Southern California is very different from South Florida.
Cities in Southern California such as Los Angeles, San Diego, and Long Beach are much older and more established than those in Florida, so they tend to be more urban, walkable, densely-populated, and cosmopolitan by comparison.
Public transportation utilization rates are higher in Southern California than in South Florida. There are also more collective efforts among legislators and citizens alike to expand public transportation infrastructure and increase utilization to reduce automobile dependency.
Southern California cities also have far more pre-WWII architecture compared to South Florida, the latter of which wasn't really developed until the advent of air conditioning in the mid-to-late 20th century. That’s not to mention that, from the 1970’s onward, South Florida developers pretty much bulldozed what remained in terms of early-to-mid 20th century structures to make way for new development. Historical preservation is not one of Florida’s strong suits.
Southern California has much more pleasant weather than Florida -- much less humid and stormy; cooler, drier springs, summers, and autumns; significantly less potential for dangerous weather events such as thunderstorms, tornadoes, and hurricanes/tropical depressions; and less potential for severe flooding. Not to mention there’s far more climatic variation in Southern California.
In South Florida, it rains nearly every day for 9-10 months and the intense humidity lasts for 10-11 months, depending on the year. The "rainy season" in South Florida, which starts in early-to-mid May and lasts until late October, can be very gloomy. "Clear" days, at least by Southern California standards, are almost non-existent in South Florida.
The nature and varied terrain of Southern California -- ocean, mountain, and desert vistas; canyons; forests; grasslands; wetlands; etc. -- is much more spectacular than the flat, uninspiring scrubland scenery of South Florida. FWIW, snow-capped mountain vistas aren’t visible from the beach in South Florida, not that any type of mountain vistas exist in Florida anyway.
For those of you arguing that beaches are better in South Florida are "better" than those in Southern California, name a beach in South Florida that's more spectacular than Strands, Monarch, or Thousand Steps Beach or Abalone Cove. Ya, didn't think so.
The milder, less volatile weather and more varied terrain of coastal California encourage outdoor activity and recreation, helping California attain its status as one of the healthiest states in the country. Hiking, mountain biking, and surfing among other outdoor recreational activities are much more popular in Southern California. Although better than most Southern states in health metrics, Florida has higher incidences of smoking, obesity, and chronic illness such as diabetes and hypertension than California, partly due to more lower-income individuals and families and less emphasis on active, healthy lifestyles overall.
California has a stronger, more diversified economy than Florida. There's a larger corporate presence and more well-paying industry in California such as IT, biotech, nanotech, life sciences, and investment banking to name a few, so your average Californian tends to be higher earning and more gainfully employed than your average Floridian. Even low-wage, low-skill workers in the manufacturing, trade, and healthcare sectors in California enjoy higher comparative wages, more comprehensive non-wage benefits, and better state-level rights and protections than their counterparts in Florida, which is a RTW state with very limited union participation rates. Compared to California, Florida has a service-oriented economy with a strong hospitality/tourism orientation, a sector that is notorious for low wages, limited non-wage benefits, and non-existent upward economic mobility. Consistent with Arizona, the service-oriented economy of Florida neither breeds nor attracts highly ambitious youth, so a lot of younger people in Florida tend to be apathetic and complacent.
California is home to a much better educated, more talented workforce -- and general populace, for that matter -- than Florida, which is one of the reasons why so much modern innovation comes from California. In addition to a strong history of innovation, California has a more competitive ethos, entrepreneurial spirit, and intellectual vibe than Florida. This, of course, is due to a multitude of factors, but primarily the greater abundance of well-paying industry as well as more prestigious institutions of higher learning in California.
Because Florida is less educated and cosmopolitan than California in general, you'll encounter much more intolerance and small-mindedness in South Florida than in Southern California, not to mention much less support for progressive ideals and movements such as hybrid and electric cars, the "green" movement (i.e., recycling, curbing emissions, etc.), medical marijuana, same-sex marriage, organic eating and living, farmers markets and community-supported agriculture, smoking bans, caps on land development, and so forth. People are a lot more open, tolerant, and accepting in Southern California -- no cares what religion you are, where you're from, or who you sleep with. There's definitely more of a counterculture element in Southern California compared to just about anywhere in Florida -- more hippies, more nature-lovers, more spiritual folks, and so forth. There's also significantly less tolerance for shadiness and deviance. Overall, Southern California is a much more humane place than South Florida.
In reality, living in South Florida is like living in the South, but without the politeness, friendliness, and hospitality. The general lack of civility and common courtesy in the major cities is frightening and is due in large part to "six degrees of separation." People are friendlier and more pleasant in Southern California than in South Florida, hands down, which is a far less transient, anonymous society. Unlike Southern California, South Florida is loaded with miserable transplants from the Northeast, although mostly New York and New Jersey, who have that lousy "tough-guy" attitude that remains in place even after 20 years in Florida -- constantly striving to be rude, argumentative, combative, ghetto, shrewd, or some other variant of "tough" while trying to deceive or "put one over" on you in any way possible.
Then, you have to contend with the shady transient element -- everyone in Florida has a story, and most of the time, it's not pretty. Lots of people in Florida are running from something in their past -- a violent ex, a criminal record, an abusive childhood, a history of drug and/or alcohol abuse, a dysfunctional family of origin, a series of legal disputes, etc. People have a lot of "baggage" down there, for sure, which is why there's much more crime and many more drug and social issues in Florida than in California, generally speaking.
However, the worst part about South Florida, IMO, is the transplants who move down from the Tri-State area and into shiny new tract homes in gated communities, thinking they've "arrived" like the second coming of the Messiah. Before long, these people think they're rich and, in their minds, "rich" people are rude, even though most people with family and long-term wealth are quite down-to-earth (as anyone who has spent any time at all in California knows
). So now, these people begin looking down their noses at people in service industry jobs, treating them like crap. While living in South Florida, I witnessed absolutely horrid behavior among transplants, especially older ones, when talking to store clerks or restaurant servers. I never witnessed anything even remotely comparable in Southern California.
Most of the people who live in Southern California were born in California, so there's a much stronger, more well-defined state culture, and civic pride and engagement levels tend to be higher. There's less in the way of voter apathy in California, and all of the professional sports teams have larger, more dedicated fan-bases than any team I can think of in Florida, where most sporting events draw larger away-team crowds than home-team crowds.
California is a lot less transient, too. In addition to many more natives -- and very proud, dyed-in-the-wool natives, I might add -- California is the type of place where people move to, assimilate to the local culture, and stay whereas Florida, OTOH, is more of a place where people come, complain, and go. People in California pledge their allegiance to California, even if they're from elsewhere originally, whereas people in Florida are more likely to pledge their allegiance to New York, Massachusetts, or Illinois. That alone should speak volumes to anyone deciding between the two states.
I've lived in both, and without a doubt, the weather, scenery, culture, people, and lifestyle among other facets of Southern California are vastly superior to that of South Florida. It's not even much of a contest, really.
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