AHC: Keep San Francisco as the most important west coast city in the US

From a period from about to the mid 19th century to the early 20th century San Francisco was arguably the US's west coast counterpart to New York city, proportionally at least.

However as the 20th century progressed Los Angeles took over that distinction. How could San Francisco have remained so however?
 
LA has much warmer weather than San Francisco does, so that's an issue to deal with. It's one of the major reasons why Hollywood is where it is. Maybe if an earlier version of what Silicon Valley is today came up.

Also remember San Francisco's geography around the bay and the 1906 earthquake that came close to leveling the city. You have more room to expand in the Los Angeles area, and I know that LA can be hit by earthquakes but it's not as bad as San Fran.

Another thing to possibly consider was during the 1950s, there was the freeway revolt. Cars were becoming much more common, so while it preserved San Francisco's image, it was seen as being backward at the time. Maybe having more highways around the city might help with that.
 
Have the massive water piping from the north that allows LA to exist in a desert never be constructed (somehow).

SF is probably smaller, too, in this scenario, but LA would be much smaller yet.
 
Politically they could do the New York trick and reverse the usual County-Municipality order so the 'City of San Francisco' encompasses the mostly contiguous built up areas above the counties. Thus the political power of the city would be consolidated above the county level, answerable directly to the state of California. This would give SF a unique status on the west coast and perhaps change subsequent development.
 
The Bay Area as a whole can rival Los Angeles. But space issues alone limit San Francisco's potential. Even if it grows to rival LA in population, it would have to be with Oakland and San Jose.

The other big industry that could have made a difference. Its now somewhat forgotten what a huge aerospace and defense presence there was in Los Angeles. Move all that to San Francisco and you might narrow the gap. But between the San Pedro and Los Angeles Ports, I think its hard for SF to overtake LA.
 
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