As everyone has said what cities are nice and so on. It depends on what you want. Crime rates vary by city and yes Oakland gets a bad rap, but trust me when I say as long as you stay out of the bad areas your fine. SF and SJ have had high crime this year. Alameda is a great place, and is very safe, convient, and has a good night life. You can avoid the traffic by taking BART to SFO. I live in the east bay and it takes me 57 minutes to SFO on BART.