Your Top 5 best and worse things about living in Orange County (San Diego: fit in, real estate)

[Mach50]

I might be leaving Orange County soon for another job opportunity, I have lived in the area over the last 10 years (Belmont Shores (close enough), Huntington, Newport, Irvine, Tustin), with moves in between to New York City, Silicon Valley, and Miami.

Best things about OC:
1) Being between Mountains and the Ocean, nice state parks, great surf, bike trails, hiking...awesome place for outdoor activities.
2) Cool nights, leave the windows open at night, bon fires on the beach.
3) Clean shopping, good selection of markets: Trader Joes, Frys, Whole Foods, Sushi, Mexican, Persian.
4) Good job scene, unless you are in realty, pay competitive salaries.
5) Good schools in most areas, lots of families, for us that is good.

Worst things about OC:
1) Too conservative for my tastes, people look the same, act the same, dress the same, drive the same cars. Where is the California free spirit?
2) Too sterile; feeling of being in locked in a suburban pleasantville.
3) Rampant materialism; lexus, audis and bmws everywhere...when everyone has a luxury car it loses its appeal, sort of like when everyone has tattoos in LA it just loses the cool factor.
4) Segregated not integrated diversity. Asians live here, Mexicans live here, Whites live here with some gray areas, especially in South OC. No black people.
5) No urban life, no major city, lack of walkable areas. Traffic is too bad to go into L.A. or San Diego.

That's my take on the area.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by Mach50

Worst things about OC:
1) ... people look the same, act the same, dress the same, drive the same cars. Where is the California free spirit?

The first thing that came to my mind was those people who all look exactly the same probably aren't from California in the first place. Half of them are wearing yankee caps.

[Mach50]

Originally Posted by Charles

The first thing that came to my mind was those people who all look exactly the same probably aren't from California in the first place. Half of them are wearing yankee caps.

I am talking about the whole Pottery Barn in Mayberry commercial look.

You mean like New Yorkers? I have met 2 New Yorkers while here and they are pretty dynamic, however, they are from the City.
I'll agree with you that this county seems to be overtaken by transients who may not have the California attitude.

[youngmoney]

Best things about Orange County

1. The weather and beauty -You really can't beat it!
2. The culture/values- conservative, safe, educated, private property, affluent, family-oriented.
3. It's clean and simple.. lots of people but not as complicated or phony like L.A. and other areas.
4. The geography- Mountains, beach, palms..
5. The people- It's easy to make friends. We have a lot in common. We're unified.


Worst Things

1. The price of real estate
2. TRAFFIC
3. The state taxes and laws
4. There's hardly any open space or land
5. Illlegals waiting on the street corner

[YLresident]

Good:
Proximity to fun... Snowboarding, Beach volleyball, desert dunebuggying, LA nightlife
Unbelievable weather... drive 2-3 hours and you can experience 4 seasons for fun
Great schools & universities... UC, Cal State, K-12 are great (-Anaheim/Santa Ana...)
Variety of eateries... Vietnamese, Korean, Cuban, French, 4-star, Cheap, Fast, etc.
Nice people... I've made a lot of great friends here--love them AND Orange County

Not So Good
Traffic... 55, 57, and 405 pretty much suck Monday-Friday for most of the day
"Bros"... narrow-minded (often racist and/or homophobic) guys in raised trucks
Staunch Republican over-population... ::sigh:: --no explanation needed--
Not much to do at night... it IS a giant sprawling suburb, after all
Not enough shabu shabu places... I totally LOVE that stuff!!! Mitsu E, FTW!!! ^_^

[oc2nyc]

The best things:

1- The weather: dry, never too hot or too cold (at least not near the coast)
2- Lots of things to do (beach, shopping, skiing, hiking, etc)
3- Good state college system in OC and all of CA
4- Clean well manicured streets
5- Job opportunities

worst things:
1- Too expensive! Even though there is a lot to do who can afford to do it? Even driving to the beach costs an arm and a leg these days.
2- Too "cookie cutter". Every one looks the same, lives in the same type of house, drives the same type of car. If you have kids trying to fit in it's exhausting and expensive! Besides who wants to look like everyone else? (besides my 14 yr old)
3- Mundane landscape. Everything is brown, dry (see weather) and boring. No great architecture or history that is appealing
4-The worst traffic in the Nation! 'Nuf said.
5-People who say they are your friends but really only hang out with people who drive what they drive, eat at the "right" restaurants, live in the "right" areas etc.

[LexusNexus]

When Gray Davis was Governor, I was contacted by an OC headhunter looking to hire me for one of the Defense firms in OC. I had the qualifications that they were looking for and in fact was overqualified. The company was willing to pay for my relocation if we could come to a mutual agreement on the details. He then starts in on heavy criticism of Davis, the Democratic Governor and goes on and on about liberal this and liberal that. I then told him that I wasn't a conservative. He seemed surprised. I then asked him if it was a prerequisite that I be a conservative to live in OC and work at the company, and he said, "no, but it helps." I then told him I wasn't interested.

OC is not my kind of place...too conservative for me.

[a1016neo]

Originally Posted by youngmoney

Best things about Orange County
4. There's hardly any open space or land

Hardly any open space??? Maybe you live in North OC, but 1/3 of land in South OC is devoted to open space and recreation.

[Dirk Bonner]

Originally Posted by Charles

The first thing that came to my mind was those people who all look exactly the same probably aren't from California in the first place. Half of them are wearing yankee caps.

Or New England Patriots gear.

[blam]

best

1. weather
2. lots of jobs in my field
3. beaches (the view mostly)

I couldn't really find 5

worst

1. housing/rent prices
2. overpopulation / traffic / cant park anywhere / cant eat in some restaurants right away
3. no downtowns / almost no walkable areas /
4. surprisingly average restaurants
5. very cold water / summer temp = poland beach summer temp