it's like many cities all right next to each other. i live in hollywood and don't drive often, but i bike quite a lot. my office is about 1 mile from my house. there's so much right here that i rarely leave the 5 mile radius around my house. i have a huge park on a mountain behind my house where i can walk to the top and catch a 360 degree airline view of the entire city - to the south i can see west to the beach, south to catalina island, and east to downtown, and looking north from east to west across the valley floor is a panoramic view of huge mountains. today is pretty much a perfect day for a hike up there. there are no clouds, the temperature is 74, the humidity is 25%.

contrary to popular opinion, LA does have mass transit. the bus system is extensive (biggest in the nation), and the rapid buses are in fact, rapid. i usually only take buses when i've biked far from home and gotten a flat tire. There is also a subway system with a station a few blocks from my house. i can use it to get downtown in about 20 minutes, and you can bring bikes on it, too. it's very cheap and underutilized, and each station is a work of art. the system is being expanded and it is rightly criticized for not covering some of the major parts of the city adequately. i hate that it's not open all hours and that it doesn't cover the westside, but they are expanding it. one day...

anyway - if you live near your work *and* near where you like to play, you're in pretty good shape. having to commute across the city would drive me insane. i'm glad i don't have to drive much.

there are lots of great things about LA, but it takes a while to get to know this place. as a tourist, it probably sucks. if you are ready to hate it, you probably will. i love it here. i don't think i can leave - even for a very fancy school. we'll see what happens.

...

I have no desire to live in NY, so thats all good

My dad used to live in NYC, and hated it. NYC has a lot more to do than the cities in California though, culturally speaking, etc. NYC really does have practically everything, except greenery in the city. You can actually watch decent opera and ballet if you want. It's basically the center of America in almost every respect. Thing is, the COL is insane and the QOL is low for what you pay for (like in California). People who haven't lived in the PNW or Mountain region should give it a try. I enjoyed it A LOT more than living in California and for the same rent that I paid for a really shitty 200 square foot studio, I could get a nice 2 bedroom apartment elsewhere.

+1

After growing up in the Northwest and spending the last five years in the Bay Area/Tahoe, I can't believe that people think California is a pretty state. And Tahoe is only pretty in the winter when there's snow covering the epic ugliness of the ground cover. Don't get me wrong, the LAKE is beautiful, but the surrounding country side is dirt, rocks, and slowly dehydrating trees.

Also, COL, blows.

I wouldn't argue that the PNW is superior to CA in most respects (scenery, crime rates, QOL, COL, local govt, etc.) but the real question mark about the PNW is employment. Portland's unemployment rate is among the highest in the nation. Seattle is a little better off but all the good jobs seem to go to UW + Ivy. So doesn't that make it unrealistic for most people? (and this seems especially true for us as future lawyers....Seattle and Portland are among the toughest places to land a good legal job).

/Thread.

are you talking about runyan canyon? ....hello neighbor

XingHYS: Sure am, hi!!!

California has a top 5 unemployment rate in the nation. California's unemployment rate is at 12%, which is higher than both Washington's unemployment rate (8%) and Oregon's unemployment rate (10.8%). http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/19/us/19calif.html. California's unemployment rate recently hit the highest rate in the past 70 years, at 12.2%, and projections are that it will remain high at over 10%.

SF is probably at least as hard, if not harder, to break into than Seattle. It's definitely not an easy market to break into by any means, and it can also be argued that SF is only hiring from the top 25% of the T14 (which, from what I have seen at OCI, is true). As for cities' unemployment rates, SF's is at 10.1% while Portland's is at 10.8% - there isn't much of a difference.

I don't think people realize that much of the Midwest (at least Upper Midwest where I have lived), South, and PNW are greener than California, much, much greener. At least the PNW has a combo of everything - mountains, four seasons (or at least seasons beyond summer/spring), greenery, ocean, etc. while California basically just has the ocean. And not to sound like an ass, but often people ramble on about SF (basically California's only saving grace), but Seattle has a very, very similar cultural vibe as San Francisco, except it's nicer, cleaner, and cheaper to live in.

I have been saying that for years. I also have mad love for our tourists...as long as they eventually go home. I live in SF, so every person that moves here makes it more expensive for me. I hear Chicago is nice.

SF kinda sux in some ways. at least, the people there are in a kind of bubble and can be a little tiresome. Typically, they're certain SF is the best city in the world and they hate SoCal with a passion citing all the boring old stereotypical arguments. Often they've never even been here. We in LA don't hate on SF... we visit it... it's cute. Nice restaurants.

I went to Portland this summer for the first time. I drove up and brought my bicycle with me. It was an amazing scenic drive. When I got there, I biked around the city, over its bridges and through the main neighborhoods. It was really beautiful and green, and the weather was very nice, but I definitely got the same hipper than thou vibe from most everyone... similar to SF in that regard. Also, although the weather was amazing when I visited, I understand its mostly cloudy and rainy.

LA is the best city in the world.

I just got back from downtown via the subway.

But anyway - like someone said above, anyone who needs to be convinced to move to CA doesn't deserve to be here!

... and put down your weapons, SFers. I don't want to reignite the legendary war between LA and SF. That subject deserves its own thread. Again, I love SF. Totally cute. I'd even live there for a bit... when I'm older. I have tons of friends who live in SF. Great restaurants.

Still, LA is the best city in the world.

Right, but you are kind of dodging my question. Isn't much of CA's unemployment in agricultural areas? And CA's economy is HUGE...its GDP 2x as big as either New York or Texas, the next 2 largest economy states. In particular there are tons of big law firms in CA, whereas there are few such firms in the PNW. Also you can attend a secondary school like Hastings or Davis in CA and still get a good job. You can't say the same about Seattle.

And salaries in general in CA are higher. I am of the opinion that job opportunities are generally much more plentiful in CA, especially for lawyers.

LA is not a city; LA is a large quasi-urban mess frequently criss-crossed by clogged freeways. The only worthwhile city in Southern California is San Diego, which is awesome.

HA! How could I forget SD?!?! SD rox.

I wholeheartedly agree with this statement.

+1...LA=overrated and way overpriced

LA is the best city in the world.

alright. knock it off. it is untrue.

San Diego is the best city...FIGHT

I grew up in Ohio. CA is nowhere near as humid. We don't get thunderstorms here. We have mold issues because there is a large mold population. The SE is way more humid and has fewer mold issues.

It can certainly be argued, but it won't be true re: Berk employment thread in which I know actual people summering in SF that aren't top 50%

Didn't you say somewhere that you grew up in MA? Not that I would want to live in the Southeast either...but California is pretty humid.



Summering for free or summering for pay? Also, odds are they won't get offers....(i.e. many firms have no offered 80%+ of their summering class.) We'll see what they say next year.


High unemployment rate comes from the agricultural, construction, and SERVICE sectors. Latter includes legal jobs.
Anyone who has taken basic econ has realized that 1) size of GDP does not mean an economy is healthy. Look at the United States for example, its economy is much worse than the Scandinavian countries' economies and far less robust yet it's much larger. There's far more different metrics to evaluate the health of an economy. Fyi, California economy is not healthy and neither is the US's. 2) Secondary statement about schools is arguable right now...we'll see when employment data is posted. I bet A LOT will change. 3) A lot of big law firms in CA are in Los Angeles, not San Francisco. And Los Angeles is a hot mess.

Salaries USED to be higher (god knows now), because COL is much higher. Not sure that it actually balances out once you take into account COL.