Living in Los Angeles as a college student for five years, none of my apartments had air conditioning. Sure, some houses had it... but even in LA it's a bit of a luxury.
Same goes for the homes of everyone I knew in Lake Tahoe, where I grew up. The climate's similar to the bay during the summer, but it's still (partially) in California. ;)
Born and grown up in Oklahoma, and living in Texas (Austin from '96-04, Houston for the past ten years) living somewhere without AC seems so bizarre. What if you like it cooler than the weather permits?
Heck, I have central AC in my house here, and I keep the house generally at 75, but have a window AC in my bedroom that lets me crank it down to 66-68 in there.
in california, it's the older buildings that aren't fitted for it. most new buildings have it.
i live in an old building (built in 50s) and a year ago i finally couldn't stand it any longer and bought a floor standing unit that i vent out the window. it's nice.
Heh, heh. San Diego is pretty temperate and many of the houses were properly constructed--they don't rely on air conditioning, so you can shrug off the 88* summer days. High ceilings, copious windows and balconies... Slide those doors and windows open, revel in the near-constant ocean breeze, never sweat. Until persistent heat and high humidity (relatively high, still laughable compared to the southern states I hail from) struck southern California year 'round the past few years. Many of my neighbors are installing air conditioning after living without it for 28+ years.
We'll see how El Nino ruins things for us holdouts.