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Oh man, I lived in northern California and I found the people to be weird and unfriendly and suspicious, much more so than in New York City. I remember having conversations that I thought had gone one way, and finding out later that the other person had the opposite impression. Even simple interactions could be strange and misleading. I never found that in southern California. Very happy to come back to New York City after the experience of the Bay Area and points north. You couldn't pay me to live there again.
Currently live in CA. Have always heard how nice and polite people are in California and have found the opposite to be true. New Yorkers are a lot nicer. There is something about it here that I can't put my finger on. There is a large percentage of people in California are more sensitive or insecure compared to New Yorkers. Can anyone expand a bit on this?
Well California is huge and is a world unto itself with several different native cultures within it. There's all kinds of people there. Southern Calilfornia for instance is pretty different from Northern California.
Living in SoCal right now. I live in a nice area so the clerks that work the stores and restaurant give us the RUB treatment just like my doormen did in NYC. Otherwise you don't have such close contact with people like in NYC where people are climbing all over you throughout the day. That helps a lot.
Americans in general are not my favorite people. They are the same in any state. A bunch of self entitled brats.
NY'ers will be straight out rude to you in a 3rd world manner. People in SoCal will go the " F You very much and have a wonderful day approach."
Pardon my ignorance, but what do you mean by RUB treatment?
I've lived all over the country and travelled outside of this country - people are the same everywhere - they are individuals and you can't say any region shares some common personality. Be a nice person as much as you can and spread the love...maybe they will be nicer to you then (that's actually how it works).
I've never lived there, but my youngest son moved to Los Angeles at age 17 and is now 26.
Gertrude Stein, a writer, said "The problem with California is there's no THERE there."
Son noticed a few differences:
- girls identified and commented on every item he owned (or didn't own) by designer, right down to a belt buckle or the wallet he took out. He felt like he was being evaluated that way. It took some getting used to.
- a family's specific ethnic background is not of interest to anybody. Asking "where'd your family come from?" as a get-to-know-you is an EastCoast question only. Instead of hearing back answers like, "Irish...Italian..Jewish..Polish..Korean..Dominica n..P.R." in California, they'll answer "from Oregon" or "from Minnesota." The bigger deal question is: "Are you From California?" meaning: born there yourself, which divides people somewhat. So, if you're used to ice-breaking or bonding by talking about ethnicity, that topic doesn't much matter to Californians.
- Huge numbers of hours are spent alone, inside of cars, to commute or just go grocery shopping or visit a friend. It has an impact that's hard to put into words, but it's really a big difference between young adults on the two coasts. He finds visits back to NY very up-close and crowded now, brushing shoulders all day with people on sidewalks, deciding whether to make eyecontact or not, overhearing conversations on subways, and other social stimulation. In L.A. he says in the entire day he might only cross paths on a sidewalk with just 3 people, and the rest is "air." He's a very friendly person, but it sounds to me that in L.A., he doesn't need to exercise it much while taking care of his daily business until he gets to the actual point-of-contact with the other person he intended to meet. So while people might be friendly by personality there, maybe it doesn't get practiced much all day, or spark between strangers. Everything and everyone is so spread out, compared to here.
OP, does that speak at all to what you are noticing or feeling?
Last edited by BrightRabbit; 10-16-2015 at 08:25 PM..
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