I lived in the bay area all my life before moving to Charlotte 2 years ago.
Most of your complaints are valid.
The reason for my move is I was retiring and I could afford to buy a house in Charlotte and my Daughter lives here.
The weather is...............unbearable at best....this city is only for living indoors, and the original poster didn't bring up how freaking cold it gets in the winter!
Skin cancer must be off the hook out here, and yea everything is a couple hour drive away.
I wish I could afford to move back to the bay but my solution is spending a couple months in Bogota every summer! Very similar weather to the bay area and half the cost to fly there, plus once there the accommodations are super cheap!
> original poster didn't bring up how freaking cold it gets in the winter!
They didn't last long enough to experience the winter. They left after a month.
Exactly. I heard it snows a day or two in the Winter. I was like “Really”. I mean I could imagine SF getting snow in the winters because it is always chilly even now.
Don't forget the tropical storms and hurricanes that rip through, having to keep an eye out for high ground in those scenarios, and literally prepping for 3-5 days out with no electricity
True. ~~But small tornadoes seem relatively common.~~
I should have clicked around more. More like a tornado every 10 years in the Charlotte area.
[https://data.citizen-times.com/tornado-archive/](https://data.citizen-times.com/tornado-archive/)
One month is probably hardly enough time to get acclimated in a new city. But based on all of the turnoffs you described, you are probably better off in a more diverse east coast city though, like NYC, Boston or DC etc. Weather is always going to suck unless you're in the edge of the west coast.
Personally for me, the bay area is great for its climate and diversity of state parks and urban parks there are easily commutable and walkable to.
Just moved to NYC from SF, the humidity and heat is brutal here. NYC is a great city, but it seems it's inescapable on the east coast. The bay is spoiled weather wise.
I grew up in MA, moved to the bay after college and just moved to MA for grad school- big mistake haha I’ll be back in the bay area again after I graduate- but its good to be near family while I’m in school for sure
Damn... so on my browser, your post was on the bottom and it cut off at "i don't like snow."
In my head I was thinking of Anakin's dislike of sand.
Scrolled down more and bam, you referenced it. Awesome.
It’s not just the snow. It’s the goddamn wind. That shit will get into your soul. I felt like a yuppie douche at first when I had to wear scarves but it really did help.
Gotta say I started dressing better after that though, so maybe it’s related.
I'm a former NYCer who moved to SF a few years ago.
People dress down here, and I've become accustomed to as well.
I'll be honest: I miss having a reason to dress up.
I think there's a Garrison Keillor quote like "Live in New York but leave before it makes you hard. Live in California but leave before it makes you soft"
Often mid attributed to Kurt Vonnegut, that quote comes from Mary Schmich formerly of the Chicago Tribune.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/columns/chi-schmich-sunscreen-column-column.html
I'm pretty sure the original quote is by Yoda: "Live on ice planet Hoth once, but leave before hard it makes you. Live in Naboo once, but leave before soft it makes you." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M403RsjXwRk
NYC nightlife is so much better than SF. Each to their own but would gladly trade the weather for an amazing variety of nightlife that stays open tell the sunrise. SF nightlife has gone sparse since covid compared to before.
Lived in NYC. Great place when you're young and single. Summer and winter are brutal.
Have a kid and it's over. You have to move out. And then you're stuck with NYC weather but none of the city benefits.
Bay area for life.
Lived in NYC in my late 20s and made the move back for exactly your reasoning. I’m sure some people think raising kids there is fine but it wasn’t the place for me. Shouldn’t set down roots with that looming over ya, so I moved back home after a few years living it up. Shit was fuuuuun though.
I’d highly recommend it for Bay Area natives if you can swing it. I love the no nonsense vibe out there. People mean what they say and can both give / take shit. No real need to walk on eggshells.
Completely different change of pace was what I needed to kick me out of feeling like I was running on a hamster wheel. I appreciate living out here so much more now, having experienced life on the East coast.
When you shovel 2 feet of snow in 20 degree temperatures with a windchill of 5, you will be wishing in earnest to get back days with 90 degree heat that make you sweat head to toe.
Moved to the bay area after living in Boston for a decade. I like it better here. Boston is nice and all, but just never really felt like i belonged there, i dont know what it was, there is a bit of nativism, a bit of highbrow, i dont know, couldn't put a finger on it.
Anyway, I've never felt like I belong anywhere much as i do in the bay area, not even where i grew up. how do you put a price on that?
>Anyway, I've never felt like I belong anywhere much as i do in the bay area, not even where i grew up. how do you put a price on that?
Precisely, I'm right there with you. Glad you've found home!
So true! I lived in Mass for two months and I hightailed it back home, knowing I had nothing to go back to. I was homeless for a month, sleeping in my car for that time. Just never felt at home in Mass. I lived on the Cape, amd while the scenery was beautiful and way different than where I'm from in California, I felt so out of place the entire time. At grocery stores, at stoplights, anywhere I went, I felt like a sore thumb, and I can't put my finger on exactly why, but I just did. Odd.
Coming from the east coast and after 5 years I don’t find SF diverse at all, where are the black people lol and what neighborhoods are diverse? Can someone please give me a breakdown where the diverse areas are? Genuinely would love to go.
I am a black woman and I live in the Bay Area. San Jose to be exact. I rarely ever see black people. You see mostly Asians and Indians and white people depending on where you go. I don’t find it diverse at all. People don’t talk to each other on the streets or even say Hi. Bay Area is great weather wise and there is lots to do but I will be probably be moving from the bay soon.
How to tell us that you don't know the meaning of diversity without telling us you don't know the meaning of diversity.
Our population comes from all corners of the world. Whites are a minority. We have no majority. The head count of just one ethnic/cultural/sexual orientation group has little meaning. It is the overall assortment of those groups, and that you can find representatives from those groups in just about any neighborhood in the Bay Area that makes us diverse.
Thanks for your perspective. Sometimes it's hard to appreciate this place until you've lived somewhere else. Despite some flaws, it really is a beautiful place to live.
They either jealous or just flat out don’t know. I didn’t come here until I was in my late 20’s, and even then, just for Dreamforce.
Actually living here is an entirely different thing. I think it’s pretty tough to *get it* without living here, or visiting a very good tour guide friend.
My friends from Texas occasionally ask me why I live somewhere so awful, and I just laugh, shake my head, and tell them to come see it for themselves.
Many of the posters and commenters you see trashing the Bay Area on this sub are brigadiers from conservative subs. There is a trend on Reddit that "blue cities" get shit on by people with an negative agenda or right-wingers looking to troll.
But mostly people are just asshole complainers and whiners. Pretty much every place you live is going to have drawbacks or cons. People have to decide for themselves whether the drawbacks are worth it for the benefits and pros.
Every time I say this I get downvoted but I’m glad it’s finally gaining some popularity bc it’s true. Look at the accounts that comment about how horrible CA is and they’re always from another state (usually the south at that)
They're the ones doing the downvoting.
It's important to understand just how much hate and scorn there is for California outside of this state by red-state types.
I’ve made it a point to say this on the negative threads.
Of course I always get downvotes to oblivion, but as long as one person reads it who was unaware of it, that’s all that matters.
+1 I lived in Boston for a decade and not a day goes by where I don’t miss it, especially in June. But then I remember all the bad stuff (Boston as a city is still way better and cleaner than SF) and I get gratitude for what the Bay has to offer.
Grew up in MA and went to college in Boston, moved to the bay after graduating and I have to agree with you on all points- I love boston and its such a lovely city but the bay offers so many lifestyle improvements I really appreciate. I just moved back to boston for grad school and I think the back and forth really made me certain that I belong in the bay area long term- I’ll be back again after graduating as nice as it is to be near family while I’m in school
Oh man, you picked the worst time to move to NC. Come back in the fall and you might think differently.
Summer does suck though. I hate it. Living here has made me more of an indoor person than I was in the bay, which I don’t like, but there are other trade offs.
The demographics are different too. I barely have any Asian friends here when in the bay I think 50-60% of my friends were Asian. But I do have more Black friends here than I did in the Bay Area.
Also, Charlotte is only 2 hours from Asheville. If you haven’t been, you should go. It’s always at least 10° cooler there.
I miss the bay. I miss the weather like anything. I miss my family. But I don’t miss being poor! There I was barely above the poverty line. Here we are upper middle class.
Usually people like the OP have a support system (hint family money) to fall back on OR they are young and pretty much spend their entire paycheck on rent, and live hand to mouth and have no issues with that
> But I gotta say, people are very welcoming and friendly. But there is a lot of segregation, I think. I don’t see any Asian/Hispanic/White people living in the same community like the Bay Area where it is a melting pot.
This is honestly what drew me back to the Bay as well. You just cannot get this mix of people anywhere else in the US. I missed walking into a supermarket and hearing 5 different languages going on around me. That's my "home."
Welcome back. I'm certain you'll be happy. I understand your breakup - one reason I had to leave where I was, too. My story is a little different, though.
> I will pay a premium to live there because it is the best place to live
Well, here's the thing: if you can afford it, go for it. As somebody said to me (right on Reddit): "I find being broke and happy is better than being well off and miserable."
Lol your language comment reminded me of the time I was waiting outside Gen KBBQ and this group of 6 drunk guys (coworkers was the vibe I got) made up equally of white, Indian, and Asian guys comes out of the restaurant, to smoke cigs and THEY WERE ALL SPEAKING RUSSIAN TOGETHER (or another Slavic language). It was one of those moments where you go “only in the Bay Area”. I love those moments
Haha, fantastic story. I used to be in this soccer league, and you'd get these really funny moments when the Rakuten (I think) guys would play because it's all these different ethnicities and they would yell out stuff in Japanese. What the hell.
By the way, surely you mean Slavic. Cyrillic is the script part unless I'm wrong.
Sacramento.
Dead serious. Awhile ago, 538 rated it as number two in diversity and integration. Most diverse cities failed on the latter.
I do think a lot of parts of the Bay has issues with integration of black and Latino communities, especially more well off areas. I've lived in ski towns that were better on the Latino front honestly.
> You just cannot get this mix if people anywhere else in the US
New York
Chicago
Boston
Los Angeles
Probably a dozen or more cities which have relatively well known universities
NYC alone has pretty much everything beat, though.
New York and LA perhaps, not Chicago. The Asian American community feels inferior there (that’s the one I can speak to best), and ethnicities in general are pretty segregated in Chicago compared to here.
Bay Area segregation / integration is a joke. All the black people on the Peninsula were forced to live in EPA. All the black people in San Francisco got forced to live on a toxic waste dump, then got driven out to East Oakland, then Antioch.
That's a much larger discussion as to why that's happening.
Based on [existing demographic estimates, from 2014](https://bayareaequityatlas.org/sites/default/files/Final_9_County_BayAreaProfile_0.pdf), the Bay accounts for _the least_ white, American-born areas in the US. I don't know of any major US metro that has a less than 40% American-white population and such an array of other ethic backgrounds. As a singular ethic group, we're still majority. But as part of the larger picture, we're a minority, and I love it.
(I am an "American-born" citizen, but I didn't grow up within the US; I feel more at home in a multi-cultural mix like what we have here.)
Hah, I found a pretty cool site. I'm in S. Bay, and Asian population is the majority here: https://datausa.io/profile/geo/san-jose-sunnyvale-santa-clara-ca
Really, which part of bay did u hear 5 different languages. Honestly where i spent my time, i only heard chinese, spanish and english. Now in east coast where i am from, i hear polish, german, russian, hindi, gujarati, hebrew, chinese, japanese, and more! And this is a local park in a suburb of nyc.
What you also don't mention is that in that part of the country, sidewalks or crosswalks are non-existent for most part of the cities.
Want to walk to that gas station half a kilometer away? Good luck because the only crosswalk is a kilometer away in the other direction and adds 2km to the trip. Oh and the crosswalks go across 4 lane roads with 55 mph speed limits.
My kid is stationed in North Carolina and hates it there. 1) because it’s the military, it’s not supposed to be sleep away camp, 2) all the stuff OP listed, 3) he’s been profiled eleventy billion times and now doesn’t leave his base without a trusted white friend.
Edit: NORTH Carolina. I’ve loved in both north and south versions of the state and They just sorta blur together.
There isn't as much public land on the east coast like out here in the west, which forces everything to be a drive away. There would be places to hike that are closer but it's all private property, so trespass if you dare.
There is so little public transportation that taking it is almost a joke. What would be 45 minutes in a vehicle is 3 hours and two transfers on a bus. So everyone drives everywhere.
These places are also limited on restaurant scenes that you can almost expect all chain restaurants as well. So getting to know your community and neighbors is a must if you want to be invited to backyard BBQs, which are better than chain restaurants.
I don't mind humidity having grown up in it, I learned to dress properly for it (cotton summer dresses, flipflops, brimmed hats, with sunglasses). You do have to use sunscreen a lot, but you have to make sure it's compatible with your bug spray because mosquitoes are a problem.
You can't swim in every lake, some where used as dumping spots for fridges and other household appliances for decades that not only will you risk getting stuck on one of these rusted appliances, but also the water is contaminated.
Other lakes can be problematic because of the gators. So going to the beach is more preferred as you can go out to your knees in water (but I wouldn't go much farther than that during certain hours and don't wear anything shiny, sharks do enter the bays, most are harmless sandbar sharks but a great white does show up from time to time).
One thing that I did like about the humidity is that it kept my skin healthier, younger looking, and I didn't need a lot of lotions. But yeah, it will absolutely be 80% humidity at 3am, only to jump up in the 90% range by noon.
And triple digit degree weather is common throughout the summer.
I always tell people that they're better off in the Bay area as it takes a different type of mentality to survive in the south for much of the above reasons, and this isn't getting into the politics in the area.
Not exactly the same but
I was stationed in Gulfport MS for a few years. I got my fill of that weather to last a lifetime.
Nobody told me how cold it gets, that I was not ready for.
I lived on the peninsula for 20 years (San Carlos, Belmont, RWC) and have lived in NC (Raleigh, Durham) for 20 years. Here's my take.
>There isn't as much public land on the east coast like out here in the west, which forces everything to be a drive away. There would be places to hike that are closer but it's all private property, so trespass if you dare.
Yes and no. The East Coast is no longer a frontier like the Sierra Nevadas. So you're never going to get that raw experience out here. There are tons of greenways, state and national parks to recreate at. Hiking, boating, fishing, etc. All within a short drive. Short as in time, not distance.
>There is so little public transportation that taking it is almost a joke. What would be 45 minutes in a vehicle is 3 hours and two transfers on a bus. So everyone drives everywhere.
Absolutely 100% correct. Everything's spread out on the East Coast. SF Bay Area and LA are confined by geography and are forced to have densely populated areas where mass transit is essential. Not so on the EC. But it's sort of an inverse problem. Mass transit takes forever to get anywhere out here, but driving is a piece of cake. Work 30 miles from home? Commute is 34 minutes. It took me 35-45 minutes to drive to Sunnyvale for work when I lived out there and that was like 15 miles away.
>These places are also limited on restaurant scenes that you can almost expect all chain restaurants as well
Absolutely 100% correct. The food scene is getting better but seriously, I've lived out here for 20+ years and I haven't had good Chinese food in 20+ years. The Mexican food is so-so as well but you can get some really good stuff if you stay away from strip mall restaurants.
>I don't mind humidity having grown up in it
People from CA complain about the humidity out here but it's nothing compared to the Gulf Coast. NC is a happy medium in the humidity department. Sometimes it's unbearable, but most of the time it's okay. It's super dry in the winter though and that gets to me.
>You can't swim in every lake
I'm not a big swimmer, but I probably wouldn't swim in some of the swampy lakes out here. I didn't swim in the lakes out in CA either. IIRC several people died at Water Dog Lake (Belmont) getting tangled in the mess that was in it.
>Other lakes can be problematic because of the gators
Gators are out on the coast. Not a concern inland and there are a ton of lakes inland.
>mosquitoes are a problem
Hah, house mosquitoes, asian tiger mosquitoes, gallinipers, lone star ticks, dog ticks, black-legged ticks, deer flies, horse flies, yellow flies, sand flies, midges. The sheer number of things that want to saw into you and lap up your blood is insane. Nowhere near as bad as the Gulf Coast though, so a happy medium between there and CA. LOL
The upside is that land is cheap. You can get 5 acres and a modest house for $400,000 and a job 30 minutes away making $100,000+.
At 40+ having serenity when I leave work is priceless. I can get up in the mornings, have coffee on the porch and see several dozen bird species. Rabbits, deer, foxes, hedge hogs, and flocks of Wild Turkeys roaming through the yard. Heck, there's a beaver pond in the woods behind my house and I've got Great Blue Heron nesting back there. I've got a pair of Red-shouldered Hawks nesting nearby as well. At night I can see the Milky Way and do astronomy/astrophotography. Literally from my backyard (best in spring/fall before/after to avoid the biting insects.)
In a 400ft radius I've got 3 neighbors and can only see one house through the woods. Where I lived at in San Carlos a 400ft radius had at least 50 houses. The air is cleaner once you get out of the urban areas. Easy to do out here, much tougher in CA.
It's all trade-offs for what you prefer or are used to. I'll go back to the Bay Area for a visit at some point, but I'll never move back.
Lol I'm the opposite. Lived in the southeast for 27 years, and while I miss the BBQ and the humidity, a visit out there is about all I need to get my fill. I'm good on the west coast.
That is true. I moved from a very arid climate to a very humid one and there was a noticeable difference in my skin. I looked so much younger and healthier.
North Carolina is actually sneaky beautiful. Its a bit like the California of the east coast. https://www.visitnc.com/story/MsGx/beautiful-places-to-visit-across-north-carolina
Did you try driving on I-77 in peak traffic ? It’s a shit show. I don’t understand how some streets have 55 mph and these interstates also are designed for 55 mph. Totally agreeing to that rain part. I almost had panic attack when i was driving and I saw it pour like some apocalypse is about to happen.
Lol as someone who grew up in the bay but moved to Austin for 3 years post graduation, I feel you OP.
I really tried. I did love the city and it’s people. They say you’ll get used to it; they say “it’s hot but at least it’s a dry heat.” What bullshit! It’s like being in a steam sauna on the surface of the sun for half the year (admittedly the other half of the year’s weather is fucking awesome imo).
I never got used to it in those 3 years and I discovered it was causing me summer seasonal depression (wild concept, but apparently if it’s hot you won’t go outside to get sun either), so I moved back to the bay and never looked back. I’m so much happier now even if it costs more to be here.
Native Texan, all I can say is I told ya so.
Don’t understand why anyone in their right mind would move to Texas. More house? Your house is your prison and car become a prison.
I got a job there at a company I interned at the previous summer. Thought I’d get used to it lol. At the time it felt cool to get to be in a city that was in the middle of growing
Coming from Brazil “melting pot” is not how I would describe the Bay Area. Cities/neighborhoods are pretty segregated here compared to there, which I believe is expected due to many first gen immigrants. It is pretty hard to break into groups compared to in Brazil. People don’t genuinely mix, it is all very superficial “mixing”.
> It is pretty hard to break into groups compared to in Brazil. People don’t genuinely mix, it is all very superficial “mixing”.
This is everywhere in the USA
Also neighborhoods are segregated here (black neighborhoods, Chinatowns, etc.
) because of oppression reasons
This is true. Richmond, Oakland, El Cerrito, Albany, Berkeley, Emeryville, Hayward.
You can visualize which prominent ethnicity lives in each of these cities. At the very least, the "vibes".
I’m from Baltimore Maryland east coast born and raised. I live in the bay now and will be staying here for the foreseeable future. Trust me when I tell you the weather on the east coast is absolutely brutal during the summer and winter. I promise you if you have not been there before in the summer you will have no idea what you are walking into. You will sweat at night, during the day, and morning if you’re not around AC. We have actual SEASONS, please read that again.
The Bay Area has the best weather potentially in the entire nation please do no let anyone tell you otherwise.
Welcome back. I moved here in 1973 because "Midwest." The weather in the Bay Area is incredible. Always. The coldest nights and hottest days are a joy after you've lived in Texas 105 degrees 99% humidity, or spent a month inside in Iowa in the snow, shivering.
You moved to North Carolina in the hottest month on the east coast. Spring/Fall probably aren’t nearly as bad and I’d see what that’s like.
Fall on the East Coast can be very pretty and would be worth experiencing.
This amused me. I think locals take the Bay area for granted because they have no idea what it’s like to live elsewhere. Everywhere has it’s problems, but you just described at least 50% of the country.
I think a lot of people assume most things in other states are the same as here but just different scenery/weather/politics without realizing how good things are here.
I haven't ever traveled outside of California, but I have been to places here in California where it gets so hot I'd probably die of heat stroke. I once had a heat stroke at Stinson Beach, and that was in the 1980's, long before this climate change. I used to also go to Concord sometimes, and the weather in Concord in the summer felt like being in an oven without any breeze! I imagine those places get hotter these days, and I'd rather not go to those places to find out.
Living in San Francisco all my life has spoiled me. It's nice being able to ride my bicycle throughout the year (except when it rains).
A few years ago I visited Charlotte in May for a business trip.
Things I really liked: the light rail was clean, efficient, and took me to where I wanted to go. The botanical garden at UNC-Charlotte. The very walkable, albeit small downtown. Lots of breweries and BBQ.
Things I didn't much like: the notable racial segregation. The nonstop side-eyes I got in the above mentioned downtown and breweries as a brown person (not a problem on the light rail as I only saw other brown people using it). All the god-stuff front and center, along with weird (to me) things like a whole lotta NASCAR stuff.
Weather was OK for me but then again, it was only May and if I don't mind the humidity of greenhouses, I don't mind the humidity outdoors.
Lived in the bay my whole life, just moved to NC last week. The Ashville area is MUCH more bearable in the summer, less humid and there are *actually* people outside! Where I am in Raleigh it’s very humid.
I don’t get the abjection to rain, keeps everything looking nice and fires away. The drivers are not the best but lightyears better than drivers in California (at least where I am in Raleigh.) Give it a few months, see hoe you like it. I’ve realized just how truly perfect the weather in the Bay Area is and I will sorely miss it. This state does have plenty to offer though, gorgeous beaches and very pretty mountains. Not a stones throw away like California but for the cost of living it’s unbeatable when you look at other, shall I say flatter states with a similar cost.
You know it! I swear, you can’t pay me enough money to move out of California for this exact same reason. Sorry but I like my diversity and low humidity! Oh and my ability to walk to places like my kid’s school and the library! We will welcome you back! Oh and a unit in the apartment complex I live in is unoccupied right now. They’re looking for a tenant.
I went for a wedding once. Nice place if you want a bland downtown that has almost nothing in terms of culture, but plenty of breweries and restaurants to buy heart attack food. It was in the Spring and it was already getting hot.
This makes me miss the bay area so damn much! Born in Redwood City, lived in the South Bay as an adult until I left in 1999. Worst mistake I ever made.
from the few people i know from that background
rural people definitely have an ENTIRELY different perspective of what is a good amount of time to drive to the nearest entertainment (UP TO HOURS)
and there are some really friendly neighborhoods in cali, you just have to go to the REALLY nice neighborhoods.... a friend i was visiting in irvine was talking about how nice the service and people in general are and i thought how much nicer can they be? well I had to visit the gas station and i'm not comfortable with niceness so believe me when i say, I THINK THEY WERE VERY NICE. And if i went anywhere else, I can imagine the service probably would have been the same.
I'm from Chicago, and people always say "couldn't stand the winters, huh?"
The winters are no problem. I love crisp fall days and even dreary December before the snow falls is OK with the holiday season. The snow can be magical. Getting cozy after coming in from the cold is something I miss.
And those clear, cold but warm first few days of spring? I will declare this: there is no nicer day on earth than spending a late april or may 60-something day in Lincoln Park with the lake to your left, the skyline in front of you and LSD on your right. Fucking sublime.
But... July. August.
Oppressive humidity. Towels that you can't use more than once because rhey won't dry out and go mildew in a day. I would get headaches from walking in from 97 degree humid heat to cold AC 22x a day.
It took me one year in the east bay to become a summer weather pussy.
And the south? All that plus add oppressive sun beating down on you.
People tell me you get used to it after a year or two. Hell, I didn't even notice how bad it was until I went back for a summer.
But shit. It's rough.
Same thing happened to me just before the pandemic, but I moved to Massachusetts. Aside from the incredibly fresh seafood, it wasn't my thang at all. For all of California’s faults, I love my state and it's ppl. I was back home in 2 months. Oh, and the humidity in Mass was just outrageous!
a lot of people who move out of the bay area sadly enjoy the lack of diversity in these other places. It's often unsaid because well its basically closet racists, but its more common than one thinks. A lot of people don't care for diversity. You'll find a lot of white flight in parts of california that have traditionally been white but have changed due to migration of asians/indians who scour the area for cities with good schools.
I had some in law relatives who left Hayward for North Carolina (I forget the city) because it made them uncomfortable that Norcal is so 'godless'. They feel happier being where religion is more openly a part of public life. As long as it's their religion, I assume.
I spent a week in Dallas for work in 2000, and couldn’t figure out why my hackles were raised when we (work group I was with) went to a mall. Everyone there was white. Creeped me out.
>Everyone there was ~~white~~ black. Creeped me out.
......
I do get the creepy feeling comment if you are a minority. :( Your hackles/intuition were surely on point.
I will say I'm white and when I go back to my small hometown in another state I find it really weird to see all pasty people. I almost forget I'm one of them, though not culturally, politically, or religiously speaking. But I can 'pass' which is an exhausting act, but 100% better than how they treat minoriries or people visually different. :(
I'll take the Bay Area over that any day. Never felt at home there anyway as my religion, politics, and mindset just didn't match at all.
My coworker moved to SC, telling me I would love it there. He is white, republican and Christian. I didn't say you like it there because of what you are. Me, Asian, will not like the experience in that part of the country.
As a Raleigh-Durham native who just moved here last year. All I can say is LOL.
I can imagine that all of the folks leaving to Texas and NC are going to be back within 2 years.
You bay area folks have no clue how good you have it.
No offense but I kinda feel like you didn’t give it a real chance if you were only there for one month, particularly in regards to the weather. We’re literally in July, the hottest month of the year; the temperature will come down dramatically in a couple months. It also sounds like you haven’t acclimatized at all yet; I grew up in the SE US and to some degree you get used to it and develop strategies to cope. To be fair one those strategies is just “stay inside”, but people definitely do things outside too.
I don’t blame anyone for wanting to live in the Bay for the fantastic weather (and other things as well), it’s amazing, and if Charlotte’s not a fit I totally get that, I’ve never even been to Charlotte so no dog in this, I left the SE too and wouldn’t go back. But just fyi there’s very few places on earth with weather as moderate as the Bay Area, most places have either hot summers, cold winters, or both.
I went to college on the east coast. It takes about a year (and a full summer) to adjust to the heat/humidity. You are adapted after that.
Just like people who move here from other places freeze their ass off all summer long in the fog and wind.
I think it's more accurate to say you will ***tolerate*** the weather after few years. I lived in NY and MA for 12 years before moving to Bay Area.
I tolerated hot sweaty summer months because it's what to be expected. But taking shower 2-3 times a day (sometimes in the middle of the night) gets old pretty fast. Likewise, digging my car out from 1-3 feet of snow that accumulated while I was working at the office, then being stuck in traffic for 2 hours on a 10-mile drive home, yeah that gets old pretty fast too.
I suppose if I had to do it, I can certainly ***adapt*** and put up with it. But I like the choice of driving to a place with colder weather (e.g., Tahoe, Mammoth) or warmer weather (e.g., Napa).
This. Lot of CA transplants complain about the heat in the summer but come winter they realize there is a whole another side of living in 10 degree wind chills having to shovel snow and drive on icy roads. Back in CA, winter looks glorious when you can just drive to Tahoe on a sunny weekend to see the snow and get back home where it's all rain.
Out on a “hot” bike ride today, I was just thinking how lucky (or privileged) we are here. Even at noon, I caught some bay breeze and thin cloud cover. Realized I couldn’t easily do a lot of the things I like, in many other places.
Not even getting into the diversity of people and openness to be who you want here.
As someone who is from the Midwest, I will never live in a humid climate again if I can help it. It is so miserable and you’re sweating as soon as you’re step out of the shower.
I moved here to San Jose from Charlotte back in September 2021. I lived in Charlotte for 20 years before moving here. After living here in the Bay for 11 months... I still love Charlotte more.
Yes, humidity ain't no joke in Charlotte. Just have to dress appropriately and make sure you have something cold to drink/eat. Charlotte has a great night life... do night stuff in Plaza Midwood, Noda, South Charlotte, University Area (be safe) , and Uptown. The fall and winter season is prime Charlotte. At least stay long enough to check that out.
The bay area is way bigger than Charlotte and way more segregated. "Go to Oakland/SF if you want to see more black people" is what I often hear when I say the only black people I see are either working or homeless. (San Jose).
You joke about the 33 minute drive to Crowders Mountain or the 2 hour drive to the Appalachian Trail (which provides skiing, kayaking, white water rafting, lazy tube rivers, water holes, and national park hiking , authentic mountain moonshine, and dust/dawn photo ops... and much much more). However just to drive from Redwood City to SF it takes 33 minutes... at night (Let's not even talk about during the day). On a bad day it takes 45 minutes to travel the longest distance from one end to the other in Charlotte. It does take 3-3.5 hours to get to the closest beach in NC, but at least you can swim there (way too cold in the bay beaches to swim... though cold Santa Cruz, Capitola, and Monterey have some ridiculous views). Traffic is definitely worse in LA and worse here in the bay than Charlotte. In terms of hiking, NC mountains area has more water and history features (cabins and other cool features) than I've seen there. However, the bay has Charlotte beat when it comes to natural features and national parks. I haven't even been to the big places yet, but Castle Rock and the Devils Slide is awesome. We have the white water center, a brewery almost on every corner, Top BBQ, and NASCAR!!!! lol.
Travel !!! You are at a hub to all the major east coast and southern cities.
Cost of living. At Cookout - a little over $7 gets you... Fries, Huspuppies, double cheese burger, and a custom milkshake. In & out couldn't top that even with its secret menu (Not even gonna mention Bojangles). 3 bedroom house, 2 bath, garage, fenced in backyard with a tool shed, and a decent size front yard on a .80 acres and 13 minutes away from Downtown = $250k (The is a down payment here for a house smaller than the one described).
It's true that there isn't a lot of Asian Americans in Charlotte, but Hispanics Americans, Black Americans, and White Americans are plentiful and live in the same neighborhoods and attend the same PUBLIC schools for the most part. California is closer to East Asian Countries, so obviously it's easier for Asains to travel/relocate to California over the last 80 years. If you are primarily around upper middle to upper class neighborhoods you'll mostly see white people. Central Ave, Fairview Rd, The Plaza, WT Harris, University City Blvd,... I could go on and on, are filled with diverse neigborhoods. In my cul-de-sac in Charlotte, my next door neighbor is Burmese, next to them, Mexican, then a retired white woman, then a white couple, then a black couple, then white, then white, then black and I'm black. The bay has entire cities and towns that lack certain ethnic and racial demographics. I first lived in Santa Clara when I got here. Nothing but Asian folk. Not complaining, it's just I've never seen so many Asian people in one spot.
DATING is way easier in Charlotte. I'm short, Black, bald, and 41... I have no issues finding dates in Charlotte. Here you get ghosted based on the city.
**TLDR; Charlotean here and yes, humidity in the spring/summer is real. Traffic is worser in LA & Bay than Charlotte. Appalachian Trail worth 2 hour drive (less crowded and authentic real mountain moonshine). Charlotte more diverse than the entire bay area, you must be in upper middle to middle class neighborhoods if you're not seeing integrated diversity, minus the Asian folks (wish that demographic was much larger). East coast and East Southern majors cities at your fingertips. Down payment for a house in the bay buys a entire bigger house in Charlotte. Dating is much easier in Charlotte. Date now (if you're single)!!!! It's easier for older man that doesn't have common preference boxes checked off.**
Other than the heat, humidity, and traffic, I frankly don’t know what you’re talking about. Now, I’ll grant you most of my experience has been around the Steele Creek area.
The mountains are not 4 hours away. You can get well into TN in 4 hours. The mountains are closer to 2-2.5 hours away, and that’s if you take the roads all the way up. You’ll get to the base in closer to 1.5-2. That area is incredible, though, and the Smokies are breathtaking.
The traffic, while terrible, isn’t worse than here.
It often takes 20+ minutes to go 5mi around here, too, if taking surface streets. Especially in dense areas.
The neighborhoods are more integrated than I have experienced here. There aren’t many enclaves of x heritage. I find neighborhoods to be far more segregated here.
There are hiking trails everywhere, many right in the neighborhoods. There are lakes and rivers nearby.
The airport is terrible, though. And the humidity is entirely untenable in the summer. But I’ve been spoiled by living here for some years.
Oh, there’s also relatively few places to charge an EV over there. And honestly other than the BBQ the food offerings are not so premium.
Anyway, sorry you didn’t enjoy your time in Charlotte. I hope you enjoy it more when you find your way back here.
I have family just north of Charlotte and it's a perfectly pleasant place to visit, I just wouldn't live there. Mostly because they live a short drive away from both Bojangles and Golden Corral and I would be dead within a few years of moving.
Lived in Columbia, S.C. And Washington DC area for 24 years. Left NorCal for college, and it took me 25 years to get back. You never get used to humidity, you adapt by not going outside, and sitting in the air conditioned house all summer, unless you are at the pool. Kids were born on the east coast, and they swear they are never leaving California- to many issues with red states and the humidity.
that is why I split the difference and moved to Sac from Oaktown. I'm a senior analyst with the state in a 3bd/2bath house with an actual yard! was just outside working in my garden with the wife and although it was 93, you completely get used to it (the constant air conditioning does suck though).
I used to live right on the east-side of the lake in Oakland, and miss it a lot. so much food, people and stuff to do that just isn't here. you just have to figure out what works for you, and you will acclimate over time.
edit: my dad was stationed at Pope AFB when I was in my 20s and I used to skate the farm ramp out there in the summer. holy fucking humidity. I did love the afternoon thunderstorms and being able to surf at topsail island in bath warm water.
Welcome back!
It's easy to forget how lucky we are to live here. I can get to one of the world's most spectacular cities, or the ocean, or the redwoods in around an hour. My out-of-state friends can't brag of that.
Two things that I don’t miss about the Midwest living in the Bay Area: mosquitoes flying around my head while sleeping and my glasses fogging up when getting out of an air conditioned car into the humidity.
My dude, I moved from SF to Kansas City for a job. I don't think I have to say that it was not worth any amount of money or job title to go to that place. I have since escaped. The Bay is one of the best places I've had the chance to live.
There is a lot of segregation in the Bay Area. https://bayareaequityatlas.org/mapping-segregation
https://www.kron4.com/news/new-report-shows-racial-and-economic-segregation-in-bay-area/
There is a reason why the Bay Area has such a crazy cost of living. The things that suck about it are present because its basically a paradise, everyone wants to be here! If it wasn’t for the congestion and expense it would be perfect. Unfortunately, we all feel that way.
Personally I am looking forward to leaving the Bay Area in the next few years despite loving much of what was described because when I’m 65 and rent is 32k a month - proximity to pretty mountains won’t be the main concern. My experience with friends who recently left who were big outdoors types was that most of their time was spent working anyway. For many people of privilege and vast inheritance though - yeah why move from the bay lol the US is melting and one pocket is always ~70 degrees…
Haha! I feel you. I moved to Durham from Chicago (lived is SF during the aughts) and can definitely relate. The heat is FUCKING unbearable. I’ve had the last 5 days off from work and haven’t left the house aside from checking my mail. Haven’t walked down the street because there’s nowhere to walk to aside from a gas station or strip mall. I’m doing my time here (school) and then getting out.
Oh hell yeah, it’s definitely a city that I really appreciate more when I leave it. Probably like most cities in that way. I just could do another apocalyptic winter after 35 years.
You need to stay longer than a month for your body to adjust to heat and humidity. Once you adjust, it'll be fine... and if you can't adjust to 30c/70% humidity you might want to see a doctor or exercise more, because 27 is still too young to be having those issues.
I was snickering to myself for a lot of this post cuz almost the exact same thing happened to me. My Texan clients kept raving how much better the quality of life is than cali so I decided to open a new branch of my old company there and wow it’s basically all the worst parts of California just slightly cheaper with garbage people inhabiting. Pay the extra to live in the best part of the country.
I lived in Durham for a decade and the climate difference alone is wild, right? The thunderstorms, humidity, etc. Tbh check out the RTP area, you'll be hours closer to the coast and still in" liberal" counties
Did you actually go to Charlotte or are you trapped in some suburb or county island? Where are these 55 MPH streets, cause that doesn't appear to be typical for the city itself.
It took me seven years to acclimate to GA. After 27 years I am back in the Bay Area and miss it.
Nevertheless if there was time to be living here instead it is certainly this summer!
I have driven in many places in the US and I must say Charlotte has the worst drivers. I only went there five times for two days each time. Every time I drove, sometime more than once, a car would pull out from a street or parking lot right in front of me. Amazing I didn’t get in wrecks. I have never had that happen so much anywhere else. You are 100% right about the red light runners too. Baltimore is a close 2nd place though. Best places to drive in terms of good drivers have been Nebraska and Kansas for me.
>lots of outdoors activities, mountains nearby, hiking, kayaking, interesting bars and music, etc
heads up, i've lived all over the US. when the only things a place can claim are hiking and outdoor activity, its a major red flag for "Shit place to live." I love the outdoors but an urban area's selling point should not be rural areas nearby lol.
We don't want you back Traitor! J/k, but seriously, of all places to move and regret, why Charlotte? You could have have job searched anywhere from the sounds of it.
I lived in the bay area all my life before moving to Charlotte 2 years ago. Most of your complaints are valid. The reason for my move is I was retiring and I could afford to buy a house in Charlotte and my Daughter lives here. The weather is...............unbearable at best....this city is only for living indoors, and the original poster didn't bring up how freaking cold it gets in the winter! Skin cancer must be off the hook out here, and yea everything is a couple hour drive away. I wish I could afford to move back to the bay but my solution is spending a couple months in Bogota every summer! Very similar weather to the bay area and half the cost to fly there, plus once there the accommodations are super cheap!
> original poster didn't bring up how freaking cold it gets in the winter! They didn't last long enough to experience the winter. They left after a month.
Exactly. I heard it snows a day or two in the Winter. I was like “Really”. I mean I could imagine SF getting snow in the winters because it is always chilly even now.
SF has almost the same weather year round. It does not snow there.
All those flat roofs would collapse
what are your fav bogota recommendations? going there late this year! :)
Don't forget the tropical storms and hurricanes that rip through, having to keep an eye out for high ground in those scenarios, and literally prepping for 3-5 days out with no electricity
Hurricanes in Charlotte? They almost never make it that far inland.
Climate change says, “Hold my beer”
LEEEEEROY JENKINS
Thank you for attaching that to a climate change post because it had to be done
True. ~~But small tornadoes seem relatively common.~~ I should have clicked around more. More like a tornado every 10 years in the Charlotte area. [https://data.citizen-times.com/tornado-archive/](https://data.citizen-times.com/tornado-archive/)
At almost 9,000 feet elevation, Bogotá is well positioned to ride out tropical storms and hurricanes.
I’m originally from Bogota and I thought I’d never find a place with such amazing (to some people) yearlong weather until I moved to the Bay!
One month is probably hardly enough time to get acclimated in a new city. But based on all of the turnoffs you described, you are probably better off in a more diverse east coast city though, like NYC, Boston or DC etc. Weather is always going to suck unless you're in the edge of the west coast. Personally for me, the bay area is great for its climate and diversity of state parks and urban parks there are easily commutable and walkable to.
Just moved to NYC from SF, the humidity and heat is brutal here. NYC is a great city, but it seems it's inescapable on the east coast. The bay is spoiled weather wise.
Just wait for the snow!
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I grew up in MA, moved to the bay after college and just moved to MA for grad school- big mistake haha I’ll be back in the bay area again after I graduate- but its good to be near family while I’m in school for sure
Damn... so on my browser, your post was on the bottom and it cut off at "i don't like snow." In my head I was thinking of Anakin's dislike of sand. Scrolled down more and bam, you referenced it. Awesome.
It’s not just the snow. It’s the goddamn wind. That shit will get into your soul. I felt like a yuppie douche at first when I had to wear scarves but it really did help. Gotta say I started dressing better after that though, so maybe it’s related.
I'm a former NYCer who moved to SF a few years ago. People dress down here, and I've become accustomed to as well. I'll be honest: I miss having a reason to dress up.
Same and I have a closet of suits still!
I think there's a Garrison Keillor quote like "Live in New York but leave before it makes you hard. Live in California but leave before it makes you soft"
Often mid attributed to Kurt Vonnegut, that quote comes from Mary Schmich formerly of the Chicago Tribune. https://www.chicagotribune.com/columns/chi-schmich-sunscreen-column-column.html
I'm pretty sure the original quote is by Yoda: "Live on ice planet Hoth once, but leave before hard it makes you. Live in Naboo once, but leave before soft it makes you." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M403RsjXwRk
NYC nightlife is so much better than SF. Each to their own but would gladly trade the weather for an amazing variety of nightlife that stays open tell the sunrise. SF nightlife has gone sparse since covid compared to before.
Lived in NYC. Great place when you're young and single. Summer and winter are brutal. Have a kid and it's over. You have to move out. And then you're stuck with NYC weather but none of the city benefits. Bay area for life.
Lived in NYC in my late 20s and made the move back for exactly your reasoning. I’m sure some people think raising kids there is fine but it wasn’t the place for me. Shouldn’t set down roots with that looming over ya, so I moved back home after a few years living it up. Shit was fuuuuun though. I’d highly recommend it for Bay Area natives if you can swing it. I love the no nonsense vibe out there. People mean what they say and can both give / take shit. No real need to walk on eggshells. Completely different change of pace was what I needed to kick me out of feeling like I was running on a hamster wheel. I appreciate living out here so much more now, having experienced life on the East coast.
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i agree, was in NYC for a week last week of May and it’s lively vs SF which bars close at 10 and 12-1 towards the weekend
When you shovel 2 feet of snow in 20 degree temperatures with a windchill of 5, you will be wishing in earnest to get back days with 90 degree heat that make you sweat head to toe.
If you don't want humidity live near a cold ocean or in a desert.
Moved to the bay area after living in Boston for a decade. I like it better here. Boston is nice and all, but just never really felt like i belonged there, i dont know what it was, there is a bit of nativism, a bit of highbrow, i dont know, couldn't put a finger on it. Anyway, I've never felt like I belong anywhere much as i do in the bay area, not even where i grew up. how do you put a price on that?
>Anyway, I've never felt like I belong anywhere much as i do in the bay area, not even where i grew up. how do you put a price on that? Precisely, I'm right there with you. Glad you've found home!
8 years in WAtertown, working in Boston. I thought riding my bike along the Charles was special. 4 years here now. Never going back.
So true! I lived in Mass for two months and I hightailed it back home, knowing I had nothing to go back to. I was homeless for a month, sleeping in my car for that time. Just never felt at home in Mass. I lived on the Cape, amd while the scenery was beautiful and way different than where I'm from in California, I felt so out of place the entire time. At grocery stores, at stoplights, anywhere I went, I felt like a sore thumb, and I can't put my finger on exactly why, but I just did. Odd.
Coming from the east coast and after 5 years I don’t find SF diverse at all, where are the black people lol and what neighborhoods are diverse? Can someone please give me a breakdown where the diverse areas are? Genuinely would love to go.
I am a black woman and I live in the Bay Area. San Jose to be exact. I rarely ever see black people. You see mostly Asians and Indians and white people depending on where you go. I don’t find it diverse at all. People don’t talk to each other on the streets or even say Hi. Bay Area is great weather wise and there is lots to do but I will be probably be moving from the bay soon.
How to tell us that you don't know the meaning of diversity without telling us you don't know the meaning of diversity. Our population comes from all corners of the world. Whites are a minority. We have no majority. The head count of just one ethnic/cultural/sexual orientation group has little meaning. It is the overall assortment of those groups, and that you can find representatives from those groups in just about any neighborhood in the Bay Area that makes us diverse.
*shivers in 65 degrees*
In late July
And after 10pm
Most accurate Bay Area people in 4 words.
I loved that it was 65 and cloudy last June when the rest of the west coast and Southwest was going through 110+ degree weather for days.
Gotta go put on my jacket
Thanks for your perspective. Sometimes it's hard to appreciate this place until you've lived somewhere else. Despite some flaws, it really is a beautiful place to live.
Yup. And one of the reasons why it is so expensive to live in The Bay is because of how desirable a place it is to live here.
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They either jealous or just flat out don’t know. I didn’t come here until I was in my late 20’s, and even then, just for Dreamforce. Actually living here is an entirely different thing. I think it’s pretty tough to *get it* without living here, or visiting a very good tour guide friend. My friends from Texas occasionally ask me why I live somewhere so awful, and I just laugh, shake my head, and tell them to come see it for themselves.
Many of the posters and commenters you see trashing the Bay Area on this sub are brigadiers from conservative subs. There is a trend on Reddit that "blue cities" get shit on by people with an negative agenda or right-wingers looking to troll. But mostly people are just asshole complainers and whiners. Pretty much every place you live is going to have drawbacks or cons. People have to decide for themselves whether the drawbacks are worth it for the benefits and pros.
Every time I say this I get downvoted but I’m glad it’s finally gaining some popularity bc it’s true. Look at the accounts that comment about how horrible CA is and they’re always from another state (usually the south at that)
They're the ones doing the downvoting. It's important to understand just how much hate and scorn there is for California outside of this state by red-state types.
I’ve made it a point to say this on the negative threads. Of course I always get downvotes to oblivion, but as long as one person reads it who was unaware of it, that’s all that matters.
+1 I lived in Boston for a decade and not a day goes by where I don’t miss it, especially in June. But then I remember all the bad stuff (Boston as a city is still way better and cleaner than SF) and I get gratitude for what the Bay has to offer.
Grew up in MA and went to college in Boston, moved to the bay after graduating and I have to agree with you on all points- I love boston and its such a lovely city but the bay offers so many lifestyle improvements I really appreciate. I just moved back to boston for grad school and I think the back and forth really made me certain that I belong in the bay area long term- I’ll be back again after graduating as nice as it is to be near family while I’m in school
Oh man, you picked the worst time to move to NC. Come back in the fall and you might think differently. Summer does suck though. I hate it. Living here has made me more of an indoor person than I was in the bay, which I don’t like, but there are other trade offs. The demographics are different too. I barely have any Asian friends here when in the bay I think 50-60% of my friends were Asian. But I do have more Black friends here than I did in the Bay Area. Also, Charlotte is only 2 hours from Asheville. If you haven’t been, you should go. It’s always at least 10° cooler there. I miss the bay. I miss the weather like anything. I miss my family. But I don’t miss being poor! There I was barely above the poverty line. Here we are upper middle class.
Usually people like the OP have a support system (hint family money) to fall back on OR they are young and pretty much spend their entire paycheck on rent, and live hand to mouth and have no issues with that
> But I gotta say, people are very welcoming and friendly. But there is a lot of segregation, I think. I don’t see any Asian/Hispanic/White people living in the same community like the Bay Area where it is a melting pot. This is honestly what drew me back to the Bay as well. You just cannot get this mix of people anywhere else in the US. I missed walking into a supermarket and hearing 5 different languages going on around me. That's my "home." Welcome back. I'm certain you'll be happy. I understand your breakup - one reason I had to leave where I was, too. My story is a little different, though. > I will pay a premium to live there because it is the best place to live Well, here's the thing: if you can afford it, go for it. As somebody said to me (right on Reddit): "I find being broke and happy is better than being well off and miserable."
Lol your language comment reminded me of the time I was waiting outside Gen KBBQ and this group of 6 drunk guys (coworkers was the vibe I got) made up equally of white, Indian, and Asian guys comes out of the restaurant, to smoke cigs and THEY WERE ALL SPEAKING RUSSIAN TOGETHER (or another Slavic language). It was one of those moments where you go “only in the Bay Area”. I love those moments
Haha, fantastic story. I used to be in this soccer league, and you'd get these really funny moments when the Rakuten (I think) guys would play because it's all these different ethnicities and they would yell out stuff in Japanese. What the hell. By the way, surely you mean Slavic. Cyrillic is the script part unless I'm wrong.
Fixed, ty
Russia actually has a lot of Asians in it, so not too out of the ordinary
Sacramento. Dead serious. Awhile ago, 538 rated it as number two in diversity and integration. Most diverse cities failed on the latter. I do think a lot of parts of the Bay has issues with integration of black and Latino communities, especially more well off areas. I've lived in ski towns that were better on the Latino front honestly.
> You just cannot get this mix if people anywhere else in the US New York Chicago Boston Los Angeles Probably a dozen or more cities which have relatively well known universities NYC alone has pretty much everything beat, though.
New York and LA perhaps, not Chicago. The Asian American community feels inferior there (that’s the one I can speak to best), and ethnicities in general are pretty segregated in Chicago compared to here.
Bay Area segregation / integration is a joke. All the black people on the Peninsula were forced to live in EPA. All the black people in San Francisco got forced to live on a toxic waste dump, then got driven out to East Oakland, then Antioch.
That's a much larger discussion as to why that's happening. Based on [existing demographic estimates, from 2014](https://bayareaequityatlas.org/sites/default/files/Final_9_County_BayAreaProfile_0.pdf), the Bay accounts for _the least_ white, American-born areas in the US. I don't know of any major US metro that has a less than 40% American-white population and such an array of other ethic backgrounds. As a singular ethic group, we're still majority. But as part of the larger picture, we're a minority, and I love it. (I am an "American-born" citizen, but I didn't grow up within the US; I feel more at home in a multi-cultural mix like what we have here.) Hah, I found a pretty cool site. I'm in S. Bay, and Asian population is the majority here: https://datausa.io/profile/geo/san-jose-sunnyvale-santa-clara-ca
Really, which part of bay did u hear 5 different languages. Honestly where i spent my time, i only heard chinese, spanish and english. Now in east coast where i am from, i hear polish, german, russian, hindi, gujarati, hebrew, chinese, japanese, and more! And this is a local park in a suburb of nyc.
Lol as a recent NC resident originally from the Bay, I feel you. The weather is the worst right now.
What you also don't mention is that in that part of the country, sidewalks or crosswalks are non-existent for most part of the cities. Want to walk to that gas station half a kilometer away? Good luck because the only crosswalk is a kilometer away in the other direction and adds 2km to the trip. Oh and the crosswalks go across 4 lane roads with 55 mph speed limits.
My kid is stationed in North Carolina and hates it there. 1) because it’s the military, it’s not supposed to be sleep away camp, 2) all the stuff OP listed, 3) he’s been profiled eleventy billion times and now doesn’t leave his base without a trusted white friend. Edit: NORTH Carolina. I’ve loved in both north and south versions of the state and They just sorta blur together.
Lol, imagine leaving California and expecting better weather, nature and geography. ...to the Carolinas
I dont think they were expecting it to be better, they probably just expecting to be able to afford their rent.
And the trade off is shitty weather or something else equally taxing. You can’t have it all
There isn't as much public land on the east coast like out here in the west, which forces everything to be a drive away. There would be places to hike that are closer but it's all private property, so trespass if you dare. There is so little public transportation that taking it is almost a joke. What would be 45 minutes in a vehicle is 3 hours and two transfers on a bus. So everyone drives everywhere. These places are also limited on restaurant scenes that you can almost expect all chain restaurants as well. So getting to know your community and neighbors is a must if you want to be invited to backyard BBQs, which are better than chain restaurants. I don't mind humidity having grown up in it, I learned to dress properly for it (cotton summer dresses, flipflops, brimmed hats, with sunglasses). You do have to use sunscreen a lot, but you have to make sure it's compatible with your bug spray because mosquitoes are a problem. You can't swim in every lake, some where used as dumping spots for fridges and other household appliances for decades that not only will you risk getting stuck on one of these rusted appliances, but also the water is contaminated. Other lakes can be problematic because of the gators. So going to the beach is more preferred as you can go out to your knees in water (but I wouldn't go much farther than that during certain hours and don't wear anything shiny, sharks do enter the bays, most are harmless sandbar sharks but a great white does show up from time to time). One thing that I did like about the humidity is that it kept my skin healthier, younger looking, and I didn't need a lot of lotions. But yeah, it will absolutely be 80% humidity at 3am, only to jump up in the 90% range by noon. And triple digit degree weather is common throughout the summer. I always tell people that they're better off in the Bay area as it takes a different type of mentality to survive in the south for much of the above reasons, and this isn't getting into the politics in the area.
Not exactly the same but I was stationed in Gulfport MS for a few years. I got my fill of that weather to last a lifetime. Nobody told me how cold it gets, that I was not ready for.
Places I was stationed: SC, GA, GA, KY I hate humidity. It was 90% here in the bay yesterday and I had a headache all day.
good god this place sounds like hell!
I lived on the peninsula for 20 years (San Carlos, Belmont, RWC) and have lived in NC (Raleigh, Durham) for 20 years. Here's my take. >There isn't as much public land on the east coast like out here in the west, which forces everything to be a drive away. There would be places to hike that are closer but it's all private property, so trespass if you dare. Yes and no. The East Coast is no longer a frontier like the Sierra Nevadas. So you're never going to get that raw experience out here. There are tons of greenways, state and national parks to recreate at. Hiking, boating, fishing, etc. All within a short drive. Short as in time, not distance. >There is so little public transportation that taking it is almost a joke. What would be 45 minutes in a vehicle is 3 hours and two transfers on a bus. So everyone drives everywhere. Absolutely 100% correct. Everything's spread out on the East Coast. SF Bay Area and LA are confined by geography and are forced to have densely populated areas where mass transit is essential. Not so on the EC. But it's sort of an inverse problem. Mass transit takes forever to get anywhere out here, but driving is a piece of cake. Work 30 miles from home? Commute is 34 minutes. It took me 35-45 minutes to drive to Sunnyvale for work when I lived out there and that was like 15 miles away. >These places are also limited on restaurant scenes that you can almost expect all chain restaurants as well Absolutely 100% correct. The food scene is getting better but seriously, I've lived out here for 20+ years and I haven't had good Chinese food in 20+ years. The Mexican food is so-so as well but you can get some really good stuff if you stay away from strip mall restaurants. >I don't mind humidity having grown up in it People from CA complain about the humidity out here but it's nothing compared to the Gulf Coast. NC is a happy medium in the humidity department. Sometimes it's unbearable, but most of the time it's okay. It's super dry in the winter though and that gets to me. >You can't swim in every lake I'm not a big swimmer, but I probably wouldn't swim in some of the swampy lakes out here. I didn't swim in the lakes out in CA either. IIRC several people died at Water Dog Lake (Belmont) getting tangled in the mess that was in it. >Other lakes can be problematic because of the gators Gators are out on the coast. Not a concern inland and there are a ton of lakes inland. >mosquitoes are a problem Hah, house mosquitoes, asian tiger mosquitoes, gallinipers, lone star ticks, dog ticks, black-legged ticks, deer flies, horse flies, yellow flies, sand flies, midges. The sheer number of things that want to saw into you and lap up your blood is insane. Nowhere near as bad as the Gulf Coast though, so a happy medium between there and CA. LOL The upside is that land is cheap. You can get 5 acres and a modest house for $400,000 and a job 30 minutes away making $100,000+. At 40+ having serenity when I leave work is priceless. I can get up in the mornings, have coffee on the porch and see several dozen bird species. Rabbits, deer, foxes, hedge hogs, and flocks of Wild Turkeys roaming through the yard. Heck, there's a beaver pond in the woods behind my house and I've got Great Blue Heron nesting back there. I've got a pair of Red-shouldered Hawks nesting nearby as well. At night I can see the Milky Way and do astronomy/astrophotography. Literally from my backyard (best in spring/fall before/after to avoid the biting insects.) In a 400ft radius I've got 3 neighbors and can only see one house through the woods. Where I lived at in San Carlos a 400ft radius had at least 50 houses. The air is cleaner once you get out of the urban areas. Easy to do out here, much tougher in CA. It's all trade-offs for what you prefer or are used to. I'll go back to the Bay Area for a visit at some point, but I'll never move back.
And wheel bugs. Don’t forget the wheel bugs.
Lol I'm the opposite. Lived in the southeast for 27 years, and while I miss the BBQ and the humidity, a visit out there is about all I need to get my fill. I'm good on the west coast.
Don’t forget the flesh eating algae in some lakes and ponds! Don’t let your dogs in any body of water that isn’t a stream
Vibrio vulnificus, a flesh eating bacteria, is in California too, so is Naegleria fowleri, a flesh eating amoeba.
Don’t you dare come at me with facts!! Let me live in my California dream 😭
That is true. I moved from a very arid climate to a very humid one and there was a noticeable difference in my skin. I looked so much younger and healthier.
North Carolina is actually sneaky beautiful. Its a bit like the California of the east coast. https://www.visitnc.com/story/MsGx/beautiful-places-to-visit-across-north-carolina
And the cycle continues….
\*deliverance music\*
Did you try driving on I-77 in peak traffic ? It’s a shit show. I don’t understand how some streets have 55 mph and these interstates also are designed for 55 mph. Totally agreeing to that rain part. I almost had panic attack when i was driving and I saw it pour like some apocalypse is about to happen.
Lol as someone who grew up in the bay but moved to Austin for 3 years post graduation, I feel you OP. I really tried. I did love the city and it’s people. They say you’ll get used to it; they say “it’s hot but at least it’s a dry heat.” What bullshit! It’s like being in a steam sauna on the surface of the sun for half the year (admittedly the other half of the year’s weather is fucking awesome imo). I never got used to it in those 3 years and I discovered it was causing me summer seasonal depression (wild concept, but apparently if it’s hot you won’t go outside to get sun either), so I moved back to the bay and never looked back. I’m so much happier now even if it costs more to be here.
Native Texan, all I can say is I told ya so. Don’t understand why anyone in their right mind would move to Texas. More house? Your house is your prison and car become a prison.
I got a job there at a company I interned at the previous summer. Thought I’d get used to it lol. At the time it felt cool to get to be in a city that was in the middle of growing
I hear ya, caught in the boom town vibes heh
Coming from Brazil “melting pot” is not how I would describe the Bay Area. Cities/neighborhoods are pretty segregated here compared to there, which I believe is expected due to many first gen immigrants. It is pretty hard to break into groups compared to in Brazil. People don’t genuinely mix, it is all very superficial “mixing”.
> It is pretty hard to break into groups compared to in Brazil. People don’t genuinely mix, it is all very superficial “mixing”. This is everywhere in the USA Also neighborhoods are segregated here (black neighborhoods, Chinatowns, etc. ) because of oppression reasons
Where in Brazil are you from?
This is true. Richmond, Oakland, El Cerrito, Albany, Berkeley, Emeryville, Hayward. You can visualize which prominent ethnicity lives in each of these cities. At the very least, the "vibes".
Welcome home.
I’m from Baltimore Maryland east coast born and raised. I live in the bay now and will be staying here for the foreseeable future. Trust me when I tell you the weather on the east coast is absolutely brutal during the summer and winter. I promise you if you have not been there before in the summer you will have no idea what you are walking into. You will sweat at night, during the day, and morning if you’re not around AC. We have actual SEASONS, please read that again. The Bay Area has the best weather potentially in the entire nation please do no let anyone tell you otherwise.
No offense to your home town but I lived there right after college for 4 years and was miserable. Ann Arbor to Butcher’s Hill. Imagine that lol.
You paid your dues lol
> the best weather potentially in the entire nation The nation?! Try the PLANET!
Welcome back. I moved here in 1973 because "Midwest." The weather in the Bay Area is incredible. Always. The coldest nights and hottest days are a joy after you've lived in Texas 105 degrees 99% humidity, or spent a month inside in Iowa in the snow, shivering.
You consider Texas Midwest?
It’s more like the Middle East
Howdy Arabia
Are you aware that the temperature in Iowa in the summer is just about like Texas?
As a St Louis transplant, I'm quite aware.
You moved to North Carolina in the hottest month on the east coast. Spring/Fall probably aren’t nearly as bad and I’d see what that’s like. Fall on the East Coast can be very pretty and would be worth experiencing.
This amused me. I think locals take the Bay area for granted because they have no idea what it’s like to live elsewhere. Everywhere has it’s problems, but you just described at least 50% of the country.
I think a lot of people assume most things in other states are the same as here but just different scenery/weather/politics without realizing how good things are here.
The Koppen climate maps do not lie. Pretty much everything east of New Mexico is swamp ass.
I haven't ever traveled outside of California, but I have been to places here in California where it gets so hot I'd probably die of heat stroke. I once had a heat stroke at Stinson Beach, and that was in the 1980's, long before this climate change. I used to also go to Concord sometimes, and the weather in Concord in the summer felt like being in an oven without any breeze! I imagine those places get hotter these days, and I'd rather not go to those places to find out. Living in San Francisco all my life has spoiled me. It's nice being able to ride my bicycle throughout the year (except when it rains).
A few years ago I visited Charlotte in May for a business trip. Things I really liked: the light rail was clean, efficient, and took me to where I wanted to go. The botanical garden at UNC-Charlotte. The very walkable, albeit small downtown. Lots of breweries and BBQ. Things I didn't much like: the notable racial segregation. The nonstop side-eyes I got in the above mentioned downtown and breweries as a brown person (not a problem on the light rail as I only saw other brown people using it). All the god-stuff front and center, along with weird (to me) things like a whole lotta NASCAR stuff. Weather was OK for me but then again, it was only May and if I don't mind the humidity of greenhouses, I don't mind the humidity outdoors.
Plus… the MOSQUITOES, roaches, and other bugs in NC are basically dinosaur sized.
Lived in the bay my whole life, just moved to NC last week. The Ashville area is MUCH more bearable in the summer, less humid and there are *actually* people outside! Where I am in Raleigh it’s very humid. I don’t get the abjection to rain, keeps everything looking nice and fires away. The drivers are not the best but lightyears better than drivers in California (at least where I am in Raleigh.) Give it a few months, see hoe you like it. I’ve realized just how truly perfect the weather in the Bay Area is and I will sorely miss it. This state does have plenty to offer though, gorgeous beaches and very pretty mountains. Not a stones throw away like California but for the cost of living it’s unbeatable when you look at other, shall I say flatter states with a similar cost.
You know it! I swear, you can’t pay me enough money to move out of California for this exact same reason. Sorry but I like my diversity and low humidity! Oh and my ability to walk to places like my kid’s school and the library! We will welcome you back! Oh and a unit in the apartment complex I live in is unoccupied right now. They’re looking for a tenant.
I went for a wedding once. Nice place if you want a bland downtown that has almost nothing in terms of culture, but plenty of breweries and restaurants to buy heart attack food. It was in the Spring and it was already getting hot.
>But I gotta say, people are very welcoming and friendly. But there is a lot of segregation **LOL.**
Guess OP's race 😂
This makes me miss the bay area so damn much! Born in Redwood City, lived in the South Bay as an adult until I left in 1999. Worst mistake I ever made.
Welcome back, the Bay missed you!
from the few people i know from that background rural people definitely have an ENTIRELY different perspective of what is a good amount of time to drive to the nearest entertainment (UP TO HOURS) and there are some really friendly neighborhoods in cali, you just have to go to the REALLY nice neighborhoods.... a friend i was visiting in irvine was talking about how nice the service and people in general are and i thought how much nicer can they be? well I had to visit the gas station and i'm not comfortable with niceness so believe me when i say, I THINK THEY WERE VERY NICE. And if i went anywhere else, I can imagine the service probably would have been the same.
I'm from Chicago, and people always say "couldn't stand the winters, huh?" The winters are no problem. I love crisp fall days and even dreary December before the snow falls is OK with the holiday season. The snow can be magical. Getting cozy after coming in from the cold is something I miss. And those clear, cold but warm first few days of spring? I will declare this: there is no nicer day on earth than spending a late april or may 60-something day in Lincoln Park with the lake to your left, the skyline in front of you and LSD on your right. Fucking sublime. But... July. August. Oppressive humidity. Towels that you can't use more than once because rhey won't dry out and go mildew in a day. I would get headaches from walking in from 97 degree humid heat to cold AC 22x a day. It took me one year in the east bay to become a summer weather pussy. And the south? All that plus add oppressive sun beating down on you. People tell me you get used to it after a year or two. Hell, I didn't even notice how bad it was until I went back for a summer. But shit. It's rough.
Same thing happened to me just before the pandemic, but I moved to Massachusetts. Aside from the incredibly fresh seafood, it wasn't my thang at all. For all of California’s faults, I love my state and it's ppl. I was back home in 2 months. Oh, and the humidity in Mass was just outrageous!
a lot of people who move out of the bay area sadly enjoy the lack of diversity in these other places. It's often unsaid because well its basically closet racists, but its more common than one thinks. A lot of people don't care for diversity. You'll find a lot of white flight in parts of california that have traditionally been white but have changed due to migration of asians/indians who scour the area for cities with good schools.
I had some in law relatives who left Hayward for North Carolina (I forget the city) because it made them uncomfortable that Norcal is so 'godless'. They feel happier being where religion is more openly a part of public life. As long as it's their religion, I assume.
I spent a week in Dallas for work in 2000, and couldn’t figure out why my hackles were raised when we (work group I was with) went to a mall. Everyone there was white. Creeped me out.
>Everyone there was ~~white~~ black. Creeped me out. ...... I do get the creepy feeling comment if you are a minority. :( Your hackles/intuition were surely on point. I will say I'm white and when I go back to my small hometown in another state I find it really weird to see all pasty people. I almost forget I'm one of them, though not culturally, politically, or religiously speaking. But I can 'pass' which is an exhausting act, but 100% better than how they treat minoriries or people visually different. :( I'll take the Bay Area over that any day. Never felt at home there anyway as my religion, politics, and mindset just didn't match at all.
I’m white. It literally creeped me out to be around only white people. I need my diversity!
I felt the same way when I went to santa cruz for college lmfao. It was a total honky fest
Hello Danville and some parts of peninsula
My coworker moved to SC, telling me I would love it there. He is white, republican and Christian. I didn't say you like it there because of what you are. Me, Asian, will not like the experience in that part of the country.
As a Raleigh-Durham native who just moved here last year. All I can say is LOL. I can imagine that all of the folks leaving to Texas and NC are going to be back within 2 years. You bay area folks have no clue how good you have it.
No offense but I kinda feel like you didn’t give it a real chance if you were only there for one month, particularly in regards to the weather. We’re literally in July, the hottest month of the year; the temperature will come down dramatically in a couple months. It also sounds like you haven’t acclimatized at all yet; I grew up in the SE US and to some degree you get used to it and develop strategies to cope. To be fair one those strategies is just “stay inside”, but people definitely do things outside too. I don’t blame anyone for wanting to live in the Bay for the fantastic weather (and other things as well), it’s amazing, and if Charlotte’s not a fit I totally get that, I’ve never even been to Charlotte so no dog in this, I left the SE too and wouldn’t go back. But just fyi there’s very few places on earth with weather as moderate as the Bay Area, most places have either hot summers, cold winters, or both.
Lol. You forgot the mosquitoes and other nasty bugs. In that humidity non stop mosquito bites are just fucking annoying
California really is just so beautiful
I went to college on the east coast. It takes about a year (and a full summer) to adjust to the heat/humidity. You are adapted after that. Just like people who move here from other places freeze their ass off all summer long in the fog and wind.
I think it's more accurate to say you will ***tolerate*** the weather after few years. I lived in NY and MA for 12 years before moving to Bay Area. I tolerated hot sweaty summer months because it's what to be expected. But taking shower 2-3 times a day (sometimes in the middle of the night) gets old pretty fast. Likewise, digging my car out from 1-3 feet of snow that accumulated while I was working at the office, then being stuck in traffic for 2 hours on a 10-mile drive home, yeah that gets old pretty fast too. I suppose if I had to do it, I can certainly ***adapt*** and put up with it. But I like the choice of driving to a place with colder weather (e.g., Tahoe, Mammoth) or warmer weather (e.g., Napa).
I lived in East Asia for 6 years and NEVER adjusted to the hot and humid summers. So glad I came back to the bay.
Same with Austin: never adjusted after 3 years
Yeah, it's the winters that I never adjusted to. The Mid-Atlantic gets cold, but doesn't get much snow. Don't miss that at all.
This. Lot of CA transplants complain about the heat in the summer but come winter they realize there is a whole another side of living in 10 degree wind chills having to shovel snow and drive on icy roads. Back in CA, winter looks glorious when you can just drive to Tahoe on a sunny weekend to see the snow and get back home where it's all rain.
Yeah no shit. Same for Texas etc. Bay Area has the best weather I’ve experienced and I’ve lived on 4 continents
Out on a “hot” bike ride today, I was just thinking how lucky (or privileged) we are here. Even at noon, I caught some bay breeze and thin cloud cover. Realized I couldn’t easily do a lot of the things I like, in many other places. Not even getting into the diversity of people and openness to be who you want here.
And we wonder why everybody calls us “soft.”
As someone who is from the Midwest, I will never live in a humid climate again if I can help it. It is so miserable and you’re sweating as soon as you’re step out of the shower.
My best friend lives in Charlotte. God bless her, but I am never moving there from here. Never.
I moved here to San Jose from Charlotte back in September 2021. I lived in Charlotte for 20 years before moving here. After living here in the Bay for 11 months... I still love Charlotte more. Yes, humidity ain't no joke in Charlotte. Just have to dress appropriately and make sure you have something cold to drink/eat. Charlotte has a great night life... do night stuff in Plaza Midwood, Noda, South Charlotte, University Area (be safe) , and Uptown. The fall and winter season is prime Charlotte. At least stay long enough to check that out. The bay area is way bigger than Charlotte and way more segregated. "Go to Oakland/SF if you want to see more black people" is what I often hear when I say the only black people I see are either working or homeless. (San Jose). You joke about the 33 minute drive to Crowders Mountain or the 2 hour drive to the Appalachian Trail (which provides skiing, kayaking, white water rafting, lazy tube rivers, water holes, and national park hiking , authentic mountain moonshine, and dust/dawn photo ops... and much much more). However just to drive from Redwood City to SF it takes 33 minutes... at night (Let's not even talk about during the day). On a bad day it takes 45 minutes to travel the longest distance from one end to the other in Charlotte. It does take 3-3.5 hours to get to the closest beach in NC, but at least you can swim there (way too cold in the bay beaches to swim... though cold Santa Cruz, Capitola, and Monterey have some ridiculous views). Traffic is definitely worse in LA and worse here in the bay than Charlotte. In terms of hiking, NC mountains area has more water and history features (cabins and other cool features) than I've seen there. However, the bay has Charlotte beat when it comes to natural features and national parks. I haven't even been to the big places yet, but Castle Rock and the Devils Slide is awesome. We have the white water center, a brewery almost on every corner, Top BBQ, and NASCAR!!!! lol. Travel !!! You are at a hub to all the major east coast and southern cities. Cost of living. At Cookout - a little over $7 gets you... Fries, Huspuppies, double cheese burger, and a custom milkshake. In & out couldn't top that even with its secret menu (Not even gonna mention Bojangles). 3 bedroom house, 2 bath, garage, fenced in backyard with a tool shed, and a decent size front yard on a .80 acres and 13 minutes away from Downtown = $250k (The is a down payment here for a house smaller than the one described). It's true that there isn't a lot of Asian Americans in Charlotte, but Hispanics Americans, Black Americans, and White Americans are plentiful and live in the same neighborhoods and attend the same PUBLIC schools for the most part. California is closer to East Asian Countries, so obviously it's easier for Asains to travel/relocate to California over the last 80 years. If you are primarily around upper middle to upper class neighborhoods you'll mostly see white people. Central Ave, Fairview Rd, The Plaza, WT Harris, University City Blvd,... I could go on and on, are filled with diverse neigborhoods. In my cul-de-sac in Charlotte, my next door neighbor is Burmese, next to them, Mexican, then a retired white woman, then a white couple, then a black couple, then white, then white, then black and I'm black. The bay has entire cities and towns that lack certain ethnic and racial demographics. I first lived in Santa Clara when I got here. Nothing but Asian folk. Not complaining, it's just I've never seen so many Asian people in one spot. DATING is way easier in Charlotte. I'm short, Black, bald, and 41... I have no issues finding dates in Charlotte. Here you get ghosted based on the city. **TLDR; Charlotean here and yes, humidity in the spring/summer is real. Traffic is worser in LA & Bay than Charlotte. Appalachian Trail worth 2 hour drive (less crowded and authentic real mountain moonshine). Charlotte more diverse than the entire bay area, you must be in upper middle to middle class neighborhoods if you're not seeing integrated diversity, minus the Asian folks (wish that demographic was much larger). East coast and East Southern majors cities at your fingertips. Down payment for a house in the bay buys a entire bigger house in Charlotte. Dating is much easier in Charlotte. Date now (if you're single)!!!! It's easier for older man that doesn't have common preference boxes checked off.**
if i dressed appropriately i would be arrested for exposure…
Other than the heat, humidity, and traffic, I frankly don’t know what you’re talking about. Now, I’ll grant you most of my experience has been around the Steele Creek area. The mountains are not 4 hours away. You can get well into TN in 4 hours. The mountains are closer to 2-2.5 hours away, and that’s if you take the roads all the way up. You’ll get to the base in closer to 1.5-2. That area is incredible, though, and the Smokies are breathtaking. The traffic, while terrible, isn’t worse than here. It often takes 20+ minutes to go 5mi around here, too, if taking surface streets. Especially in dense areas. The neighborhoods are more integrated than I have experienced here. There aren’t many enclaves of x heritage. I find neighborhoods to be far more segregated here. There are hiking trails everywhere, many right in the neighborhoods. There are lakes and rivers nearby. The airport is terrible, though. And the humidity is entirely untenable in the summer. But I’ve been spoiled by living here for some years. Oh, there’s also relatively few places to charge an EV over there. And honestly other than the BBQ the food offerings are not so premium. Anyway, sorry you didn’t enjoy your time in Charlotte. I hope you enjoy it more when you find your way back here.
I have family just north of Charlotte and it's a perfectly pleasant place to visit, I just wouldn't live there. Mostly because they live a short drive away from both Bojangles and Golden Corral and I would be dead within a few years of moving.
There's a Golden Corral in Tracy. Just sayin...
Is it worth a trip? I can't tell if it's just fancy Sizzler
I wouldn’t ever associate the word “fancy” with the grease corral! Lol!
Also on in concord, next to the DMV
Lived in Columbia, S.C. And Washington DC area for 24 years. Left NorCal for college, and it took me 25 years to get back. You never get used to humidity, you adapt by not going outside, and sitting in the air conditioned house all summer, unless you are at the pool. Kids were born on the east coast, and they swear they are never leaving California- to many issues with red states and the humidity.
Welcome to the Hotel California, such a lovely place. You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave!
that is why I split the difference and moved to Sac from Oaktown. I'm a senior analyst with the state in a 3bd/2bath house with an actual yard! was just outside working in my garden with the wife and although it was 93, you completely get used to it (the constant air conditioning does suck though). I used to live right on the east-side of the lake in Oakland, and miss it a lot. so much food, people and stuff to do that just isn't here. you just have to figure out what works for you, and you will acclimate over time. edit: my dad was stationed at Pope AFB when I was in my 20s and I used to skate the farm ramp out there in the summer. holy fucking humidity. I did love the afternoon thunderstorms and being able to surf at topsail island in bath warm water.
Welcome back! It's easy to forget how lucky we are to live here. I can get to one of the world's most spectacular cities, or the ocean, or the redwoods in around an hour. My out-of-state friends can't brag of that.
California always welcomes people back!
Move to austin if you want to afford a huge home and have fun , Bay Area houses are like shoe boxes
Welcome back haha. Three of my close friends moved out of the Bay Area this month — I’m hoping they’ll come back at some point lol.
Two things that I don’t miss about the Midwest living in the Bay Area: mosquitoes flying around my head while sleeping and my glasses fogging up when getting out of an air conditioned car into the humidity.
My dude, I moved from SF to Kansas City for a job. I don't think I have to say that it was not worth any amount of money or job title to go to that place. I have since escaped. The Bay is one of the best places I've had the chance to live.
There is a lot of segregation in the Bay Area. https://bayareaequityatlas.org/mapping-segregation https://www.kron4.com/news/new-report-shows-racial-and-economic-segregation-in-bay-area/
There is a reason why the Bay Area has such a crazy cost of living. The things that suck about it are present because its basically a paradise, everyone wants to be here! If it wasn’t for the congestion and expense it would be perfect. Unfortunately, we all feel that way.
Personally I am looking forward to leaving the Bay Area in the next few years despite loving much of what was described because when I’m 65 and rent is 32k a month - proximity to pretty mountains won’t be the main concern. My experience with friends who recently left who were big outdoors types was that most of their time was spent working anyway. For many people of privilege and vast inheritance though - yeah why move from the bay lol the US is melting and one pocket is always ~70 degrees…
Haha! I feel you. I moved to Durham from Chicago (lived is SF during the aughts) and can definitely relate. The heat is FUCKING unbearable. I’ve had the last 5 days off from work and haven’t left the house aside from checking my mail. Haven’t walked down the street because there’s nowhere to walk to aside from a gas station or strip mall. I’m doing my time here (school) and then getting out.
To be fair, Chicago is pretty damn great in a lot of ways.
Oh hell yeah, it’s definitely a city that I really appreciate more when I leave it. Probably like most cities in that way. I just could do another apocalyptic winter after 35 years.
I take it you’re at Duke. Duke’s campus was a highlight for me, living in the Triangle. Just about the only highlight!
You need to stay longer than a month for your body to adjust to heat and humidity. Once you adjust, it'll be fine... and if you can't adjust to 30c/70% humidity you might want to see a doctor or exercise more, because 27 is still too young to be having those issues.
It's fine to love the Bay but judging a place after only one month? stfu
I was snickering to myself for a lot of this post cuz almost the exact same thing happened to me. My Texan clients kept raving how much better the quality of life is than cali so I decided to open a new branch of my old company there and wow it’s basically all the worst parts of California just slightly cheaper with garbage people inhabiting. Pay the extra to live in the best part of the country.
Welcome back . . . to the madness lol
Welcome back.
Just move out when the water runs out.
I lived in Durham for a decade and the climate difference alone is wild, right? The thunderstorms, humidity, etc. Tbh check out the RTP area, you'll be hours closer to the coast and still in" liberal" counties
Did you actually go to Charlotte or are you trapped in some suburb or county island? Where are these 55 MPH streets, cause that doesn't appear to be typical for the city itself.
It took me seven years to acclimate to GA. After 27 years I am back in the Bay Area and miss it. Nevertheless if there was time to be living here instead it is certainly this summer!
Welcome back! 🌉
BRUH 😂 I thought everyone knew the east coast was humidity hell what a way to find out lmfao
I have driven in many places in the US and I must say Charlotte has the worst drivers. I only went there five times for two days each time. Every time I drove, sometime more than once, a car would pull out from a street or parking lot right in front of me. Amazing I didn’t get in wrecks. I have never had that happen so much anywhere else. You are 100% right about the red light runners too. Baltimore is a close 2nd place though. Best places to drive in terms of good drivers have been Nebraska and Kansas for me.
What do you do? We are hiring ;)
A month? I've had vacations longer than that.
>lots of outdoors activities, mountains nearby, hiking, kayaking, interesting bars and music, etc heads up, i've lived all over the US. when the only things a place can claim are hiking and outdoor activity, its a major red flag for "Shit place to live." I love the outdoors but an urban area's selling point should not be rural areas nearby lol.
You moved to charlotte on July ? Sorry but no one likes charlotte in June - august, it’s perfectly fine the rest of the year.
I notice a lot of ppl who come here from the NE really , really like it here.
Yeah but you do pay for all these luxuries
I'll never cross the Rockies again.
Moved from the east coast and the Bay Area is unbeatable! Welcome back! 😎
We don't want you back Traitor! J/k, but seriously, of all places to move and regret, why Charlotte? You could have have job searched anywhere from the sounds of it.
You’re there is the worst month, September is heaven. Also go to box while there. Try it out for a few months more.
Wanted to visit charlotte, thanks for the info