Bays

This section of Foster City on the western end has a very 1980’s feel to it. Homes are really nicely kept here. Many of them have those really high peeked roofs with long columns that drop down to emphasize their height. The roof serves as a shelter for the front door, offering visitors a shelter from the elements as they wait for someone to answer the door. Some of my favorite spots in this neighborhood are the cul-de-sacs where you often find basketball backboards and where I imagine the neighborhood kids come out for a little pick-up game on the quiet streets. It seems like the kind of place where people wash their own cars on weekend mornings (though knowing how things are these days, they probably don’t).

The streets here have that wide open feel that you get when there is not a lot of tree cover and the streets are have sidewalks. This feeling is increased because of the lack of sloping from hills, which just makes the sky look much bigger.
This makes it seem much brighter. (A bit like desert neighborhoods in places like Arizona or New Mexico, I suppose.)

There is also a pretty good park right at the center of this neighborhood, Boothbay Park, which has tennis courts, a kids play area and a basketball court.

Home prices go for around $1 million here, which means it is outside of our price range.

Apartments are a lot more moderately priced. There are some of them on the southern end of this neighborhood that are currently going for about $2000/mo for both 1 and 2 bedrooms. They would be fairly bland except for the lagoon like canals directed next to them.

The area also has a strip mall on its northern end, where you can find a supermarket—a Lucky—and some other businesses, including a handful of restaurants (a pizza place, a seafood place, a deli, a Chevy’s Fresh Mex, and a place called Papa’s Cooking), and a sporting goods store and martial arts studio. It’s the kind of place that pops up in a nice area so when residents don’t feel like leaving the neighborhood, they can stick around and still get their needs met.

Overall, this is a pretty good spot but overpriced for homeowners. I wouldn’t mind living here as a renter though.

This section of Foster City on the western end has a very 1980’s feel to it. Homes are really nicely kept here. Many of them have those really high peeked roofs with long columns that drop down to emphasize their height. The roof serves as a shelter for the front door, offering visitors a shelter from the elements as they wait for someone to answer the door. Some of my favorite spots in this neighborhood are the cul-de-sacs where you often find basketball backboards and where I imagine the neighborhood kids come out for a little pick-up game on the quiet streets. It seems like the kind of place where people wash their own cars on weekend mornings (though knowing how things are these days, they probably don’t).

The streets here have that wide open feel that you get when there is not a lot of tree cover and the streets are have sidewalks. This feeling is increased because of the lack of sloping from hills, which just makes the sky look much bigger.
This makes it seem much brighter. (A bit like desert neighborhoods in places like Arizona or New Mexico, I suppose.)

There is also a pretty good park right at the center of this neighborhood, Boothbay Park, which has tennis courts, a kids play area and a basketball court.

Home prices go for around $1 million here, which means it is outside of our price range.

Apartments are a lot more moderately priced. There are some of them on the southern end of this neighborhood that are currently going for about $2000/mo for both 1 and 2 bedrooms. They would be fairly bland except for the lagoon like canals directed next to them.

The area also has a strip mall on its northern end, where you can find a supermarket—a Lucky—and some other businesses, including a handful of restaurants (a pizza place, a seafood place, a deli, a Chevy’s Fresh Mex, and a place called Papa’s Cooking), and a sporting goods store and martial arts studio. It’s the kind of place that pops up in a nice area so when residents don’t feel like leaving the neighborhood, they can stick around and still get their needs met.

Overall, this is a pretty good spot but overpriced for homeowners. I wouldn’t mind living here as a renter though.

Pitted within the winding canals of Foster City, Bays is a clean-cut anonymous community. The district is mostly flat and encompasses about two dozen family-friendly blocks which include a small shopping center towards the area’s northern limits. For the perspective resident, Bays consists mostly of old, cookie cutter homes and nothing anything else. It’s biggest perk is its proximity to the vast San Francisco Bay and the San Mateo Bridge.

While located along the southern edge of Foster City and minutes of the bay, Bays’ residential quarters consist of too much middle-class suburban anonymity to overcome. Houses are one-story in size and look relatively identical to each other. The typical home is plotted on an adequately sized property with a small, grassy front yard and a two-car garage. Properties lay ground to quaint, recently paved roads and other mediocre suburban aesthetics. For nicer, much larger homes, head towards southern edge of the district, especially along Port Royal Avenue. There you can also find a handful of nice-looking connected condominiums hidden through the wooded landscaping. As a whole, the community is somewhat isolated, due to the surrounding canals and Central Lake runoffs, which can be a plus or a minus however you look at it.

For your quick errands, Edgewater Place Shopping Center is pocketed within the northeastern corner. However, you won’t get most of your shopping done here. The area is only outfitted with a quick stop’n’shop and a couple unglamorous neighborhood restaurants. Just across the street, you can find the Foster City Elementary School. Although relatively anonymous within Foster City, it provides an above average education for your young ones. While public transportation is fairly limited within the district, US Route 101 skirts the western edge and makes for a convenient commuting option up and down the San Francisco peninsula.