June 22, 2011
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Onto the Next Problem
My new job is in downtown Sacramento. I knew I’d have to pay a lot for parking, something like $100-$130 for a monthly pass. I thought it’d just be as easy as buying the pass and finding a spot in the parking garage. I thought wrong. Apparently, the demand for parking is soo bad, you have to get on a waiting list to get a monthly pass. My current co-workers who used to work in Sac said they were on the list for 5 years before getting one. And Haile said it’s pretty bad like that.
If I can’t get a (readily) parking space downtown, that narrows my search for an apartment (that isn’t walking distance to work) to places on or near a bus or light rail line. Sacramento’s public transportation system is pretty bad, so my options aren’t that great. My search was already pretty narrow, cause I was looking for a cheap place, $700 or less. I’d like it to have a garage and a washer & dryer (in the unit), but that’s not a deal breaker. So during my search, when I found a potential place, I’d look up reviews on Apartmentratings.com, Yelp, or Google. So far, the places that have fit my criteria all have horrible reviews, like bad management, slow maintenance, but most importantly, car break-ins/theft. I’m not going through that “pick-n-pull” experience again.
This also brings up another issue: where will I park if I don’t get a monthly parking pass AND don’t find an apartment when I start working? From what I can gather, I have two options: pay $12/day for daily parking ($60/week, $240/month), or drive up a lil further past downtown and take the light rail, which is $115/month ($100 fare + $15 parking). I’ll probably do daily parking for my first day, then the light rail after. But hopefully I’ll get lucky and snag a monthly pass quickly.
