Nothing seems to get folks fired up around here more than the white-hot issue of how many hair and nail salons we have in the Lower Haight. For such a small neighborhood, we have an insane number of these shops -- at least so sayeth the conventional wisdom.
But is that really the case? Are we disproportionately salon crazy over here? We wanted to find out. So we took a look at some stats, and we think we've got the answer.
Caveat #1: First, we dug up some population data for San Francisco. The most recent stats we found came from the 2000 Census, so they're a little moldy, but hey, moldy stats are better than no stats. Caveat #2: Second, we found some business pattern data, also from the Census Bureau, but more recent (from 2007, so not quite a match to the population data). Businesses are broken down into different categories, like restaurants, banks, and beauty salons. So we took a look at that data for different San Francisco zip codes. Caveat #3: Yes, all this data is broken down by zip code, so the Lower Haight, Upper Haight, Cole Valley, etc all get lumped together. So we can't truly say whether the Lower Haight alone is the salon capital of the city, but we can get a pretty good look at 94117 as a whole. Caveat #4: And finally, we're ignoring data for zips with fewer than 5,000 residents, like Treasure Island and the Presidio. We just don't think it's fair to call those real neighborhoods, a statement for which we will totally be getting hate mail starting... now. OK, enough of the caveats! What did we find? Is the conventional wisdom correct? Does 94117 really have more salons per capita than the rest of the city? It has to, right? Well... no, actually. Not even close. The Truth! As you can see in this handy interactive chart which, like most things in life, probably won't work in Internet Explorer, 94117 is pretty much middle-of-the-pack when it comes to the resident-to-salon ratio. In fact, with 18 salons and a population of 38,738, we rank only 11th out of the 20 zip codes examined. (Click on a blue bar and you'll get more info for that zip code.)
The most salon-tastic neighborhood? That would be Chinatown, with an amazing 55 salons, or roughly one for every 249 residents. That's almost double the next 'hood, the Marina, which has a still-respectable (depending on your preferences) 477:1 ratio.
Before you get too upset that your world has just been rocked, use the dropdown menu to look at how we stack up in other categories. You'll soon discover that 94117 DOES take the crown in a couple of areas: that's right, we're dead last in both hotels and banks. :(
Again, this data ain't perfect, so don't go basing your thesis on it. But it at least gives us a hint of where we stand in the city.
Got any other myths you'd like us to bust? Let us know!
Caveat #1: First, we dug up some population data for San Francisco. The most recent stats we found came from the 2000 Census, so they're a little moldy, but hey, moldy stats are better than no stats. Caveat #2: Second, we found some business pattern data, also from the Census Bureau, but more recent (from 2007, so not quite a match to the population data). Businesses are broken down into different categories, like restaurants, banks, and beauty salons. So we took a look at that data for different San Francisco zip codes. Caveat #3: Yes, all this data is broken down by zip code, so the Lower Haight, Upper Haight, Cole Valley, etc all get lumped together. So we can't truly say whether the Lower Haight alone is the salon capital of the city, but we can get a pretty good look at 94117 as a whole. Caveat #4: And finally, we're ignoring data for zips with fewer than 5,000 residents, like Treasure Island and the Presidio. We just don't think it's fair to call those real neighborhoods, a statement for which we will totally be getting hate mail starting... now. OK, enough of the caveats! What did we find? Is the conventional wisdom correct? Does 94117 really have more salons per capita than the rest of the city? It has to, right? Well... no, actually. Not even close. The Truth! As you can see in this handy interactive chart which, like most things in life, probably won't work in Internet Explorer, 94117 is pretty much middle-of-the-pack when it comes to the resident-to-salon ratio. In fact, with 18 salons and a population of 38,738, we rank only 11th out of the 20 zip codes examined. (Click on a blue bar and you'll get more info for that zip code.)
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