Move to Newport Beach or NYC? (Los Angeles, San Diego: university, earthquake, living in)

[cowboy45]

Originally Posted by Kettle

I'm a 27 professional single male living in Chicago. I'm considering taking a job either in New York or in Laguna Hills paying 200-300K. For the job in OC, I was told that I should get a place in Newport Beach (as opposed to Laguna Beach or Huntington Beach).

I have two questions regarding Newport beach:

1 - I want an urban living environment. I don't know how much I can get this in NB. I've heard that Fashion or Triangle Island should be two of the areas I should try to live around? (I'm fine paying rent between 1,500-2,500 a month.) Are these the right areas to live in?

2 - What is there in terms of social, professional, or political activities/clubs? Browsing the forum leaves me with the impression that I should spend most of my time at beaches/gyms. However, I would like to see some culture, etc. as well. This is especially important given that I'm used to a fairly broad selection of activities/social events in Chicago that is easily replicable in NYC.

I think NYC would be an easy fit for the professional and social scene. However, I'd prefer the job in OC if I can get the lifestyle I want there. I'm going to do a few trips out there, but your advice would be greatly appreciated.

Actually nothing in Orange County could be considered urban. Coming from Chicago I think you would even be somewhat disappointed in the night life with in LA. You don't really have the local bars and restaurants like you do in NYC or Chicago. You can find some culture in LA but not that much in Orange County. Stucco gets kind of boring after awhile.

[oc2nyc]

New York City in a heartbeat! If I were your age, and made that kind of money that would be my dream. You will not get that lifestyle out here. In my opinion Newport Beach has nothing to offer young professionals. A lot of the younger crowd there get their money from their parents or their credit cards.
You cannot walk anywhere, you will have to own a car. If you are from Chicago, you will feel more at home in NY and I am sure be much happier. Orange County is a great place to visit, but for someone your age you wouldn't want to live here believe me!

[missionhome]

Originally Posted by JakeDog

Orange County is for families. Don't believe the "OC", it is more comparable to Brady Bunch.

That is a great comparison. Orange County fits some people, namely families, but I think as a young guy you will be way way better in New York.

[dakicka]

Originally Posted by Kettle

I have two questions regarding Newport beach:

1 - I want an urban living environment. I don't know how much I can get this in NB.

2 - What is there in terms of social, professional, or political activities/clubs?

I think NYC would be an easy fit for the professional and social scene. However, I'd prefer the job in OC if I can get the lifestyle I want there. I'm going to do a few trips out there, but your advice would be greatly appreciated.

I moved from New Jersey to Newport Beach/Irvine area and have worked in Newport Beach in fashion island for 9 months. I'm a 26, soon to be 27 single male as well... for what you are looking for, NYC all the way. I'm extremely sick of Newport Beach and the surrounding areas. Besides its AMAZING BEAUTY, AWESOME WEATHER, and GREAT RESTAURANTS it is not an ideal spot for a 20's/30's person single OR married.

Why: It is super suburban, there is no urban, don't let anyone fool you. At first glance the irvine business district near the airport and fashion island can be perceived as a booming area for business, social life, bars, shopping, etc. Really it is just a business area that is active from 9-5 and desolate after except for fashion island the mall being a cool place to go and that closes at 10 then there's nothing.

The nightlife is 4 choices:
1. Newport Peninsula: Mostly beach bars, casual vibe, surfers/punk/skater, and bleached blonde bimbos.

2. Costa Mesa- Triangle Square as you mentioned, and the surrounding areas which has a few nightclubs and again more casual bars, which both are crowded with blonde bimbos.

3. Huntington Beach- Main Street, all tattood guys and girls, surfers/punks/skaters/tough guys, UFC obsessed people, and low key bars with 1 or 2 decent lounges thrown in. more bimbos but also a lot of skater/surfer chicks.

4. Random bars/restaurants like yardhouse in fashion island or CM, wildfish newport- good, flemings newport- good, and fury a club in newport- good. you can always go cougar hunting at bandera or quiet woman in corona del mar haha, matter of fact any of the nice restaurants, always pretty 40's/50's divorced/married/single woman looking for a good time, it's crazy. I doubt I'd ever marry someone who lived here their whole life- SOO many divorces.

Other than that I can't say there's much as far as nightlife. BUT You do have LA 50 min north which has a ton of nightlife and a focus on upscale nightclubs and lounges. Then there is San Diego, but a bit too far for a come back same night trip, about 1 hr 25 give or take. I love SD downtown though. OC and Newport/Laguna/Huntington in particular have awesome restaurants though. But the nightlife gets old quick and having to drive all around can be annoying if you're looking for an 'urban feel.' The highlight of people's days out here seems to be racing to the gym after work, getting boozed up for happy hour, and going to sleep at 9pm weekdays and getting nutty Fri/Sat at the beach bars or restaurants.

As far as my daily life has been... I work, go to the gym, come home, think hmm what am I going to do tonight, and it's the same stuff either go out to eat somewhere, get sushi, grab a drink at a restaurant bar, or sit on my computer trying to figure out if there's more nightlife and anticipate the weekend although I'm getting sick of going to the same club that I like. You have to be very content with having fun at regular restaurants, if you need a true club/lounge/nightlife vibe you will probably be dissapointed. I went to NYC a lot when in NJ and NYC is always active, so many hotel bars/lounges, nice clubs, and ample food choices, plus open late. Everything around here closes around 10pm except weekends a few clubs are open till 2pm.

Regarding the second part of your questions, well people here are certainly into their politics, a vast majority of people are right wing republican. I don't discuss politics much but I'm sure others will go into a lengthy convo with you about how it is and if there's any groups. I do know the OC Register is a predominately Republican paper while people say the LA Times is more democratic. Check whichever one for info you need. Another good source for business info is the OC Business Journal or OC Metro magazine, 2 great reads. As far as social groups well I've seen several sports leagues in the area and I think you can hop on craigs list to find intramural soccer/football and special interest groups on different websites. There are also dating/networking clubs/groups but I found them to be mostly minority focused for some reason.

I won't even get into the majority of the people of Newport Beach/Laguna/Irvine/Huntington. If you are coming from the east coast it is going to be a shell shock. I can't stand it, particularly Newport Beach, lot of pretentious, self-indulged, yuppies and rich wanna bees who have little or no concern for others. I'm personally contemplating downtown San Diego for a more urban feel and better fun factor although I'm not sure how much different the people are there I think it's a little more down to earth, but not much, however it's more laid back, and there's a heck of a lot of clubs/bars, and great restaurants within walking distance, and more active people out and about and sociable. Another thing, people are always going 100mph here, NYC is fast paced, but out here it's just a lack of common-sense go fast when you drive, slam on the break, speed up, almost get in accidents, and walk into people when shopping without apologizing kind of fast paced. very strange.

Best advice, visit Newport/Irvine/Laguna/Costa Mesa for 7 days straight, preferably 10 so you can get 2 weeks of nightlife in. Then check out NYC. NYC is VERY HECTIC, I was there for 2 weeks studying for a series 7 exam in battery park, downtown and the financial district/wall street is BOOMING. Very cool at first, but for me I don't think I'd want it everyday for the rest of my life, a LOT of stress and you don't get that escape to the beach/cool breeze when you need to break free... ALWAYS noise/traffic/congestion/ and NYC has a LOT of unhappy people, arguably b/c the chaos/weather/and stress. Weather in SO-CAL is AMAZING. If you need help feel free to PM me, I can help you out a lot as I've been living this first hand for 10 months and was in the same boat you are.

Good Luck.

[YLresident]

I'm 25 and i love it here... but I'm not a club/bar person and I don't have a hankering for nightlife. (Nor am I single (in a long-term relationship--at least I haven't been divorced, though, right? ^_~).

There is a lot of materialism here, but what do you expect? First, we're near Hollywood/LA/Celebrities... Britney and all that junk. Second, we're near the beach--so of course you're going to run into people obsessed with looks (having to be seen in a swimsuit for 75% of year b/c of our fabulous weather might make you more self-conscious, too)... and Third, there's a fair amount of money here, so you know there's going to be snot-nosed kids (whose parents spent more time working than child-rearing) and men and women who refuse to grow up (b/c they either don't wanna admit they're getting older, or having money makes them feel like they have the right to act like teenagers forever).

There isn't a lot of old money out here because of our not having the long history that much of the east cost does (which also explains the different feel (cultural or otherwise) of each coast--excluding the weather)... so your gonna find a lot of lost, over-the-top, or otherwise annoying people out here.

Fine--but there are also great people here (and everywhere else, too).

OP--if you're looking for urban, OC just doesn't have it. Even LA's a stretch... LA's got a pretty healthy dose of suburban sprawl within its borders, too. If you want urban in CA, look toward San Francisco, but be prepared to give up a lot of the weather you'll find here in SoCal. SF is a great place to be, though. It's urban, but still has some of our California flavor--it just has a little more of the history and culture you find on the east coast.

[Again, still tipsy, I apologize if I'm a bit convoluted]

[kturbe]

The nice part about SoCal is there are a lot of options and you are starting out great so you should be just fine here!

Best of luck!

[Kettle]

Thanks for all of the great responses. It doesn't sound like I'd get the local feel of being able to walk down the street to a farmer's market or jump from a small comedy club to an upscale lounge in the evening (please tell me if I'm wrong).

I think I'd have to switch my emphasis to maybe taking a motorcycle out for coastal drives, learning to surf, heading out into the mountains for a weekend or trying to volunteer with some organization. (I'd have considerably more free time if I took the OC job instead of the NYC job so that's something too...if you don't really have time to enjoy NYC because you're working until 10 or 11 at night)

Thanks

[missionhome]

If you learn to surf, that will probably become your life. My son loves it and that will also introduce yourself to many other people.

[kturbe]

It all depends on where you choose to live. If you live chose to live close to the beach say Balboa then you can walk everywhere. Or if you choose to live near the Irvine Spectrum there are complexes being built right across the street that offer you an upscale young professional environment and walking distance to entertainment, comedy club etc. Then again if you wanted to drive a motorcycle around that just opens the door all the more.

Happy New Year!

[AmyM]

I've been living in Newport for a year now and I'm 25...It can get pretty boring but the beaches and weather are beautiful. I personally would give it all up to go to NY, it's much more lively, urban and better for 20-somethings!