The west coast has everything. There are beaches and mountains, deserts, wastelands and metropolises. People from the east coast wanting to reinvent themselves go to California. People from the west head to NYC, only to find out they had it made where they were. So why does the west serve as the perfect place for reinventing one's self?
Leland states that hip was born of displaced raged. The west coast is also raging. The San Andreas Fault could be seen as a geological sign of the hipster. Beneath California a different kind of angst is raging. The North American Plate and the Pacific plate are having a disagreement. The San Andreas Fault is a result of this disagreement. With all this rage down below the Earth's crust, there is just as much beauty on the top.
Perhaps hipsters are drawn to this site because it represents, in the simplest form, everything they stand for without knowing it. They feel the need to defy everyone and everything, including the planet itself. The hipster wants to be on the edge even in their sleep. So why wouldn't you build your life and your home on a fault line. Or it could be much simpler than that.
Hip needs an audience according to Leland. You cannot find an audience as diverse and lively as you can on the west coast. All kinds of people escape to L.A. and so it stands to reason, they would be more excepting of other escapees. Because no matter what people say, they all want to feel excepted in some form or another.
