East coasters versus West coasters: Which do you think are better?

I grew up in Seattle (West), spent 20 years in NYC and DC (East) and am now living in Los Angeles (West). So you could say I've spent equal time on both. Maybe that's why I actually love both coasts, and feel comfortable on either, although I think I'm in a mental place right now where LA is the ideal spot for the time being. Ironically, when I first moved to NYC, I was adamant that it was the ONLY place for me, and I'd never move back West. Never say never.

Can't answer about non-Coasters, except that both the West and East coasts invariably describe that part of the country as "the flyover zone." Because we're elitist bastards, I guess. :)

no need for the others, i'll handle this one folks: the east coast is superior to the west because of its greater degree of excellence in all manners identifiable. so you ask about the differences? you want specifics? the key difference is that the grandeur and enormity of east cost life embiggens the soul.

bingo bango. we done here?

ps the rest of all y'all can find solace here.

...the east coast is superior...because...

To which the typical West coaster would reply:

"Whatever."

I spent the first 35 years of my life on the East Coast (18 years in northern Connecticut and the following 17 in the Boston area) -- and then moved to Kalamazoo, Michigan, where we lived until three years ago. I have also traveled on both coasts on many occasions.

I would prefer to live non-coastally if possible, and if being coastal is unavoidable, I'd prefer a small city to a large one. Seriously, I've never been as happy with the place I lived than I was in Michigan. It was attractive, friendly, and unbelievably affordable. Also, the kinds of cities I enjoy visiting aren't exemplified by New York and San Francisco -- they're more along the lines of Ann Arbor and Madison. Western New York (where I live now) is okay too, but I totally love Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, and we have lots of connections in Indiana and Ohio. I'm also pretty fond of the somewhat-inland Southwest and Southeast.

Flyover country rocks!

May a bicoastal person comment?

I was born in New York City, rose through the public school system there, graduating 1968 from what would now be called a "magnet school" -- Stuyvesant High School.

What was then City College of New York (now CUNY) offered me a scholarship to skip my senior year of high school and starte college at 15. My parents were opposed. I resented that then, but came to see that they were right.

Loved my Mom and dad but, as a teenager, wanted to move far away. Got accepted at 16 into Caltech (California Institute of Technology) in Pasadena, California, which is the most competitive university for admissions in the USA.

Most of my East Coast buddies said: "Sorry you didn't get into MIT."

I hadn't applied to MIT. Nor to Harvard, where my Dad graduated. I'd wanted to switch to the West Coast. I've never regretted that decision.

Two degrees later (B.s. Math; B.S., English Lit), I came back to the East Coast, for my M.S. and then Ph.D. (All But Degree, Computer & Information Science) at Umass-Amherst. Liked Western Massachusetts, and frequent trips to Boston/Cambridge.

Some time on the New Jersey shore with girlfriend from same grad school who was at Bell Labs.

Then back to West Coast, as an engineer at Boeing, in greater Seattle. Loved Seattle.

Thence back down the Left Coast to JPL, in Pasadena again, to do cool Space stuff.

And, with odd short intervals since, have been on the West Coast ever since. My son is a Native Californian. He rose through the local public schools to start University (Cal State L.A.) at age thirteen. Right. 13. And is about to start his 2nd year at USC's Gould Law School.

And, after 1/3 Century, I've been taking grad courses again, theoretically on the way to an Ed.D.

My wife, a Physics professor, has bounced back and forth between Scotland, Nassau, and Sydney, Australia. She's reasonably happy with graeter Los Angeles, after we thought long and hard 1/4 century ago as to where in the world we might want to live.

Pointless to compare education between Coasts. You go where whim and opportunity presents itself.

The paradox of American education is that our best is unsurpassed anywhere in the world. But our Mean and Median are 3rd world.

"Wherever you go, there you are."

When is that sea level rise going to get here to drown the coasts? Then we won't have to listen to drivel about the gutters of the country ... (joke joke)

IMHO, each one another have a advantage and disadvantage.

Avoid the decision. Go to Europe.

"East, West -- Home is Best"

-- William Saroyan, The Human Comedy

I've also lived on both coasts; grew up in New Jersey (and no, in Princeton we don't say 'Joisey'. Ever.) and worked in Boston and then moved to Seattle (Redmond) ten years ago.

I like the West coast more -- but I miss the history of the East coast. A train track here is just a train track; it went one place. A train track there is a bit of history; there are little branch lines everywhere that were abandoned fifty years ago and left to rust. My house here was built on forest land that was chopped down. Before the forest it was ... more forest. My house in Boston was on the Black History Trail.

And the sub sandwiches are better on the East coast. By a lot. West coast sandwiches are a pale, lumpy, stale imitation of the glory that is a hot Boston sub.

The West coast, though, is better run, and has more polite people. And living near real mountains is wonderful.

I definitely have fewer years under my belt on this issue than others who have posted so far, so maybe I'm less qualified, but I have to say the West is better. See, they have this thing out East here called "humidity" and it's just awful. I'm not exactly sure what it is, but anything that makes you feel like you've just come in from a run when you're actually just sitting on the couch watching Olympic swim trials... man, that's not cool. Neither are those nosebleeds that randomly show up in the winter. There are many great things about Massachusetts, I'm sure, but I'm still counting the days until my wife and I travel back to YVR (seventeen!).

I'm pretty sure that Seattle also had "this thing ... called 'humidity.'"

But, to be fair, greater Los Angeles is built on a default desert, and considers some car washes as hamburger stands and donut dispenseries to be Historical buildings worthy of preservation (google the term "Googly" in the context of architetcure).

The 1920s brought us German Expressionism and the Russian Constructivists. After Gropius came to Harvard in 1937, American Modernism became corporate and sedate, as seen in the work of its leading practitioners, Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM). A more expressionistic version of this was the Googly architecture of Southern California and Southern Florida.

look im from cen cal and i moved to pa 45 min away from philly and the west is the best the tree is amazing to the fullest east has mids and headies cali u can get medical ha all day west parties way harder even the white boys are savage and the white girls to i guess west is gangsta only the strong and real survive the east is a bunch a pussies probally u to but ya dude ya boy just got signed by akon watch him take ova even lil wayne signed tyga hes a cali dude, every rapper talks about cali lil wayne cali love,cali dro every one jocks west coast like hollister is eas coast shit not west (kmk) mac dre is a legend in cali look em up andre nickatina j diggs theres sick white boy rappers to so cal trash