Not for everyone
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11/4/2018
This review is about SoCal in general. This is not a dream place! I grew up in the bay area in the 80s. The bay area changed too much so I moved to SoCal. At first it is ok but there are a lot of negatives. First, there is no climate. It is basically sunny 265 days and the more inland you get the hotter it is. Winter for the most part is wimpy. The weather cycle is unpredictable because you will have a recurring cold winter once every 4 years other times it'll be 85 degrees on Christmas day. A lot of the inland cities around LA are much like Sacramento as far as heat. Places like riverside and inland empire are basically hell. This whole LA basin is the beginning of the desert. Once you travel about 30 miles away from the coast it is the beginning of what they call the low desert, then the high desert.. this type of climate eventually dumps into the desert of Vegas and Arizona. The people are friendlier in the beginning, more than the bay area but don't let that fool you. It feels very plastic. All they want to do is smoke pot and hang out at the beach. There is massive apathy here, it is amazing how any work gets done. Gov is highly political. There is obviously segregation. Rich whites live in the coastal areas or in the Hollywood area or Santa Monica. It looks small on the map but the area is huge and the only way to get around is taking the train to work. After a few years the weather really gets to you because you crave for a real winter and a chance to wear a jacket. lol. Sometimes what will happen is you'll get two weeks of a real Cali winter around Christmas and then by mid Jan it'll be 85 degrees again. So it will never fall below 65 degrees during the day. The days will always be sunny but the nights might dip to 40s in the winter occasionally. What I hate is there is no seriousness in SoCal. Even the beach gets boring! When I was in San Jose, I used to go to Santa Cruz all the time with friends. Now I live 10 minutes from the beach and I visit the beach less than I did when I lived in San Jose. Funny how it work that way because when it is right in your front yard, unless you surf, the beach is just like.. oh it's the beach.. big deal. The other thing is living this close to the border means all sorts of colds and viruses come across. In San jose, I used to get sick maybe once a year and sometimes only once every two years. Here they have all these colds and viruses no one has ever heard of coming from Mexico. Expect to be sick at least 2-3 times a year. Hep is big with the homeless here. All the homeless crash the beaches making it not friendly at night. You have critters everywhere like lizards, rats, mice, mosquitoes, etc. All these creatures love the desert type weather.
John | San Diego, CA