When my wife & I got married a couple years ago, we went down to Disneyland for our honeymoon. We came over the grapevine and I was just struck with how conservative the whole area felt. And the smog didn't seem that bad. That was in April, maybe its worse other times. Anyway, the whole area, even Hollywood, seemed noticeably more conservative than Contra Costa county, to say nothing of Oakland / Berkeley and SF.
ETA: When I was working in Emeryville (a prime example of caplitalism done right), one of my favorite things to do would be to run over to Berkeley and get some pizza (great pizza in Berkeley) and pick up a couple of their communist newspapers. One of my favorites was one with an article about how bad the traffic congestion was in downtown Berkeley, and the solution the city council had come up with was to lower the speed limits.