Choosing between NoCal and SoCal....NEED HELP!!! (San Diego, San Francisco: sales, how much)

[Chris2525]

Hello, I am a 23 yr old starting my first job, I am originally from the Midwest but will be relocating to California soon. My territory will either be the San Fran and Sacramento area, or LA and San Diego. Most all of my time will be spent on the road visiting customers ( I can leave at my own desired time) or working out of my house. I have only visited CA once on vacation and am very pulled on what territory I should try to get.

Here are some questions I would LOVE to have answered...

1. Coming from anyone who has driven in both areas how much worse is LA traffic compared to Northern Cal?

2. What major pluses and minuses are there between the north and south?

3. Thinking long term (future wife, kids, purchase of a house) makes more sense?

4. Anything you think might help!!!

Thank you very much for any advice you can give, it's very much needed!

[rah]

As far as traffic goes, both have their bad areas, but southern California overall does have the edge in that department, especially if you live in LA. Northern California (well the Bay Area at least, and especially San Francisco) does have much better public transportation than LA or San Diego or anywhere else in Southern CA.

The rest of your questions are pretty broad, and the best place to start thinking would be prices. What's your price range?

[capoeira]

Originally Posted by Chris2525

Here are some questions I would LOVE to have answered...

1. Coming from anyone who has driven in both areas how much worse is LA traffic compared to Northern Cal?

2. What major pluses and minuses are there between the north and south?

3. Thinking long term (future wife, kids, purchase of a house) makes more sense?

4. Anything you think might help!!!

Thank you very much for any advice you can give, it's very much needed!

1)I have lived in both the LA area and San Diego. I am currently in SF. I think the traffic is much worse in LA. There are more cars and more people. However in the LA area the traffic is somewhat beatable by having extensive knowledge of all the alternate routes. For example the 210,10 and 60 run parallel. If you check the online traffic and listen to the radio reports on traffic you can keep moving. If you just drive the 5 or 405 and don't study the maps or learn all the alternate roads you will think the Southern CA traffic is a nightmare.

In contrast in SF there are not any alternative routes. For example if you are in Oakland you must take the Bay Bridge to get to San Francisco no matter how jammed it is. The alternative bridges will be out of your way. The SF area has good public transit with the Bart train but that may not be an option if you are in a sales position.

2)The advantages to Southern California are numerous.
a)Miles and miles of fantastic beaches,from Mailibu & Santa Monica down
to Huntington,Newport & Laguna in Orange County.
b)Perfectly sunny and beautiful weather almost everyday.
c)slightly less insane housing prices
d)the people seem much friendlier
e)You get access to San Diego-La Jolla Cove,Pacific Beach,Mission
Beach,Sea World,Balboa Park,surfing and the greatest weather in the
country.

A disadvantage to Southern California would be the poorer air quality in the
the inland areas. Get around this by living closer to the ocean.

I can't really think of any advantages to Northern California. There are
numerous high paying employment opportunites. Given an equal choice of
employment I greatly prefer Southern California. Public transit is definitely
better in Northern California but they need it considering the traffic
bottlenecks created by all the bridges.

3) Long term, Southern Orange County and parts of San Diego County like Poway have some of the best schools and family friendly neighborhoods in CA.

4)Both areas have their seismic risk

The ShakeOut Scenario

Hayward fault a likely 'time bomb' Oakland Tribune

http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/2005/15/gip-15.pdf

[hsw]

SF region, esp SiliconValley, is a far more economically and intellectually powerful region than LA region (LA/OC/SD)....SV's Stanford, venture capitalists and alums of established tech cos. are likely to continue spawning the next Apples, googles, yahoos, ebays, youtubes, facebooks, etc somewhere btwn PaloAlto and SJ....something to consider for next career moves and types of people one encounters in each region....

Traffic really depends upon specific routes/times in these vast urban regions; need to consider "economic geography" of these regions to determine relevant traffic issues....e.g., many who live in SF and work in SV enjoy one of fastest 40-60mi each-way, rush-hr commutes in world on 280 fwy....and rarely use bridges to travel, as EastBay/Marin are fairly irrelevant to economy of SF region....similarly, LA's NwptBch area has several high-speed tollways, useful for those who live in Nwpt and work at a tech co. deeper in Southern OC....generally, LA fwys are far less onerous than their reputation would suggest, esp for those who know the nuances....would argue traffic in NYC region is much, much worse than LA region.....(let's not forget that CA's nr-perfect weather means much higher median, yr-round traffic speeds than Eastern US w/much worse winter weather)

No doubt, far better eye candy on LA's Westside (though rest of LA region is fairly underwhelming).....SF has improved in this area in past 3-4 yrs, but is still less "scenic" than LA's Westside.....

[City Boy]

I honestly do not think LA's traffic is any worse than up here. It's HORRIBLE around here. 880, 101, 680. You name it. They are all bad off and on throughout the day.

[mysticaltyger]

I would just add that I don't see California in general as a family friendly state, mostly because of the high cost of living here. The difference between NorCal and SoCal is not that big...they're both horribly expensive...although SoCal has the edge. However, part of the reasons why SoCal housing is cheaper is because there are large areas far inland with cheaper housing that pull the average down. Sure, it's cheaper to live in inland areas like Riverside, San Bernardino, or Palmdale....but I honestly wouldn't want to live in any of those places.

But I also think the overly individualistic values of the people who live here are not conducive to sustaining long term relationships (with the exception of immigrants, who tend to be much more family centered than native born Americans).

[Alicia64]

I have to pop in and say: Sacramento is super family friendly in many different ways. And there's more of a nightlife here than ten or twenty years ago. It can't compete w/ LA or SF, but it's active.

[ripley44mag]

The traffic stinks in both places. There are more oportunities for a young fellow to get started in LA. Regards Ripley