As someone who has also lived in both places (and lives in neither of them currently), I'd have to vehemently disagree. SF is not only comparably expensive, it's also incredibly far behind in transit, far more homogeneous in all sorts of ways, much less culturally interesting and significant, and- despite my agreeing that the headlines are blowing it out of proportion- pretty clearly headed in the wrong direction overall. It has some potential advantages (weather, proximity to nature, stronger tech job market), but I relate to the OP comment a lot, and for me SF just cannot even slightly compare to NY.

Obviously this is all just my opinion! I know tons of people love it there.