Nob Hill

The tony neighborhood on a hill managed to beat its round one adversary/neighbor—Chinatown—by a wide margin, scoring it a place in the Elite Eight. While Alamo Square receives most of the fanfare for its residential architecture (due in large part of a groan-worthy ABC sitcom) and Pac Heights gets all of the bombastic blue-blood ballyhoo (The Pacific and Danielle Steel’s bush, just to name two), Nob Hill remains the city’s most elegant yet accessible neighborhood, period.

“We have a healthy mix of rent-controlled apartments, newish condos, and opulent, over-the-top co-ops,” confirms Curbed cities director Sally Kuchar.

Choice examples of homes in this neighborhood range from this restored Polk-Willis flat to this tiny home on John Street.

Huntington Park, an unofficial town square for area dog owners, is nestled between some of the city’s most stately structures (Grace Cathedral, the Pacific-Union Club, Huntington Hotel). This neighborhood will be hard to top.

Visitacion Valley

In a shocking victory, no. 16 seed Viz Valley beset no. 1 seed Yerba Buena by a hefty margin. Noted for being one of San Francisco’s comparatively affordable remaining neighborhoods, it soared over its development-heavy opponent for many reasons.

“Leland Avenue has been revived, the library is beautiful, and the Schrader Lock development may finally get done,” says neighborhood resident Flo'Mer Williams. “Visitation Valley is a neighborhood on the move.”

This south-side neighborhood also benefitted from the fact that, unlike Yerba Buena in 2016, there are scores of proud residents in the area. Yerba Buena, poised to become the next big residential neighborhood, is still by and large in its construction phase.

“You know, it’s one of the few working-class neighborhoods left in the city,” said Amy Keyishian of Viz Valley, “It’s vibrant with immigrants and happy school kids.”

And lest we forget, it also has its very own Eichler.

Voting closes in 24 hours. Choose wisely.