What is the best California city for me?

I living all my life in cold and desolate Michigan, am thinking of moving to the great state of Califonia. The following is my criteria for my new and permenent home with a wife and say two kids: 1/ Ocean front 2 /Loaded with a lot of shops, restraunts, and hang out places 3 /Fairly safe for a major city, not like LA 4 /Out of the San Andrey fault danger zone and metro-only if posible San Fran a good pic?, etc... Thank you!

Public Comments

1. don't live in the southern cali area, trust me theres not much too see except famous people (for me really) few too much crimes in the area and the countys full of small gang communities. San jose or San Fran is a great place to live, I used to live there.
2. San Diego
3. San Francisco is full of street walkers - and better parts are kind of boring. Also the police are very active, on even minor things. Makes one feel hunted. Much of Ca is a run-down china town full of ugly losers, hateful starers and look the other way succesful folk. Everyone out for a buck or a trick or expecting one.
4. The city of San Jose surely fits your criteria. San Jose is top 10 biggest city in US and has the lowest crime rate than most of the bigger cities. But one thing you wont have is the Ocean Front. But the beach and SF is only 45 minutes away. Schools here are great and the city is very clean. We are known as Silicon Valley and the capital of the world for making computers and many other electronics. But the downfall to living in this wonderful place is the cost of living. Minimum wage is $7.50 and the average cost of an apt. rent of 1 bedroom is about 900-1100 dollars. Though, if you have the education, you may get a decent or good job!
5. Another great place to live is just north of San Francisco. It's called Marin county. It meets all of your criteria. Close to S.F., several great beaches, lots of culture, great restaurants, shopping, and very safe. The draw back is it is very expensive to live there. Oh , it's also close to the Napa valley wine country and 3 hours drive to major snow skiing, and 4 to 5 hours from Yosemite National park.
6. San Diego is what you are looking for. It's a large city located right on the Pacific Ocean and has a very laid back, beach oriented lifestyle. SF is on the ocean but the water there is very cold and never warm enough to swim in and the coast is VERY foggy, cool, and windy year round. If you like warm weather you will not like SF, it's in the 50's and 60's most of the year. The water in San Diego warmer and the climate is pretty close to perfect. Daytime highs usually range from 65-75 in winter and 75-80 in summer; coldest it gets in winter is 40-45 at night. It's pretty much never too hot or cold near the coast. Doesn't rain often, never severe storms, and it's not humid, most of the year it's sunny and in the 70's. And the beach scene and culture here is awesome, I love living by the beach in San Diego. It's a very large city, around 1.3 million, but still has somewhat of a small town feel. Lots of shops, resturants, clubs, and places to hang out. Plenty of cultural and entertainment activities and two professional sports teams. And there are great events going on year round in SD all the time so there is pretty much always something to do. Our climate alows us to be outside year round playing sports, hiking, biking, or just doing whatever you want; it's a very outdoors oriented city as nearly every mall is an outdoor open air mall. SD is one of the safest large cities in America. It's the safest city over 1 million and 5th safest over 500,000. Violent crime is very low and crime is slightly below the national average, which is pretty good for such a large city on the border. A lot of people don't realize this but San Diego has a much lower earthquake risk compared to LA or SF. San Diego is located much farther away from the San Andreas fault zone and rarely recieves large earthquakes. There has never been a devastating, deadly earthquake in SD's history unlike SF and LA. The San Andreas fault cuts right through the middle of the SF Bay Area and LA metro areas but is well over more than a hundred miles from SD. Also housing in SD is significantly cheaper than what you would get for your money in SF or LA. Housing is by no means cheap here but less expensive compared to both SF and LA and a much better deal in my opinion. If you are buying housing prices continue to fall here so they will probably keep going down for a little while. So I would look into San Diego. SF is a great city too but it's VERY expensive as are it's suburbs, it's not nearly as safe as SD, and it has a much higer earthquake risk. I grew up in the SF Bay Area about 25 miles from the city and have been living in SD for 6.5 year now and I love it. The people, weather, things to do, and laid back atmosphere and beach lifestyle are great.