San Jose, CA: What's a nice, safe area of Silicon Valley to live for someone who likes to be within walking distance of the fun stuff?

Campbell has a small downtown area which has been revitalized during the last few years, it has lots of restaurants and some small shops; a wonderful farmer's market on the weekends and is within a short distance to Valley Fair and Santana Row which are two of the more upscale shopping malls in the area. Housing is still expensive ($2,500 for a 2 bd apartment on the avg) but nicer than Mountain View. I would forget Mountain View is overrated and is dead on the weekends. Another nice area to live is West San Jose which is adjacent to Campbell or Willow Glen which is closer to downtown SJ.

Area around Pruneridge, Campbell are great. And Campbell downtown is much better than San Jose downtown. Also, it is close (3-5 miles) to Saratoga and Los Gatos downtowns.

If you want to be reallyyy close to fun stuff, live at Santana Row.

It all depends on where you will be working, how much you want to pay in rent and how long you are willing to commute.We relocated from Philly 2 years ago and spent the first year in San Jose. This was convient for our jobs but we didn't love the city, we spent more time going up to San Francisco which we love. However we had to sacrifice a 2 bedroom apartment, in SF we pay more for a 1 bedroom, a 2 bed is not in our budget (~$4500+) and my commute to the South Bay is 2 hours each way but many people do it, so much so that trains are ofter standing room only.

Easy!   West San Jose/ Campbell area.  Close to shops and restaurants and relatively calm.   Its getting expensive though.   Stay away from the East Side of San Jose / Parts of Winchester blvd near the hood - unless you wear a vest.

I lived in Campbell for most of my life.  It's an awesome little city with a great downtown area.  Lots of great places to eat and little shops to explore as well.  Just an all around great area with lots of newer restaurants and bars to checkout.  Definitely  miss it, and visit every time I come back to the Bay.

I like Campbell and it's got the best little downtown area with lots of restaurants.  The negative is that Campbell does not have rent control so your rent can increase a lot at any time. San Jose has rent control which was 8% but now will be 5% yearly.  The best areas in San Jose are West San Jose (close to Campbell) and Willow Glen.  Stay away from East SJ...the rents are cheaper there but don't be tempted. South SJ also has cheaper rents but the traffic getting out there is horrible!  Downtown SJ is very mixed. There are a lot of younger people moving there and it's becoming a better place but there still are a lot of homeless people there.  It's also a higher crime area than other parts of the city.Los Gatos (South of SJ) is really nice but much more expensive and there is no rent control there. Just my two-cents worth from someone who was born and raised here since 1960!

Palo Alto:  pros -- village like, insulated, and common spoken dialect;  cons -- expensive and intellectually parasitic. Campbell:  pros -- village like, open, and metro;  cons -- not Palo Alto.Willow Glen:  pros -- not unlike Palo Alto and Campbell;  cons -- district in San Jose.

My husband and I live in Downtown San Jose and love it! Especially in SoFa. It's walking distance from nice bars and restaurants, a movie theater, convention centers and concert halls. And we feel pretty safe. Have been living here for the past 3 years and there's constantly some activity or other always happening. Summer's are the best time when street concerts are always happening. Hello, food trucks! Oh, there's also a rock climbing club right across the street! The only thing that's a little lacking is the club scene. The lounges and clubs here are not as fun as the ones in SF. Although these are picking up too. Doesn't stop my husband and me from heading out every weekend! The only only con for us, the rents are so high! But then that's true of any safe neighborhood in the Bay Area.