SF has a greater density of trees than NYC, featuring 2,637 trees per square mile compared to NYC’s 2,242.

Like New York, the most common tree in San Francisco is the London Plane Tree, which represents 7% of all SF trees, compared to 13% of the trees in New York. San Francisco trees are much more diverse, you’ll find 492 different species, compared to New York’s 183.

San Francisco can boast at least 1 example of each of New York’s top 7 tree species, where New York has none of San Francisco’s, apart from the London Plane.

SF Protip #4: San Francisco residents complain more than New Yorkers.

Per capita, San Francisco uses its 311 municipal complaint line more often than NYC. The most common complaints in SF are requests for sidewalk cleanups, rubbish pickups, and graffiti removals.

SF Protip #5: There’s more graffiti, but at least it’s getting more polite.

The biggest growth in complaints is in the categories that already represent the largest volume, with bulky item pickup requests and illegal homeless encampments rising most quickly.

Note that non-offensive graffiti is on the rise, with offensive graffiti is the fastest dropping complaint category. So either San Franciscans are writing less offensive graffiti, or the residents have grown immune to the current attempts to offend.

SF Protip #6: Steep hills make for slower bike rides.

Riders of the Bay Area Bike Share network average 14 minutes per ride — nearly the same as the 15 min average for New York Citi Bike riders. San Francisco is a smaller town though, and riders average only 1.4 km per trip, compared to New Yorkers, who go 1.8 km.

Or put another way, San Francisco cyclists are 0.3 m/s slower than their New York counterparts. I blame the steep hills.

SF Protip #7: Marijuana legalization will reduce arrests in Haight-Ashbury by 7%.

Marijuana represents 26% of all drug related arrests in San Francisco. In 2016, it was overtaken by meth as the most likely drug involved in an arrest.