I lived in the Bay Area for three years and have now been in LA for about three years. I liked the Bay Area a lot more. The summer heat is much harsher down here, the air is much dirtier (try not washing your car for two weeks in the summertime - it looks like a pile of dirt with wheels), and the hills are too far away. But probably the biggest negative about LA is the living conditions - meaning houses and yards. The older residential sections are endless, monotonous square miles of tiny boxlike stucco houses wedged next to each other, surrounded by dusty walled or fenced yards full of dogshit and garbage. Also of note are the screaming billboards for diners, bargain shops, liquor stores, garages, taco stands, etc. that crowd the roads. Of course, not everywhere in LA is like that, but you can’t afford to live in those places. In the Bay Area, even in the poorer areas of Oakland, the ambience was much better.
I’m from L. A. and live there now. I lived in the East Bay (Oakland and El Cerrito) for two years, and I loved the Bay Area. I also love it here in L. A. They are very different places, and each is lovable for different reasons. The one thing I have to add is that to me, San Francisco is the quintessential “a nice place to visit but I wouldn’t want to live there” city.
I can completely understand why some Bay Area’ers would hate L. A., though.
One more thing: I experienced both the '94 Northridge quake and the '89 Loma Prieta quake, and our quake totally kicked your quake’s ass!!!
I’ve lived in the Bay Area my entire life and have developed an unexplainable and illogical hatred for Southern California. I’ve only been there a few times but when I was there I felt this weird sort of rivalry. Kind of like I was visiting a rival high school or something. I think it might be due to the handful of students from Southern California that lived on my floor in the dorms at SF State. They’d go on and on about how much better it is down there. I told them more than a few times to go back the hell home if it was so much freaking better! So yeah, maybe there’s some residual resentment there.
Hey! I never said it made any sense!
I was born & raised in the Bay Area; lived in the Mother Lode the last 12 years. I hate LA and the Bay Area. Hell, I can barely stand to go into Sacramento some days. Too much traffic & congestion; too much unbreatheable gunk in the air.
As for the rest of SoCal, I’m definitely gonna plan a desert trip this spring after all this rain!!! 
Me too! I was there for most of the 80’s, Revelle College and then for Grad School. When were you there?
Haj
NorCal’ian checking in here, all I have to say is:
SoCal hella sucks.
Lived in the Valley my whole life. I hate LA. I hate Hollywood. My idea of taking a break and getting some relaxation is heading North… not to No/Cal, of course, but to the desert, where there ain’t NO FUCKING BODY TO GET ON MY NERVES.
Both ends of California suck 'tater nipples, frankly.
I grew up in Southern California (not Socal, only people from elsewhere call it that). I’ve been in the Bay Area for the last 10+ years.
Northern California sucks compared to Southern California.
San Francisco is nice to go to once or twice in your life, but it’s not that big a deal. Berkeley the same. San Jose, well, it’s just ugly here.
Southern California is beautiful. Southern California has beaches. Northern claims to, but they suck. Santa Cruz is not a beach, and to call it one is to insult real beaches. There are some beautiful places like Monerey and Carmel, but those aren’t beaches. And there are some lovely Redwood forests up here, but that’s about it.
Many people up here complain about Southern. The traffic. The smog. Well, I’m sorry, but I’ve been there, and it’s the same as here.
The funny thing is of course that in Southern California, they don’t even know Northern exists. It’s like Grants Pass, Oregon vs. Manhattan, or Kansas vs. California, or Canada vs. the U.S.: everybody in Canada thinks America sucks, and Americans think of Canadians… well, they don’t think about them.
hajario wrote
I was at Revelle around then too, 82, 83, 84. Spent more time in the pool hall though. Fun times.
So people in Northern California hate those of us in Southern California.
Like we care…
Compare the difference between the crowds at a Dodgers-Giants game in San Francisco or Los Angeles.
The former is very contentious and loud. The latter less so.
With the exception of the division clinching game in 2004.
I started at Revelle in 82 also. I lived in one of the Mud Huts. It was a small school back then. We probably crossed paths.
Haj
Like hell. I was born in Loma Linda, and have lived 42 of my years in SoCal, and I’ve always called it SoCal.
Northern California born and raised, moved to the Bay Area after I turned 18. It must be a Bay Area thing. I don’t care for L.A. (too plastic), but I love San Diego and Santa Barbara.
If I had my druthers, though, I’d take Napa over San Diego.
Well, I’m from the Bay Area (lived here since early childhood) and hating SoCal is just kinda something that you do. Maybe it’s taught in school or something in the water. Just…everyone does. I always did too, until my parents moved to San Diego and my brother moved to L.A. Then I actually visited the places I’d been trashing for years, and discovered that, actually, some areas were quite nice. I’d even consider living there.
But absolutely, there’s a general disdain for Southern California that you find in Bay Area residents. In fact, it kinda reminds me of the Berkeley-Stanford rivalry. I went to Berkeley, where the Stanfurd hatred was just bizarrely intense. I had several friends at Stanford who said Stanfordites really didn’t care that much about Berkeleyites one way or the other. Our theory was that Berkeley is full of people who have applied to Stanford but didn’t get in (I’ll fess up, I’m one) and are bitter about it. Anyway, I agree that the one-way rivalry thing is often motivated by a secret inferiority complex. Not that I actually think NoCal is better than SoCal or vice versa. They’re just different.
Except for one thing…what’s UP with you SoCal people using “the” in front of freeway names??? I hate that! You’re supposed to give directions by saying “take 101 south” not “take the 101 south.” Would you say “Turn right on the Maple Street?” No! Freaks.
I hear people use ‘the 101’ around here all the time. It drives me nuts. I’ve asked my husband, and though I don’t think he’s ever said it, he didn’t have an answer for me as to why others did. Just that that’s what people call it.
It really is weird. I’ve only ever heard it applied to 101.
Maybe it helps separate Freeways from surface streets in conversation. If someone told me “Take 101 south” I’d respond, “Take one hundred and one whats?!?”
I guess there’s a greater inherent grandeur to a freeway.
Really?? I’ve never heard another NoCal person use that particular phraseology. And everyone I know from SoCal does. My parents & brother have even turned to the dark side (although I get to tease them about it mercilessly, because they used to hate it too, so that’s some compensation). And SoCal people use it for all the freeways - my mom says “the 805” and “the 5” among others.
Yes, we do. And the reason for that is that we are using short names for our freeways. The full names are “The 101 Freeway”, “The 405 Freeway”. We just take the word ‘freeway’ off 'cause, like, it takes too long to say the extra two syllables, dude.
Everyone else in the world knows that the numbered highways are just that. When they enter the L. A. city limits, though, they magically transform into freeways with names. The 405 South, for instance, is sometimes known as the San Diego freeway. The 101 is the Hollywood Freeway for a certain stretch; it’s also the Ventura Freeway along another stretch. The 10 West is the Santa Monica Freeway, and so on. Andyway, the practice of naming the freeways has left us using “the” before a freeway’s name.
I was at Revelle, too, from 1975 to 1980. Most of that time I lived in Beagle, except for when I was in Germany on the EAP.
So is Northern California. Lakes, mountains, valleys, rivers, forests. The crisp clean air, Donner Pass, the warm summers, wide open land, the Delta, the meth labs…wait a minute.
Eh? There mostly rocks with cold water. I don’t think anyone’s ever called them great beaches.
I can go from Sacramento to Redding in 3 hours easy. C’mon. And you don’t see much smog in the Sacramento Valley, the mountains or the coast. Down in the Bya Area, sure.