Why is the Bay area more expensive than So Cal when So Cal is nicer? (Los Angeles: 2014, condos)

[LuvSouthOC]

Originally Posted by ViolentDisasters

Id rather live in the SF where everything is at my doorstep and I can take BART or Zipcar when I wanna go further out. LA or San Diego don't exactly have cheap housing costs either, so when you add the necessity of owning a car and associated costs, it more than evens out. Combine that with the time wasted sitting in traffic, and for me its an easy choice -- Id rather be out enjoying the milder weather all the time than the warm weather intermittently when I'm not behind the windshield of a car.

Why do you assume everyone struggles in traffic in So Cal? More and more are able to work from home.

[ViolentDisasters]

I mean, unless you never leave home or your immediate neighborhood... traffic is unavoidable. At least this was my experience of living in LA for almost two years. Even with light rail and subway additions, it seemed like only a couple of pockets were actually connected to one another, and because the LA area is so spatially spread but, getting from one place to another by walking or taking transit is nearly impossible.

[pacific2]

Originally Posted by ViolentDisasters

I mean, unless you never leave home or your immediate neighborhood... traffic is unavoidable. At least this was my experience of living in LA for almost two years. Even with light rail and subway additions, it seemed like only a couple of pockets were actually connected to one another, and because the LA area is so spatially spread but, getting from one place to another by walking or taking transit is nearly impossible.

There's traffic and then there is traffic. Also, neighborhoods and conditions are not uniform throughout SoCal. We're not all in LA.

For example, I live in a small city in South OC and manage to drive around it without too much hassle. I hate the heavy traffic on the main arteries (residential and most side streets are quiet and almost free of traffic), but I can still make it to just about anyplace in town in ten minutes or less. What's more, the closest beach is only 10-15 minutes away for most residents.

What's more, I know a number of people who walk to work. Some who live here walk to work, the movies and the grocery store.

[kttam186290]

Originally Posted by NewbiePoster

This is a good summation. I must point out, though, that "glamorous/upscale" is a preference. It misses the Bay Area mentality of laid-back, casual. In my observation, people don't want glamorous upscale beaches. What are we supposed to do, dress up to go to the beach? Strut the fashions? No, that's exactly where NorCal and SoCal are different, and that's a good thing.

The last few times that I was in Newport Beach, people were wearing....wait for it...wait for it...regular BEACH CLOTHES and SWIM SUITES....gasp!

Most of them were middle-class families from the inland communities who came to the beach to enjoy the day and BBQ.

Where do you get this notion that people wear designer clothes on our beaches, or feel the need to?

Seriously, I think you NorCal people just have to invent reasons to hate us, or show your disdain.

Originally Posted by NewbiePoster

People who want upscale beach communities can go to Carmel and Monterey.

That's it? Just two? ....We have Rancho Palos Verdes, Santa Barbara, San Clemente, Newport Beach, Huntington Beach, LaJolla, Pacific Beach, Santa Monica, Pacific Palisades, Marina Del Rey, Playa Del Rey, Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach, Malibu, Corona Del Mar, Dana Point, Laguna Beach, Del Mar, Coronado, Carpenteria, Leucadia, Carlsbad, etc.

Originally Posted by NewbiePoster

For upscale-ish towns, they can go to Walnut Creek, or here and there on the Peninsula, or Tiburon or Napa. Leave the rest of us to our casual comfort style.

You guys put WAAAAYYY too much stock in Walnut Creek! Sure, it's cute, but I can get everything there -- and then some -- in places like Glendale, Westlake Village, Calabassas, Thousand Oaks, Agoura Hills, Woodland Hills, Encino, Sherman Oaks and Valencia.

Originally Posted by NewbiePoster

I dig the Bay Area vibe! North is north, and South is south, and never the twain shall meet. Fine by me.

Fine by me, too

Keep your pseudo-intellectual snobbery, your drab clothes, unwashed & smelly "hippies", ghetto Oakland crime and your inferiority complex all to yourselves!

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by kttam186290

Keep your pseudo-intellectual snobbery, your drab clothes, unwashed & smelly "hippies", ghetto Oakland crime and your inferiority complex all to yourselves!

Yeah, because Compton and Watts are so much better.

[kttam186290]

Compton and Watts are becoming livable again, with lower crime rates, thanks to the Latino immigrant population.

Oakland's still ghetto as hell, Richmond is still a pit! Vallejo is a cesspool, as is Antioch and Pittsburgh, Emeryville is lipstick (nice stores) on a pig (North Oakland).

[roadwarrior101]

Originally Posted by kttam186290

Compton and Watts are becoming livable again, with lower crime rates, thanks to the Latino immigrant population.

Oakland's still ghetto as hell, Richmond is still a pit! Vallejo is a cesspool, as is Antioch and Pittsburgh, Emeryville is lipstick (nice stores) on a pig (North Oakland).

Large swaths of South Central LA are every bit as much a pit, if not more so than the aforementioned places above. That's not to mention some of the rough areas of the IE or even parts of the valley.

[LuvSouthOC]

Originally Posted by kttam186290

The last few times that I was in Newport Beach, people were wearing....wait for it...wait for it...regular BEACH CLOTHES and SWIM SUITES....gasp!

Most of them were middle-class families from the inland communities who came to the beach to enjoy the day and BBQ.

Where do you get this notion that people wear designer clothes on our beaches, or feel the need to?

Seriously, I think you NorCal people just have to invent reasons to hate us, or show your disdain.



That's it? Just two? ....We have Rancho Palos Verdes, Santa Barbara, San Clemente, Newport Beach, Huntington Beach, LaJolla, Pacific Beach, Santa Monica, Pacific Palisades, Marina Del Rey, Playa Del Rey, Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach, Malibu, Corona Del Mar, Dana Point, Laguna Beach, Del Mar, Coronado, Carpenteria, Leucadia, Carlsbad, etc.



You guys put WAAAAYYY too much stock in Walnut Creek! Sure, it's cute, but I can get everything there -- and then some -- in places like Glendale, Westlake Village, Calabassas, Thousand Oaks, Agoura Hills, Woodland Hills, Encino, Sherman Oaks and Valencia.




Fine by me, too

Keep your pseudo-intellectual snobbery, your drab clothes, unwashed & smelly "hippies", ghetto Oakland crime and your inferiority complex all to yourselves!

There is more than a grain of truth to some of what this poster has written, but I dare not start a flame war. In any case, the final comment had me jumping out of my chair lol.

[AnthonyJ34]

Originally Posted by kttam186290

Compton and Watts are becoming livable again, with lower crime rates, thanks to the Latino immigrant population.

Oakland's still ghetto as hell, Richmond is still a pit! Vallejo is a cesspool, as is Antioch and Pittsburgh, Emeryville is lipstick (nice stores) on a pig (North Oakland).

Oh, So. Cal has many ghetto areas, so let's be real. I live in So. Cal (have all of my life), so I know a thing or two or three about many of the cities in So. Cal (LA, OC, IE).

Yes, some cities (or parts of them) have improved over the years, but many other cities (or parts of them) have gone downhill.

I live on the LA/OC border (in Cerritos), which is a nice suburb, but just a few miles away are areas that are not so nice (and they haven't been in years).

Hawaiian Gardens (directly south of here) has improved immensely over the last decade; prior to that, it was a gang-infested area with a high crime rate; now, thanks in part to the casino, the city has more money to spend on infrastructure improvements; and much of the crime has been reduced thanks to sweeping law enforcement raids and crackdowns over the last decade that put a serious dent in the membership and livelihood of the local gang and criminal underworld.

But just a few miles north (in Norwalk), specifically in a section called 'The One-Ways', crime is alive and well, and that part of Norwalk hasn't changed at all in the last 20+ years; and Norwalk has a lot of nice areas as well; it's sort of like Long Beach in that it has a mix of everything: good, bad, and ugly.

And Long Beach has some areas that are GHETTO to the extreme, as do parts of the South Bay (Wilmington, San Pedro, Harbor Gateway)….

Areas like Huntington Park, Maywood, South Gate, Vernon, Bell/Bell Gardens have plenty of ghetto-ish areas, as do cities like Pico Rivera, Whittier, and Montebello/East LA…..

The City of Los Angeles has many bad areas (and many nice areas, as well), but it's far from being a pristine city with only pockets of bad; the bad pockets are numerous.

And the list can go on and on………..

Then there is the Inland Empire, which has large swaths of rundown, ghetto areas filled with lowlifes…….Areas like Moreno Valley and Perris and Hemet (Hemet is Heaven?) -- which used to be nicer, rural areas (maybe not upscale -- but solidly middle-class) have seen a huge influx of Section 8/welfare people (plus many ex-cons/parolees) who moved to those areas from the LA metro areas, partly because of parole restrictions, and partly because of the cheaper housing/rent. And of course, many of them bring their ghetto/thug mentality with them, which infects those areas to which they move………Hemet used to be mostly retired folks and lower-middle/middle-class white families; now, many of the seniors have died off, and hood rats/ghetto people are taking their place (which is a shame, because Hemet was a quaint town). So now it's mostly low-class white folk (meth addicts/bikers), low-class ghetto transplants, and a shrinking pool of retired folks and middle-class people.

[BeauCharles]

Never lived in SoCal, but I had family in North Hollywood, Torrance, Stanton, Long Beach and Hemet, so I've been around it quite a lot. I'd take the Bay Area if I had to choose between the two. While both are large metro areas the Bay is just a little more manageable. Plus NorCal is just more scenic in general. That said, I've always enjoyed the LA metro area. It has a lot of interesting things about it and its a lot of fun. As far as cost of living - while the Bay Area is very expensive the nicer parts of LA are not exactly a bargain.