Rodney

Of your list, San Diego. It's got the most consistently good year-round weather I've ever seen, and there really is a downtown, and a lot of different cultures. And you can swim in the damn ocean all year long. I remember hanging out at the beach one evening in November, down by the old roller coaster, and it was as warm as a summer night where I come from.

Yeah, there are downsides, and yes, there's a large homeless population, but that comes anywhere where the weather's good and the police aren't actually running them out of town (and that happens in a lot more places than people acknowledge). Homelessness is a national problem.

Anyplace on the west coast is expensive now, but give it a year or two; housing prices have started to fall in San Diego.

San Jose's okay, but expensive; there's not really a center to it. Okay, they've tried to build one, but it's kind of artificial. Many many cultures and a lot of good food, but in many ways it's just a giant suburb, though one that's got many historic features. Mainly, San Jose and the entire Silicon Valley are about work; so although i like San Jose, it's not exciting. The weather's pretty good, and you can be at the coast fairly quickly, but that water is cold; surfers wear wetsuits.