February 4, 2007
The San Francisco-New York Neighborhood Comparison Table
Quick -- which one of those pictures above is of Valencia Street in SF and which is of Williamsburg in Brooklyn?
Bay Area blogger Overstated has put together his list of what New York neighborhoods correspond to which San Francisco ones. Check out his list, and let the great debates begin!
Here's some calls we agree with:
--Totally Williamsburg is the Mission. Last time we were on Bedford Avenue, honest to God we thought we'd end up at Luna Park for brunch.
--Pac Heights and Noe Valley absolutely are the Upper East and Upper West Sides. All the old money lives in Pac Heights, and there's nothing to do or to eat in Noe Valley either.
And some ones we dispute:
--Russian Hill = Park Slope? That ain't right! We'd go with Park Slope = Bernal Heights. Russian Hill is too boring to be Park Slope.
--And Brooklyn Heights isn't Potrero -- Telegraph Hill is Brooklyn Heights. Telegraph Hill has the waterfront, the history, the scenicness! If Bill Cosby lived in SF, he'd totally live on Telegraph Hill. Potrero is maybe Gramercy/Union Square Park -- originally a second choice if you can't afford either the Upper East or Upper West side but now with expensive real estate and more restaurants than you'd think.
And ones we aren't sure about:
--Is Hayes Valley Chelsea?
--Is the Upper Haight the East Village?
Overstated says he hopes someone will ultimately put a list like this together for all major cities around the world. That would rule. What neighborhood in Paris is equivalent to what neighborhood in L.A. is equivalent to Fort Greene in New York? Answer: the stretch of Valencia Street with Ritual Roasters on it.
Thanks to our little birdie in the MSM for forwarding us the link! And Valencia Street is to the right in the pictures above.


within about six blocks of the northern end of Church St there are really quite a lot of places to eat now... Chloe's, Fattoush (people go there! really!), Amberjack Sushi, Eric's (not sure why it's so packed), Regent Thai, Bistro 1689, Pescheria, Toast, Pomelo, and La Ciccia.
24th St, however, still needs some work.
Having lived both in New York City and San Francisco, I can say tht guy's list is not even close.
Oh, this is just dreadful. There's simply no comparison.
SF and NYC are *nothing* like each other.
yawn. no matter what the buildings look like, the reality is that the people in sf will be a whole lot less bitchy.
Glen Park=Cobble Hill.
Just like provincial San Francisco to try to compare itself to New York City. We are not the center of the world and haven't been since about the 1870s. Get over yourselves. This is a small town, with small town problems. Heck, San Jose is now bigger than San Francisco.
I suppose the # of people pretending to be poor = how exciting a neighborhood is. I guess I just dont see much more than a surface difference between the mission hipster and the russian hill yuppie
within about six blocks of the northern end of Church St there are really quite a lot of places to eat now...
That's the southern end.