I mean every state has a potential “Mother Nature” type risk. The smog has significantly improved. There hasn’t been a major earthquake here in a couple of decades (knocking on wood). |
Plus isn't there a hurricane expected to hit the Carolinas? There are threats everywhere. California's biggest threat is wildfires, but that's true for many places in the west sadly. |
DC suburban native and there is no question that Los Angeles is a hundred times better. I would never go back to DC suburbs! |
We have a house in DC per work and a house in LA . Both have pluses abs minuses, but on balance the weather, food, modern architecture, creativity, beaches win out. |
Pp meaning LA wins out |
I have lived for 5 years in each, DC and LA. There are good things to both places, but LA has better people, fashion, food, climate, environments, activities for kids etc.
DC has much, much better schools (public and private) and better behaved kids (marginally) but mostly really unfriendly uptight, unimaginative people and I get very very bored with that. |
Different strokes for different folks. LA and DC are apples and oranges. |
For the past month, I am really really missing LA. The weather here has been crap crap crap. It's depressing. Hardly any sun. My kids haven't had outdoor recess for days. |
I live in LA and I miss the changing of the seasons... I really miss Fall. |
Go up to Lake Tahoe. You can see it there. The few weeks of pretty foliage here doesn't make up for the months of dreary or humid weather. It's crap. |
Orange County, hands down. |
LA is a pretty ugly city. The downtown is bland and sterile and the whole county is a massive sprawl of cookie cutter postwar houses and strip malls. Nothing is really walkable outside of a couple small pockets, and even then you generally have to drive to that pocket to walk around. The streets are wide and cars speed by so fast that it's a most inhospitable terrain for walking. There are a few charming areas with gorgeous houses built in the 20s and 30s but they are now astronomically expensive. On the whole, most of LA feels very run down and hardly very glamorous. Don't expect a lot of intellectual DC-style conversations; this is the home of the Kardashian Klan, after all. Traffic is ATROCIOUS!
On the plus side, the restaurant scene is far superior to DC and most people are much friendlier and outgoing than DC folks. The beaches are nice and the sunsets are gorgeous. I lived there for years and I wouldn't go back. For one thing, I'm priced out now; whereas DC still has some close-in areas that are affordable, in LA, "barely affordable" means a 60 mile commute. |
I like both, but prefer Los Angeles. For all the reasons others have mentioned, greater natural beauty, proximity to beaches, weather, friendlier people, . . . |
L.A. DMV doesn't compare, at all. |
What do you love about LA, esp as compared to DMV? I want to learn more! |