Thinking about moving to cali.. What do YOU think??

I am from Baltimore, lived here long time and this town is just a drag to me and I've been entertaining the idea of moving to the west coast by the beginning of next year.

What are some good places/towns/cities to move to?

Im 23, male, marijuana user, I am a chef/saute cook, frustrated musician.

All input and opinions are welcomed

LOVE YOU ALL

 

Depends on your personality and what you are looking for I guess,

I live in San Diego which is extremely south in California, I can literally see the Mexican border in the horizon from many places near me. There are endless activities to do here , good beaches and many beautiful women. The downsides for me is its often fast paced, expensive and the glamorous shallow lifestyle of Like Los Angeles and Hollywood seems to rub off on many people here.

I'm from the bay area in Northern California. I grew up about 20 minutes (when there wasn't traffic) from San Francisco. Its a little bit more laid back up there and green and lush but the few beaches there are, are often pretty cold. I prefer camping and stuff like that up there. San Francisco is my favorite city in California but I would not try to live there, its really difficult to park places there and driving in the city can be a nightmare.

Then there is Los Angeles, which I personally would not care to live in or nearby. I'm sure there are some good pockets of places to live there but driving through its just depressing traffic, smoggy and straight city. San Diego is about 2 hrs. Away so alot of the tourist attractions like Disneyland or certain concerts are still within reason for me to drive there when I want.

There are other places like humboldt and Santa cruz which may appeal to you if you smoke but honestly there are stoners everywhere in California. I don't want to give you the idea that like everyone here smokes or something (I myself rarely do) but its not like you will shock and awe people if they know youre a stoner. As far as the music goes all three of the main cities i mentioned have strong and respectable music scenes. Hope this helped somewhat...

 

Personally, moving to California is one of the best decisions I've made so far in my life.

I love California but not everyone does. Have you ever visited? Perhaps you should come take a look around the various areas before you decide to move to the other side of the country.

 

Well so cal is mostly cities, desert , and suburbs. There are mountains though within 1 or 2 or 3 hour drive of most places. The weather here is very hot unless you live near the beach. The beaches here are very nice but most of them are very crowded. Lots of Gangsters in southern california. No matter where you go they are around. In some of the richer areas though they have to stay more low key because the cops really don't want them around so they get harassed but it does not seem to drive them away.

LA/SD: Great if you love club life.

Norcal. Very different from so cal. Lush green forests and woods. lots of open grass land. Cliff coastlines. Cooler misty type weather. A lot of small farming towns. Very great place if you love nature and the outdoors. SF is a very very interesting city. It is very different from other cities and all I can say is it's unique. It's expensive to live in SF.

 

Wife and I just moved from Western NY to Northern CA. Love it! Rents are outragesous as hell, but San Francisco has a real friendly vibe going.

 

What outrageous? Comapred to NY or just in general? For example in baltimore $1000 is considered outrageous..

How far north are you?

 

This is my now second time living out here...I moved away once to the east coast and could not wait to get back. I'm in San Diego(Pacific Beach)

 

Well im not to big on beaches. I am from the east coast so ive seen the ocean, ive seen the beach. I dont care for it, I find it boring and a bit pretentious at times. I dont like fast fast paced, a busy city hustle is ok.

How about the music scenes? I find places that are somewhat distant from todays scene more my style. In baltimore there are a ton of venues but all filled with bam glam shallow souls and bland corporate rock. So a place not driven down by the xerox copied music would be a plus.

Also I like camping, hiking, swimming, fishing as well, so something more distant from the bigger cities like LA.

What do you like about San Diego??

 

move to the hollywood area if ur into music. theres tons of places to get a gig at. and theres also music schools. the beaches out here are different from east coast beaches there not cold and dirty. you could also hit up venice beach which is friendly to marijuana users its a cool area.

 

My two cents: I suggest you consider moving to San Francisco. You might find the transition from Baltimore to SF easier than you would by moving to southern CA. San Francisco is probably the most-similar city CA can offer to eastern U.S. cities. SF has population density & urban layout that would feel similar to residents of eastern cities, such as yourself.

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against southern CA, or rural CA, they have many great communities. I lived in San Diego for many years, in the San Diego State Univ & Ocean Beach communities. But the urban sprawl community layout & lifestyle there is much more different to an easterner than the denser, more urban feel of SF.

I've enjoyed several visits to the city of Baltimore, by the way - very friendly people, lots of culture and history, and not as overwhelmingly huge and crowded as say, New York City. But still, you may find, as many easterners have, the culture(s) in California might take a bit of getting-used-to from an east coast perspective.

 

sanfran is awesome if you can tolerate whenever there's something going on in the city everyone that walks past you will shove you to get where they're going.

berkeley is hella cool

don't even bother with socal

 

Check out Eugene,Oregon. Beach is close,mountains are right there even in town,music scene is great and cultural events are numurous ,from opera to plays to small movie venues for independant film to the country fair to huge healthy food super markets and restaraunts-ect-ect. Mother nature--she do rain tho!

 

If it were me, northern cali.

 

Move somewhere within the vicinity of the emerald triangle. Mendocino, Humboldt or Trinity.

Great for ganja friendly folk as well as young people.

 

The whole state sucks and blows at the same time bro! I've lived in so cal and am now in nor cal. I am from a small town in western NY (Erie co).
If I were you I'd look further north, like Oregon, that's were I'm going.

 

you couldnt handle it

 

see my post in the older/advice thread. its just a place. the trees are a little different, the weather is a little different, basically there's every kind, depending on where in the state you are, and i do mean EVERY kind, from tropical in some places, to sub arctic in others. all depends on what you like. you might or might not find whatever it is you're looking for. just exactly like you might any place else. good a place as any to come to i guess. not outstandingly better then any though.