San Luis Obispo: Culturally more connected to NorCal, or SoCal? (Los Angeles: fit in, apartment)

[ChrisC99]

Hi everyone!

So I know there are many ways to feed a cat (really, why would you want to skin one??)...and there are many ways to divide up the Golden State.

If you were speaking in terms of pure land area/latitude, you'd draw a line right through Monterey Bay and call it the division between North and South, as most maps do for convenience.

Biogeoclimatically, meanwhile, there are a FEW places where it seems a line could be drawn. One would be from Point Conception, across Gaviota Summit between Santa Barbara and Santa Maria/Lompoc, and then across the crest of the Tehachapis. South of that line, you have subtropical shrubbery and desert scrub right behind the beaches like nothing you'd find north of there. Though another possible line could be drawn at the southern end of the Big Sur coast, the last place you really find redwood and douglas fir forests in the coastal valleys before you get into the pure oak/grassland complex of SLO County. A third possibility would be north of Bodega Bay at Fort Ross, where the forests stretch right to the coast and it basically really starts looking and feeling like the Pacific Northwest.

Culturally though...the line would seem to be SOMEWHERE between Monterey and Santa Barbara. In Monterey people clearly identify more with San Francisco and the north; in Santa Barbara, they identify more with Los Angeles and the south.

So folks who've lived in or are familiar with the San Luis Obispo area: which do people THERE identify with more, San Francisco or Los Angeles, Northern California or Southern? It's a bit isolated from both of course (hence simply using the term 'Central Coast'!), and looks like both an neither in some ways: it has the oak forests and shore pines of the Bay Area, but none of the redwoods or firs. And the climate is a bit in-between too, right? So what do San Luis Obispans think of themselves as more, given the choice between NorCal and SoCal??

Thanks!!

[.highnlite]

I trust you know that Doug Fir is not a fir, it is a spruce, Pseudotsuga menziesii, and a variation of Doug Fir, known as Big Cone Spruce Pseudotsuga_macrocarpa.

Pseudotsuga_macrocarpa grows in the Santa Lucia Range above San Luis Obispo and the San Rafael Range behind Santa Maria, and in fact it extends nearly to the Mexican border.

So, Doug Fir is not a good indicator.

Sequoia Sempervirens range extends almost to the San Luis Obispo County line, which puts in securely into the Central Coast

Incidentally, on our ranch in south San Luis Obispo we have the oldest planted Redwood extant.

I consider the Central Coast to run from the Santa Ynez Range to Santa Cruz, south of that is southern California, that boundary extends across the transverse ranges to the desert.

Many of us cringe at being considered SoCalians.

When we moved from North California to the Central Coast, AAA switched our monthly magazine from the North California Via To the South California Destinations Which annoys me greatly, I have no interest in anything that happens in SoCal, aside from LAX Disneyland and the VA.

However, there are those with ties to SoCal, and there are those with ties to NorCal. The mix is such that one cannot definitely state that the Central Coast is more closely tied to one or the other.

[ChrisC99]

Oh, I didn't know the BigCone variety was found in SLO county! Do you know if it forms more extensive stands there, or only small patches as in the Santa Clarita Valley?

I thought the Pseudotsuga genus didn't identify with the spruces or firs...is it closer to the Picea than Abies taxon?

So you'd say identification with NorCal or SoCal depends more on the background of the residents, than anything about the location itself! Nothing in the architecture or style that makes it 'seem' more culturally akin to one region or the other?? Or the Central California range you describe, you don't consider that in general more related to the North than the South?

[.highnlite]

...

Originally Posted by ChrisC99

Oh, I didn't know the BigCone variety was found in SLO county! Do you know if it forms more extensive stands there, or only small patches as in the Santa Clarita Valley?

It is a primary tree at higher elevations, along with, jeffrey and sugarpine, and in north SLO county into Monterey, cypress.

I thought the Pseudotsuga genus didn't identify with the spruces or firs...is it closer to the Picea than Abies taxon? Well one pseudotsuga is called a fir, one is called a spruce, I reckon it is closer to picea.

So you'd say identification with NorCal or SoCal depends more on the background of the residents, than anything about the location itself! Nothing in the architecture or style that makes it 'seem' more culturally akin to one region or the other?? Or the Central California range you describe, you don't consider that in general more related to the North than the South?

I think most of us reject identification with SoCal or NorCal, in favor of our identity as Central Coast. Architecture is varied.

Our flora and fauna are a mix of north and south, palms and redwoods etc. I am often surprised by what I run into in the Los Padres Forest. Interestingly I have not found a good survey of flora in the southern Santa Lucia, which I propose renaming the San Martin Range as Cabrillo named the southern Santa Lucia

[Tex?Il?]

douglas fir and big cone douglas fir (often called big cone spruce) does not fit into either firs or spruces, it is simply its own genus. Nothing more, nothing less.

Big cone douglas fir, is found throughout the transverse ranges (well San Gabriels and San Bernardinos) as some of the higher reaches of the Santa Anas (peninsular range) where chaparral starts transitioning to coniferous forest.

BTW: Point Conception is regarded by most biogeographers as the boudary between southern and central California.

I would think you would really have to look hard for the relict redwood stands south of Santa Cruz. The map shows a couple dots, but I would imagine you would really have to know where to look in SLO county.

[.highnlite]

Originally Posted by Tex?Il?

douglas fir and big cone douglas fir (often called big cone spruce) does not fit into either firs or spruces, it is simply its own genus. Nothing more, nothing less.

Which may account for Psuedotsuga??????, ah do reckon we got that.

Big cone douglas fir, is found throughout the transverse ranges (well San Gabriels and San Bernardinos) as some of the higher reaches of the Santa Anas (peninsular range) where chaparral starts transitioning to coniferous forest.

BTW: Point Conception is regarded by most biogeographers as the boudary between southern and central California.

I would think you would really have to look hard for the relict redwood stands south of Santa Cruz. The map shows a couple dots, but I would imagine you would really have to know where to look in SLO county.

No native stands of redwood in SLO County. The Los Padres National Forest contains 6,621 acres of old growth Redwood in Monterey County, add to that the acreage in State Parks and private land and there are more that 7,000 acres of Redwood south of Santa Cruz. Don't forget the illusive albino Ghost Redwood:

[CAVA1990]

I'll bet a higher proportion of local residents there hail from So Cal so would say it's more culturally tied to there.

[.highnlite]

Originally Posted by CAVA1990

I'll bet a higher proportion of local residents there hail from So Cal so would say it's more culturally tied to there.

I would have thought so, but, most of our friends who are not native do not come from SoCal.

[user_id]

Southern California is too large to really consider one big region. I'm in the Northern portion of what is, typically, considered Southern California and I feel more connected to San Luis Obispo (heck...they even have the same area code up there) to, say, San Diego. The only location past Downtown La, West LA, etc that I regularly go to is Disneyland. San Diego, the rest of Orange County, etc may as well be in a different state.

No idea about Northern Californians, I always imagine they are too busy smelling their own farts to notice anything South of the bay area.

[nullgeo]

Originally Posted by user_id

Southern California is too large to really consider one big region. I'm in the Northern portion of what is, typically, considered Southern California and I feel more connected to San Luis Obispo (heck...they even have the same area code up there) to, say, San Diego. The only location past Downtown La, West LA, etc that I regularly go to is Disneyland. San Diego, the rest of Orange County, etc may as well be in a different state.

No idea about Northern Californians, I always imagine they are too busy spelling their own farts to notice anything South of the bay area.

Well, the transition highways from the Bay Area to the Central Coast -- and from Southern California (L.A. / San Diego) up to the Central Coast -- both clog in mind-numbing aggravation. I always camp and wander in the Bay and north. I usually steel myself to get past Morgan Hill et al south, to wallow in the ambiance of Santa Cruz, Big Sur, SLO, Morro Bay ... but I'll be damned if I can get further south hardly ever to visit in L.A., where I technically share an Hollywood apartment with one cousin, and friends and relatives in San Diego areas. I went all the way south this year and swore I'll never go again. It had been years since I went any further than Ventura. A couple years ago I had cousin bring some of my stuff up from L.A. because I wasn't sure I'd ever come back. I used to have a place in the Delta and still think I'll move back in there.