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01. Los Angeles - San Francisco: the "faces" of their metropolitan regions and really all of California. The most popular cities. The most urban cities. The most economically vital cities. The most visited cities. The most iconic cities. The true global cities. Both share real megacity-like issues too with the runaway housing prices, traffic, congestion, some would say overpopulation, and outdated infrastructure (both cities need better transit systems). I would argue overexposure in the media too, which is both a good and bad trait.
02. Orange County - San Jose MSA: often either the braintrust or the bank account of the metropolitan region (or both). Rich, educated, high life expectancy, low crime, more integration, tech savvy, probably the two highest priced real-estate markets in the United States (sans areas in Greater New York), massive Vietnamese ethnoburbs, far more suburban-centric and both are quintessentially Sunbelt in design, so on and so forth.
03. Long Beach - Oakland: Industrial, gritty, seaports, distribution centers, that U.N. type of diversity, vastly overshadowed by Los Angeles/San Francisco, solid and study downtowns along the waterfront, probably the type of localities where a concept like "bus rapid transit" would make a ton of sense. You can easily bypass the need to expand rail in these two cities and instead build a dedicated lane for BRT, both cities have the factors in play to lend to a massive high-occupancy system.
04. Inland Empire - Sacramento: Sacramento is the state capitol but that and the Inland Empire's less noticeable individual identity due to more intangled sprawl connections with Los Angeles are the big differences. The suburbs, sprawl, most of their amenities, most of the retail chains are largely one in the same. The Inland Empire is larger, more economically vital, has more fun events like Coachella, has the Temecula Wine Country, and multiple general aviation airports, commuter rail lines, and highways -- some of these a function of it being larger than Sacramento. Mountains are more "immediate" in the Inland Empire whereas they are a drive from Sacramento, the ocean is 30 miles closer to the Inland Empire. In the case of both, they are situated directly east of the San Francisco-San Jose-Oakland and Los Angeles-Orange County-Long Beach agglomerations and directly west of the Las Vegas/Reno areas, respectively. Due to Los Angeles' larger physical population and being 30 years ahead of the northern portions of California in sprawling into the interiors of California, the Inland Empire has more direct and urbanized access into Los Angeles than Sacramento does for the San Francisco Bay Area. UC-Riverside and UC-Davis are likely comparable schools from an academic point of view. The highlight characteristic for both places is this line: "you can get in a car and be a short drive to (insert some city/state park/national park/geographical feature/special event here)." It isn't so much highlighting what is in them but highlighting more of what's near them -- with emphasis on location. That and both are cheaper locations than areas directly to their west, which is probably the biggest driver in both of their growth this decade.
05. Bakersfield - Fresno: The former is the oil and gas center for the state of California, it retains a high degree of Southern culture from the American South, country music is popular there, Southern accents are common, and is the least urbanized of the California major 8, by a hair against Fresno. It's northern counterpart counters by being the center of the state's agriculture industry, retaining a strong Midwestern sort of vibe and culture throughout the city and metropolitan area, even its segregation patterns and crime trends tend to look identical to several Midwestern cities. Both are fast growing cities of California's interior.
06. Santa Barbara - Monterey Bay Area: Ah, the cute little smalltowns. These are the Hallmark Postcard background settings of Northern California and Southern California. Very expensive and highly sought-after locations that still preserve the best features of California without the redundancy that exists in most other parts of the state that are incredibly overpopulated with growing pains to account for and increasingly more so. Smaller, less congested, less traffic, less crowds, less pollution, less corruption, less of everything which amount to a high standard of living.
07. Las Vegas - Reno: Neither are in California. However both are overrun to the core with Californians, probably the two most likely destinations for former Californians. Both are essentially an extension of California for all intents and purposes. Reno is to Northern California what Las Vegas is to Southern California. Reno is probably one of the top three gaming destinations in the United States, its entertainment offerings are likely well above the cut for a place of its size and could be regional draws. Las Vegas, the bigger brother, is much larger and its entertainment offerings are global draws.
I'm not here to pass this off as a fact, just painting the picture of California that is in my head.
San Luis Obispo is neutral ground, it is right on the border of North and South and culturally it acts as a neutral ground where California's culture shifts between North and South. I think of it as the potential epicenter of California's barbecue food scene though (the tri-tip). Northern California doesn't have an answer for San Diego. I used to think it was Sacramento before I visited it, then I went to Sacramento and saw it, and it turned out I was giving Sacramento far too much credit, and that it doesn't match-up well against San Diego. Sacramento and Inland Empire are comparable, however, because both are largely just places to live and work, heavily suburban with small but improving urban cores, with limited entertainment of their own but an ideal location to find that so called entertainment elsewhere going in either the east or west direction.
The way I see it, both sides of California have largely remained analogous of each other. What the North has on the South is far larger land area, primarily due to the Northern parts having two-thirds of California's landmass. In contrast, while the South has much less landmass, it has far more populated cities and more cities (the North doesn't have a counter for San Diego).
I wouldn't really draw a parallel to OC and San Jose, OC are suburbs of LA in entirety, SJ are suburbs of SF that grew their own economy separately. No place in OC can really stand on its own in the same way San Jose can, or any other city in Greater LA. Long Beach sorta kind of does, but I don't really see it standing on its own either. LA is just much more dominant in SoCal than SF is in NorCal.
That's my problem with the IE too there's really no center of the IE, just some large suburbs with some downtowns that aren't really that substantiated. The IE is much more dependant on LA than Sac ever will be I think a better designation would be Sac to San Diego.
If you want to see just how influential LA is on Vegas just drive from Vegas on a Sunday night it's insane to see all the traffic in the middle of nowhere headed back to LA you can see this coming from SD, and NorCal as well on Friday night too. LA just dominates SoCal
To be honest The Inland Empire is not separate from The Greater L.A Region,so I consider this thread as more of a Greater Las Vegas versus Greater Orlando discussion....The Greater Las Vegas Area in my opinion has more potential than Greater Orlando,simply because it has more of a Global Recognition and it's proximity to California.
To be honest The Inland Empire is not separate from The Greater L.A Region,so I consider this thread as more of a Greater Las Vegas versus Greater Orlando discussion....The Greater Las Vegas Area in my opinion has more potential than Greater Orlando,simply because it has more of a Global Recognition and it's proximity to California.
But yet... Orlando pretty much seamlessly blends in with the Atlantic Coast and the Tampa/St-Pete area, and is a short drive/bus ride from Miami... It's actually quite ideal in terms of location, and its growth definitely reflects that.
To be honest The Inland Empire is not separate from The Greater L.A Region,so I consider this thread as more of a Greater Las Vegas versus Greater Orlando discussion....The Greater Las Vegas Area in my opinion has more potential than Greater Orlando,simply because it has more of a Global Recognition and it's proximity to California.
I would say they are about tied, Orlando actually receives more visitors foreign and domestic.
In regards to this topic specifically and the Inland Empire, the part that seems off is where the equivalency is trying to be drawn.
I get why on a very surface level why you're drawing an analogy for the IE to Sacramento, but I think a closer inspection will likely bring you to the same conclusion as mine.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sean1the1
That's my problem with the IE too there's really no center of the IE, just some large suburbs with some downtowns that aren't really that substantiated. The IE is much more dependant on LA than Sac ever will be I think a better designation would be Sac to San Diego.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Californiaguy2007
To be honest The Inland Empire is not separate from The Greater L.A Region
All of the quoted text, especially the bolded, here are basically the crux of my counter; I think all three of you were more tactful and clear in your responses, but this is pretty much where I was going...
Vegas in my opinion is doing just fine with it's conventions...Orlando International is not the only airport that has flights to dream destinations...McCarran International Airport has flights into California,Hawaii,Mexico and to other parts of the U.S and the World as well.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JMatl
Exactly. Orlando also gives Vegas a run as the top convention city in the U.S., and has flights to places they can only dream of.
Vegas in my opinion is doing just fine with it's conventions...Orlando International is not the only airport that has flights to dream destinations...McCarran International Airport has flights into yCalifornia,Hawaii,Mexico and to other parts of the U.S and the World as well.
Vegas and Orlando go back and forth as the top convention cities, and as the cities with the most hotel rooms. Orlando also has flights to cities LAS will never have. Their visitor numbers are much higher, and more global in reach.
Orlando also has a real, very attractive and functioning Downtown. One with two professional sports teams, in state of the art facilities. They also have a stunning new Performing Arts Center. Downtown is ringed on three sides by pre-WWII neighborhoods full of huge trees, brick streets and beautiful homes.
Vegas has none of this. This isn't even a contest to me, Orlando is far superior to either of the Western places in question here.
Vegas and Orlando go back and forth as the top convention cities, and as the cities with the most hotel rooms. Orlando also has flights to cities LAS will never have. Their visitor numbers are much higher, and more global in reach.
Orlando also has a real, very attractive and functioning Downtown. One with two professional sports teams, in state of the art facilities. They also have a stunning new Performing Arts Center. Downtown is ringed on three sides by pre-WWII neighborhoods full of huge trees, brick streets and beautiful homes.
Vegas has none of this. This isn't even a contest to me, Orlando is far superior to either of the Western places in question here.
I agree. Orlando's core area (downtown and areas surrounding) makes it a much stronger CITY IMO. Far from the tourist areas, and very lively and full of activity. And this stretches from downtown all the way North into Winter Park. There's a lot in Orlando that is "hidden" from tourists.
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