Mumbai Geography

It's hard find an analogous American city to Mumbai, the best way to describe the city's geography is as a hybrid of New York and LA.

I'm going to try to explain new home city for my non-mumbaiker friends. Mumbai friends please feel free to correct any errors/ mischaracterizations in the comments.

Mumbai, an enormous island city, feels even larger b/c the traffic is so slow. The map I've enclosed below is only a fraction of the island that Mumbai is on and many suburbs are not even on the island. The map is slightly off scale, it makes South Mumbai (the part below Worli) look even bigger than it is (an inch on the enhanced image when you click is ~4 km).

A few interesting characteristics of Mumbai sociopolitical geography:

1) East vs West: You see a dotted line representting a train track, ~0.5 km east of my house. That the churchgate line. It's what divides Mumbai neighborhoods and suburbs into East vs West. Traditionally, there was definitely a "wrong" side of the tracks in Mumbai--the East side. To this day, despite growth and gentrification, East side of Mumbai has more slums and lower-income neighborhoods (east of green box)

2) South vs Not: Typically, South Mumbai is considered everything below Mahim Bay (at the top of green box); the snobbier you are, the farther south you draw the line. South was the old part of the city where the traditional business/trade wealth resided where many of the fancy hotels are. Most of the non-art oriented elite of the city still reside in the South.

3) The Suburbs: Above South Mumbai start the Suburbs, the first few, Bandra, Khar, and Juhu are the LA part of Mumbai. This is where all the Bollywood stars reside in their Mega-mansions overlooking the sea. Interestingly, since some real-estate (farther-in) is signficantly cheaper than South Mumbai, a lot of young artists and expats live here leading to a vibrant restaurant, bar, gallery, and shopping scene . Hence, it's also the Williamsburg of Mumbai!

4) The Changing Winds: Long predicted demise of South Mumbai may finally be coming. The skyhigh real-estate prices (higher than class A in midtown manhattan) and ailing infrastructure have caused a lot of businesses to move away from Nariman point to Lower Parel and even Bandra/Kurla. Even the American Embassy has moved its guest house on my street and is opening a new one in Bandra. Will South Mumbai finally become a culturally irrelevant residential neighborhood, a la Upper East Side?