Answering my own question.... I grew up in Davis, CA and then spent 4 years in San Diego as an adult before moving to the Bay Area. The biggest shock was how u

Answering my own question.... I grew up in Davis, CA and then spent 4 years in San Diego as an adult before moving to the Bay Area. The biggest shock was how unhappy everyone seems to be here. I don't think Davis and San Diego residents are especially happy, but there was a very noticeable difference even just walking around on the streets in the Bay Area; there are a lot of people who seem to be down or depressed or upset a lot of the time. The other thing that shocked me was the disparity in housing here. In Davis, some houses are bigger and some are smaller but the quality is (usually) relatively uniform. In a lot of Bay Area cities like Palo Alto and Menlo Park, you'll have neighborhoods with these obviously built-up, luxury single family homes, right next to houses that are literally falling apart to the point of probably being unsafe to live in. That was a shock by itself, but then the average quality is probably worse... I guess people here can't pay to repair their homes. Meanwhile, you can walk a couple blocks in some directions and be in the middle of gigantic mansions with gates and big hedges and the works. It's surreal. The driving culture in the Bay Area is also unique (and not in a good way), but I'm guessing most people know that already. On the positive side, the food here is unparalleled, especially in contrast to small-town Davis, where literally all of my favorite restaurants have closed. That town seems to struggle to keep its food scene alive, unfortunately. All of this to say: I wonder how much people who get an impression of "California" are really responding to the particulars of the Bay Area culture specifically, and probably don't ever experience anything else.