<p>What are some the different attributes of these three metropolitan areas? Please be as detailed as possible!</p>
<p>I love edith piaf!
but besides that, having lived my entire life in LA, the one thing i love about the city is the fact that its so big that you can find anything and everything. Every little area or neighborhood has its own individual feeling to it, even if they may be right next to each other, ie Santa Monica and Venice are next door neighbors, but they both have their subculture.
The thing I despise the most about the city is the “actor/hollywood/model” scene of it all, which is usually found and felt the most when you’re in the city’s center at night in hollywood/weho. It’s extremely superficial and fake. People in LA aren’t the type you say hi and waive to, if you do you’ll get a weird look, that or a creepy guy trying to make a pass at you.</p>
<p>San Diego I’ve heard is extremely laid back. Bay Area I’ve heard tends to be the more “real” and “intellectual” area.</p>
<p>San Francisco is that professor who loves to talk about himself and how smart he is.</p>
<p>I have lived in all three areas at various times of my life, and I ended up in San Diego as the one I like best. It has the best combination of perfect weather, things to do and see, and friendly vibe. The other two aren’t bad. I could easily live in any of the three.</p>
<p>Some similarities and differences:</p>
<p>All three are very varied - you can find just about everything and every sort of neighborhood.</p>
<p>LA has the whole Hollywood scene that the other two lack. If celeb sightings and working on screenplays are your thing, LA is for you.</p>
<p>San Diego is much more of a military town than the other two. It has big Navy and Marine bases.</p>
<p>Both SF and LA will have more hip, urban sophisticates living there than you will find in SD.</p>
<p>Both SF and SD have huge Biotech industries, but LA not so much.</p>
<p>SF has the Silicon Valley high tech center that the others lack.</p>
<p>SF and LA each have more big time universities than does SD.</p>
<p>One thing that SF and SD have that LA lacks is NFL football.</p>
<p>One thing that SF and LA have that SD lacks is NBA basketball.</p>
<p>All three have Major League Baseball.</p>
<p>Another thing that SF and SD have in common is that they both define themselves as “Not Los Angeles!”</p>
<p>LA is hotter and a lot smoggier than SD and waay hotter and smoggier than SF. The flip side of this is that SF is significantly colder and rainier than either of the other two. The sunny beach and surfing scene is much more a phenomenon of LA or SD than of SF.</p>
<p>Among the three, the Big Earthquake danger is greatest is SF and least in SD.</p>
<p>Population-wise, LA is the largest city in California and second largest in the US. San Diego is the oldest city in California and the second largest in population. Many people assume that San Francisco is the second largest city in CA because it is much more famous, but SF is actually fourth largest, behind San Jose.</p>
<p>I found the people to be friendliest and most neighborly in San Diego.</p>
<p>That was an extremely helpful post, coureur! Thanks! (even though I’m not the OP).</p>
<p>I didn’t even ask the question and I still found that really helpful :)</p>
<p>One more thing: all three have ugly freeway traffic jams.</p>
<p>San Diego is very livable. The traffic jams have vastly improved due to recent widening of Interstate 5. Interstate 15 widening is underway. There is a trolley that goes from downtown to Mexico, Padres baseball park, SDSU, and East County. Another commuter train serves UCSD and North County. San Diego has great weather, hardly any smog. It is a mostly suburban place, very few people live downtown. Friendly, laid back population. Great beaches, and Balboa Park is world class. No damage causing earthquakes have happened that I know of. The nearest large faults are out in the ocean, or else out in the desert. And the city itself is beautiful.</p>
<p>It’s completely up to what you want. The Bay Area is much different than LA or SD. I would just spend some time online on Google and especially City-Data.com (I like the forums there) and see what suits you best. Instead of asking people to give you information, you can find it easily yourself online.</p>
<p>(edit: didn’t realize thread was 3 months old, came up in a search)</p>
<p>For real city life, SF is the only choice, SD and LA are car dependent, spread out places.</p>
<p>The LA sprawl, gridlock and polution make me want to limit my business trips there, I always can’t wait to leave. </p>
<p>I love the SF restaurants and the fact that it’s a walking city.</p>
<p>SD is incredibly beautiful and has great weather, but again, not a city lifestyle, it feels very surburban.</p>