Does California life tend to be more relaxed and laid back than East Coast Life

[LunaticVillage]

Originally Posted by mayorhaggar

People do that in the Bay Area too. Americans in general love talking about their jobs. Asking someone else what they do is mainly asking for an excuse to talk about your own job.

But the pretentiousness and snobbery is much more widespread in DC. DC is a sea of suits, period. The DC Area is home to some of the most condescending self-important stuck-up people in the continental United States:

http://www.urbandictionary.com/defin...ginia+attitude

SF has its share of snobs and annoying smug people as advertised on South Park, but all of the grungy homeless/street people and easy going everyday folks in SF balance it out. There are a lot of regular everyday people in Philly and NYC as well who ride public transportation, have regular 9 to 5 jobs that don't require masters degrees and don't wear suits everyday. DC lacks this balance. DC is unequally split between pretentious degree snobs with high paying jobs and anti-social extremely ethnocentric block hugging ghetto people who only associate with their own kind. SF and the Bay has more variety in this respect when it comes to people even though both of these previously mentioned groups also exist in the Bay and California.

The rampant pretentiousness, snooty condescension, dog-eat-dog competitive mentality (which can even be experienced in traffic; seriously DC drivers are the worst), intense ethnic segregation on a social level and the ice cold stand offishness that is the social norm in the District is the reason why DC has ranked as one of the unfriendliest cities in America. DC might have a plethora of highly educated people, but many of them get a big "F" on the social report card. DC ranks as high as the nation's third rudest city:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...djNQ_blog.html

Not surprisingly, aggressive New York fight-you-the-middle-of-traffic and curse-you-out-for-no-reason pushiness takes the cake as being the rudest city in America. Being that NYC is the most ethnically segregated big city in America makes way for some intense Do The Right Thing Spike Lee production-esque socially acceptable blind racial hatred in the Big Apple. Other major East Coast cities like Baltimore and Philadelphia rank close behind in being rude places. Baltimore can be very outwardly vocally racist and Baltimoreans are not fond of out-of-towners. It would not be wise to walk the streets of Philadelphia wearing any team attire that is not Phillies or Eagles unless you want a quick trip to the local hospital.

http://www.travelandleisure.com/arti...udest-cities/2

http://www.travelandleisure.com/arti...dest-cities/10

http://www.travelandleisure.com/arti...dest-cities/12

SF may not be the friendliest city on the planet, but compared to DC and every other major city on the East Coast and Midwest, San Franciscans, as a whole, are lightyears more sociable and laidback. Oakland is even more laidback than SF.

[Huckleberry3911948]

its fake. everybody works 3 jobs and is stressed out 24/7.

[grapico]

as far as cities go... I'd say

SF is the least laid back... Then LA, then SD...

I do think people in SF are nice and polite, but the culture isn't laid back. Being polite, more liberal, or politically correct has nothing to do with being laid back. You can be leftist/open minded or whatever, yet still a bit uptight/snootyish. There is no beach culture there really, a sun culture, and the vibe is not really what I consider mellow. It's more of a packed bustling city and shared space than the other two, so it can create that atmosphere. It's very money driven and has it's share of yuppies and career climbers. Highest wages per capita in the u.s. with sf/sj...hello.

If you want laid back go up to West Sonoma County/Mendocino or down to Santa Cruz.

[Larry Siegel]

Originally Posted by jw2

The taxes are hardly oppressive. People outside California seem more concerned about California taxes than residents. Same with politics, people outside of California are obsessed with California politics.

One man's oppressive is another's fair and balanced, but here are the rates for married taxpayers (shown at the breakpoints to save space):

Income / Tax rate
Under $7,455 1.1%
" $17,676 2.2
" $27,897 4.4
" $38,726 6.6
" $48,942 8.8
" $250,000 10.23
" $300,000 11.33
" $500,000 12.43
" $1,000,000 13.53
Over $1,000,000 14.63

I'd call them oppressive unless you make under about $30,000. On the other hand, property taxes are very low due to Proposition 13. Anyway, at these tax rates I'd expect to live in paradise. It's pretty close...but at what price? Profitable, well-paying businesses are leaving the state as fast as they can rent office space in Texas or other low-tax states, as are wealthy retirees.

[Bayareaadvisor]

Originally Posted by grapico

as far as cities go... I'd say

SF is the least laid back... Then LA, then SD...

I do think people in SF are nice and polite, but the culture isn't laid back. Being polite, more liberal, or politically correct has nothing to do with being laid back. You can be leftist/open minded or whatever, yet still a bit uptight/snootyish. There is no beach culture there really, a sun culture, and the vibe is not really what I consider mellow. It's more of a packed bustling city and shared space than the other two, so it can create that atmosphere. It's very money driven and has it's share of yuppies and career climbers. Highest wages per capita in the u.s. with sf/sj...hello.

If you want laid back go up to West Sonoma County/Mendocino or down to Santa Cruz.

You hit it right on the nose. LA has beach culture, shorts, flipflops, and dresses! SF is uptight wearing tight clothing and heavy defensive overcoats which makes their personalities defensive and cold. And why do most SFers wear black? Is there a funeral?

[grapico]

Originally Posted by Bayareaadvisor

You hit it right on the nose. LA has beach culture, shorts, flipflops, and dresses! SF is uptight wearing tight clothing and heavy defensive overcoats which makes their personalities defensive and cold. And why do most SFers wear black? Is there a funeral?

Well there is a reason why people say SF is built in a mold of an East Coast city, it is some of the people also. It wants to be hip in a way that Brooklyn or Manhattan is hip, dress included a lot of the times. It's a bit more edgy and cold. There is a more serious outlook on life there I think. A lot of this has to do with the large financial and tech industry there. I think the more people that move to SF for these types of jobs, it continues to dilute any laidbackness the city once had. The political style for SF is in your face. The laidback areas are pushed out into the far rural burbs. San Diego proper has an overall laidback vibe throughout the entire city, and there are more pockets and esp along the adjacent beach communities of LA that feel more laid back than anywhere in the core urban area of the Bay. Of course, SF is not more intense than somewhre like NYC or DC by any means, however I'd say a midwestern city like Minneapolis, and certainly Seattle, and the rest of SoCal are more laid back vibes than SF in general. The entire Southeast is also more laid back than SF. SF is very politically left, open minded, progressive, and those types of things but the vibe to me is mildly aggressive to passive agressive, not laid back. SF would still be more laid back than the major east coast cities though.