SF is not much of a city
But the absolute size matters. The actual “city like” part of SF is really small.
What bothers me the most is how so many Americans seem to have this irrational fear of cities. They think they are more dangerous, dirty, difficult, etc than they really are, by a wide margin. And they vastly under-estimate the amenities and quality of life they bring, along with the extent to which they make all of the wealth of the country even possible.
They wring their hands and complain that allowing more building will turn their city into NYC, which is just crazy on the face of it.
But there's not a lot of peacefulness. There's certainly not peacefulness outside my bedroom windows anywhere I could afford to live. Sleeping with windows open and waking to birdsong rather than traffic sounds is quality of life for me.
> The city boundaries
My Google searches:
> los angeles city density
> 8,210 people per square mile
> new york city density
> 29,303 people per square mile
Even still, over half of SF has almost exclusively 1-2 story buildings.