<p>Help!!
My son landed a great internship in Palo Alto for the summer. Problem is where to live. Stanford term doesn't end until mid June so all of the sublets seem to start then (he begins work end of May). On top of that his car is on the East coast. I DO NOT want him driving to CA and then back east at the end of the summer.</p>
<p>Any housing/transportation ideas?</p>
<p>We live in a large east coast city with plenty of several colleges in addition to public transporation/walking so this is quite the shock to the system.</p>
<p>Could [Apartments</a> for Rent - PadMapper Apartment Search for Oodle, Apartments.com, Rent.com, Kijiji, and Craigslist Apartments](<a href=“Apartments for Rent from the Trusted Apartment Finder | PadMapper”>http://www.padmapper.com/) help? You can set the filters to look for rooms/sublets/near public transit.</p>
<p>Several of the Palo Alto companies provide shuttles. Your son should find out the route if his
company has one. Kids also get around Palo Alto by bike and train. Lots of kids in Palo Alto live in San Fran and take public transportation to work.</p>
<p>^^ But San Fran isn’t exactly cheap when it comes to housing.</p>
<p>Good advice above to check with the company on transportation options. If it’s a large company then they may have some of their own shuttles and if not, they may still know the options.</p>
<p>I haven’t ever used it but it seems that he might have good options as long as he locates somewhere along the train route and he might be able to use that depending on how close it is to his workplace and his willingness to walk/bike a bit.</p>
<p>[System</a> Map](<a href=“http://www.caltrain.com/stations/systemmap.html]System”>Stations & Zones | Caltrain)</p>
<p>He should also try craigslist to see what might be available.</p>
<p>I’m watching this thread closely as my son is looking for the same thing. He has an internship with a company in Redwood City that doesn’t provide housing and is not accessible by public transportation. He’s currently doing a semester abroad in London and even if we had the inclination to drive his car out from Texas he won’t have the time to do so.</p>
<p>^^ Redwood City’s on that same train route. The link I posted also links shuttles serving the different train stations. </p>
<p>Your S and the OP’s S can share an apartment together! You could then drive your S’s car out there at your convenience, do a nice visit and see the sights, and fly back which would leave your S with a car so he and the OP’s S can get around a see the sights while there including maybe a trip to Tahoe, to the beach, to the redwood trees, etc.</p>
<p>Thanks GladGradDad, the train is an option I had not considered. Blackeyedsusan, I pm’ed you.</p>
<p>Got it! And unfortunately the company my son’s working for is located 4 miles from the Caltrain stop (with no public transportation in between).</p>
<p>I nominate GladGradDad as Matchmaker Of The Year !!</p>
<p>blackeyedsusan:</p>
<p>Did you notice this on the shuttle for Redwood City - </p>
<p>[Pacific</a> Shores Shuttle](<a href=“http://www.caltrain.com/schedules/Shuttles/Pacific_Shores_Shuttle.html]Pacific”>http://www.caltrain.com/schedules/Shuttles/Pacific_Shores_Shuttle.html)</p>
<p>Does that get him close?</p>
<p>If the job is Stanford affiliated: [SUpost</a> Classifieds](<a href=“http://www.supost.com/search?sub=66]SUpost”>http://www.supost.com/search?sub=66)
It’s grad student housing. Many of them sublet for the summer. Honestly, some of them would probably lease to a non-affiliate if he asked. A lot of them will let him start at the beginning of june, so he may have to rent a motel for a couple weeks or something.</p>
<p>Another great option: <a href=“http://www.airbnb.com/search?location=Palo+Alto%2C+CA&checkin=05%2F15%2F2012&checkout=08%2F01%2F2012&sort=4[/url]”>http://www.airbnb.com/search?location=Palo+Alto%2C+CA&checkin=05%2F15%2F2012&checkout=08%2F01%2F2012&sort=4</a>
A lot of them are very close to Stanford. Rates start at around $800 for a bed in a shared room in a hostel. For about $1000 he may be able to rent a room somewhere, and upwards of $1200 a small studio or apartment.</p>
<p>I’ve also looked through craigslist, there are a few options.</p>
<p>Bikes are popular and he should be able to get around with one if he is smart about where he rents.</p>
<p>alwaysleah – I had seen the supost site and there are LOTS of sublets, but it looks pretty clear that you have to be affiliated with Stanford to sublet. I guess I would be uncomfortable to try it and then it won’t work out.</p>
<p>GGDad – thanks for the info, but unfortunately the company my son’s working for is north of there (on Bridge Parkway).</p>
<p>And I have one question – am I correct in understanding that East Palo Alto is an area to be avoided?</p>
<p>@blackeyedsusan I’m pretty sure that their leases tell them to sublet only to Stanford affiliates. I wasn’t sure if OP’s son’s internship is affiliated or not, but I figured it may be so I just posted it as an option. I heard from a Stanford student that many of the grad students don’t actually follow this rule, but if it makes you uncomfortable by all means avoid it :)</p>
<p>Try airbnb though, it’s for short term rentals and is not affiliated with Stanford, so he should be okay. There are a lot of options there.</p>
<p>ETA: I would avoid East Palo Alto. Certain areas are starting to get cleaned up a bit, but it’s really quite dangerous and I wouldn’t recommend it.</p>
<p>
I tried!
Realistically, there are probably more than a few students of CC parents headed to that area for summer internships who have similar issues to deal with. The same with DC, NYC, LA, and some other major internship areas. Although it’d break some anonymity in some cases it might work out pretty well for some of these people to sync up and see if they can work out an arrangement to their mutual benefit.</p>
<p>It sure looks like this would work for blackeyedsusan’s kid [Route</a> 260](<a href=“http://www.samtrans.com/schedulesandmaps/timetables/260.html]Route”>San Carlos Caltrain - Carlmont Village | SamTrans)
and pad mapper has short-term sublets in the area.</p>
<p>
Okay. Maybe there are other public transport options - I don’t know.</p>
<p>But what about the idea of you driving his car out there and enjoying seeing the area if you haven’t been there before but even if you have, still doing a mini-vacation there? You can stop at the Grand Canyon along the way as well as other nice places to see. You’re already halfway there (compared to east coasters).</p>
<p>He’d then have his car and could still pal around with Triguena’s S.</p>
<p>^^ That would be great except for also having to get his car back to St Louis for him at the start of school. (He also only has 1 week between end of work/beginning of school.) We’re planning instead on flying out to California with him to get him settled and having a mini vacation then – his big brother is in grad school in Seattle and will come join us. I’d rather use my vacation time relaxing than driving through Texas and Arizona for 4 days!</p>
<p>We’ll figure this out! When I graduated college I drove out to California from Maryland to look for a job, with no place to stay (and no internet/cell phones back then) and found a room in a house in Mountain View. No job, though, so I came back after a while. ;)</p>
<p>It’ll all work out somehow. I wish you guys luck.</p>