which they purchased for $570,000, in a new development called River Islands. The master-planned community will double the size of Lathrop with 11,000 new homes over the next 20 years. Cambay Group, which is leading the development, has already built 1,200 houses in nine new neighborhoods and is poised to add 3,100 more. The vast majority of residents, says Susan Dell’Osso, a board director for the development, come from the Bay Area and have at least one member of the household still working there .
The result?
“The commute is getting much worse,” Sohal said, adding that if he leaves after 4 a.m., the time he spends sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic more than doubles.
The traditional definition of the Bay Area is the 9 counties surrounding the bay. Which means all those towns are not really considered part of the Bay Area.
Integration won’t happen without better transit solution. Or maybe we can have the center of tech gravity moves to the east bay. I always wish Pleasanton becomes the new Palo Alto.
The region is growing because many people don’t have to commute to SV. Many retired people are moving to the exburbs. And many exburbs like Folsom have their own tech centers.
Folsom tech center is a joke. Nothing beats SV and nothing will. The best one can hope for is for SV to get bigger and more tech companies set up office in the East Bay. The recent news of Facebook leasing space in Newark is excellent news.
Some one local builder/flipper would have got it. Most likely would have gone between 400k or 425k, but with additional expenses like 75k to 100k, you are getting a 750k move-in home. Experienced builder cost is accounted for the flipper.
Last month, my friends (from Palo Alto) and I went to Pleasanton (Main Street.) We spent a lovey Sunday afternoon there.
We started with soft serve ice cream at the infamous Meadowlark Dairy; then we walked over to Nonni’s Bistro for a hearty brunch with Iceland beer; and wrapped it up with coffee & gelato at the Almare Gelato Italiano.
Plenty of outdoor coffee tables and chairs available, so we sat down to admire the classic cars cruising by (saw a gorgeous cherry-red 57 Chevy Bel Air convertible, by the way.)
Wife of my friend said, “Did you see what happened at Palo Alto nowadays? Streets full of RVs with people living inside. Every week, on the garbage day, those RV people dumped their trashes into our garbage bins and made a big mess…”
She added, “I like the vibe of Pleasanton. It reminded me of what Palo Alto used to be.”
Both cities have commute issue for San Jose or San Francisco or Peninsula areas, both ways.
Dublin is less expensive than Pleasanton. 580 and 680, 880 traffic is horrible, better access is BART to SF/jobs.
By expensive home wise,San Ramon first,Pleasanton second,Dublin third and all 3 cities are competitive nowadays. Whoever is unable to get in Fremont, moved to Dublin for newer homes and better price level.
Pleasanton downtown is super cute (our house is within walking distance which is a def pro) but the restaurants are all mediocre unfortunately and always rotating because they keep upping rent. The food is just not on par with other downtown areas in the Bay Area (Even Danville & Livermore food > Pleasanton). I do agree the asian selection is great though but that is about it and it’s not downtown you find those places, it’s at the Pearl area or the other 2 asian food hubs in Dublin.
High tech homeless?
