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Another thing that may or may not be unique but worth plointing out nonetheless is that the Bay Area managed to steer nearly the entire political make up of CA to the left.
Not too long ago, CA was a far more moderate to even right leaning state.
The change began in the 1990s when much of the rest of the country was becoming more conservative especially post 911.
Today most of the coast is blue or leaning blue and that has spread inland too.
The Bay Area has taken the lead on many social and political movements, unapologetically, and relentlessly.
One need only take a look at Fox News' now years long smear campaign against SF, one hit story after another, to see that the area's growing influence and power annoys the hell out of them.
As OP, I still find the structure of the Bay Area to be the one most different from all the others with the same key points I raised initially...only one with a great big body of water in its middle, three core cities (SF, Oak, SJ), most identifiable subregions (East Bay, The Peninsula, Silicon Valley, etc.), least interconnected (due to bay....SF alone has from all directions but south only three ways to enter: GGB, Bay Bridge, BART), etc.
If I were to try to identify of which city is the true outlier in its structure, I would go with Los Angeles (no city is divided by a mountain range except LA, development of city was not based on spread from its core, well known cities (SM, BH, WH) are surrounded by it, despite having a major downtown, city least defined by it (the Westside, the image..not reality...of Hollywood, the coast are more defining than Dt, the least delineated distinction between city and county, city on major body of water (if you consider the Pacific to be major) with a downtown area nowhere near it, like New York, has many neighborhoods (Hollywood, Venice, San Pedro, etc.) that come across as separate towns, San Fernando Valley feels like it is in a different world than the LA Basin, the linear density of Wilshire Blvd has no parallel anywhere with Atlanta's Peachtree coming in in second place, and by far the largest range of elevations of any city.
Second to LA: New York: division into boroughs, city most divided by water (only two boroughs, Brooklyn and Queens, border on land), the only major two cored city in the nation (world?) with Midtown and Downtown, only city centered on an island, the very relationship between Manhattan and the "outer boroughs", having within it a place that has all the attributes of a major, major city it once was (Brooklyn), etc.
In contrast, San Francisco though in the Bay Area which is like no other, itself would not qualify as being the most structurally distinct. However, as mentioned above, the fact that only to the south (from The Peninsula) is SF connected by land. 3/4 of its borders (Pacific, Golden Gate, Bay) have only those three (GGB, Bay Bridge, BART) entrances.
SF is a relatively traditional layout other than its access from surrounding areas. But that separation by water borders on the unique:
Only two "cities" (and I am calling Manhattan one here) create an environment all their own due to being set off from other places by water: Manhattan and San Francisco. And despite being a peninsula's tip, not an island, SF more so than any other place creates an place utterly its own, one that nothing intrudes on. Even the mighty island of Manhattan draws in its surroundings: downtown Brooklyn is incredibly attached to lower Manhattan (lower Manhattan is far closer to DT Bkyn than to Midtown), even out-of-state places like Jersey City are tied in with Lower Manhattan as well.
San Francisco has none of that consecutiveness. When you are in San Francisco, you are in San Francisco. Only where SF fades south into San Mateo County will you find places connected to SF, but the southern fringe of the city from Park Merced to Candlestick Point is about as un-SF as you can get. The real core of the city spreads westward from the SoMa/China Basin area to the shores of the Pacific around Cliff House and Golden Gate Park. No place outside SF is connected to it. Sausalito may be the closest city to the "real San Francisco", but it appears as far off, a distant bayside town on a bottom of the hills. Oakland is some, I believe, 8 miles away by way of the Bay Bridge. The City by the Bay's isolation is unique.
No city has a core that is literally in its only world quite like Chicago. The heart of Chicago (the greater downtown area) is one of the largest cores in the world. Yet it exists in its own world like no place else. No other city, no other landmark can be seen off in the distance. Unlike both Manhattan and SF where the surrounding areas are most drawn in visually. Only in Chicago can the incredible density come to a complete halt a few blocks east of its State & Madison street grid defining intersection when you hit Lake Michigan. When you are in Chicago's core, you are in Chicago's core. The only places that relate to it are the dense areas to the north, west, and south that abut it, areas of the first concentric circle around the core. You can't see a Verazano Bridge, a Statue of Liberty, a Mt. Tamalpais or Alcatraz from downtown Chicago. It is a set apart place of its very own.
As OP, I still find the structure of the Bay Area to be the one most different from all the others with the same key points I raised initially...only one with a great big body of water in its middle, three core cities (SF, Oak, SJ), most identifiable subregions (East Bay, The Peninsula, Silicon Valley, etc.), least interconnected (due to bay....SF alone has from all directions but south only three ways to enter: GGB, Bay Bridge, BART), etc.
If I were to try to identify of which city is the true outlier in its structure, I would go with Los Angeles (no city is divided by a mountain range except LA, development of city was not based on spread from its core, well known cities (SM, BH, WH) are surrounded by it, despite having a major downtown, city least defined by it (the Westside, the image..not reality...of Hollywood, the coast are more defining than Dt, the least delineated distinction between city and county, city on major body of water (if you consider the Pacific to be major) with a downtown area nowhere near it, like New York, has many neighborhoods (Hollywood, Venice, San Pedro, etc.) that come across as separate towns, San Fernando Valley feels like it is in a different world than the LA Basin, the linear density of Wilshire Blvd has no parallel anywhere with Atlanta's Peachtree coming in in second place, and by far the largest range of elevations of any city.
Second to LA: New York: division into boroughs, city most divided by water (only two boroughs, Brooklyn and Queens, border on land), the only major two cored city in the nation (world?) with Midtown and Downtown, only city centered on an island, the very relationship between Manhattan and the "outer boroughs", having within it a place that has all the attributes of a major, major city it once was (Brooklyn), etc.
In contrast, San Francisco though in the Bay Area which is like no other, itself would not qualify as being the most structurally distinct. However, as mentioned above, the fact that only to the south (from The Peninsula) is SF connected by land. 3/4 of its borders (Pacific, Golden Gate, Bay) have only those three (GGB, Bay Bridge, BART) entrances.
SF is a relatively traditional layout other than its access from surrounding areas. But that separation by water borders on the unique:
Only two "cities" (and I am calling Manhattan one here) create an environment all their own due to being set off from other places by water: Manhattan and San Francisco. And despite being a peninsula's tip, not an island, SF more so than any other place creates an place utterly its own, one that nothing intrudes on. Even the mighty island of Manhattan draws in its surroundings: downtown Brooklyn is incredibly attached to lower Manhattan (lower Manhattan is far closer to DT Bkyn than to Midtown), even out-of-state places like Jersey City are tied in with Lower Manhattan as well.
San Francisco has none of that consecutiveness. When you are in San Francisco, you are in San Francisco. Only where SF fades south into San Mateo County will you find places connected to SF, but the southern fringe of the city from Park Merced to Candlestick Point is about as un-SF as you can get. The real core of the city spreads westward from the SoMa/China Basin area to the shores of the Pacific around Cliff House and Golden Gate Park. No place outside SF is connected to it. Sausalito may be the closest city to the "real San Francisco", but it appears as far off, a distant bayside town on a bottom of the hills. Oakland is some, I believe, 8 miles away by way of the Bay Bridge. The City by the Bay's isolation is unique.
No city has a core that is literally in its only world quite like Chicago. The heart of Chicago (the greater downtown area) is one of the largest cores in the world. Yet it exists in its own world like no place else. No other city, no other landmark can be seen off in the distance. Unlike both Manhattan and SF where the surrounding areas are most drawn in visually. Only in Chicago can the incredible density come to a complete halt a few blocks east of its State & Madison street grid defining intersection when you hit Lake Michigan. When you are in Chicago's core, you are in Chicago's core. The only places that relate to it are the dense areas to the north, west, and south that abut it, areas of the first concentric circle around the core. You can't see a Verazano Bridge, a Statue of Liberty, a Mt. Tamalpais or Alcatraz from downtown Chicago. It is a set apart place of its very own.
You goofed on New York's geography.
The unusual distinction is that only one of its five boroughs -- The Bronx -- is attached to the North American continent.
Manhattan and Staten Island are islands unto themselves, and Brooklyn and Queens form the western tip of Long Island.
But yes, San Francisco is in a world of its own much like Manhattan is.
But I'd argue that culturally speaking, Washington is too - or at least the part I call "Official Washington," which comprises most of that city's elite and a good chunk of the metropolitan population.
An ad for a now-defunct bank (it imploded in a money-laundering scandal; a Pittsburgh-based bank swept up its ashes) I saw in a Metro station once encapsulated the hubris perfectly.
It had a picture of the White House and this legend:
"The most important bank in the most important city in the world thinks you're important too."
I burst out laughing when I read that. New Yorkers at the very least would dispute that middle claim.
The unusual distinction is that only one of its five boroughs -- The Bronx -- is attached to the North American continent.
Manhattan and Staten Island are islands unto themselves, and Brooklyn and Queens form the western tip of Long Island.
But yes, San Francisco is in a world of its own much like Manhattan is.
But I'd argue that culturally speaking, Washington is too - or at least the part I call "Official Washington," which comprises most of that city's elite and a good chunk of the metropolitan population.
An ad for a now-defunct bank (it imploded in a money-laundering scandal; a Pittsburgh-based bank swept up its ashes) I saw in a Metro station once encapsulated the hubris perfectly.
It had a picture of the White House and this legend:
"The most important bank in the most important city in the world thinks you're important too."
I burst out laughing when I read that. New Yorkers at the very least would dispute that middle claim.
I would have to say I knew all of what you said about New York, but I did fail to mention it (and the Bronx being the only one on the mainland was an omission of epic proportion...definitely a brain malfunction on my part). Of course two boroughs are islands. In fact, Manhattan as a borough could be seen as a series of islands...Manhattan obviously, but Ellis, Liberty, Governors, Rikers, Roosevelt as well (I believe all are Manhattan). Of course Brooklyn and Queens are the western part of Long Island. People tend to forget that because neither are Long Island because when you cross city limits into Queens, you are no longer in Long Island; you're in New York. Same as SF....when you cross city limits from Daly City into San Francisco, you have left The Peninsula and are now in The City. In the weird world of city speak, Brooklyn and Queens are not on Long Island and San Francisco is not on The Peninsula.
And if we wanted to get technical (ridiculously technical I would agree), the Bronx is not on mainland USA if you're standing on a pier on City Island. And super, super technical gives us Manhattan's northern most tip being on mainland USA, sitting as it is north of the Harlem River, one can walk from the Bronx to Manhattan without crossing water. I believe that the channel of the Harlem River was altered causing a piece of Manhattan to end up on the Bronx side of the river.
I do see your point on Washington, and I think I might be in full agreement with you in thinking of "Official Washington" being a place of its own, but only if one looks at Official Washington being a zone in DC and VA...with the VA portion once part of DC. I make no distinction between the areas along the mall east of the Potomac to places like Arlington Cemetery and the Pentagon to the west. And if one were to consider that area on both sides of the Potomac as being "Official Washington", I would think it would exceed any place I mentioned in providing a true place apart (not by topography, but in function. There's nothing like it
Funny story on the bank. Brains work differently inside the Beltway than in the real world, right?
The unusual distinction is that only one of its five boroughs -- The Bronx -- is attached to the North American continent.
Manhattan and Staten Island are islands unto themselves, and Brooklyn and Queens form the western tip of Long Island.
But yes, San Francisco is in a world of its own much like Manhattan is.
But I'd argue that culturally speaking, Washington is too - or at least the part I call "Official Washington," which comprises most of that city's elite and a good chunk of the metropolitan population.
An ad for a now-defunct bank (it imploded in a money-laundering scandal; a Pittsburgh-based bank swept up its ashes) I saw in a Metro station once encapsulated the hubris perfectly.
It had a picture of the White House and this legend:
"The most important bank in the most important city in the world thinks you're important too."
I burst out laughing when I read that. New Yorkers at the very least would dispute that middle claim.
I would have to say I knew all of what you said about New York, but I did fail to mention it. Of course two boroughs are islands. In fact, Manhattan as a borough could be seen as a series of islands...Manhattan obviously, but Ellis, Liberty, Governors, Rikers, Roosevelt as well (I believe all are Manhattan). Of course Brooklyn and Queens are the western part of Long Island. People tend to forget that because neither are Long Island because when you cross city limits into Queens, you are no longer in Long Island; you're in New York. Same as SF....when you cross city limits from Daly City into San Francisco, you have left The Peninsula and are now in The City.
And if we wanted to get technical (ridiculously technical I would agree), the Bronx is not on mainland USA if you're standing on a pier on City Island. And super, super technical gives us Manhattan's northern most tip being on mainland USA, sitting as it is north of the Harlem River.
I do see your point on Washington, and I think I might be in full agreement with you in thinking of "Official Washington" being a place of its own, but only if one looks at Official Washington being a zone in DC and VA...with the VA portion once part of DC. I make no distinction between the areas along the mall east of the Potomac to places like Arlington Cemetery and the Pentagon to the west.
Funny story on the bank. Brains work differently inside the Beltway than in the real world, right?
I would have to say I knew all of what you said about New York, but I did fail to mention it. Of course two boroughs are islands. In fact, Manhattan as a borough could be seen as a series of islands...Manhattan obviously, but Ellis, Liberty, Governors, Rikers, Roosevelt as well (I believe all are Manhattan). Of course Brooklyn and Queens are the western part of Long Island. People tend to forget that because neither are Long Island because when you cross city limits into Queens, you are no longer in Long Island; you're in New York. Same as SF....when you cross city limits from Daly City into San Francisco, you have left The Peninsula and are now in The City.
And if we wanted to get technical (ridiculously technical I would agree), the Bronx is not on mainland USA if you're standing on a pier on City Island. And super, super technical gives us Manhattan's northern most tip being on mainland USA, sitting as it is north of the Harlem River.
I do see your point on Washington, and I think I might be in full agreement with you in thinking of "Official Washington" being a place of its own, but only if one looks at Official Washington being a zone in DC and VA...with the VA portion once part of DC. I make no distinction between the areas along the mall east of the Potomac to places like Arlington Cemetery and the Pentagon to the west.
Funny story on the bank. Brains work differently inside the Beltway than in the real world, right?
The entire first paragraph is correct, but (getting super-technical again):
Long Island City is the part of Queens that sits at the east end of the Queensboro Bridge.
And Long Island University is in Brooklyn.
Meanwhile: I tend to think of "Official Washington" as a state of mind more than a physical location, but geographically speaking, the institutions where Official Washingtonians work all lie in that territory you define. And yup yup on how brains work inside the Beltway. There was a "famous streets" discussion on this board a while back, and I pointed out that Washington's two "famous streets" were Pennsylvania Avenue and the Capital Beltway. (I think someone else nominated "Embassy Row" along Massachusetts Avenue once past Dupont Circle.)
The entire first paragraph is correct, but (getting super-technical again):
Long Island City is the part of Queens that sits at the east end of the Queensboro Bridge.
And Long Island University is in Brooklyn.
Meanwhile: I tend to think of "Official Washington" as a state of mind more than a physical location, but geographically speaking, the institutions where Official Washingtonians work all lie in that territory you define. And yup yup on how brains work inside the Beltway. There was a "famous streets" discussion on this board a while back, and I pointed out that Washington's two "famous streets" were Pennsylvania Avenue and the Capital Beltway. (I think someone else nominated "Embassy Row" along Massachusetts Avenue once past Dupont Circle.)
Official Washington corresponds to Hollywood in that respect
Btw...your input on NYC caused me to reevaluate. Now I am going with a tie, NY and LA for most distinctly structurd cities
And the two share so much: New York may be the only city with boroughs but Los Angeles is the only other one that could with Basin, Valley and Harbor. And New York and Los Angeles dominate in neighborhoods that come across as the towns and villages they once were: Astoria, Forest Hills, St. George, Encino, Westwood, San Pedro
Last edited by edsg25; 09-02-2019 at 08:33 PM..
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