Reply #112: Southern Europe isn't particularly cold.

[LooseWilly]

In fact... Southern Europe has a "Mediterranean Climate". The same term that's used for California's climate. And... I can assure you, Europe's cities are at least as interesting as San Francisco... and, unless you're looking for work as an actor/actress/director... at least as interesting as LA... and the "downtown"s are far more interesting to look at than LA (SF has it's points in its favor), and sure... the strip malls in the suburbs are more or less comparable.
Some might also want to consider this: the neighborhoods a European might consider dangerous... tend to be (dangerous wise) comparable to a middle class neighborhood in California.
(I had a Dutch woman once warn me about how dangerous the blue light zone in Amsterdam could be... the zone where the transgendered hookers paraded in the windows... and then I wandered there... and found that the neighborhood didn't even begin to compare with San Francisco's tenderloin district... let alone East or West Oakland... or San Francisco's Mission district... in fact... the "dangerous" neighborhood in Amsterdam's blue light district felt like most relatively safe suburbs of San Francisco... like Hayward or Albany.)
California is far more strict and stubborn in its anti-tobacco enforcement though... so if you hate tobacco... this is the place for you.