I went to school in the LA area for 6 years and, while I had a ball and made many life-long friends in the area, I was always baffled by the culture (or maybe lack of culture) of the city. It just always seemed massive, sprawling, confused and undefined.
I always thought that lack of identity was the result of the fact that almost everybody was from someplace else and there wasn't the real, multi-generational continuity that I have enjoyed so much in all other communities in which I have lived. Maybe it was all there and I was too busy being a 60s kid to notice.
Manhattan is my favorite place to visit because I love the pulse of the City, but Seattle is my favorite place to live. It's just a big small town.