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Moved to the Bay Area from LA couple years back. The Bay area seems like everyone is perpetually overworked and stressed. I take my kids for soccer/basketball l

Moved to the Bay Area from LA couple years back. The Bay area seems like everyone is perpetually overworked and stressed. I take my kids for soccer/basketball lessons, and standing on the sidelines, hope to chat up with parents, but they are glued to their phones or horror of horrors ( some have their laptops open and coding!). LA was so much more chill, just easier to chat up with people, invite people over spontaneously and make friends.

8f2ab37a-ed6c 7y ago
The downside of LA is that everybody is rather spread out, separated from each other by long commutes in traffic through the sprawl. It's a tough city to make new friends.
- sharadov 7y ago
  I agree, LA has no center. But if you live in either - Los Feliz/Eagle Rock, Sherman Oaks/Studio City, West Holywood, the beach cities, you can make friends who are local.
wutbrodo 7y ago
For another anecdotal data point, I grew up in LA, moved here as a teen, and have spent my career here with regular visits back to LA, and haven't found that to be the case. Leisure is so much _easier_ in San Francisco that it's hard to avoid it... Every resident is a maximum ten minute walk away from a park, there are constant awesome free events, and your life isn't fully governed by the dictates of constant traffic between any two points in the city. I've spent my time in the city itself but I've had plenty of exposure to different parts of the Bay and, controlling for the fact that it's less dense, much of the same applies. The sheer success of the metro economy relative to LA over the last ten years means that there are a lot of people who moved here with dollar signs in their eyes, and I don't doubt that that's shifted the culture a bit, but it's very easy to avoid IME. Our data points do differ in that it sounds like you're primarily around families and I'm around single people or young couples. Perhaps what you're describing is true for that subset of the population.
- faanghacker 7y ago
  Maybe he was in bay area but not SF itself. A common ambiguity when talking about the area
  - wutbrodo 7y ago
    Right, I alluded to that in my comment, though it wasn't the focus.
- sharadov 7y ago
  That's true, am in San Jose( south Bay to be precise). Every time I miss LA, I head to SFO. The vibe is a lot more chilled out. I would live there, if there were better public schools for kids. Where I lived in LA, it was a good mix of families and single people.

8f2ab37a-ed6c 7y ago

The downside of LA is that everybody is rather spread out, separated from each other by long commutes in traffic through the sprawl. It's a tough city to make new friends.

sharadov 7y ago
I agree, LA has no center. But if you live in either - Los Feliz/Eagle Rock, Sherman Oaks/Studio City, West Holywood, the beach cities, you can make friends who are local.

wutbrodo 7y ago

For another anecdotal data point, I grew up in LA, moved here as a teen, and have spent my career here with regular visits back to LA, and haven't found that to be the case. Leisure is so much _easier_ in San Francisco that it's hard to avoid it... Every resident is a maximum ten minute walk away from a park, there are constant awesome free events, and your life isn't fully governed by the dictates of constant traffic between any two points in the city. I've spent my time in the city itself but I've had plenty of exposure to different parts of the Bay and, controlling for the fact that it's less dense, much of the same applies. The sheer success of the metro economy relative to LA over the last ten years means that there are a lot of people who moved here with dollar signs in their eyes, and I don't doubt that that's shifted the culture a bit, but it's very easy to avoid IME. Our data points do differ in that it sounds like you're primarily around families and I'm around single people or young couples. Perhaps what you're describing is true for that subset of the population.

faanghacker 7y ago
Maybe he was in bay area but not SF itself. A common ambiguity when talking about the area
- wutbrodo 7y ago
  Right, I alluded to that in my comment, though it wasn't the focus.
sharadov 7y ago
That's true, am in San Jose( south Bay to be precise). Every time I miss LA, I head to SFO. The vibe is a lot more chilled out. I would live there, if there were better public schools for kids. Where I lived in LA, it was a good mix of families and single people.