Stereotypes About San Diego? (Los Angeles, August: transplants, hotel, home)

[angel187]

Yes, stereotypes are bad... but unavoidable. Just like Los Angeles is considered "glamorous" (and ghetto at the same time!), and Phoenix is a retired person's haven, what are the stereotypes of San Diego?

[jread]

Perfect Weather is one I can think of. I visited San Diego last week for the first time ever (first time on the West Coast actually) and was expected to be greeted by the most perfect weather on the planet. I mean, all you hear about is the 75/65-degree days and nights and the wonderful sea breeze. I live in Austin, which is pretty miserable this time of year, so I was welcoming the break.

Well, I have to say that while San Diego does have a mild climate and the cool breeze was nice (especially at night), the weather is far from perfect. I found it to be extremely humid (nobody ever mentioned this) and sweaty. I used to laugh when people said that 85-degrees in San Diego was really hot, but now I understand: anything over 80-degrees there IS hot! I was pouring with sweat the first few days and found that the midday weather was muggy and very uncomfortable. It didn't help that many of the restaurants/stores just keep the doors wide open and don't run A/C. This was fine in the evening but pretty miserable during the day. I noticed all the candy bars were melted at one store near my hotel :lol: When I came back to Austin, it was in the 80's that night and felt good due to the low humidity. I would have never imagined that.

Besides my false sense of the weather, though, San Diego really blew me away in every other area. It is absolutely gorgeous, very clean, has a lovely landscape and the people were very friendly (didn't expect that in SoCal).

[tsuyoi_racing]

Originally Posted by jread

Well, I have to say that while San Diego does have a mild climate and the cool breeze was nice (especially at night), the weather is far from perfect. I found it to be extremely humid (nobody ever mentioned this) and sweaty. I used to laugh when people said that 85-degrees in San Diego was really hot, but now I understand: anything over 80-degrees there IS hot! I was pouring with sweat the first few days and found that the midday weather was muggy and very uncomfortable. It didn't help that many of the restaurants/stores just keep the doors wide open and don't run A/C. This was fine in the evening but pretty miserable during the day. I noticed all the candy bars were melted at one store near my hotel :lol: When I came back to Austin, it was in the 80's that night and felt good due to the low humidity. I would have never imagined that.

...to make a statement like that, you obviously haven't lived Midwest, East Coast, Southern, or Houston even.

[jread]

Originally Posted by tsuyoi_racing

...to make a statement like that, you obviously haven't lived Midwest, East Coast, Southern, or Houston even.

Well, I grew up in Southeast Texas about 1.5 hours east of Houston, so I know humidity. It felt like home to me, just cooler. Maybe I just showed up at a bad time when the weather was uncharacteristic of typical San Diego

[NYSD1995]

Yeah high humidity is not normal here. We do get about a week-long spell in the summer (monsoonal moisture from the AZ deserts) but it's nothing serious.

San Diego stereotypes:
- stoned surfer dude
- soccer mom with fake tan, boobs, SUV, juicy couture
- thugged out guys with wifebeater tee and backwards ballcap, lifted trucks
- toothless tweaker redneck guy
- spiky haired greaseball with girl jeans and striped shirt, popping his collar

Sadly many of these are more truth than fiction

[tande1n5]

These are always fun, as much as I like SD, I have to say that I agree with some of these.

Anchorman captures LA's perception of SD quite well.

Some common ones:
-Sleepy military town
-Overly proud of living in San Diego, especially in proportion to importance as a city
-Nothing to report on the news
-Not too professional/serious about anything
-Can't fathom living anywhere outside of San Diego, let alone the Midwest/East (despite being a city of transplants), to the degree that they'll turn down a promotion to stay local - not because of family or friends, but because it's San Diego
-Think that inclement weather will kill them
-Some degree of OC trickledown in north county by transplants, juxtaposed by the "I just woke up" surfer look natives
-Bros and rednecks in east county
-Baby boomers in the area are of the "I surf in the morning before I head to the office, am slightly graying but refuse to take up older people hobbies" variety.

[JakeDog]

It's a more mellow version of the Real OC.

[sav858]

Originally Posted by jread

Well, I have to say that while San Diego does have a mild climate and the cool breeze was nice (especially at night), the weather is far from perfect. I found it to be extremely humid (nobody ever mentioned this) and sweaty. I used to laugh when people said that 85-degrees in San Diego was really hot, but now I understand: anything over 80-degrees there IS hot! I was pouring with sweat the first few days and found that the midday weather was muggy and very uncomfortable. It didn't help that many of the restaurants/stores just keep the doors wide open and don't run A/C. This was fine in the evening but pretty miserable during the day. I noticed all the candy bars were melted at one store near my hotel :lol: When I came back to Austin, it was in the 80's that night and felt good due to the low humidity. I would have never imagined that.

I don't see how anyone from Austin TX could think San Diego is humid when Austin is way more humid than SD and with higher temps too. The average dewpoint is 69 during summer, SD rarely goes above 65. Right now it shows it's 90 degrees with a 95 heat index and dewpoint of 70, San Diego rarely sees a dewpoint that high. The average dewpoint in San Diego is 61 in July and 62 in August. Are you sure it just wasn't the lack of AC that made you think it was humid?

San Diego, CA Climate
Austin, TX Climate

[NooYowkur81]

Well I was in San Diego two weeks ago on vay-kay. Nice town. Clean, organized. Great weather. Lots of gorgeous women. Found the weather to be extremely pleasant. Especially compared to NYC summers, which are horribly humid. Was not impressed with the one beach I went to (don't recall the name), it was dirty and had all that seawood throwup all over the place (pardon, but it looked like the ocean had thrown up and barfed worms and pubes all over the shore) but this was only one beach, I would imagine there are much better ones.

I guess one stereotype I always heard about San Diego was that the people were extremely laid-back and you know the whole surfer type thing. While I did get a heavy surf-culture vibe the people were not exactly what I thought they would be like. But maybe it was a bad week or something but people weren't so nice. In fact, a lot of the people were rude and mean, or just plain douchy or a-holey.

But I did like San Diego overall. I was only there a few days so I definitely want to go back and check it out more in depth, as I still have it on my list as a possible relocation.

[LoneStarJerry]

I think some people are missing the point of what the OP wanted. He's asking for stereotypes about San Diego, not your opinion about the city in general. Weather is not a stereotype, it's a fact that San Diego has some of the nicest weather in the nation, that doesn't mean it's perfect 365 days a year, but it's as good as it gets. If you don't agree that the weather here is the best then it's OK to disagree with that, but it's not going against any sort of stereotype.

Sassberto gave you some great examples of typical stereotypes. Another one would be how there is a stereotype about San Diego sports fans being rather fair weathered, true for many, but not for all. There are some extremely loyal fans here, especially considering our teams have not done a whole lot over time, but there are plenty of people like myself who cheer the teams on win, lose, or draw year after year.