Move to San Rafael for GATE Academy ?
Hi All. We live in Albany and are considering GATE Academy in San Rafael for our almost 5 yr old son. We have been doing test drives to the school to figure out how long it takes in the morning to get there. One other option we are considering is moving to San Rafael. My husband works in Emeryville but I have an option to work from home. After living in Berkeley area I am a bit worried that we may not fit in San Rafael. We are Indians (from India) and have a very diverse circle of friends here. Can anyone living there comment about the demographics ? Are there many Indians there ? I have read posts about how its all rich, thin, white people but I want to hear from families who've moved there recently. Any family move there recently for GATE Academy ?
Parent Replies
I lived in Terra Linda (northern San Rafael neighborhood) and nearby in Santa Venetia (Marin County unincorporated) for a total of 11 years and currently live in Novato. So my observations apply to northern Marin. All of these neighborhoods are mostly but not exclusively white, to my eye no more than Albany is. We are not thin or rich and my husband is Chinese-American. Our cousins in Terra Linda are a mixed race couple; their child is in a Boy Scout troop and one of the leaders is an Indian-American woman. If you look at the AreaVibes website you can get more details, which shows over 25% of residents in 94903 are foreign-born. I would say overall what I notice about northern Marin vs. Albany is that the educational level is more variable (not everyone has a PhD). You have lots of people who have lived here for years and years, people who have cops in the family or who are contractors. There are a lot of second generation Italians, Portuguese, Irish, etc. (I do hear a lot of complaints from locals about entitled newcomers, but they always seem to live somewhere else.)
On a more practical note, I do find grocery store prices here shocking; there is nothing like Monterey Market. So I shop a lot at Grocery Outlet, Costco, etc. Highway traffic is not as bad as the East Bay but it's still pretty awful and the Richmond bridge can back up. The libraries are well-supported and fabulous.
It's easy to find nice people here but do find it takes a lot of time to find true friends when you move, no matter what your race.
Hi,
I'd like to chime in only because I hear in your post your reluctance to lose your community which is something my husband and I have had to deal with when we moved from Washington state for 2 job moves to Los Angeles and then to San Rafael. (I'm from SF but had been living in WA for a while when my son was born). We had a diverse group of friends in both Washington and Los Angeles and when we moved to SR we found ourselves home alone a lot wondering where all the friendly people were! We have lived in SR for 5 years and we are white (although not very thin nor rich, lol!) and it has been challenging to find strong social circles. We have yet to be able to pinpoint why exactly it is so difficult other than it seems that the folks here are just not as open or friendly as they are in Berkeley. Why? Well, there is poverty and drug use here as well as a lot of people working hard to just maintain their average lifestyles, leaving very little room for socialization. Demographically you will find a strong mix of white and hispanic but in my opinion, very small numbers of Indians or other cultures. In my circles I have one Indian (British) friend and we know one Canadian/Portuguese family and everyone else is white. GATE is near Marinwood which is even more white than San Rafael. If I had known then what I know now I would have better researched surrounding communities before agreeing to this last move to SR. Community is important! If you don't mind traveling back to Berkeley for your social engagements and it's worth it to you that your son go to GATE academy then it may be a move you can handle. Otherwise I'd stay put and commute my child. My two cents! Good luck!
Hi Mom AV,
We are an Indian family that moved from Fremont in 2011 for our then 5 year old for Gate academy. We are happy with our move. The school worked well for him for a many years, but he's now homeschooling . My daughter (8) is very happy at Gate. I had the same concerns as you with demographics, but were pleasantly surprised with Marin and Marinites. I have to say though that we were not well connected prior to that and don't have or want a big circle of friends either. So it may be different for your family. We have a small circle of Indian friends , half of whom are nostalgic about South and East bay and the other half of whom would dread leaving Marin for other parts of the Bay. There are maybe 300-500 Indian families throughout Marin but you'll find most of them are in Novato or maybe San Rafael. We have a proposed Temple project and also an Indian association that connects us. I'm not sure how to share my contact details here, but I'd be happy to talk more if you'd like to take my information from Sandy, our admin at Gate.