West Coast, Best Coast?

From Adam Mansbach, author of Go the F**k to Sleep

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San Francisco. 1947. Photograph by Henri Cartier-Bresson/Magnum.

We asked seven California residents to describe the allure of the California dream and to question whether the state lives up to the myths and stories that precede it. Something has driven people to head west and stake their claim in this state for hundreds of years, be it the Gold Rush, Hollywood, tech or simply the dream of something better just out of reach. Here is Adam Mansbach’s take on the California dream.

California is open vistas, ocean, sky and a slower pace, perhaps. I think that's the most general version of the state. But my California dream is a little more cynical than that. I've always felt like coming to California from Boston and New York, there is this tremendous advantage because you came from a place where people thought faster, talked faster and were more aggressive and more intellectually rigorous. Ever since I got here, people have always asked me, has California changed you? Has it mellowed you out? And mostly I'm like, nah, why would I do that?