Looking Beyond San Francisco

The cities in Southern California all lack viable downtown areas. There are no coffee shops in Santa Monica that I'd enjoy hanging out in. San Diego, which at least has some tall buildings, is a lot worse (I've never smelled such stale, sticky air in a Starbucks before). Los Angeles itself has a skyline, but it's barren, and I've never met anyone that has any reason to go there. I drove there a few months ago at midnight on a Friday just to see what was there, and there was literally no one there. It's almost as if some awful people got together and made it illegal to build what what other great cities offer: a place where you can work, eat, sleep, and relax in a high-density urban environment. (Perhaps that's not a stretch - I haven't looked yet, but I have a hunch that zoning laws and city ordinances either caused this situation, or exacerbated the effects of some very bad choices.)

With a few exceptions (i.e., Pasadena), the greater Los Angeles area is nothing more than a bunch of ugly boxes, crisscrossed by what seems like billions of miles of jammed-up freeways, always under construction. So good luck with whatever you're trying to find out here in SoCal. Hopefully you're not looking for beauty, nice places other than home or the office to get work done during the day, a nightlife, or anything else that a real city has to offer.