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I don't know about this. Finding parking in Montreal is MUCH easier. Even a little bit of driving around Centre-Ville and you will find a meter. Not so easy to do in any commercial part of San Francisco.
There might be something with montreal being the downtown of a much smaller metro, the significantly lower vehicles per capita of Canada compared to the US (didn't look into the stats between SF/SF's metro and Montreal/Montreal's metro), and much better Montreal mass transit system.
I don't know about this. Finding parking in Montreal is MUCH easier. Even a little bit of driving around Centre-Ville and you will find a meter. Not so easy to do in any commercial part of San Francisco.
I would agree with the downtown vs. downtown comparison, but I always have a MUCH easier time parking just outside of downtown San Francisco (even overnight) than I do in Montreal.
I think one big difference is that SOOO much of San Francisco's activity takes place in our just outside the downtown area. Montreal's downtown area (with the exception, of course, of St. Catherine... but even then, that's active outside of the downtown area) is not quite as active as San Francisco's, but I find that there's a lot more going on outside of downtown Montreal than there is in SF's outer neighborhoods (except the Castro or the tourist mecca of Fisherman's Wharf/Pier 39/Ghiradelli Square). If you visited Montreal and really didn't leave Centre Ville and Vieux Montreal, you may find Montreal to be a bit... tame. If you visited San Francisco and didn't leave downtown (I'm including edge neighborhoods like Chinatown, Tenderloin, North Beach, etc) or the Embarcadero, you'd probably find quite a bit more activity than in Montreal. To really get a feel for Montreal's pulse, you need to leave downtown.
Overall, I much prefer San Francisco which to me feels quite a bit larger than Montreal.
I would agree with the downtown vs. downtown comparison, but I always have a MUCH easier time parking just outside of downtown San Francisco (even overnight) than I do in Montreal.
I think one big difference is that SOOO much of San Francisco's activity takes place in our just outside the downtown area. Montreal's downtown area (with the exception, of course, of St. Catherine... but even then, that's active outside of the downtown area) is not quite as active as San Francisco's, but I find that there's a lot more going on outside of downtown Montreal than there is in SF's outer neighborhoods (except the Castro or the tourist mecca of Fisherman's Wharf/Pier 39/Ghiradelli Square). If you visited Montreal and really didn't leave Centre Ville and Vieux Montreal, you may find Montreal to be a bit... tame. If you visited San Francisco and didn't leave downtown (I'm including edge neighborhoods like Chinatown, Tenderloin, North Beach, etc) or the Embarcadero, you'd probably find quite a bit more activity than in Montreal. To really get a feel for Montreal's pulse, you need to leave downtown.
Overall, I much prefer San Francisco which to me feels quite a bit larger than Montreal.
I don't know about that - parking in the Mission, Haight/Ashbury, Lower Haight, the Marina District, hell even the outer Richmond area (areas that are most definitely NOT part of downtown) can be an absolute nightmare. I once spent an hour looking for a spot in Lower Haight on a Wednesday night before I finally gave up and parked in an outer area and took a cab.
Overall, I'd say virtually anywhere in SF city limits, save a few areas, is terrible for parking.
It's called City-Data's North-American east-coast bias. This is proven by the fact that objectively speaking, SF beats Montreal in most categories (for example: climate, geography, population, diversity, GDP, skyline, density).
It's called City-Data's North-American east-coast bias. This is proven by the fact that objectively speaking, SF beats Montreal in most categories (for example: climate, geography, population, diversity, GDP, skyline, density).
It's not that. When they rank cities on annual polls, it's a weighing of factors. The end result is mathematically determined. It's completely "head before heart." Sure, San Francisco is great to visit and when an Angeleno get his or her license, they drive "the triangle" at the first opportunity...that is, LA to Tahoe to San Francisco and down the coast to LA.
San Francisco, to me, has always seemed to be cocooned in one of those little glass half domes that you shake and snow or glitter falls. It's too "cute," expensive and pretentious...like it ought to be cordoned off, or something.
Toronto is in the east and more ethnically diverse than Montreal, and I don't care for it, so it's not an east/west thing. Montreal has a unique place in this world: a Francophone city that looks like it could be over the border in the US yet has palpably European sensibilities. It's immediately apparent. OTOH, Toronto doesn't feel much different from Chicago. Also, once you get out of Centre-Ville and some bolted-on neighborhoods, the neighborhoods further out are very salt-of-the-earth, affordable, diverse, and reached by transit, including the South Shore, Laval and the predominately Anglophone West Island.
I don't mind getting on the plane to leave San Francisco. Leaving Montreal is harder.
Last edited by robertpolyglot; 06-14-2012 at 10:25 PM..
It's called City-Data's North-American east-coast bias. This is proven by the fact that objectively speaking, SF beats Montreal in most categories (for example: climate, geography, population, diversity, GDP, skyline, density).
Montreal is a pretty remarkable and distinct city within Northern America, so I wouldn't be surprised if personal inclinations have people leaning towards Montreal. It really is a great city.
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