I live in Seattle now but I always regretted looking back to my time in SoCal that I didn’t live in LA vs. SD. LA is a lot more cosmopolitan, there is more to do, way better sports (Lakers, Dodgers, Clippers, Kings, UCLA, USC, etc..). Most people who don’t like LA just drive though on the freeways or have pre-conceived notions. There are some very cool hip neighborhoods (like Silver Lake, Los Feliz, Echo Park for example).
The traffic does suck and it is crowded and has more crime than SD. But crime has fallen a lot over the last 25 yrs from what I hear. You can get more of that LA fakeness and superficialness up there too. So there are major downsides of course.
Also you can get to Santa Barbara way faster, Kings Canyon/Sequoia faster, LAX has way more non-stop flights EVERYWHERE. You have major mountain ranges just east.
SD is a solid place for a lot of folks and has a lot going for it. I just personally found SD kind of bland and boring. Kind of a bit of a backwater almost. Just a big surfing military town mostly. It is nice about SD though being able to access the beaches and mountains faster with less traffic.
