NoCal or SoCal? Expert Opinions wanted!!!

[retiredforlife]

Originally Posted by BayAreaHillbilly

the San Gabriel resorts are about an hour away.

This is a perplexing comment to me. I have lived in the SG Valley all my life and I am not certain what this person is referring to.

[rxpwas]

Originally Posted by Sassberto

SF proper is really the only urban locale in California that can compare to NYC - but not really. In terms of culture - restaurants, arts, fun stuff to do - SF is great.

It's dense, but small, and is not nearly as busy as Manhattan. Outside of SF proper the rest of the Bay Area is very suburban, much like Long Island or New Jersey. The BA is also stupid expensive, blowing SD and LA out of the water.

Sacramento is nice enough, but is brutally hot in the summer and lacks the robust job market of the major cities.

Socal is more like Florida without the bubbas. It's cities are mostly suburban, the beach is always nearby. LA and SD have great job markets - in my opinion LA is on-par with NYC for jobs - and better than SF, which is great for software engineers but not as good as LA for almost everything else. But living in LA is probably as tough as NYC - trade the 8AM subway clusterf*** for a sigalert on the 405. And LA's got plenty of crime, grime, and noise too.

To me San Diego is somewhere in the middle - better lifestyle than LA - less crime, traffic, and a lower cost of living than SF. The tradeoff is lower-paying jobs and a lack of major corporate offices. SD lacks the cultural amenities of LA, but LA is 2 hours away - I'm up there all the time.

Outside of the major cities much of California is rural, gorgeous, and (relatively) cheap - but with the job markets concentrated so heavily in the urban centers, it's like the proverbial NYC->North Carolina move - what the hell do you do once you get there?

Lots of people in North Carolina wish the "proverbial" New Yorkers (the loud mouth arrogant snotty ones, not the ones who try to assimilate there, unfortunately far too many of the "proverbial" ones there) would get the hell out.

[Phil306]

I'm going to make a suggestion, "sort of" a comprimise: Look at Redding. Its very close to the mountains and good winter sports. Its also close to the California Coastline, which is great. However, having said that, the Northern California Coast is different then the beaches in Southern California. Generally, they are more overcast/foggy and alot more of a "rocky" type coastline. Because of this, what beaches there are, tend to be less crowded; which I enjoy. Ft Bragg is also a very nice place; albeit expensive to live in.