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Old 07-06-2009, 07:48 PM
 
Location: Austin, TX
317 posts, read 1,692,147 times
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anyone care to evaluate the pluses and minuses of each and why which one is better?

my thoughts:
San Diego: nicer beaches, happening downtown/city, youthful scene, more laid back
Orange County: suburban lifestyle, nice restaurants, families, upscale, more hectic

...
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Old 07-06-2009, 08:26 PM
 
Location: Las Flores, Orange County, CA
26,342 posts, read 90,457,955 times
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From a quick inspection, it looks like most public schools in SD are average and below except in the for north end (Miramar to Carlsbad).

California School Performance Maps: San Diego


In OC, it seems like most public schools are average or above except for the far north end (Santa Ana and north).

California School Performance Maps: Orange County
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Old 07-06-2009, 08:50 PM
 
Location: Mission Viejo, CA
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Orange County generally is considered to have higher paying jobs and slightly higher housing costs. Median income for a household in Orange County is $61,899 and median income in San Diego County is $47,067. OC has advantage of being between L.A. and San Diego. Also, a random thing but when my husband flies to an international destination for business he almost always can get there nonstop from LAX one hour away. San Diego residents need to connect for international flights or drive 3 hours to LAX. It is a little thing but my husband hates connecting flights.

San Diego County has the identity of a core city, San Diego. Orange County is anything from a bunch of smaller separate cities adjacent to each other, a farther out suburb of L.A., etc.... Basically OC lacks the cohesive identity of a core city and nobody in OC wants to say they are from Santa Ana (if you consider that our core city). It sounds stupid IMO to travel somewhere and say you are from "Orange County." This is the only place I know people identify by county when abroad. How many people from Atlanta area say they are from Cobb County? How many people from inland Bay Area say they are from Contra Costa County? How many people from Chicagoland say they are from Cook County?? I don't know, but our identity is strange to me.

San Diego has Balboa Park and museums, while I tend to gravitate toward Los Angeles or San Diego day trips to get a large quality museum. Bowers and stuff are nice, but not in the same league as L.A. and San Diego museums.

San Diego doesn't have amazing public transportation, but they do have the trolley/light rail lines while OC has just the OCTA bus. I'm sure I will think of more.

Last edited by missionhome; 07-06-2009 at 08:59 PM..
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Old 07-06-2009, 11:28 PM
 
Location: Austin, TX
317 posts, read 1,692,147 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by missionhome View Post
San Diego County has the identity of a core city, San Diego. Orange County is anything from a bunch of smaller separate cities adjacent to each other, a farther out suburb of L.A., etc.... Basically OC lacks the cohesive identity of a core city and nobody in OC wants to say they are from Santa Ana (if you consider that our core city). It sounds stupid IMO to travel somewhere and say you are from "Orange County." This is the only place I know people identify by county when abroad. How many people from Atlanta area say they are from Cobb County? How many people from inland Bay Area say they are from Contra Costa County? How many people from Chicagoland say they are from Cook County?? I don't know, but our identity is strange to me.
I can't agree more with this statement... I find it so bizarre that our 'area' is known as 'Orange County.' I wonder how that happened? I mean- why is there San Francisco, San Jose, LA, Long Beach, San Diego... and then 'Orange County'? haha
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Old 07-06-2009, 11:36 PM
 
11,715 posts, read 38,997,509 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dakicka View Post
I can't agree more with this statement... I find it so bizarre that our 'area' is known as 'Orange County.' I wonder how that happened? I mean- why is there San Francisco, San Jose, LA, Long Beach, San Diego... and then 'Orange County'? haha
100 years ago you had a bunch of small towns like Santa Ana, Anaheim, Huntington Beach, San Juan Capistrano, etc scattered over a stretch of land that just recently succeeded from Los Angeles County. Santa Ana is the county seat and the largest city but never came to dominate the county the way Los Angeles or San Diego dominate their counties. Maybe things would be different if Santa Ana were twice as big and we lived in Santa Ana County.
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Old 07-07-2009, 05:39 AM
 
Location: Las Flores, Orange County, CA
26,342 posts, read 90,457,955 times
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I think at one time the Orange County forum on City Data was called Santa Ana?

//www.city-data.com/forum/orang...m-renamed.html
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Old 07-07-2009, 08:59 AM
 
8,166 posts, read 6,015,974 times
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Nearly 15 years ago when we were deciding whether to take a job in Texas or California, we used info from one of the Best Places to Live rankings - the actual print magazine, not online. Back then the area was called Orange County on the list. We would tell people we were moving either to Dallas or Orange County (the job was in Garden Grove). People would ask where Orange County was and we would mention Anaheim and they would understand where we were talking about. I think now there is more awareness, but many people still ask where it is in relation to LA or San Diego.

Whenever you don't live in a big city, people use other ways to describe it - the bay area, upstate New York, Inland Empire, etc.
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