There is a debate that I always get into with a friend of mine who is from New York City. The debate is whether San Francisco is a big city or a small town. Of course, the truth is that it’s a mid-sized urban city with a big metropolitan area surrounding it. We both know this. But because I come from someplace smaller than San Francisco and he comes from New York, we both have really different opinions about how big the city feels to each of us.

The interesting thing that we’ve discovered from talking to other people about this is that most visitors who aren’t from either area seem to think that San Francisco and New York feel very similar. Maybe this is because there are some similarities between San Francisco attractions and New York attractions. Maybe it’s because visitors tend to use public transportation in both places. Or perhaps it’s because of the fact that both cities are so urban. I’m not sure.

What I do know for sure is that my friend and I probably aren’t ever going to agree on this. We know the facts. We’ve heard what visitors have to say. And yet when it comes down to it, we both end up relying on our own perception which is colored from our previous experiences. That’s just the way that it is.

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