Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
SF even more laid back than LA? You DON'T know SF or LA at all! Most people would say SF makes LA laidback.
Lol. I live in DTLA.
There is a common perception that SF is fast paced, but I don't find that to be true. The work and lifestyle culture is very similar to LA. People in California work to live, not live to work. And that is rolled up in the pace of life.
DC for sure. As a person who was born and raised on the west coast and now living on the east coast, I would say the life in major cities along the northeastern corridor(NYC/Boston/DC) are a lot faster paced than LA and SF. If you can’t keep up with the pace, you will be eaten alive. West Coast is more forgiving in this regard.
The link between time, money, and walking earned even more validity in a seminal 1999 study led by psychologist Robert Levine of California State University at Fresno. Levine studied what he broadly called "pace of life" in various cities — typically the largest ones — from 31 countries around the world. Writing in the Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, Levine explained that he simply wanted to know what other cultural factors, beyond simple population size, influenced the speed of urban pedestrians.
Levine measured three "pace of life" variables — walking speed, work speed, and clock accuracy — though for the purposes of this post, in keeping with the previous literature, we'll focus on the first. The top ten cities for walking speed, according to Levine, were as follows: Dublin, Amsterdam, Bern/Zurich, London, Frankfurt, New York, Tokyo, Paris, Nairobi, and Rome.
With the exception of Nairobi — insert joke here about Kenyans crushing everyone at the New York City Marathon — the fastest walking cities were from wealthy nations. The statistical analysis confirmed this general perception: two of the three strongest social predictors of walking speed were a country's G.D.P. and its purchasing power parity (the other was its individualism). Indeed, when Levine considered all his "pace of life" metrics, he found that pace of life was swifter in "economically productive countries" like Western Europe and Japan than in undeveloped countries
DC for sure. As a person who was born and raised on the west coast and now living on the east coast, I would say the life in major cities along the northeastern corridor(NYC/Boston/DC) are a lot faster paced than LA and SF. If you can’t keep up with the pace, you will be eaten alive. West Coast is more forgiving in this regard.
Im still waiting for an explanation as to what this means exactly.
I've lived in Manhattan, New Jersey, worked for a month in Downtown DC, know the Northeast fairly well, and none of what you say actually rings true to me.
"Eaten alive" how exactly? They speed walk, speed talk, speed drive, speed use the toilet etc.? I never saw that?
Yes they are more brash and rude, is that what you mean? I dont equate that with "fast paced".
And what is this laid back version of SF people keep talking about? Like the homeless bums? Aside from that, I walk out of my office on Mission St in SOMA and I dont see a scene any less frenzied than what I see in DC or Boston.
This old video of Market Street from the 1990s in the financial district outclasses pretty much any street I ever saw in the NE outside of NYC as far as pedestrians...
This is a recent vid from Market@Montgomery...notice the hordes of techies at the end as she walks off...
DC traffic over bridges is much better, SF traffic everywhere else is better. I don't sense the difference in being "laid back" very much, but there's a huge difference in corporate cultures. DC is about government contracts, not innovation. There are few small pockets where technology innovation drips out of government work, but taking a risk in DC means sending your bosses' boss an e-mail and not cc'ing your boss.
I could do well in either. If I had to choose I’d pick fast paced. Also lived in Greenville , Denver and three different Texas cities
Dc was definitely fast paced though. Speed walkers for sure
I guess I could do likewise. Honestly after adjusting here to Austin though it would be kind of hard for me to go back to the daily grind. I've gotten too much freedom and am spoiled.
Funny enough though when I moved back from Seattle to Atlanta people told me I walked faster and was more on point than I was prior. I didnt really think of Seattle as fast paced but I personally was put into a position of using the bus and train to go to and from work. Want a fun commute?
Tacoma > Sounder Rail Station > Downtown Seattle > Transit Tunnel > Bellevue > Bothell > Jog to work.
Approx 3 hours where as driving took alittle over an hour (if I left at 4am before rush hour)
That happened after my engine blew up in my Firebird. Wasnt fun but I certainly was in the best shape of my life in that period of time.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
