Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Well you need to visit Los Angeles to see what it's about. LA is a very, very big place. Artists go to and from. Out here, people want to go to San Francisco as an upgrade, because SF is considered a creative mecca. In SF it is probably the other way around, I don't know.
One thing I'll say is that there is nothing in the LA area that can hold a candle to the Bay Area as far as natural beauty. Not comparable in the slightest. Yes, we do have warm beaches with water you can swim in. That is true. But that's it. You get the beach, and the freeway as our most noted natural topography.
Even though I want to move away, I still love California and I actually do like Los Angeles a lot, it's just after going to SF, everything in LA seems like a fake city. I am a big city, metropolitan person, and although we have a lot to offer in L.A., I really can't over-emphasize how much of an impact driving will have on your experience. You don't think "Wow, let's go to Hollywood!" You think "man what's traffic like right now? How is LAX (airport) right now?" you think in terms of travel times, not destinations. Distance is immaterial, all the matters is how slow the cars on the freeway move. But yes, there are lots of creative people too. Not all bad.
So come on down and visit L.A., you'll see the good, and the bad.
RJCA, you're really making me realize what a gem this area is, and why I moved here in the first place. And I do have a beautiful view of the Bay out my window! Maybe I need to adjust where I'm at "here" as opposed to packing it up and moving to LA? Maybe I'm over glamorizing the whole LA scene and that I'm missing out on the true California lifestyle? Maybe I just need to vacation down there for the things you mentioned? As a person who lived in NYC and loved it, I'm sure I'd miss the SF city center.
Yeah if you've lived in NYC and liked the vibe there's no way LA would match that. I of course have never been to NYC but I have been to Chicago a few times and that big, urban, walk all over the place feel is what I am really excited by. In LA it's impractical to do that because if you look up and admire the architecture you will get run over by a car. And to top it off, Bay Area has the most beautiful landscape around. The grass usually is greener, that's probably a part of it. But in the Bay Area there's actual grass, not just desert.
On a more practical level, SF and LA aren't exactly worlds apart. If you time it right you can make the drive in maybe 5 or 6 hours, so it's not like you can't experience both fully.
As a person who lived in NYC and loved it, I'm sure I'd miss the SF city center.
I'd say you're over glamorizing LA if you loved living in NYC and you're expecting LA to be anything like that [or SF] in terms of pedestrian activity, public transportation, street life, and overall big city feel. Definitely visit LA. It's a really fun place with a ton to offer. The Hollywood scene gives it a certain glitz and excitement that's lacking in the Bay Area. But it's a very different city than the New York's or San Francisco's of the world. As I said before, it feels more like a collection of small/medium-sized communities, rather than one cohesive big city.
BTW, I'm quite familiar with NYC and I'm afraid that after you've lived there, every other American city inevitably will disappoint in some way or another. It quite simply is the absolute best this country has to offer in terms of urban living.
I know I'm the contrarian here, but I really do think rjca is really overplaying the car thing in southern CA. Seriously, LA does have urban areas (including a downtown), there are trains/subways, not everyone drives all the time. Many do, of course -- but that happens in SF, too. I had been led to believe that LA was some sort of suburban car city where there was little to no public transportation and no one walked, while SF was some sort of public transit utopia. My expectations were artificially low for LA and probably a little inflated for SF; SF mass transit is decent, but it's no NYC, that's for sure. And a lot of people, even in the city, still spend a lot of time in their cars. LA's has a lot of room for improvement, but it's actually pretty good, certainly not as bad as what many make it out to be.
San Francisco is amazingly beautiful, but I think LA has a lot of natural beauty, too. They're both great cities with a lot to offer (yes, including urban living, walkability, and natural beauty in BOTH cities). I love both cities and think both should be able to offer what you want, although what I think these posts reinforce is that location within the larger metro area can really impact your overall experience. I don't drive, so my experience living in LA was obviously very different than rjca's, for example. It is what you make of it, in both places. It might be more practical and easier to just explore different neighborhoods or cities within the Bay Area to see if there's something more local that will do the trick. Just like in LA, there's a huge range of options, from the very urban to the suburban. Unfortunately the cost issue -- and especially the schools issues -- can be limiting, but that's true of both cities.
I'd say you're over glamorizing LA if you loved living in NYC and you're expecting LA to be anything like that [or SF] in terms of pedestrian activity, public transportation, street life, and overall big city feel. Definitely visit LA. It's a really fun place with a ton to offer. The Hollywood scene gives it a certain glitz and excitement that's lacking in the Bay Area. But it's a very different city than the New York's or San Francisco's of the world. As I said before, it feels more like a collection of small/medium-sized communities, rather than one cohesive big city.
I agree to this, but only to a point. LA is not like NYC. It has a very different feel. It's also not like SF, but then again, I don't really think SF feels all that much like NYC. LA definitely doesn't feel like one cohesive whole and you don't have that central core with radiating and generally increasingly less dense communities. But within those smaller sub-cities or communities there can be a great deal of big city feel. It really depends on where you are. It's just a totally different type of city. I think people who like NYC can also like LA (I love both), but you've got to accept it for what it is. If you visit make sure to spend time in a variety of locations; I think one of the best things going for LA is the sheer variety of what it offers. So often when people say LA they mean only one little part of it (usually the west side) but there's a lot of other options out there as well. It's a great city, and definitely has a sense of things happening, but don't expect a west coast version of New York. (and unfortunately the busiest, most bustling neighborhoods also often are the ones that don't have very good schools.)
Well you need to visit Los Angeles to see what it's about. LA is a very, very big place. Artists go to and from. Out here, people want to go to San Francisco as an upgrade, because SF is considered a creative mecca. In SF it is probably the other way around, I don't know.
One thing I'll say is that there is nothing in the LA area that can hold a candle to the Bay Area as far as natural beauty. Not comparable in the slightest. Yes, we do have warm beaches with water you can swim in. That is true. But that's it. You get the beach, and the freeway as our most noted natural topography.
Even though I want to move away, I still love California and I actually do like Los Angeles a lot, it's just after going to SF, everything in LA seems like a fake city. I am a big city, metropolitan person, and although we have a lot to offer in L.A., I really can't over-emphasize how much of an impact driving will have on your experience. You don't think "Wow, let's go to Hollywood!" You think "man what's traffic like right now? How is LAX (airport) right now?" you think in terms of travel times, not destinations. Distance is immaterial, all the matters is how slow the cars on the freeway move. But yes, there are lots of creative people too. Not all bad.
So come on down and visit L.A., you'll see the good, and the bad.
All of your comments need to be prefaced with : "I've decided that I personally think I would like living in San Francisco more than the parts of L.A. I've lived in and am providing my own biased and possibly misinformed opinion of the cities".
I know I'm the contrarian here, but I really do think rjca is really overplaying the car thing in southern CA. Seriously, LA does have urban areas (including a downtown), there are trains/subways, not everyone drives all the time. Many do, of course -- but that happens in SF, too. I had been led to believe that LA was some sort of suburban car city where there was little to no public transportation and no one walked, while SF was some sort of public transit utopia. My expectations were artificially low for LA and probably a little inflated for SF; SF mass transit is decent, but it's no NYC, that's for sure. And a lot of people, even in the city, still spend a lot of time in their cars. LA's has a lot of room for improvement, but it's actually pretty good, certainly not as bad as what many make it out to be.
San Francisco is amazingly beautiful, but I think LA has a lot of natural beauty, too. They're both great cities with a lot to offer (yes, including urban living, walkability, and natural beauty in BOTH cities). I love both cities and think both should be able to offer what you want, although what I think these posts reinforce is that location within the larger metro area can really impact your overall experience. I don't drive, so my experience living in LA was obviously very different than rjca's, for example. It is what you make of it, in both places. It might be more practical and easier to just explore different neighborhoods or cities within the Bay Area to see if there's something more local that will do the trick. Just like in LA, there's a huge range of options, from the very urban to the suburban. Unfortunately the cost issue -- and especially the schools issues -- can be limiting, but that's true of both cities.
Widespread confusion about the difference between an arts industry vs. arts patronage. A city has a high cultural awareness does not automatically equate to the business infrastructure that can support a professional arts industry. A couple of onesey-twosey post production facilities and indie music labels does not make an arts industry.
All this talk about vibe and feel....
You need to ask yourself what's more important: vibe and feel or work. Do you want to live in a pretty place and accept a starving artist lifestyle or do you want to go work on the next Avatar?
LA is not a pretty place like SF is. It's got sprawl and crime and traffic. But the entertainment industry alone generates more work for artists of all types (from painters to digital to musicians) than exists in all of the Bay Area. Add into that the fact that you have Pasadena Art Center, the west coast's major fine arts market, and the center for all performing arts all in one place... SF cannot touch it.
If you are a working artist, you want to not only put food on your table but grow a career, working with the best people on the best projects, you will need to move to LA. San Francisco has an art scene, but a lot of it is typical starving artist / hobbyist stuff that you could find in any other city in the country. There is nothing about San Francisco's art and music business that differentiates it from Chicago's or Seattle's or Minneapolis'. They all have varied, relatively rich cultural scenes but that does not make them a good place to have a career as an artist. Artists in those cities are usually there because they love their city, because or they don't want to have to compete in a major market... a wannabe actor in SF doesn't wannabe an actor that badly! It's the difference between having a full-time job doing post-production and hanging your work in a gallery at night, vs. scraping by at a retail job.
As for the person who inquired about being a writer.... Chicago or NYC, LA would be a third choice if you are looking at scriptwriting or something like that. Again... SF is not relevant.
I can't tell you how many posts we get from people saying "I am interested in film and video and I want to move to San Diego". It's like saying "I want to be an investment banker so I will move to Seattle". People who make decisions like this are consciously trading away their career to live in a "nice" place. While there is nothing wrong with that, make sure you are honest with yourself about the tradeoff.
Yes NYC is very different from SF. NYC is much more overwhelming and dynamic. I often hear people compare the two (SF and NY), so when I arrived, I was saying "Oh no, this too easy." It was so much more mellow and relaxed than NY.
But I think that's what is attracting me to LA. The overwhelming nature of it all. Not that I think LA is going to be anything like NYC, but just the fact that you have hordes of people going there despite all of it's downfalls to do their thing. That speaks volumes.
So yes, work is important to me no matter how beautiful the city is. So I'm thinking if I have to go through relocating in the Bay Area, maybe I should just move to LA?
On a side note, I was a little disheartened by the winter. I moved away from the midwest also to get away from the weather. While the Bay Area is head and shoulders above that, there were quite a bit of rainy, dreary days that kept us in the house.
Last edited by cabombina; 03-19-2010 at 10:47 AM..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
