Fluther: Orange County vs. San Francisco Bay?

Orange County vs. San Francisco Bay?

Asked by Gabby101 (2950

) September 11th, 2011
12 responses
“Great Question” (0

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About a two moths ago I moved from the San Francsico bay area to Orange County. People in the bay area told me I would HATE it here, but I don’t. In fact, I really like it. I live in Irvine and find it beautiful and the living easy. It really perplexes me that my friends hate this area so much… what am I or they missing??

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Topics: Bay Area, moving, Orange County

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Answers

Just wait.

OC is a very conservative county in relation to the bay area and even L.A.

tinyfaery (44083

)“Great Answer” (3

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It’s tradition. Your experience may be entirely different.

Sunny2 (18842

)“Great Answer” (1

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NorCal and SoCal are just natural rivals. We’re supposed to hate the OC and the L.A. area, but I don’t feel that way, despite being from the Bay Area. I’d still rather live here than there, though :)

DominicX (28808

)“Great Answer” (1

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California works like this. San Diego, Irvine, easy living, clean. LA, SF. Fans beat each other up, fast paced you know, things like that. I think it’s easy living because, I’m not too sure that there is much of a lower class in Irvine.

dreamwolf (3163

)“Great Answer” (1

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The beach and weather are great. I guess you don’t mind the traffic. It is a very easy lifestyle in Orange County; if I could afford to own a place in Newport Beach I’d spend a lot of time there.

But beyond those things, there isn’t a lot to do there. No real art, no museums, no real theater, no real music scene. And the diversity is essentially middle to upper class whites, a prevalent but overlooked underclass of Hispanics, and an enclave in Garden Grove of Vietnamese exiles and refugees. I know that is a gross generalization, but it is close to my experience.

zenvelo (39407

)“Great Answer” (2

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@zenvelo Well Irvine has a pretty good music scene, as in, the diy music scene. Check out UCI DIY. Student run. Acrobatics. But yeah, like going up to vist my friend from UCI, there wasn’t much to do except enjoy each others presence. I think you must be enjoying the slow pace thats for sure. :D Nothing wrong with that, but for my preference. I’d rather live in SF than SD where I am. Someone hook me up with a good rent deal! :P

dreamwolf (3163

)“Great Answer” (1

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Weird! I moved from San Francisco to Irvine 3 years ago.

I don’t think Irvine is a horrible place to live. My thoughts echo @zenvelo.‘s The main problem is the lack of night life—not a single bar in the city limits, and don’t try going to a restaurant after 9pm. Not to mention that almost every restaurant is a chain. There is probably not a single restaurant in Irvine proper that I would be able to strongly recommend. Lots in the surrounding areas, though.

There is also a relative lack of diversity, culturally and politically—OC is a bizarre enclave of conservativism along the coast.

And the traffic. Yikes.

There are a lot of nice things about living here, though. The beach and weather would be my top 2 picks as well.

The lack of things to do didn’t start to grate on me until about 2 years in. I started spending Sundays in LA, which helped, and will probably be moving to Huntington Beach soon.

nikipedia (28072

)“Great Answer” (1

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@nikipedia “The beach and weather would be my top 2 picks as well.” Sounds like San Diego. But we do have a pretty decent Downtown that is expanding. Yea I noticed most retaurants are middle class named restaurants. Never really thought about it.. But they do have the original Sprinkles right? In New Port.

dreamwolf (3163

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