Has anyone been to Pleasanton, CA and can you tell me what it's like? I'm considering a job offer there.

Thanks.

Pleasanton is your basic suburban sprawl town. Not much going on there. You will be about an hour from San Francisco, an hour and a half to Sacramento, and a half hour to Fremont/ San Jose. Depends on what you are looking for as to whether you will like it or not. Affordable housing (well, by California standards anyway), good weather, low crime--it's there. High culture and an active night life, probably not. Email if you want more information--I live in San Jose so I know the area well.

I am very familar with Pleasanton and I think it is definitely a cut above you basic urban sprawl town. I have never lived there but have lived in a few places around the bay area for nearly a decade now and I think Pleasanton has alot to offer. I agree though more details about your lifestyle are needed to give you a honest opinion. Pleasanton is family town so if you are single and looking for the nightlife you should at the very least live elsewhere and commute. However if your married and maybe have kids it's one of the better choices in the bay area. A couple years back the SF Chronicle rated Pleasanton as the best place to live in the bay area. It has a nice downtown with many good restaurants. True they are mostly italian but very good nonetheless. If you are more into Asain cuisine again I am afraid you will need to travel to Berkeley, Palo Alto, SF or the south bay. It has good schools and very low crime. Feel free to email me with specific questions.

Thanks, I will e-mail you both tomorrow (Wed, Sept 30).

One more thing about Pleaanton restaurants--there is actually an excellent Chinese restaurant called Blessings. There is also a great mall ( Stoneridge Mall) if you care about shopping. Agree with other 2 messages--it is a nice suburban town that is excellent for families and close to great Bay Area places. Good luck--emailme too if you like.

Hello again Stve. Another thing is that Pleasanton is near some great outdoor areas If you want further info, email to the above address(got it wrong in first response)

I live in Silicon Valley and would like to add another vote in favor of Pleasanton. It is a very nice clean city with a very low crime rate. BART runs there so you have good transportaion to San Francisco, etc. You can get out of the area pretty easily if you are traveling east ( i.e. Reno, Lake Tahoe ) or to I-5. The traffic in and out of the South Bay can be very bad.

As far as affordable housing goes, that depends on your situation. Be prepared to spend upwards of $500,000.00 for a relatively modest home. Housing prices in the Bay area are totally unreal compared to anywhere else including the rest of California. New housing has not begun to keep up with the fantastic job growth which has created an extreme shortage of housing. This has caused prices to go through the roof though the situation seems to be moderating somewhat now.