San Diego...The Houston of the West?

[sdurbanite]

Originally Posted by malcorub16

But as far as tourism, theme parks, military, being the state's 3rd city, population size, Mexican food and the fact that they are both Saint cities, you gotta admit they are very comparable in those departments. :-)

I'll agree with the above except for the part about tourism and Mexican food. Not a fan of Tex-Mex at all. Too messy and fattening. As far as tourism goes, SA seems to attract mostly fellow Texans while SD gets more people from all over. Sorry, but the Riverwalk and The Alamo were major disappointments to me. The vibe of SA is totally different and there isn't much going on outside of downtown, which is sorta depresssing itself.

[OwlAndSparrow]

Houston is a nicer place than some people give it credit for being, but its climate is not at all comparable to that of San Diego.

It's not even close. Going outside during daylight hours is very difficult from about April to September, and if you can stomach the weather, the bugs will get you. San Diego has neither problem, except for a few weeks in August and September.

Houston does have wonderful cultural opportunities, and they aren't very expensive, so it's easy to bring the whole family multiple times every year. It's one of the best places to raise a family of operaphiles. Hermann Park is just as good as Balboa Park, and it's near even better museums. Houston is quite diverse, and it has some of the best food in the country, most of it reasonably priced.

San Diego, though, can match or at least approximate most of those things.

I don't understand the idea of labeling a city's population with stereotypes. Both areas have millions of people in them. How hard is it to find people who are "intellectually curious" (whatever is meant by that)? Set your standard to whatever you want it to be, then find people who meet that standard. Use the internet, or use connections you make at work. In Houston, that might mean spending time around people from Rice or the Medical Center. In San Diego, that might mean hanging around people at a tech company. (Both cities have a lot of biotech jobs, I should point out.)

Besides, any stereotypes about people in a city are probably based more on media portrayals or confirmation bias than anything actually credible. So, even if it mattered what people are generally like in an area (again, it doesn't matter, because you just see your friends and coworkers regularly, not everyone else), the stereotypes would probably be false.


While both cities are lovely, San Diego has a totally different vibe because it offers a lot of things that Houston doesn't. In particular, there are lot of great things to do outdoors in the San Diego area. I go hiking in the canyons near Escondido every weekend from about October through mid-summer. I can see beautiful scenery on my commute. Houston, as much as I love it, is a couple of hours away from any decent non-urban parks, and the scenery is all flat and drab. The city itself has a lot of urban charm, but the highway views mostly involve billboards; you can't get a good view of the city from your car.

San Diego's roads are maintained better (people in San Diego don't seem to believe this, but it seems true to me), and San Diego traffic is not nearly as horrific as Houston traffic. (L.A. traffic, however....)

I have a lot of affection for Houston, but even then, I still prefer San Diego, because the two cities aren't much alike at all. If I were comparing Houston to someplace in California, I'd have to say it's a cross between San Francisco and L.A., with some of the same cultural vibe as the former and the layout and economy of the latter but with the beauty and climate of neither.

Well, except for diversity. I'd take SoCal, San Jose, or Houston over anywhere else in the country except for, maybe, Seattle. These areas are fantastic hubs for Asian culture, especially if you're Vietnamese. (Before anyone cries, "What about New York?" New York doesn't have a very high Vietnamese population.) That's a somewhat subtle way Houston can compete with California, but it's really important for some people, so it deserves to be pointed out.