Well I did grow up in Huntington Beach. My brother lived in W Hollywood until his company moved him to the Bay Area about 10 years ago. My bro in law has lived in the San Diego area for 25 years and has been in Carlsbad for the last 10. My (Pitt grad) dad got his grad degeee from UCLA while we lived out there. My mom and I would hang around Westwood and the campus while he was in his evening classes. I’ve been all over that area many times as an adult up and down Sunset, Wilshire and Santa Monica from downtown LA to the beach, some of the time in the horrific standstill traffic that you mentioned. . A good buddy of mine ran athletic apparel licensing and merchandising for Cal Berkley for 15 years before moving back to the Midwest a couple of years ago. During that time on my visits he and I drank beers and hung out over the Bay Area. His office was on campus at Cal and we hung out at the Bear’s Lair bar right on campus. Another good buddy of mine has lived in Laguna the past 10 years and keeps his 55 foot boat in the marina at Dana Point. Last time we were out there he took us out to Catalina Island on it. For about 20 years starting in grad school I visited northern and southern Cali each at least once a year. I’ve stayed at the Beverly Hills Hotel mutiple times and Chateau Marmont once. Stayed at Shutters in Santa Monica and Montage Newport Coast before. My wife and I have vacationed in Napa, Sonoma, Carmel, Big Sur, San Francisco, Yosemite, Big Bear, Tahoe and in and around San Diego including LaJolla, Pacific Beach and Coronado Island. Yes I’ve been to Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach, Hermisa Beach, Ventura, Santa Barbara and basically every SoCal coastal community from San Diego to Malibu. While my wife’s brother was active duty as a Colonel in the Marine JAG at Pendleton we stayed in a little bungalow on the beach at Pendleton for a few days. I have been up and down that coast from San Diego to Jenner many times, more than I could accurately recall.
I have not been on campus at USC but I know it’s in Watts, and I know what that means. Another buddy of mine got his MBA at SC and lived like a king for 2 years while doing so. He was hanging out with guys like Mike Piazza and partying with the baller crowd the whole time he was out there. I don’t think he was bothered in the least by the physical location of the campus itself, which is by all accounts a very impressive place.
UCSD and UCSC are not really “on the beach” like UCSB is, although they are in coastal cities. Stayed and golfed at Torrey Pines near University Circle and UCSD. I’ve spent time in Santa Cruz a couple of times. Some of the scariest, most aggressive street people I’ve ever encountered there. Same with Telegraph in Berkeley on the weekends.
Sorry for the long and detailed retort Rear Admiral, but since you clearly believe you’re some worldly, erudite well-bred who can talk down to a bunch of Yinzer rubes all the time, I thought it appropriate to let you know that not all of us are impressed with your schtick. You shouldn’t presume to tell me or anybody else what we don’t know. If you’re not careful people might take you for a pompous jagoff with some narrow-minded notions and poor grammar.