AHC: San Francisco as America's most important west coast city

San Francisco's problem is one of geography; there isn't enough room on the peninsula to make a huge city. I'm intrigued by the 'San Francisco annexes Oakland' idea, though.
 
I find the power dynamics inherent in putting the municipality above the county interesting. As an ignorant foreigner I call the whole LA megopolis LA but IIUC locals call it all different stuff and the actual municipality of LA is below the county and Chicago is the same with Cook county, an arrangement that diffuses rather than concentrates political power. If GSF gets up then you have a concentration of the political power of several counties, which instantly gives it more political power than any other county in the State and certainly more than counties which are further subdivided into municipalities.
 
San Fernando Valley leaves,never incorporates in Los Angeles. The Great American Freeway Scandal never happens and instead small, autonomous communities grow around Los Angeles rather than a large city. Elements of this already exist with Culver City, Beverly Hills, Burbank, Santa Monica and many other cities exist right next to Los Angeles and are barely distinct other than neighborhood differences.
 

TFSmith121

Banned
Put Cal in San Francisco, to start

For the latter half of the 19th century until the early parts of the 20th century San Francisco and not LA was the US's major west coast city. How can we have kept things that way?

1) Put Cal in San Francisco, to start;

2) Have Stanford fold when it (historically) almost went bankrupt;

3) Have the City expand southward down the Peninsula to Santa Clara; the 1906 quake might actually be the catalyst for this, in terms of creating a "garden metropolis" without tall buildings to avoid earthquake liability and greenbelts to prevent firestorms; ties in neatly with the trollery car and suburban railway boom;

4) Make peace between the city's financial class and labor leaders;

5) Have the City's fathers and Legislators turn themselves inside out to:
a) Keep the Bay Area the industrial and shipbuilding center on the West Coast, period;
b) Keep the Bay Area the defense/military/naval center on the West Coast;
c) make the Bay Area the center of aviation on the West Coast, not Los Angeles;

6) Have the SFPUC purchase the water rights in the Owens Valley and trade them to SCE for the western slope; use the western slope water rights to make San Francisco interests paramount in the San Joaquin Valley;

There's a start.

Best,
 
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