An interesting conjecture.

As an academic, it's interesting to observe the relationship between geography and attractiveness to new faculty.

As I heard from a UCSD professor, it is extremely rough to live in San Diego/La Jolla on a grad student salary, and prospective grad students are aware of this and (largely) avoid the place. So, the grad program is weaker than one might think, which the faculty find a little bit demoralizing.

So, in this instance, the attractiveness of the area seems to go against the university.