Today, I will contrast my hometown – Garden Grove & Orange County to where I went for college – La Jolla & San Diego. This should ultimately be interesting….

In order to do this I must look at various factors: 1) The Facts 2) Aesthetics 3) Memories 4) Significance & 5) People

Part 1: The Facts

ORANGE COUNTY:
Population: 2,846,293
Ethnicity: 64.76% White, 16.05% Asian, 0.33% Pacific Islander, 1.72% African American, 0.38% Native American, 14.32% from other races, and 2.44% from two or more races. 32.89% of the population were Hispanic of any race. 30.49% of the population was foreign born
Politics: Republican stronghold. Republican majorities gave California electoral votes to Richard Nixon (1960, 1968, and 1972), Gerald Ford (1976), Ronald Reagan (1980, 1984), And George HW Bush (1988). O.C. has not voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since FDR’s re-election in 1936.

SAN DIEGO:
Population: 2,813,835
Ethnicity: 69.5% White American, 5.2% Black or African American, 0.7% Native American, 10.2% Asian, 0.4% Pacific Islander, 10.3% from other races, and 3.6% from two or more races. 29.9% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. 67.0% spoke English, 21.9% Spanish, 3.1% Tagalog and 1.2% Vietnamese as their first language.
Politics: Republican Stronghold. 2008 was the first time in decades that a Democratic presidential nominee won a majority of the county’s votes (though in 1992 Bill Clinton won a plurality). The city of San Diego itself is more Democratic than the county’s average (though fairly moderate for a large city) and has voted for Democrats Clinton, Gore, Kerry, and Obama in the last five presidential elections respectively.

Based on the facts provided above, I’m going to give Orange County 1 point for being more conservative than San Diego County (That’s actually the only reason…)

Part 2: Aesthetics

Both are pretty in their own way. In fact, if you were to Google Images of Orange County & San Diego, you’d clearly find pretty parts of both.

Orange County.

San Diego.

Because of this, I’m going to compile pictures I’ve actually taken of both areas that I’ve actually PHYSICALLY been present, in an effort to contrast the beauty of both.

ORANGE COUNTY:

Angel Stadium

Rancho Alamitos….

Mile Square Park.

Stanton, Old Hometown.

Robert M. Pyles Elementary School.

Discovery Science Center

UC IRVINE

Regal’s!

The Block Outlets of Orange!

The Crystal Cathedral!

Fullerton College

Huntington Beach.

Bella Terra!

Bella Terra

Disneyland!

Westminster Mall!

Home Home Home!

SAN DIEGO:

UCSD, Geisel!

La Jolla Shores!

UCSD, Stewart Hall!

La Jolla Shores, The Cliffs!

Stewart Hall, Night time

La Jolla Shores!

San Diego Wild Animal Park!

UCSD, ERC!

UCSD, Graffiti Room!

Harbor Island

UCSD, SunGod

Phil’s BBQ

Scripps Pier

Mission Bay Park!

This decision remains tough because there are pretty locations in both cities, I must say. I’m going to give this point to San Diego though, simply because the whole prospect of Phil’s is making my mouth water.

Part 3: Memories/Personality.

The “personality” of each county/town is based solely on the memories I have had in each location. So let’s analyze all of the “major” memories I’ve had in each location to ultimately come to a decision.

ORANGE COUNTY:

Obviously I’ve been in Orange County for a majority of my life, so I’m going to leave out the whole presence of childhood & middle school, and only use my high school years in an effort to make it a fair fight. Let’s see:

Aids Walk 2006!

Ronald Mcdonald House, 2006

VOC Auxiliary, 2006!

Beach Cleanup, 2007!

Discovery Science Center, 2006!

Acquired Brain Injury Walk, 2007

MS Walk, 2007!

Orange County Food Bank! 2007.

Freaks and Geeks…. Don’t ask. 2008.

Fullerton College Film Festival, 2008

High School Graduation, 2008

VOC Banquet, 2008

Spring Break Bonfire! 2008

UC Dinner! 2008

Winter Formal 2008!

18th Birthday! 2008.

Christmas! 2009

Hey There Delilah Concert

Bowling 2010

Disneyland 2010!

Harry’s Reunion, 2009!

Rancho Reunion (2011)

Hiking (2012)

SAN DIEGO:

Ron Paul Rally

Graduation

Sun God 2012

Flush the John Campaign

Clinton Global Initiative

Thinktogether Summer Program (2011)

Weezer Concert

COMIC Con 2010

Stacey Hunsucker Movie Screening!

18th Birthday, 2008!

SunGod 2009

Lupe Fiasco Day!

Secret Santa 2009!

Thanksgiving Dinner, 2009

PAW Banquet, 2010!

PAW bonfire!

San Diego Wild Animal Park, 2010

Rezzies 2010

Spirit Night 2010

Secret Santa 2010!

Nacurh 2010!

If we were to go for nostalgic purposes, obviously I’m more nostalgic for Orange County because I spent my childhood and high school years there. As much as college has grown me as a person in life experience, high school remains the place where my confidence and sense of self came to fruition. If high school hadn’t influenced me so much, college would not have. So consequently, though both memories remain positive, from a nostalgic perspective high school was much more important (though college WAS technically better).

Part 4: Significance.

Now, in the grand scheme of things, what is Orange County and San Diego’s place in the world? In other words, what would other countries think of each county, and we’ll award a point based on which one is superior.

ORANGE COUNTY:

Cultural References:

- THE O.C. (FOX)
- Orange County (movie)
- Arrested Development Setting
- UC Irvine Seen in Ocean’s Eleven, Poltergest, & Criminal Minds
- Accepted took place in Chapman University
- MTV’s Laguna Beach & Newport Harbor
Also, the Crystal Cathedral is seen every week live on TV in “The Hour of Power” with a religious service.

SAN DIEGO:

Cultural References to UCSD:

- Geisel library frequently used in various movies including: Attack of the Killer Tomatoes.
- Veronica Mars filmed on campus (WARREN)
- Furthermore, Inception used Geisel as their snow fortress!

Inception!

Because of that sole fact, UCSD, La Jolla, & San Diego County win in the realm of significance.

It’s a tie, which brings it down all the way to round 5:

5) People

This is going to be fun.

ORANGE COUNTY:

Here are the people from Orange County I know and love.

Amy Tran

Brian Nguyen

Earle Tabula

George Tello

Hiep Tran

Brian Vo & Jerick Galang!

Theresa Bui

Thiep Mai!

Tiana Vo

Tran Tran!

Howard Nguyen!

Triet Nguyen

F&G [+Tony, Kennedy, Christian, etc.]

My Family, duh. (Mostly Annie, Jenny, Nam, & Tracy though)

The Floor Family!

Youth for Ron Paul (mostly Paul, Elizabeth, Amy, Brandon, Nandhu]

Amul Shah !

Amy’s Apartment

Henry’s Apt (Honorary Members: Bijan & Adam)

Michelle Wong

Julia Peng

Tiffany Saw

Not pictured: Jessica, Louise, Adam, Alex, Pam, etc.

In the end, I don’t think I can really decide which group of friends are better. They are both good in their own way.

So until I figure that out, this debate remains: UNDECIDED. I’ll leave it up to the Supreme Court, which means I’ll create a poll for you to vote on below:

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