“It’s often been said that Los Angeles is 72 suburbs in search of a city. Using New York as a template, here’s how to think of them: Beverly Hills is Fifth Avenue; West Hollywood is Chelsea; Bel Air is Park Avenue; Santa Monica is the Upper West Side. Pacific Palisades is the Upper East Side; Venice is the East Village; Los Feliz and Silver Lake are Brooklyn; and Downtown is SoHo and Tribeca, circa 1980.”
Vanity Fair: The Oscar-Bound Out-of-Towner’s Survival Guide to Los Angeles
Santa Monica is NOT the Upper West Side. There are no rats. I miss my fellow New Yorkers.
A Stranger in a Strange Land 