I'm on the outskirts of the Bay Area (outside the area proper, but very accessible). I love where I live for literally everything except cost and the sizable homeless population (and I'm not so much upset about the homeless as people or as a "problem" for me as I am about the fact that this city will joyfully spend more on maintaining a literal dirt campsite for people to camp in than they would spend putting the exact same people in market rate housing; our entire policy towards helping people is 5000% borked). Fantastic weather, fantastic hiking, immediately available ocean that I love spending time at, just enough stuff going on that there's things to do but not so much going on that I'm overwhelmed by choice. I have a bunch of friends here and generally enjoy the greater populace in this area. Unfortunately, this is also one of the most unaffordable locales in the entire country, and that -- that I do not enjoy. If it weren't for the cost, I'd never leave. As it is, leaving is always in the back of my mind.
Re: the Bay Area proper -- I like the East Bay, and would move there if Boyfriend ends up with a job up in that area once he finishes his PhD. (I work remotely for the most part, so my commute would not be affected.) The weather is an acceptable variant of the weather where I currently live; there's decent public transit; there's access to nature in the form of the Oakland Hills; I know people there who I adore, and I like the downtowns of the cities in question. On the other hand, I would strongly protest moving to SF or to the South Bay. Downtown SF (the financial district) makes me want to cry, what with the juxtaposition of extreme poverty and the glittering finance + tech world. I like the rest of SF as a place to wander about as a visitor, but have no desire to live somewhere that's pretty much 60 degrees and fog year round and even more insanely expensive than my current locale. I'd rather have easy immediate access to nature, better weather, and slightly cheaper rent than more access to museums or restaurants. As for the South Bay -- there's again some good stuff (good cheap pho and boba, for example, or as I just recently found out, really top notch veterinary care!). However, it's basically a super-expensive suburb, and again would not be an improvement on my current life here.
I generally find that I'm very interested in a lot of northern, cold metropolises (Minneapolis/St Paul, for example) in terms of everything except for weather. I grew up in the northeast and I hate cold weather; it can be genuinely painful for me, even in proper attire, and I definitely get some amount of winter SAD. It's kind of ridiculous how much the weather here keeps me where I am.
