Originally Posted By TomSawyer My brother-in-law is transferring to a new job in California and they are thinking about living in the Merced/Mariposa area. He'll be doing service calls all over - Sacramento, San Francisco, San Jose, etc - and are looking at Merced because of real estate prices, mainly. Is Merced okay, or are there other towns with comparable real estate prices in the area that you think are better? They don't mind living in a small town. Anything you really like about Merced, or anything that really bugs you? What can he expect for traffic between Merced and the Bay Area or Sacramento? (He's been driving in DC, Baltimore and Philly so there isn't much that scares him traffic wise) Thanks for your help.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan He might want to track this site at various times of the day just to get an idea of what typical traffic patterns/drive times are like. <a href="http://traffic.511.org/" target="_blank">http://traffic.511.org/</a> The map doesn't extend all the way to Merced (Merced is 130 miles or so from SF) so he could check from Tracy to get an idea.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan From my home in the east bay, it wouldn't be unusual for it to take well over an hour to drive to downtown SF in the morning. If I took the Bay Bridge, extend that to a three day journey. ; )
Originally Posted By LacyBelle ^^ True. And if you'd taken the Bay Bridge over this past weekend, you wouldn't have been able to get back out of the City. ;-P
Originally Posted By Lisann22 Merced into the Bay Area for service calls is going to get old real fast. He would be driving through several of the worst traffic congestions areas in NorCal. Modesto/Tracy - 5/120/99 Tracy/Livermore - 205/580 Pleasanton/Oakland/San Ramon - 580/680 Dublin/Oakland - 580/238/880 I think I'd look into the newer communities in the Lodi/Sacto/Stockton area. It's still going to be a bear if you're not used to it. Get ready to be on the road a whole lot.
Originally Posted By TomSawyer He already is on the road a lot - he currently drives on the Beltway in DC quite a bit and that's some of the worst traffic I've ever seen. I've driven in the Bay Area, Boston, LA and Seattle - that's saying something! Thanks for your input, everyone. This means I'll probably be in the area at least once a year, so maybe I'll finally be able to meet y'all.
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA Hey Tom Sawyer, I'm late to the party here. Merced is very, very small town. It's what I describe as country. Meaning it's based in agriculture. Which is good and bad. Merced's claim to fame was agriculture [almond, walnut trees] and a military base [which closed in 1995]. It also calls itself 'The Gateway to Yosemite' as the National Park is 90 minutes away. With the addition of UCMerced, and lots of housing, Merced is slowly trying to re-invent itself. Merced is close to San Francisco and Sacramento [2 hours], and is relatively close to Los Angeles [4 hours]. We've found since we moved here a bit over a year ago, that people who live here leave to go do anything. Modesto [30 minutes north] and Fresno [45 minutes south] both have nice regional malls with Macys and other mall stores like Gap, Abercrombie & Fitch, et al. They're also both more densely populated than Merced and so have more in the way of other services. Merced has one tiny mall with a JCPenney, Sears and Mervyns. Merced has no Kinko's for example. So, to find anything decent shopping wise, you have to leave Merced. Quality restaurants are also sparce. Really good homemade Mexican food is in abundance in Merced -- beyond that, it gets a bit slim. They seem to like chain restaurants here -- Applebee's, Perko's, Sizzler, for 'sit-down' places, and then a whole crop of Del Taco, Taco Bell, In-and-Out, McDonalds, and the rest of the fast food world. We've discovered a few nice eateries - Toni's Courtyard Cafe, Fernando's Bistro, DeAngelo's Italian, and the famous Branding Iron -- all sit-down places, all are very good. And as mentioned before, lots of Merced residents head to SF or LA for the weekend. As far as commuting into SF from Merced, that would seem excessive to me -- even having lived and commuted in Los Angeles most of my working life. Here's a Wikipedia page that's pretty up-to-date. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merced" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M erced</a>%2C_California The Jim in Merceds are all cityfolk, so we're adjusting. On the plus side, our daughter loves her school [the teachers are very dedicated and cool], and we were able to find a house we can afford. [We were completely priced out in SoCal]. So, it's all a trade-off, ya know?
Originally Posted By velo lol, Jim, when I used to stay in Mariposa with my grandparents our "big" shopping trip would be to the Merced Mall. The "big city" trip was usually to Fresno.
Originally Posted By DouglasDubh I'd recommend a little further north than Merced. Nearer Modesto might be good. One good thing about Merced is it is within easy striking distance of Disneyland. Get up early and you can be there by opening.
Originally Posted By Lisann22 <<Get up early and you can be there by opening.>>> LOL - we do that from Livermore. ;>
Originally Posted By DouglasDubh True, and I did it when I lived in Pleasanton, but it's a good half-hour closer from Merced.
Originally Posted By RangerPooh Ok, I'm late to the party...but have a few thoughts. Merced isn't too bad if you're just commuting to San Jose and Sac (but that can be a stretch), but driving to SF can be a bear. And if there's an accident on Pachaco Pass (HWY 152) between Gilroy and Los Banos good luck! You'll have to drive 2 hours north just to get into the valley which makes it a VERY long commute!!! I would also recommend looking into other communities laong the 99 corridor such as Turlock, Escalon, Manteca, Tracy, Stockton, Lodi, Modesto, Salida... Now being from the Gilroy area I can understand wanting to relocate due to the cost but if they could swing it and SMALL(ER) communities don't bug them then I would also look at Hollister, Tres Pinos, and San Juan Bautista as the commute isn't quite as bad length wise.
Originally Posted By a goofy guy *& other valley residents* It's a different valley but I live in the Yakima Valley in Washington State! So I'm one of those "other valley residents"!
Originally Posted By TomSawyer Thanks for the great info, everyone. My brother-in-law won't have a regular commute. They'll call him to go to a hospital to service one of their machines, so he might be heading to San Jose one day and Sacramento the next, so it's not like he'll be on a regular commute. Thanks again!
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA If he needs a tour of Merced, let me know. I'll put aside the 12 1/2 minutes required to see all the attractions here in Merced -- and that includes the new UC campus. 'Now over here you'll see the construction site of our second 'Country Waffle' restaurant -- right next to the 'Applebee's' 'Del Taco' and 'Sizzler.'
Originally Posted By DouglasDubh Does the park still have the big rocket ship with the slide? I remember playing on it as a kid during a visit there.
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo Oh my god, I never thought I'd get homesick specifically for the central valley - but now I am finding it so!
