Could be… I think you can probably find interesting people and cultured people everywhere… I just think that the pickings are somewhat slimmer here…!
On the pretentiousness aspect, you might be right or not. I am not pretentious and when I see it (or don’t see it) I just ignore it. It’s very hard to snub someone when they don’t either don’t recognize it or just don’t care!
Often in NY I got dropped quickly when I wouldn’t buy into someones bullsh_t!
Whoops a Ferrari just went by my office really quickly… All the girls in sunglasses just swooned!