San Francisco new hub for venture capital

San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge

San Francisco has surpassed Silicon Valley as the nation's top hub for venture capital. Greater San Francisco, including Oakland, attracted some $7 billion in VC money in 2012, compared to nearly $4 billion for the San Jose-Silicon Valley area. The Bay Area as a whole attracted over $10 billion in venture capital, about 40 percent of the nationwide total, reports The Atlantic Cities.

San Francisco's emergence is part of a growing movement toward urban tech centers, away from suburban office parks such as Silicon Valley, the Route 128 suburbs outside Boston and the Raleigh-Durham Research Triangle.

New York City is now the number one destination for startups, slightly ahead of San Francisco. London is the third most popular city for startups, reflecting a global urban trend.

Silicon Valley started migrating to San Francisco not long after Twitter set up shop there, reports the San Jose Mercury News.

Twitter's new headquarters in San Francisco

Last year, Pinterest moved from Silicon Valley to San Francisco. Young tech workers, such as those that work at startups like Dropbox, Yelp and Airbnb, are attracted to San Francisco, reports the San Francisco Chronicle.

San Francisco's famous fog has not been a deterrent to its tech renaissance

SoMa is the neighborhood near the Bay Bridge and downtown San Francisco that is the epicenter for the city's startups, including Twitter. The neighborhood has evolved over the last 20 years to rival its  Silicon Valley neighbor in the South Bay, reports Wired.

Techies at The Creamery in SoMa

The rising popularity of the SoMa coffee shop The Creamery illustrates how the San Francisco's tech boom has changed the neighborhood, reports the San Francisco Chronicle.