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"West Coast" requires that doable day trip to the actual coast and back to your inland city or town by car.... In other words,
I can eat breakfast in Sacramento, be on the San Mateo Coast under 2hrs, have a full days of surfing, dinner and campfire on the beach, just before the drive back and stop at a bar in midtown SAC and close the bar.
I agree, despite all the other similarities with western cities, "West Coast" requires that doable day trip to the actual coast and back to your inland city or town by car.
Inland Empire is alot like Phoenix but it's only 30mins-1hr from Southern Cal beaches. The marine layer affects the Inland Empire, noticeably.
Further north, Sacramento (1 1/4 to 2 hrs to coast) is closer to coastal beaches than Portland and Seattle. Sacramento gets Bay Area low clouds and cool ocean weather in the middle of the summer regularly in the evening, night and morning.
Seattle and Portland have doable day trip access to their coasts and the Puget Sound.
All those other cities clearly have western vibes and are "western", just not "West Coast".
I assumed the OP was speaking about broad cultural similarities. Obviously Vegas and Denver and Boise and Phoenix aren't that close to the coast or feel coastal in any way. When we talk about West Coast cities we know what we're referring to--basically everything from Seattle, Portland, Sacramento, SF Bay Area down to LA and San Diego--however, my point is that there's a different vibe to different parts of the West Coast. The actual coastline north of say Marin County all the way to Canada feels nothing like southern parts of the West Coast. Seattle has much more in common with San Francisco then it does with Forks, Washington on the actual coast.
A beach town or coastal vibe is completely different thing though from just being a "West Coast" city(just as a port city is different). I grew up in Santa Cruz--that's a beach town. San Jose on the other hand just over the hill to the north feels completely different. It's still a West Coast city, but there's nothing really coastal about it in terms of feel other than the proximity to the beach and the fact that a small part borders the Bay.
I'd honestly say that Denver in some ways reminds me more of a West Coast city north of the Bay Area like Portland or Sacramento than a place like Phoenix or Vegas would, but on the other hand it doesn't remind me of a place in Southern California at all, nor does it really remind me of the Bay Area.
A beach town or coastal vibe is completely different thing though from just being a "West Coast" city(just as a port city is different). I grew up in Santa Cruz--that's a beach town. San Jose on the other hand just over the hill to the north feels completely different. It's still a West Coast city, but there's nothing really coastal about it in terms of feel other than the proximity to the beach and the fact that a small part borders the Bay.
I guess what beach and coastal towns don’t get is how much your environment is part of our culture in California. Meaning the Santa Cruz life and its weather has a direct impact on what makes Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley. Without it, the weather would be hotter in the summer and colder in the winter. Surfing, diving, sailing, and deep sea fishing would not be part of the Silicon Valley culture. They are inter-connected. The folks who make big dollars in Silicon Valley but live over the hill are economically connected too.
My nephew started surfing before 10 years old and was born and raised in Sacramento, not exactly a coastal town. If he didn’t have access to the coast he would not be as good as he is and he is as West Coast as they come.
I guess what beach and coastal towns don’t get is how much your environment is part of our culture in California. Meaning the Santa Cruz life and its weather has a direct impact on what makes Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley. Without it, the weather would be hotter in the summer and colder in the winter. Surfing, diving, sailing, and deep sea fishing would not be part of the Silicon Valley culture. They are inter-connected. The folks who make big dollars in Silicon Valley but live over the hill are economically connected too.
My nephew started surfing before 10 years old and was born and raised in Sacramento, not exactly a coastal town. If he didn’t have access to the coast he would not be as good as he is and he is as West Coast as they come.
Okay, but you're just talking about proximity to coastal areas for daytrips. That's fine, but you're sort of missing the points of what I was saying. Sure that's a nice feature of living even inland on the West Coast.
I'm saying that the "West Coast vibe" of the cities on the West Coast isn't totally related to the coast itself since north of San Francisco there isn't even a small city directly on the coast. Overall I think the OP is assuming that there are some common traits between the major cities and asking what city in the West is most like it. What I was saying originally was that I don't find as much in common overall between the cities over the whole expanse of the West Coast and that I think people would answer just based on how much the cities in the rest of the west in question resemble Los Angeles.
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