I have a job offer from UCDavis. Never have been in the area except once driving past up to Lake Tahoe.
I welcome all input to the area, SF close by, Lake Tahoe close by meaning 1hr drive , but what’s it like in the Davis-Sacramento area.?
thanks all, not sure yet if I will except.
All good points and great cycling.
Napa Valley is also close by… the Pacific Crest trail. I don’t know anything about Davis, sorry.
Where do you live now?
I do not live in the area, but have family there. Good upsides of california living; nice weather lots of outdoor sports available including world class skiing within 2hrs of your door without having to shovel snow out of your driveway. Housing is reasonably affordable for California as well. Downside it gets hotter than the sun during the summers. As a visitor is seams to have small town feeling although there are a ton of “chain restuarants and strip malls”.
The only downside that I can see is that the Bay Area- Sacramento corridor is crowded and expensive. That is probably because it is a good place to live. Infinite number of things to do and perfect climate. Summer is a little hot but would you really want to live somewhere that is cool all the time.
Lived in Davis for 8 years and now live in Sacramento. Honestly, I hated living in Davis.
The food options suck. Why the hell would you have 6-10 thai restaurants within 2 blocks of each other but not have a decent steak house (closest is Buckhorn in Winters which is fantastic)? Granted, the food caters to the residents but come on. A little variety would be nice.
I hated driving in town. You’ve got really old residents that are afraid of cyclists, kids on bikes that don’t know how to ride, and young student drivers that drive like crap.
The housing situation also sucks. You have a handful of companies renting out homes and apartments that jack up the prices and have poor management. The yelp reviews for most of them will tell you all you need to know. And, if you want to buy, the cost is relatively high IMO. There isn’t a lot of development so housing is relatively steep.
As a 30-something professional, there really isn’t anything to do in town. There are the crowded bars filled with students and you could go to Mondavi to watch a show but there really isn’t anything interesting in town - for me anyway. It’s a boring town.
I will say the riding is amazing. It doesn’t take much to get into farm roads with little traffic. The group rides are definitely tough and fast. You’re also relatively close to Napa and Tahoe so you have outdoorsy options.
And also, the town is supposed to be great for families. The schools are good and the town is safe.
If I had to work in Davis again, I’d live outside of town (Sacramento) and commute in. It’s only 15-20 minutes and I just prefer the options of a larger city.
More info at daviswiki.org
Summers are hot as balls.
Nice delta breezes at night though.
Knew a few people who lived in Davis and commuted downtown Sac or Roseville. They later moved downtown Sac, I forget where.
I doesn’t rain in the summer
A good bit of green/brown space.
Very granola/crunchy town
The UCD Med Center is actually in Sacramento too. IIRC around Alhambra & 25th or so.
SMF isn’t bad to get to from there.
Easy access to the whole state (113 hits I-5 north of town, or 80 into Sac gets to I-5 south)
You can get on US-50 in East Sac, right across the river from Davis, and get to Ocean City, Maryland…
The 3rd exit west of the river is an Ikea, and not much else.
There’s some nice races (5k) too. The Oktobrewfest 5K packs a big crowd: http://changeofpace.com/oktobrewfest/ . “Free” beer after the race! And the weather on a mid-October late afternoon/early evening is great. IIRC 5pm start time. Maybe 6.
My Brother works at UC Davis, I live about 70 miles to the west in Sonoma County.
Davis is a nice, fairly small town. It’s a college town. Lots of people on bikes commuting everywhere. No one wears helmets in town for some reason. Excellent network of bike paths, overpass bridges, bike lanes, etc. The road/ Tri cycling in the immediate area is… flat. and windy, and very hot in the summer. You have to go west towards lake berryessa to get anything resembling a hill. But there’s a very vibrant bike community and lots of fast people riding I’m sure. I would go nuts cycling there regularly, but I’m spoiled in gods gift to cycling, i.e. sonoma county. I ride out to Davis a couple of times a year to visit my brother and refer to it as 70 miles of fun, followed by 25 miles of hellish headwind on a flat farm road.
That being said, there are a lot of great cyclists in the Davis area. It was good enough for Dave Scott…
Its hot in the summer. 90+F on a regular basis, but the humidity is usually quite low.
One poster mentioned no good restaurants - it depends on what your tastes are. there are many small, cheap good eating places - i.e. college kid food places. Sandwich shops, noodle houses, thai. Probably not many fancy ‘fine dining’ opportunities.
If you have kids, I think the schools are quite good in Davis. They have one of the best youth soccer programs in the country if that matters.
It’s probably a pretty boring place to be a single person and to meet people, especially if you’re too old for the college scene. My impression of Davis is mostly college kids and families, but I could be wrong.
Housing is very expensive, unless you’re comparing it to silicon valley or SF. Probably $500-600k or more for a crappy house near the school. prices get a lot cheaper if you move to one of the communities outside of Davis, but then you have the commute and don’t get the nice bike lanes and community.
I think Lake Tahoe is more like two hours, but I rarely make it up there so I’m not sure.
Davis has a great bike shop- wheel works, downtown.
There are a number of good running races in Davis, and Triathlons in the Sacramento area (Folsom).
Any specific questions about Davis, let me know. What field is your job offer in?
J
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Thanks everybody. I am in Germany this week interviewing. Will have to make a decision by June.
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went there several times in the mid-90s.
at the time, Davis frequently smelled like cow poop.
perhaps that has changed.
Thanks everybody. I am in Germany this week interviewing. Will have to make a decision by June.
Bayer?
Davis is a fine town for families and students. Young and hip, I would live in Sacramento. I’ve lived in both and they are both worth considering. In terms of the entire California Central Valley, these are probably the two best towns for quality of life. There is much going on in Sacramento.
“Sacramento is a terrible place to visit, and an awesome place to live.”
The worst part about Sacramento and Davis is they aren’t Portland or Seattle.
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Genau !
Bin gerade in Stuttgart und Munich.
FC Bayern hats geshaft.
Thanks everybody. I am in Germany this week interviewing. Will have to make a decision by June.
Bayer?
Davis is a fine town for families and students. Young and hip, I would live in Sacramento. I’ve lived in both and they are both worth considering. In terms of the entire California Central Valley, these are probably the two best towns for quality of life. There is much going on in Sacramento.
“Sacramento is a terrible place to visit, and an awesome place to live.”
The worst part about Sacramento and Davis is they aren’t Portland or Seattle.
I lived in Sacramento while I was in college and then Davis when my wife was in college. I liked both towns, but I don’t know if Sacramento is worth the extra commute time. Why spend 30 minutes each way in your car when you can spend 10 minutes on your bike to get to work? You could of course bike commute from Sacramento, it’s easy enough though extremely unattractive. I used to go the opposite way. The Yolo Causeway is loud and windy and West Sac is unattractive at best.
Sacramento has better group rides (The River Ride in all it’s variants). Davis has MUCH better, out your door rides. For instance, when I lived near CSUS we would do the “generic route” from CSUS out to Fair Oaks and beyond and it was all suburban city streets. From Davis you could be on quiet farm roads in 10 minutes.
A note about the weather, it is really hot during the summer, but as others have mentioned, dry with low humidity. Still, 100 degrees is fairly common and an occasional 105-110 heat wave is the norm once or twice a summer. I did the 4th of July crit in Davis one year when it was 108 degrees. Also, winters can be pretty cold (California scale). The central valley gets a lot of tule fog between winter storms. Foggy day’s with a very damp high of say 42 degrees is not uncommon. When I used to bike commute from Davis to Sac there were days where I’d get to work and you’d think that I had gotten sprinkled on. Wet bike, wet clothes due to the thick fog.
Consider how much you might partake in the Sacramento night life when you choose. Is one night a week or every other week worth all that extra commute time?
Good luck.