Could smell really bad depends on the day/wind direction

1. could smell really bad.

2. safe and very convenient in terms of food and shopping

3.  with remote work, traffic to and out of Milpitas is okay for now, but it could get really bad because the main surrounding freeways are 880, 680 and 237.  ALL 3 are very very high traffic routes.

4. south bay/east bay, in general, is 12-13 degrees hotter than the peninsula. (e.g Millbrae, Burlingame etc)

Best city in the peninsula or whole of northern California in my own opinion is Burlingame in terms of school, safety, demographic, location and weather.  However, it's quite expensive to buy, but very reasonable to rent.

Hope this helps.