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Hi, As a person looking to get out of the snowbelt because of...well, too much snow, I have narrowed my search down to the San Diego, CA area and the Maryland suburbs of DC.
My main concern is that I want something warmer, sunnier and less depressing (to me anyways) than western NY.
San Diego is looking good weather wise, but I am deathly scared of the possibility of an earthquake...how real is the threat of this happaning there? My other big concern with Cali is the cost of living...money and jobs are not too much of an issue, but I have heard that California is absolutely out-of-this-world (or at least this country) when it comes to taxation, cost, etc...
A smaller concern with SD would be the amount of amenities available and the quality of transit (compared to DC that is)... Is the trip by train/bus between SD and Los Angeles really long/tedious?
The DC area has everything i could want, good museums, cultural amenities, transit (I dont own a car), nice brick and stone historic architecture (I love colonial history and historic sites)... but I am just afraid that it is not substantially warmer, less snowy or sunnier than Buffalo or Rochester Ny.... Is there actually a big noticable differance?
San Diego is looking good weather wise, but I am deathly scared of the possibility of an earthquake...how real is the threat of this happaning there? My other big concern with Cali is the cost of living...money and jobs are not too much of an issue, but I have heard that California is absolutely out-of-this-world (or at least this country) when it comes to taxation, cost, etc...
It's really not that big of a threat like it is for SF and LA. SD is relatively far from the San Andreas fault and all the earthquakes that hit SD are fairly minor or moderate at worst. No one has ever died from a quake in SD nor has there been any major damage in it's recorded history.
Jobs and COL are certainly something to me more concerned about.
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A smaller concern with SD would be the amount of amenities available and the quality of transit (compared to DC that is)... Is the trip by train/bus between SD and Los Angeles really long/tedious?
Amenities are pretty on par for a metro it's size, so that means it will offer less than DC overall.
Public transit within the metro area is not that good overall but can be doable depending on where you live and work. The Amtrak ride between Downtown LA and SD is about 2h45m. Not the quickest but not that long either. Driving can be faster when there is little traffic. But the train can def be faster when there is a decent amount of traffic.
Hi, As a person looking to get out of the snowbelt because of...well, too much snow, I have narrowed my search down to the San Diego, CA area and the Maryland suburbs of DC.
My main concern is that I want something warmer, sunnier and less depressing (to me anyways) than western NY.
San Diego is looking good weather wise, but I am deathly scared of the possibility of an earthquake...how real is the threat of this happaning there? My other big concern with Cali is the cost of living...money and jobs are not too much of an issue, but I have heard that California is absolutely out-of-this-world (or at least this country) when it comes to taxation, cost, etc...
A smaller concern with SD would be the amount of amenities available and the quality of transit (compared to DC that is)... Is the trip by train/bus between SD and Los Angeles really long/tedious?
The DC area has everything i could want, good museums, cultural amenities, transit (I dont own a car), nice brick and stone historic architecture (I love colonial history and historic sites)... but I am just afraid that it is not substantially warmer, less snowy or sunnier than Buffalo or Rochester Ny.... Is there actually a big noticable differance?
thanks for any insight
The DC area DEFINITELY gets less snow than your part of NY.
It sounds like DC is better suited for you. Of course most would agree that the climate in SD may be better for you than in DC, but as far as everything else you mentioned, the Washington area seems like a great fit - and again, yes way less snow, way less cold. DC gets less snow than NYC, and even Philly usually averages less snow than NYC. The further south you go, as long as you're not high in mountains, the less snowy and cold is will be.
Why do you say sd by a mile? Is it because the weather?
Basically im just looking for something substantially differant than ny, rather than just plain subtropical.
I also am looking at factors such as good museums, colonial and victorian architecture, great transit and biking and high social liberalism ( but not necessarilly economic liberalism)
Why do you say sd by a mile? Is it because the weather?
Basically im just looking for something substantially differant than ny, rather than just plain subtropical.
I also am looking at factors such as good museums, colonial and victorian architecture, great transit and biking and high social liberalism ( but not necessarilly economic liberalism)
^ That second paragraph is why I say DC even though SD has a warmer climate. DC is substantially different from western NY. Western NY is substantially different from the NYC metro. Sometimes, distance (as in, DC is much closer than SD to western NY) doesn't matter when it comes to how different places are.
While there are more cultural amenities, vibrant walkable neighborhoods with great architecture (although it tends to be Craftsman, Spanish and modern as opposed to Colonial) as well as decent transit than most folks give San Diego credit for it is generally not going to stand up in the attributes you seek as well as D.C..
If you can stick to living close in to the city as opposed to far out in the burbs (this applies to just about every city) I think living in D.C. would be a blast at least for a while. Very educated populous, amazing museums, beautiful architecture, excellent transit and vibrant urban neighborhoods- you can't go wrong. I'd love to live in four seasons weather again (although this comes from me never having to deal with its downsides haha) - constant sun and 70° gets old after a while. About the only downside to D.C. is the ease with which you run into pompous, over striving yuppies which dominate the city. And the traffic there is even worse than Southern California, so if you are stuck in the burbs and far way from transit access it's gonna eventually kill ya.
San Diego is a fine city but doesn't quite cut it to the characteristics that you seek; it is a far easier city to enjoy living right in its core though. And the earthquake thing is vastly overblown- you would have to declare that you are terrified of moving to Seattle because of the risk of earthquakes there as the chances of a large scale one there is greater than San Diego- and you never hear folks say that's why they are not moving to Seattle.
The DC area has everything i could want, good museums, cultural amenities, transit (I dont own a car), nice brick and stone historic architecture (I love colonial history and historic sites)... but I am just afraid that it is not substantially warmer, less snowy or sunnier than Buffalo or Rochester Ny.... Is there actually a big noticable differance?
Yes, it is big and noticeable. The Washington DC area almost feels tropical compared with Buffalo or Rochester. lol. Much less harshly cold and for that long. But you will still get cold and snow during the winter of course.
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