Is San Francisco better than San Diego for what I'm looking for? (Los Angeles: to live, restaurants)

[Gentoo]

That is not true, Southern CA has a lot of East Coast transplants, especially San Diego. Every other person you meet here is from the Northeast, especially Boston.

That may be true but this is all relative. San Diego does not have nearly as many east coast (and European for that matter) people as SF. No way hell that's true! There are more people here from the middle of the country than I remember in the bay area so I think that statement, having lived in both places is very accurate.

[vdy1985]

Originally Posted by Gentoo

Maybe not Ivy league but to be fair I do have to say that UCSD is one of the best schools anywhere. It's actually harder to get into than UC Berkeley.

No it is not.

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by vdy1985

No it is not.

According to everyone I've known over the last decade and from what they were told by the schools, yes it is. Now I will admit I've not tried either myself but I know and work with college age people.

[Buburuza 1313]

my advice..go back to east coast or better go to europe..i do not think san francisco is better...i live close to sf ,in napa valley and i am very disappointed from sf...it is also a very dirty town...especially china town..my first visit to china town was a nightmare...my husband wanted me to go out in sf in chinatown to a best known restaurant (i do not mention hier the name,the owner is a friend of my husband)..anyway people were standing outside in the queue to get a free place inside...what i can i say??me,european just arrived from europe...american all excited about great food and restaurant..they seemed not to see or not to care about the rest...food was ok,the plates were disgusting dirty,the toilet was infected..the view outside great..we were sitting eating and outside a beggar was seraching the trash in front of the local..it was already 10..dark outside...was pretty loud (some very low level population screaming around)..we walked around a little,the smell of urine and dirt was so penetrante,that i insisted to go home as soon as possible,i had enough from china town...chinatown is absolutely dirty in my eyes..i wonder,how people can eat or buy food there...i do not like san francisco at all,not my taste...but i know more people and more stories and it seems like this town has higher drug problems...

[Buburuza 1313]

hier is another opinion (not mine,but i support a lot of it) about san francisco:


San Francisco is the most absurdly overrated and crappy city in the United States bar none. I made the mistake of going to grad school there for 2 years and couldn't wait to leave. The best description of that city i've heard is "Denver by the bay", although it might have been evern more aptly described by one person who called it a "club med for 30 something yuppies".

That city blows. It's racist (how many non-whites reside in the wealthy parts of the city), boring as hell (half empty restaurants, a general feeling of lethargy), impossible to meet anyone when you go out because nobody socializes--either they're too stoned, have nothing to say, or both.

The thing that most gets me about it is the fake atmostphere of openness and tolerance about the place, underscored by brutal classism and segregation. revolution basically consists of smoking a bunch of weed, putting on a che guevara t shirt, and paying 150 a month for a yoga class that you drive your range rover too.

the other galling thing is that people there have the nerve to compare san francisco to NY. San Francisco is not even in the same league as New York, it would constitute maybe, say, a boring part of Queens like Fresh Meadows or Kew Gardens or something like that. People from San Fran look down on L.A. and N.Y. people, probably because people from those cities are open about their crass materialism while people from san fran fake like their a little bit above it. All from their 2000 a month digs, of course, but that's different.

Also, people in NY are just as open about things like being gay, leftist politics, etc. etc., they just dont need to interject it in your face at all hours or make themselves into 24 hour a day walking billboards of themselves. they live their lives and its enough. I went to a dinner party once--a DINNER PARTY--and there were two lesbian women making out the whole time as if they were teens in a movie theatre. Except they were forty something.

viva la revolucion.

SF is a joke, sorry.

[Boompa]

Except for the warm sunny weather part San Francisco is about right. I agree that San Diego is Tea Bagger Heaven. San Francisco is cold and foggy much of the time and the ocean is just plain cold.

[Buburuza 1313]

the ocean is very cold..and in addition has sharks!!!stinson beach was even closed because of them one month ago,i think!!...

[Gentoo]

Before everyone talks about San Franciscos cold water and sharks, it's a trade off to San Diego's relatively warmer water and Jellyfish. Oh let's not forget the Red Tides which are toxic.

[sav858]

Originally Posted by Gentoo

That may be true but this is all relative. San Diego does not have nearly as many east coast (and European for that matter) people as SF. No way hell that's true! There are more people here from the middle of the country than I remember in the bay area so I think that statement, having lived in both places is very accurate.

In my experience it does, maybe even more so. San Diego seems to have a higher percentage of transplants overall and is a more popular place for people to want to relocate to than the Bay Area to live, so you're gonna meet them from all over the place. Having lived in both places as well my experience is there are a ton of east coast transplants, possibly a higher percentage of SF but I don't really have any way of confirming that with numbers.

[Beat02]

Whether SF is the perfect fit, I dunno, but it DEFINITELY sounds more accommodating to what you're looking for as opposed to SD.