+1 for San Diego. It's small enough you can be familiar with most of the neighborhoods and still big enough there's always an interesting event or new restaurant to check out. Apple has expansion plans in the region. The military/larger federal government presence is sort of nice, I sense that plus the large tourism numbers helps keep SD away from the extreme end of California politics.

The weather is a huge plus, and I anticipate the city will handle global warming a little better than other regions. The county has made a lot of good decisions with water management too, from keeping the reservoirs full to supplying almost 10% of the water supply from a desal plant.

I disagree that the coastline is the only "nice" place to get a house, the ocean is pretty accessible from most parts of the city due to the highway designs.

Of course, there's issues with homelessness, retail theft, poor public transit, expensive housing. But it all seems a little more tame to me than the same issues in LA/SF/Seattle.