San Luis Obispo

Home of the best public engineering school on the West Coast. As a result, full of Republicans. It has an awesome downtown section with cool stores and cheap parking garages, and is surrounded by mountains. Ten minutes down the road, however, is Pismo Beach, where there's at least decent surfing and good restaurants.

San Luis Obispo, or "SLO" is a great city on the central coast of California. It is home to Cal Poly, the top public engineering and architecture school in the nation. But since Cal Poly is still a state school, there are awesome parties and tons of fine girls. San Luis Obispo has a small town feel in its downtown area, with tons of good restaurants and shops. Every Thursday is Farmer's market, where the main downtown street, Higuera St, is closed off and tons of people are everywhere selling food, theres live entertainment, and a lot to do. Not to mention the weather is perfect almost year round. It is just far enough from the coast that it stays pretty warm, but close enough that the beach isnt too far away. It is close to many beach towns, like Avila, Pismo, Morro Bay, and Cayucos. There is pretty decent surf in the region, and the beach towns are very nice. One of the best things about San Luis Obispo is the people, though. Everyone is really friendly and SLO is a good place to live. It was recently voted the number 1 happiest place in the United States, and it is the second happiest place in the entire world. San Luis Obispo is an awesome place to call home.

An overrated small-town located in the isolated central coast of California. Pretty much everyone who lives here thinks its the best place on earth, but can only back that up with either "it has perfect weather," "it has farmer's market on Thursday," or "Its surrounded by scenic hills." The truth is, the majority of the people who live here come from smog-embezzled L.A. They haven't seen much better of an area, so when they get here they think its paradise, and never want to leave.

In the end, you get a small-town that has a high population of snobs, lacking diversity and that is conservative in many respects. Also, full of people who haven't heard of Yosemite, or who have, but don't really know where it is and have never been there. They think, what place could be better than San Luis Obispo?

About the weather, its not perfect. The sunny, clear weather people talk about only occurs for a few hours around lunch. Past 3-o'clock, you'll have a cold wind blowing in your face at 18mph, almost all year. Evenings, everyone's inside because its cold and windy. Even in the summer you only get a handful of nice evenings. There are no seasons, the weather is the same year-round, which is boring.

A city in California

People think its a cool small town who havn't lived in a small town before. Although there are many republicans, there are more liberals with more COEXIST stickers than is healthy. Basically a lack of thinking for oneself Also home to an extremely large population of douches/bros. In order to fit in you must have no personality/opinions, have white sunglasses or a crooked LA or SF hat. have skateboard brand stickers on your car that went outa style 4 years ago, and drive 5 mph under the speed limit even if you are 20 years old. There is NOTHING to do in 200 miles in any direction. a vacation place for dirty fresno and bakersfield trash. about 5 guys to every girl. But it has perfect weather.

Middle of nowhere. Exactly between SF and LA, with nothing but cows surrounding it for hundreds of miles.

Funny place where the residents all think the local ag state school is some sort of ivy league. It is really funny since pretty much nobody outside of SLO (common shortening of San Luis Obisp, pronounced "slow") have ever heard of the place. The school offers degrees in welding, and has a meat packing plant on-campus-- it is more a trade school than a typical university.

If you like cold windy summers where you need to wear a jacket or at least a sweatshirt at noon most summer days, then the weather is great. If you don't like living in a refrigerator, the weather sucks. The beaches have an arctic current that touches down on the coast here, so the water is always freezing-- you will need a full suit with hood and booties to be comfortable even in the summer.

Local scene. none.

Demographics, 99.99999% white with a large percentage of rednecks (remember ag school). Most singles are 19-22 or 60+. Most everyone in between is married.

Largest employers, the nuke plant, the prison, the schools, and other government employees. Not much besides very small companies and retail outside of those big three.

A very strange place, but it has been reported that folks here are unusually happy. I guess they don't share what they are smoking until you have been living here for a while.

Just about the most boring town ever. Filled with a bunch of snobby rude people, and can't go anywhere worth going with out a license.