Spanky
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
For demographics, crime, education, climate and economic data about a city, Sperling's Best Places is quite good.
savedapile said:We lived in Mountain View/LosAltos for several years but our rent was paid by the company. We also lived in Southern California but I preferred No Cal more. Too much sprawl in the south. Horrible traffic in both places.
pros: Beautiful weather, loved San Francisco, the Redwoods, Mountains and Ocean. You could ski one day and go surfing the next. Great tolerance to diversity of race, sexual orientation, religion and gender. Outstanding ethnic restaurants everywhere. Biking, skating, hiking, windsurfing and a multitude of other sports and activities there. Got to see Elton John, Pearl Jam, Neil Young, Eric Clapton etc. right at the arena in Mountain View. Tremendous work opportunities for both of us.
cons: cost of housing and any service. Traffic. Schools had great difficulty keeping up with the many languages they had to deal with. Our neighbors would have lost their houses if they missed a couple of paychecks. We opted to not stay in the area due to the housing prices- we never would have reached FI there. I just could not stomach having to work forever just to afford housing.
savedapile said:We lived in Mountain View/LosAltos for several years but our rent was paid by the company. We also lived in Southern California but I preferred No Cal more. Too much sprawl in the south. Horrible traffic in both places.
pros: Beautiful weather, loved San Francisco, the Redwoods, Mountains and Ocean. You could ski one day and go surfing the next. Great tolerance to diversity of race, sexual orientation, religion and gender. Outstanding ethnic restaurants everywhere. Biking, skating, hiking, windsurfing and a multitude of other sports and activities there. Got to see Elton John, Pearl Jam, Neil Young, Eric Clapton etc. right at the arena in Mountain View. Tremendous work opportunities for both of us.
cons: cost of housing and any service. Traffic. Schools had great difficulty keeping up with the many languages they had to deal with. Our neighbors would have lost their houses if they missed a couple of paychecks. We opted to not stay in the area due to the housing prices- we never would have reached FI there. I just could not stomach having to work forever just to afford housing.
Yes, it is a challenge for a student who doesn't know the language spoken by the teacher, as it is for a teacher who must communicate with students who speak a variety of non-English languages.