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Westward Ho! Where to move out west and why
-AKIRA-
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I'll be graduating from NC State (Raleigh, NC) in about six months. I've been wondering what to do when that day arrives for quite some time now. When I get out of this place, I'll have a BS in Civil Engineering with a concentration in water resources. That includes stuff like groundwater flow, surface runoff, water/waste water treatment, curious coastal phenomena, etc..
[strike]I've been debating for quite some time now if I'd be best served to just head off into the work force after school or piddle around with something like the Peace Corps for a bit. I was born in eastern NC, and my family has never had the money to travel. This results in every living individual of my family, without exception, calling eastern NC home. Really. Everyone. I'm pretty sure everyone from grandparents generation and older have lived every day of their lives in this state. Because of that, I feel like staying in this part of the country is simply not an option.[/strike]
Now here comes the dilemma. I don't have any specific knowledge about life in any city on the West Coast. So I don't know how to weigh my options properly. Ideally, I'd like to wittle down my option of relocating from "West Coast" to something more manageable, like "Seattle or Sacramento."
As far as personal preferences go, I'm a latte sipping, NPR listening, disc golf playing, environmentally conscious geek. You WILL turn off the water when you brush your teeth in my house. I'd love to go help underprivileged folks gain access to sanitary drinking water, but at the same time I'd like to get a start on my career as well.
I'm pretty much starting this thread to gather opinions and stories from anyone who lives/lived on the west coast, as well as anyone who may have any experience with the Peace Corps. So please, tell me why San Fransisco is a hell hole, or why you wouldn't ever dream of leaving Portland. If you were assaulted by street vendor in Bangladesh, I'd like to hear about that too.
[strike]Also, for what it's worth, I've got a better chance of ending up in Albania than anywhere else if I joined the Peace Corps. This is FAR FAR from certain, however.[/strike]
edit: Just sell me on cities out west, stupid Peace Corps wait time bit me in the ass. :-(
[strike]I've been debating for quite some time now if I'd be best served to just head off into the work force after school or piddle around with something like the Peace Corps for a bit. I was born in eastern NC, and my family has never had the money to travel. This results in every living individual of my family, without exception, calling eastern NC home. Really. Everyone. I'm pretty sure everyone from grandparents generation and older have lived every day of their lives in this state. Because of that, I feel like staying in this part of the country is simply not an option.[/strike]
Now here comes the dilemma. I don't have any specific knowledge about life in any city on the West Coast. So I don't know how to weigh my options properly. Ideally, I'd like to wittle down my option of relocating from "West Coast" to something more manageable, like "Seattle or Sacramento."
As far as personal preferences go, I'm a latte sipping, NPR listening, disc golf playing, environmentally conscious geek. You WILL turn off the water when you brush your teeth in my house. I'd love to go help underprivileged folks gain access to sanitary drinking water, but at the same time I'd like to get a start on my career as well.
I'm pretty much starting this thread to gather opinions and stories from anyone who lives/lived on the west coast, as well as anyone who may have any experience with the Peace Corps. So please, tell me why San Fransisco is a hell hole, or why you wouldn't ever dream of leaving Portland. If you were assaulted by street vendor in Bangladesh, I'd like to hear about that too.
[strike]Also, for what it's worth, I've got a better chance of ending up in Albania than anywhere else if I joined the Peace Corps. This is FAR FAR from certain, however.[/strike]
edit: Just sell me on cities out west, stupid Peace Corps wait time bit me in the ass. :-(
-AKIRA- on
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Other questions:
Do you mind driving?
Do you like to go bicycling?
What kind of weather do you like?
Do you want to be close to the beach?
Do you need to be surrounded by forests, or deserts, or is it okay to have those things be mostly a couple of hours away?
Are there any particular cities where you know you can/can't find work?
The process for me to get here was extremely long, as with most of the people in my group (EC80), I was in the application process for nearly 2 years (from opening my application online until the day I left home) before I finally arrived in country. It is not always that long of a wait, as i've heard that some people can apply and leave within 10 months, but I think with the increasing number of applicants, it is unlikely that will happen.
I'll be honest, my life in the Peace Corps is incredibly comfortable. We here in the Eastern Caribbean are often called "Beach Corps", which we sometimes take offense to, but there is a good reason we get that name. Right now I am sitting in my apartment, which is nicer than something I could have afforded in the states. The Atlantic Ocean is literally my backyard, and I could walk 30 minutes (or 5 minute bus ride) to swim at a beach on the Caribbean side. The mountains are across the road and past some cane fields... it's very beautiful. I have wireless internet (2mbps), more cable channels than I had at home (which my landlord pays for), a washing machine, and hot water. I also have a cute kitten, and rum is very cheap.
Not everything is always good though, culture shock takes a heavy toll sometimes. It is easy to get depressed and lonely, even though I can visit every volunteer on the island within a 30 minute bus ride. In order to get to my school I walk maybe a mile through 85 degree heat (although it feels much much hotter) in business casual clothing because Peace Corps has a very strict dress code in our country. In order to buy any groceries I have to take a bus to town, which is easy but still inconvenient because you will have to schedule at least three or more hours to make the trip. Don't run out of groceries on a Sunday, because you won't find anything open. It also gets dark here at 6:05 every night, and it's not a good idea to walk around at night by yourself, which contributes to loneliness.
I was the only young male in my group (which is awesome), but it's difficult for me to make friends with locals. The women have very little trouble since Kittitian men are very direct and approach the girls all the time. Out of my three months here I have made maybe two local friends.
It is difficult being a cultural minority (as well as racial minority). Even though English is the main language here, it's difficult to understand the very thick dialect and gets quite frustrating. I don't understand some topics of conversation or many jokes because of the different cultural background. St. Kitts economy is based primarily on tourism. Cruise ships have lately been coming in every day, and because I am white I am assumed to be a tourist. It gets frustrating having taxi drivers ask me if I want a taxi every time I'm in town. Don't they remember me from when they asked the day before?
Oh yeah, food here is insanely expensive too. Almost everything is imported. A frozen pizza costs 30EC (11 or 12 USD). Other Peace Corps volunteers may say that we have it soft, however it is not that way. We have most of the nice stuff from home here, except now we cannot afford it. Yes, we have a Dominos Pizza place in town, but I don't want to pay $50 for a single pizza. It's difficult to go from being the have to the have-not's of society in the one day it took to fly down here. Peace Corps in the Eastern Caribbean has the highest drop out rate of volunteers than any other region Peace Corps serves in, which I think it testament to how difficult it can get.
I'm not exactly complaining about that stuff, since I knew it would not be easy when I signed up. They are mostly just annoying observations that I can't escape.
All that said, I LOVE my life here, even though it is not always easy. Some days I feel like I do a lot and know that I have an important role here, and other days I feel completely useless.
I know that was all very long (I have a LOT of free time to be bored), but I hope you find it helpful.
Feel free to follow my blog here: http://kittsmet.blogspot.com/
Good luck!
edit: Why do you think that you will most likely be going to Albania? If you have an environmental background, there are a lot of options.
Yeah, definitely should have mentioned some of that.
I'd like to get out of the southeastern portion of the country, so there's that. I refuse to live somewhere landlocked, flat, and generally pitiful like Kansas or Iowa. For one reason or another, I just don't see myself in New England. So that leaves the west coast.
I don't mind driving in the least, and biking isn't something I do now, although that may be a function of my current area. I generally enjoy the outdoors as long as it's not too horribly cold out. I can, however, hunker down and make due if there are a few 'harsh' winter months.
As far as daily weather goes, Washington state is tempting. I love cloud covered skies, but I also enjoy a sunny day as much as the next guy.
I grew up about 20 minutes from the beach, so although I do enjoy it, proximity to the beach isn't really a consideration.
Trees are a big plus, but I've got the idea of a relatively large city in mind at the moment, so I'm not dead set on having a forest outside my window.
Living in NC my entire life has me quite accustomed to humid conditions, so a desert would take come getting used to, but I imagine I could manage. I'd like to avoid it if I could though.
I haven't looked into the job situation in any particular city as my choices are simply too broad at the moment. I guess I could check out a "10 worst" list or something and remove those cities from consideration, but I haven't done that yet.
I don't expect to answer the question of what I'm going to do with next few years of my life with this thread. I'm just hoping to get some more info as to make a more informed decision. The final choice is still several months out, I've got time.
Thanks for that post. Sounds like the Peace Corps has been quite the mixed bag for you, glad it's had its high points though.
The Albania thing was just gleaned from a few off-hand comments I received from a Peace Corps recruiter during a conversation about what I was looking to do. Ideally I'd be involved in improving a water system that's already on it's way to being reliable, rather than starting from scratch (eg I'd like to avoid stuff like constructing a ferrocrete system). Apparently Albania has a pretty banged up water system compared to the rest of their infrastructure. This wasn't official or anything, but the recruiter felt Albania was likely, whatever that's worth.
I'm betting that the winters in NC are harsher than anything you'll find on the West Coast.
If you're looking for trees, Seattle and Portland are really probably the two major West Coast cities you want to look at. Cost of living is hella low compared to the Cali cities, too, though the job market kinda sucks right now. Joining the Peace Corps to ride out the down economic times, then moving to the West Coast would not be a terrible plan.
Hey,
I met and stayed with some Peace Corps volunteers in Albania, and spent a good amount of time in Albania, and I would seriously suggest doing a lot of research and soul-searching if you're thinking about going there.. See if you can find some current or past Peace Corps Albania volunteers to talk to.
It's a pretty backward country and the volunteers there were not completely satisfied with the people / culture OR the Peace Corps program / backup they received from Peace Corps. I can tell you more if you want.
I also met and had a conversation with a Peace Corps volunteer doing what you want to do (he was working in a water processing planet in Macedonia) and he ran into a lot of problems with entrenched attitudes and finding it very difficult to actually accomplish anything. He said in in a post-communist country it was difficult to get people to consider new or different ideas.
Also FYI in Macedonia the volunteers called it the Posh Corps. They had huge flats with laundry, tv, etc. Versus in Albania where they were lucky to have the kitchen and bathroom be two different rooms.
That's my 2 cents.
What made you pick Seattle over any other city? What, if you can put your finger on it, makes Seattle different than the larger cities you visited on the eastern seaboard, or the larger cities you've been to since you moved back west? I guess I'm asking, what makes Seattle "Seattle" in your mind?
I'm quite surprised how nice some folks have it in the Peace Corps. Before I started doing my research I entirely expected to be living in a rancid hell hole with a leaky roof on a good day. I grew up a learning how to "rough it" for a week or two at a time (thank you rural NC), so that part isn't a big concern for me. The stubborn attitudes from the former krauts, on the other hand, isn't something I've thought about. That's worthy of consideration. Please go ahead and expand on how the folks you know felt let down by the Peace Corps itself if you don't mind.
Kind of along the same lines, don't go into Peace Corps thinking that you will change the world or even get a lot done. Yes, it is possible you can change a lot for the better (although it doesn't always happen), and things certainly do not always get accomplished which leads to a lot of frustration.
Whenever I get frustrated with how little I am accomplishing, I just remember that Peace Corps has three goals: providing technical assistance (for me it is Youth Development, for you likely working with water), helping people outside the United States understand the culture of the United States, and helping United States people understand the culture of other countries.
I know that when I am completely failing at helping little Jamed learn how to read, at least I can still work with the other two goals. I am hosting a huge Thanksgiving dinner at my apartment, inviting locals and volunteers. By doing that I am accomplishing goal #2. If I go to a rum shop to have a beer and chat with locals, I am accomplishing goal #2. If I visit home or talk to tourist I am accomplishing #3. So even though I may fail at the technical aspect, I am still succeeding at promoting the peace corps goals.
This isn't entirely true. As someone said before, there is a LONG wait to actually get sent somewhere. Even after you get approved to go (a year long process at least), there is also a waiting list after that because peace core only has so many slots. It's very popular right now, so expect a long wait. You'll have to find work, (unless you're just rich), so don't expect to just avoid the difficult job search. You've still gotta do it.
Anyways, I have a friend shipping out to the sahara desert, (even though he speaks spanish...), so don't expect to go somewhere you'll like, like that lucky bastard who posted about the Caribbean.
So the volunteers I met:
First, the volunteers I met / hung out with / stayed with were in the far, far south of the country, near Greece. As you referenced earlier, Albania has terrible infrastructure so they were effectively cut off from everyone. I think it was ~ 200KM from where they were to the capital, but it was a full 8 hour drive to get there. Like Spacerobot said you can't have your own transportation so you're stuck with public transportation which in Albania, when it exists, is terrible.
They were placed in a tiny city in the middle of nowhere town with no local government. Not ineffective local government.. no local government. The state was total anarchy. Apparently the last person out of city hall however many years before had padlocked the door shut, and that was it.
They had very little to no support from the program in Albania, and were left to their own devices. Unfortunately given the cultural and language barriers meant that they basically were able to do.. nothing, no matter their motivation.
As an aside- don't expect to meet any women in Albania. When night falls there are *no* (literally: 0) women on the streets. It's a culture that's extremely hostile to women. Female volunteers obviously had.. problems.
---
Peace Corps Macedonia was a completely different story. I met a lot of volunteers there, and they were quite happy with the program. They had nice accommodation, I visited some of the places they worked (they took me along) and they were able to be effective and do important work. Also, the culture is a lot.. nicer.
I really got the impression that the quality of the program is wildly different on a country-by-country basis. I only really had the opportunity to meet volunteers from those two countries (and one in Morocco- she seemed happy)
As I'm sure you've heard everywhere else, Seattle is a pretty great place. Environmentally conscious? Okay with a mix of sunshine and rain? You'll fit right in.
Unfortunately, job market here isn't great for us at the moment, just like everywhere else. Entry level jobs for Engineering are few, which is why I am currently a part time tutor, despite graduating in June. Normally this is a great place to do Water Resources, as we have a lot of big and small companies here - unfortunately HDR and CH2MHill don't like hiring BS degrees, but, screw them.
So, to sum it up, great place to live, great place to do this line of work (so many water conservation/management/sewage/stormwater projects here), but bad timing, which is why I can see you're considering the peace corps. Try seeing if you can get some connections and maybe even phone interviews over here before committing. It may sound odd, but ask for an internship too, even though you've graduated - it's more likely to lead to a job then sitting around like I have been
Best of luck, and perhaps someday we'll end up working together.
PSN/XBL: dragoniemx
Oh well, life doesn't always work out the way we want. I'll just have to shelve that desire for a bit, and actually get into the workforce in ~ six months. :-(
So, in that light, sell me on Seattle / Portland / Bay Area / wherever else you think is nifty that happens to border the Pacific.
Also, the next time I talk to my folks about this, my mom may want to bake a cake for each and every one of you*. She was NEVER fond of the Peace Corps idea, and will be thrilled that I'm at least putting it off for a bit. So let me know where to start shipping some cake!
*Cake offer void if you mention anything sexual about my mom... stupid internet.
Yeah, that's kind of the idea as of an hour ago. The Peace Corps plan certainly isn't dead, it's just going to have to collect some dust for a bit.
You can probably skip SoCal, though San Diego is pretty nice. Lots of traffic and next to no public transit, though.
You'll want to get your ethnic slurs figured out before you invade any of these foreign countries or people might not know what you're talking about.
In other news: portland or seattle. SF is pretty much the only city I'd recommend in california and that isn't something to just jump into, plus california is about to fail. So head over to portland(it's the best!) for a while and from there you can easily check out other cities on the west coast.
Personally, I moved from the midwest to Long Beach about 3 years ago, and I love it. There's nowhere else in this country I'd rather be, all things considered. It's relatively cheap, relatively safe, great for biking. Great mix of people. Same county as LA without some of the annoying things about actually living in downtown or West LA. The sexy eye candy doesn't get any better, not that eye candy is a good reason to move somewhere, but boy oh boy. It does have a crappy beach ruined by a breakwater, and too much pollution, so it's not perfect. The only other place I'd want to be personally is maybe Seattle.
What I like about Seattle is that (like most West-Coast cities outside of Southern California) it's fairly relaxed, and has a "West Coast" vibe that's really hard to describe if you haven't traveled around a bit. People tend to be... I don't want to use the word "rude," because that really has negative connotations I don't want to include, but, more curt, I guess on the East Coast? Like, all business, no pleasantries. Seattle lacks the high hippie concentration present in Portland or the Bay Area; both Portland and the Bay Area also have a much higher concentration of "fringe" types (tattooed people, anarchists, punks, etc.), and I think Portland is probably the hipster capital of the world. Seattle doesn't lack in that, but it's much more tilted towards the young professional ("yuppie") type. Any of the three areas are ridiculously liberal; we just approved civil unions in Washington state based almost entirely upon Seattle's vote alone. All three areas have local ordinances putting marijuana enforcement at the lowest possible priority. One thing Bay Area has over Seattle and Portland, though, is way better liquor laws; you can get hard liquor at Safeway at midnight in California; you have to go to a liquor store during some fucking shitty-ass hours in Portland or Seattle in order to get anything other than beer or wine.
Speaking of beer and wine, it's really hard to beat the local alcohol/food culture of the West Coast. Great seafood, burgers, etc. Pretty much the only thing the East Coast has over us is pizza and bagels. The one thing I do miss being this far North is really good Mexican food, though. However, it's pretty much impossible to beat this area as far as wine and beer go (at least, within the U.S.). After two years here, now, I've finally gotten to the point where there are some bars I can walk into and they don't have any microbrews I haven't tried before.
The cost of living here is way lower than the cost of living in the Bay Area or Southern California, and while the pay is lower, I'm certain you end up way better off here than you do in those places (I'm making more than I did in bumfuck, California, but renting a much nicer place that is an enormous apartment two blocks from a lake, and paying a comparable amount for rent). Cost of living in Portland is a bit lower than Seattle, though. Portland is also much more bike-friendly (but driving in Portland is a punishment sent from God), and it really is a city filled with trees. Like, I've never seen a city with as much greenery as Portland (which isn't to say that Seattle isn't very nice in that respect, too, just not quite as nice). Portland has a better public transportation system, too, but it's worth noting that I've gone from someone who uses a car to get everywhere to someone who considers a car to be a tremendous burden since moving up here (I don't own a bike). Seattle is pretty bike-friendly, too, but again, not to the same degree as Portland.
To give you a rough idea, I think the population density of Seattle is about double that of Portland, and the population density of the Bay Area is about double that of Seattle. You're going to get roughly similar weather in all three places, though the Bay Area is a bit more temperate than Seattle or Portland, I think. We had a ten-year storm in Seattle last year, which meant about a week when there was about a foot of snow on the ground. The year before that, it barely snowed at all, and that's apparently pretty typical.
Obviously, I am fantastically biased, because I love it out here, but that's a pretty good breakdown of your Northern options out here. I personally hate Southern California with a passion, so I'll let someone else tell you about it. :P
If you have any other questions about those three areas in particular, I'll be happy to answer them.
But they, like, have sex for crack, right? That seems like a fair deal.
I hadn't even considered San Diego as I don't really know anything about it. I'll have to look into that a bit.
In respect to LA and the surrounding area, I've always felt that LA is very 'flashy' for lack of a better term. Like it's the west coast equivalent of Miami or something. Not exactly my idea of a nice city, but my randomly generated stereotype may be a little off.
Jeebus Christ Thanatos! If Seattle doesn't put you on their board of tourism, they're missing out. I've got the need to skip class today and just head out there.
And it would be a good place to work since you're gonna be dealing with water! Sacramento river! Everyone gets their water from us.
Good things about Sacramento
- traffic isn't that bad compared to bigger cities
- one of the most ethnically diverse places in the US! (says Times magazine in 2002)
- lots of trees (thus we are dubbed the 'City of Trees')
- lots of really good ethnic places to eat (I hear mexican food sucks on the east coast)
- only a couple hours aways from the bay and snow
- If you like jazz, we have the HUGE Jazz Jublilee festival every Memorial day weekend
- not as expensive to live compared to LA or SF
- lots of cool old historic shit downtown (like the Crocker Art Museum and Old Sacramento)
- pretty liberal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacramento
Good to know. "Not white" is a significant bonus on my lady friend score card. I'm not the only guy that's got a somewhat formalized point system for women, am I?
a sad fact about sacramento is LOTS of high school girls, who then move away when they go to college and never come back.
+1 for san diego
Though rent is on the higher end...$1100+ for a one bedroom in a nice area.
Being someone who, highly unfortunately, lives in Bakersfield you can say that about any city just about. It's still impressive though how often the city gets brought up in popular culture despite being a nothing town. Simply because of it's terribleness.
I've been pondering places to escape too recently as well, which I guess isn't much of a surprise now that you know I live in Bakersfield.
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I've been in Houston for almost a year and a half now, and so far I have found nothing to dislike about it. I'll break down the different areas for evaluation and tell you why I like it:
Jobs and the economy
Houston has an extremely strong economy right now, compared to the rest of the country, especially for engineers. As a civil engineer you should have no problem finding a job.
Houston's job market is dominated by energy companies; of those companies, ~75% are oil companies. You sound like a bit of a hippy (I don't mean that badly!) so this might be the only downside for you. Almost all of the intelligent, attractive women you meet on a night out will probably say they either work directly for an oil major, or their company contracts out to an oil major.
The culture
Houston has an extremely diverse and very young city. Its strong job economy for engineers mean there are a LOT of young transplants of every nationality. It has a very large Asian population, and also of course a very large Hispanic population.
As a result, the food and restaurants are amazing. Tex mex should have its own spot on the food pyramid. The city's coastal location means seafood is always fresh, and its Texas heritage means you literally cannot find a bad steak no matter how hard you try. I'd bet on any one of the top 5 Houston sushi places against ANY restaurant out West - and I'm pretty sure the Houston spots would win. Long story short: The food is amazing.
From a political standpoint, Houston is an interesting place. It's still Texas, but since the majority of the population are either out-of-state transplants or immigrants, you tend not to see the shotgun-toting, Bible-thumping cowboys you find in other areas of Texas.
Houston has no zoning laws, which makes for fascinating combos such as the Methodist church located two doors down from a high-rollilng strip joint. There's an area of Houston known as the "Montrose area", which has the highest density of tattoo parlors I've ever seen (there's one 5-block area with approximately 2-3 per block) and some of the most amazing little shops and studios. The thing I love about that area is that it's all the hipster with none of the attitude. Texas hospitality in a hipster - it's worth seeing, trust me.
The night life is very much alive, and you can find any kind of fun bar or club. I have had a blast in dive bars around Houston, and I've had a blast at clubs around Houston. So you can have your pick.
The people
I sorta already covered this under the 'culture' section, but the people are awesome. Everyone is very friendly and hospitable (...except when driving). There are a ton of young people, of all shapes, sizes, colors, and beliefs.
There are a lot of opportunities to meet people around Houston, not just through the vibrant night life. I'm currently playing on ultimate frisbee and flag football leagues, and there are all kinds of other outdoorsy activities to participate in where you can meet people. Houston is a very active city, which I think is nice.
The infrastructure and cost of living
Cost of living is extremely cheap compared to other major cities. (remember that Houston is the 4th largest city in the U.S.) I'm currently paying $1100 to get almost 900 sq. ft. in a 1 bed/1 bath, and I'm living in downtown Houston. A place like that in, say, D.C., would probably run me double or triple that.
One downside: Unless you live and work around downtown Houston, public transportation is terrible. Houston is very much a driving city. The highways are huge and as a result, traffic is definitely not bad. You can ride the metro buses, which I have never done so I can't speak to how good they are. There's a train in downtown Houston but its area is pretty darn limited.
The weather
3 months out of the year, Houston can be miserable - if you don't have A/C. During the summer, near-100% humidity and 90-100 degree temperatures are a pain. But for the other 9 months out of the year, Houston is gorgeous. 70-80 degree, perfectly sunny days. We get hurricane season but major issues are rare, and even with major hurricanes Houston recovers VERY quickly (Ike last year really did a lot of damage but we were back in business very quickly).
Outside right now it is exactly 70 degrees without a cloud in the sky. There's a slight cool breeze. It's basically amazing.
The point is:
Houston is awesome. Check it out!
While I think your field is going to be as a recession-proof as one could hope, you may well not have much of a choice of where you're going to find employment. I'd be flexible between seattle, pdx, sfo, and be willing to do socal or sacto if you have to. you'll have fun in each of those places for a while.
Yes and Yes. I think portland even has a zipcar type program for bikes. Also, Thanatos, whats your favorite mexican place around here? So far the only place I kind of liked was jaliscos.
Lasty, I'll throw in my totally anecdotal evidence; seattle seems to have a little friendlier bar scene than portland. I've found going out to bars in portland people keep to themselves a little more, and there definitely is not as much bar hopping. That's just what I've scene though.
This is just my impression having spent a substantial amount of time in all three metropolitan areas.
I'd agree with this, having family/friends in all three cities.
Personally I hate living in the middle of the city anyway (too cramped, dirty and loud), but your tastes may vary.
This is coming from someone who grew up in Vancouver (which is a fucking awesome city too - you might even want to consider Canada as an option - Vancouver and BC probably have tons of need for engineers.) and loves it.
The Bay Area is also fantastic, but as others have mentioned living in SF is hella expensive. If you don't mind living in the burbs and taking public transit to get into the city, check it out. The culture is a great amalgamation of the urban/eco-hippie culture of the Northwest with the beach bum culture of southern CA.
I love Portland and Seattle as well, but haven't spent enough time there to really talk about them in detail. If I personally was looking to relocate to the west coast, however, it would certainly be to one of those four areas.
Portland all the way.
They cast a shadow like a sundial in the morning light. It was half past 10.