Lincoln Ave

The Bubbaland Community (named for one of its original residents from the 1960s, Bubba the cat!) in the Professorville neighborhood of Palo Alto is looking for new community members! Our community comprises three independent apartments in a multi-unit home: an upstairs 2-bedroom apartment, an upstairs studio apartment, and a downstairs 5-bedroom apartment. Across all units, we are around 8 graduate students, postdocs, and young professionals (mid-20s to mid-30s) who value sustainability and social justice. This opening is our second-floor 2-bedroom apartment (entire unit). We are located close to downtown Palo Alto, on a leafy street near the Town & Country shopping center. We are a hop-skip-and-a-jump from Trader Joe's and Whole Foods, a quick walk to the Palo Alto Caltrain station, close to multiple farmers markets, and a quick bike ride to Stanford's main quad. Our entire 8-person community engages in once-a-week house dinners, house meetings, and bi-monthly outdoor work days. Together, we share and communally work to maintain (and beautify!) our outdoor spaces, including a back patio, several garden areas, a newly-acquired basketball hoop, and a raised bed for herbs and vegetables. We also split utilities/WiFi across the complex, and have tons of permitted street parking as well as a driveway with a few parking spots and a covered bike shed. We value building community in and outside of the house, but we also live independent lives. Some nights, the house is dark, and others, you'll find us all spontaneously coalescing around the kitchen table sharing homemade blondies, watching a movie, or playing board games. On balance, the tenor of the community is calm and warm. At the house, we've hosted everything from potlucks to "ballot parties" for researching local issues before voting to craft nights to patio bonfires to parties celebrating the blooming of our jasmine plants. We also love excursions: a hike in the hills and onion rings at Alice's, compost acquisition trips to our local free compost pile or an SF chocolatier (cocoa husk mulch is a wonderful-smelling garden game-changer), spontaneous adventures to pick-up fun free things we find, or scouring secondhand stores. Now for the nitty-gritty details! The 2-bedroom apartment will be available unfurnished, although the current tenants may be interested in selling some of their furniture! The unit features a living room with a nook (perfect for a slightly secluded office or reading area), a large kitchen (with dishwasher), and a huge amount of storage area in the crawl space. The unit also has access to a washer and dryer in the downstairs apartment. The set-up is truly ideal for folks looking for community, but with your own private space historically, the unit has housed everyone from couples to friends to small families. Rent will be approximately $3,600; utilities are split across everyone in the community and include high-speed internet, electricity, gas, and water; they often come to roughly $100 per person per month. The apartment will be available on July 1, with a 12-month lease required. We're excited to welcome new folks to Bubbaland who value open communication, strive for sustainable choices/actions, and invest in community. As we are currently searching for multiple community members, we are asking all applicants to fill out a Google form, which we will send once you respond to this listing. We are looking forward to meeting our new community members soon; thanks so much for your interest in Bubbaland!