I live in California. I grew up in the SF Bay Area, and now I live in LA. For 10+ years I had lived in various parts of NY state. I made a semi conscious effort to move to a different place to get an outside experience. It was interesting to leave the liberal bubble I had grown up in; I got a lot of looks from people when I told them I was from California! (I guess there’s a very specific stereotype about us Californians and our hippie beliefs? I also was working in a particularly conservative area when I got most of those looks, and at a veteran’s hospital) So it was in some sense really interesting learning to work with people from all sorts of different backgrounds, very eye opening for me.
Anyway, I moved back to California partially because most of my friends and family are here and also it was the best job opportunity that was available for what I wanted to do. But I like that I live near a city with lots of cool cultural events available. The town I live in specifically has a very walkable downtown area with a farmers market/night market every Friday night and it’s fun to go out to that. The city puts on lots of little art walks or wine and dine events that encourage people to go out into this small area every month or two. It’s close to my work and doesn’t have a long commute (and it’s a reverse commute, which is so key!!!)
I like that California has a dry heat… I’m done with hot humid New York summers!
I’m not a huge beach fan, it’s interesting to me because I think people associate California with this big beach culture, but part of the time when I lived in NY, I lived on Long Island and they have a big beach culture too, but I feel like it’s a slightly different vibe. And definitely due to the weather you can only be outside at certain times of year; California is just so much more conducive to walking and being outdoors at all times of year thanks to the amazing weather! I remember one of the places I was living in Long Island didn’t even really have sidewalks, which made me feel very unsafe to go out and just walk/exercise.
I do love Northern California though, and I wish my job were up there. I love the wineries and all my hippie friends in places like SF, Berkeley, Santa Cruz, Davis… but even in LA the liberal natures of people are so much more noticeable than in New York. Just simple things like RECYCLING. I grew up recycling/reusing everything (and I could do better!) but I could never find a recycling bin in New York, even for like a plastic drink bottle. This anguished me (even though plastic recycling is kind of a joke). Once one of my coworkers biked to work and my other coworkers MADE FUN OF HIM about it. It was so weird. He’s just getting his daily workout in and saving the environment too! I think there was something specific about that dynamic though, the biker was a little awkward and the other guy was a bit annoying/judgmental. Other people have been bike to work folks and been ‘acceptable’ by most. But the fact that that interaction just seemed not horribly out of place in that culture was what really got me and made me start to realize that “Oh Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore”.
But fascinatingly, my boyfriend (who I met when I moved back to LA) is a transplant from SLC (he did grow up partially in Portland though), and I feel he leans even harder into some of the reusing materials and natural stuff like toothpastes and whatnot than I even do. I feel like it was really hard to meet similarly minded people like this in New York sometimes, and just easier to meet people with these same values in CA.
).
but if i had the choice to move i don't think i would.
