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San Francisco Relocation Guide - Antevia

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703 Radford Lane<br />

Foster City, CA 94404<br />

Tel: (650) 373-7700<br />

Fax: (650) 240-4050<br />

www.antevia.com<br />

Redefining the <strong>Relocation</strong> Process<br />

Attention to detail, a curteous and knowledgable staff, and<br />

a vast knowledge of local rental markets make <strong>Antevia</strong><br />

the best choice for your relocation needs<br />

<strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> <strong>Relocation</strong> <strong>Guide</strong><br />

Areas Included:<br />

Alamo Square • Anza Vista • Balboa Park • Bernal Heights • The Castro • Chinatown • Cole Valley •<br />

Crocker-Amazon • Diamond Heights • Dogpatch • Duboce Triangle • Embarcadero • Eureka Valley<br />

• Excelsior • Fillmore • Financial District • Fisherman’s Wharf • Forest Hill • Glen Park • Golden<br />

Gate Park • Haight-Ashbury • Haight-Fillmore • Hayes Valley • Hunters Point • Japantown • Little<br />

Saigon • Marina District • Mission Bay • Mission District • Mount Davidson • Nob Hill • Noe Valley<br />

• North Beach • Ocean Beach • Pacific Heights • Park Merced • Potrero Hill • Presidio of <strong>San</strong><br />

<strong>Francisco</strong> • Richmond District • Russian Hill • Sea Cliff • South of Market (SoMa) • St. Francis<br />

Wood • Sunset District • Telegraph Hill • The Tenderloin • Theater District • Treasure Island • Twin<br />

Peaks • Union Square • Visitacion Valley • Western Addition • West Portal • Westwood Park •<br />

Yerba Buena Island


Alamo Square<br />

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<br />

The famous "Painted Ladies" seen from Alamo Square.<br />

Alamo Square is a residential neighborhood and park in <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California. Both<br />

are located in the Western Addition, a part of the city's fifth district, and are served by<br />

several Muni bus lines including the 5, 21, 22, and 24.<br />

Alamo Square Park consists of four city blocks at the top of a hill overlooking much of<br />

<strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>. It is bordered by Hayes Street to the south, Fulton Street to the north,<br />

Scott Street to the west, and Steiner Street to the east. The park includes a playground and<br />

a tennis court, and is frequented by neighbors, tourists, and dog owners. A row of<br />

Victorian houses facing the park on Steiner Street, known as the painted ladies, are often<br />

shown in the foreground of panoramic pictures of the city's downtown area. On a clear<br />

day, the Transamerica Pyramid building and the tops of the Golden Gate Bridge and Bay<br />

Bridge can be seen from the park’s center. <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>’s City Hall can be seen directly<br />

down Fulton Street.<br />

The part of the Western Addition surrounding the park is often referred to as the Alamo<br />

Square neighborhood. Its boundaries are not well-defined, but are generally considered to<br />

be Fillmore Street on the east, Golden Gate Avenue on the north, Divisadero Street on the<br />

west, and Oak Street on the south. It is characterized by Victorian architecture that was<br />

left largely untouched by the urban renewal projects in other parts of the Western<br />

Addition.<br />

The demographics of the neighborhood are characteristic of other urban neighborhoods<br />

that have undergone gentrification: many young people and upper-middle-class<br />

homeowners, in addition to a diverse older population. Divisadero Street, which divides<br />

Alamo Square from North Panhandle, is home to a number of small businesses including<br />

a growing collection of restaurants and bars. Efforts on the part of Alamo Square and<br />

North Panhandle residents have led to restrictions on chain stores on the corridor. Relics


of a less-prosperous recent history also remain on Divisadero, including a number of<br />

vacant storefronts (notably the Harding Theater, closed for many years but valued by its<br />

neighbors for its potential) and one of the city's few clusters of gas stations.<br />

A number of movies, television shows and commercials have been filmed in the Alamo<br />

Square neighborhood because of its views and its architecture. The opening sequence of<br />

the American sitcom Full House (1987–1995) features a romp in Alamo Square Park<br />

with the famous row of Victorians in the background.<br />

Neighborhood groups include the Alamo Square Neighborhood Association and the<br />

Haight-Divisadero Neighborhood Merchants Association.<br />

See also<br />

• Parks of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong><br />

External links<br />

• "District 5" City and County of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, district map, PDF file. 29 March<br />

2006. [1]<br />

• Street map from Google Maps<br />

• Street map from Mapquest<br />

• Aerial view from Microsoft Terraserver<br />

• Alamo Square Virtual Tour<br />

• Alamo Square Neighborhood Association<br />

Anza Vista, <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California<br />

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<br />

Anza Vista is a neighborhood in <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California. It is located between Geary<br />

Boulevard to the north, Turk Street to the south, Masonic Avenue to the west and St.<br />

Joseph's Avenue to the east, although some of the surrounding areas between The<br />

Presidio, Golden Gate Park, the Panhandle, and the Western Addition may sometimes be<br />

referred to as part of the Anza Vista neighborhood. It sits atop the former location of the


<strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Calvary Cemetery, until the expulsion of cemeteries from the city in the<br />

1930s and 1940s forced those buried within it to be moved to Colma.<br />

A small shopping center, called The City Center, is located on Geary Boulevard and<br />

Masonic Avenue in the north-western corner of the neighborhood. Anza Vista is also the<br />

location of a Kaiser Permanente hospital at Geary Boulevard and St. Joseph's Avenue and<br />

Raoul Wallenberg High School on Nido Avenue.<br />

Balboa Park, <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California<br />

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<br />

Balboa Park is a neighborhood and public park in <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California. The<br />

neighborhood (sometimes referred to as Mission Terrace, Cayuga, or Ingleside) is located<br />

between Mission Street and Interstate 280 north of Geneva Avenue and the park is<br />

located on <strong>San</strong> Jose Avenue, north of Ocean Avenue. Inside of the park there is a public<br />

swimming pool, a stadium, baseball diamonds, tennis courts and the Ingleside police<br />

station.<br />

Balboa High School is situated on Cayuga Avenue, and City College of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> is<br />

on the other side of Interstate 280. Public transportation in Balboa Park is centered<br />

around Balboa Park Station in the southwest corner of the neighborhood, a Bay Area<br />

Rapid Transit Station that also serves as the terminal of the J, K and M Muni Metro lines.<br />

External links<br />

Street map from Mapquest<br />

Aerial view from Microstoft Terraserver


Bernal Heights, <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California<br />

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<br />

The Bernal Heights hill and microwave tower<br />

The Bernal Heights neighborhood, familiarly called Bernal (rhymes with colonel), lies<br />

to the south of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>'s Mission District. Its most prominent feature is the open<br />

parkland and microwave tower on its large rocky hill. Bernal is bounded by Cesar<br />

Chavez Street to the north, Mission Street to the west and freeways 280 and U.S. Route<br />

101 to the south and east.<br />

History<br />

Bernal had its origin in an 1839 land grant to Don Jose Cornelio Bernal, who grazed his<br />

cattle on what he called Rancho Rincon de las Salinas y Potrero Viejo. In 1860 the land<br />

belonged to a French merchant, Francios Pioche, who subdivided it into smaller lots.<br />

Bernal remained undeveloped, though, until its combination of bedrock with a lack of gas<br />

or electricity spared it from the shaking and fires of the 1906 <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> earthquake.<br />

Some of the tiny earthquake cottages built to house refugees survive to this day. During<br />

World War II the area saw another population surge thanks to its proximity to the <strong>San</strong><br />

<strong>Francisco</strong> Naval Shipyard at Hunters Point.<br />

By the 1990s, Bernal's pleasant microclimate, traditional Victorian and Edwardian<br />

architecture and freeway access to the peninsula and Silicon Valley led to a third wave of<br />

migration. Bernal has not gentrified to the extent of its neighbor Noe Valley, but property


prices are increasing as middle-class homeowners replace working-class renters. Notable<br />

residents include Annie Sprinkle, Tom Ammiano, Dan the Automator, and Terry<br />

Zwigoff. Bernal is a haven for young families and is teeming with their children.<br />

Features<br />

The neighborhood is primarily residential, with a commercial strip along Cortland<br />

Avenue featuring restaurants, a bookstore, a bakery, a video store, grocery stores, cafes<br />

and bars (including a well-known lesbian hangout, Wild Side West). The local branch of<br />

the <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Public Library at 500 Cortland was built by Frederick Myers with<br />

funding from the Works Progress Administration and dedicated in 1940. The library is<br />

slated to be closed for renovations.<br />

A strong tradition of neighborhood activism led to the establishment of the Bernal<br />

Heights Neighborhood Center in 1979. It works to promote community organizing,<br />

affordable housing services, senior services and youth services.<br />

The grassland on the hilltop is home to a remarkable urban ecosystem, including the<br />

California poppy, raccoons, Red-tailed Hawks and, in November 2003, a coyote. The<br />

microwave tower is a major connection point for the metropolitan <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> area.<br />

Bernal Hill Park is a designated "off-leash" park for dogs, and it is a destination for many<br />

dogs and their owners.<br />

External links<br />

Bernal Heights Branch, <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Public Library<br />

Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center<br />

Bernal Blog<br />

Bernal-Heights.com - neighborhood resource


The Castro, <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California<br />

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<br />

Stores on Castro Street near the intersection with 18th. Rainbow flags, which are<br />

commonly associated with gay pride, may be seen hung on streetlights along the road.<br />

The Castro is a neighborhood in <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California, which is also known as<br />

Eureka Valley.<br />

Description<br />

Castro street, which runs through the neighborhood, is best known for being the heart of<br />

<strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>'s gay community. The Castro is also a commonly used abbreviation for the<br />

Castro Theatre, a landmark movie theater located in the Castro community.<br />

<strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>'s gay village is most concentrated in the business district that is located on<br />

Castro Street from Market Street to 19th Street. It extends down Market street toward<br />

Church and on 18th Street on both sides of Castro for a block or two. The greater Castro<br />

includes the surrounding residential areas. It is bordered by the Mission District, Noe<br />

Valley, Twin Peaks, and Haight-Ashbury. It may be considered to include Duboce<br />

Triangle and Dolores Heights, which have a strong gay presence.<br />

Castro Street itself runs south through Noe Valley, crossing the 24th Street business<br />

district, and terminating a few blocks farther in the Glen Park neighborhood. The street<br />

was named for Joaquin Isidro de Castro, an 18th century Spanish soldier who took part in<br />

Juan Bautista de Anza's expedition to California.


History<br />

The Castro came of age as a gay center following the controversial Summer of Love in<br />

the neighboring Haight Ashbury district in 1967. The gathering brought tens of thousands<br />

of middle-class youth from all over the United States. Dreams of love, peace, drugs, and<br />

sex were dashed as conditions quickly deteriorated and violent crime became rampant.<br />

During the 1950s and 1960s, when families left the big cities for the suburbs, the Eureka<br />

Valley also suffered this fate. By the early 1970s, rents were low and people who had<br />

been pushed out of homes by the gentrification of the district nearby began to settle in the<br />

Eureka Valley. Local real estate agents played a key role in the process of gentrification.<br />

By 1975, Harvey Milk had opened a camera store there, and began active political<br />

involvement as a gay activist, further contributing to the notion of the Castro as a gay<br />

destination. Some of the culture of the late 1970s included what was termed the "Castro<br />

Street Clone", which was a mode of dress in vogue with the gay population at the time,<br />

and which gave rise to the nickname "Clone Canyon" for the stretch of Castro Street<br />

between 18th Street and Market Street. There were numerous famous waterholes in the<br />

area, contributing to the nightlife, including the Corner Grocery Bar, the Norse Cove, the<br />

Pendulum, and the Elephant Walk. A typical street scene of the period is perhaps best<br />

illustrated by mentioning the male belly dancers who could be found holding forth in<br />

good weather at the corner of 18th and Castro, on "Hibernia Beach", in front of the<br />

financial institution from which it drew its name.<br />

The area was hit hard by the AIDS/HIV crisis of the 1980s. Beginning in the 1980s, city<br />

officials began a crackdown on bath houses and launched initiatives that aimed to prevent<br />

the spread of AIDS. Kiosks lining Market Street and Castro Street now have posters<br />

promoting safe sex and testing right alongside those advertising online dating services.<br />

Like any other part of a vibrant city, the gay community and Castro neighborhood<br />

continue to address these and other issues of gender, race and class amongst others.<br />

Notable locations<br />

Castro Theatre<br />

Corner of 18th St.-Castro<br />

ESPN Broadcasting Relay Centre (SportsCenter is taped here)<br />

The F Market heritage streetcar line's turnaround at Market St.-17th St.-Castro<br />

The Castro Street Station, a Muni Metro subway station


Harvey Milk Plaza<br />

Site of Harvey Milk's Camera Store - 575 Castro St.<br />

Pink Triangle Park - 17th Street at Market [1]<br />

Special events<br />

Castro Street Fair<br />

Halloween<br />

Pink Saturday<br />

Demographics<br />

In November 2000, the Noe Valley Voice reported the following statistics for city District<br />

8, which includes Noe Valley, Diamond Heights, Glen Park, Twin Peaks, Corona<br />

Heights, Duboce/Reverse Triangle, and Castro/Dolores Heights. The paper cited a 1999<br />

poll of registered voters by David Binder Research, a prominent local polling agency.<br />

European American: 81%<br />

Age 30-49: 54%<br />

Male: 58%<br />

Sexually straight: 59% (89% city-wide)<br />

Rent housing: 55%<br />

College graduate: 71%<br />

Democrat: 72%<br />

Republican: 12%<br />

Religious affiliation: 56%<br />

Not religious: 40%


References<br />

Demographics: "AND NOW FOR THE RUMORS BEHIND THE NEWS" by Mazook.<br />

Noe Valley Voice, November 2000. [2]<br />

Demographics, see also: "District 8: Under the rainbow" by Betsey Culp. <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong><br />

Call, 25 September 2000. [3]<br />

External links<br />

<strong>Guide</strong>d photo tour of Castro<br />

Castro Online<br />

SF Gate: Gay & Lesbian <strong>Guide</strong>: Castro<br />

Cruisin The Castro; description of the "official" walking tour, an excellent way to get to<br />

know the Castro.<br />

Uncle Donald's Castro Street


Chinatown, <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California<br />

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<br />

An intersection of Chinatown in <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>.<br />

<strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>'s Chinatown is one of North America's largest Chinatowns. It is the oldest<br />

and one of the most historic Chinatowns. Established in the 1850s, it has been featured in<br />

popular culture, such as in film, music, photography, and literature.<br />

Chinatown has been experiencing some decline over the years due to the cropping up of<br />

newer Chinatown communities in the Richmond and Sunset Districts of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>,<br />

possibly from the revitalization of Oakland's Chinatown – only 10 miles away – in recent<br />

decades, and from the development of Asian shopping centers throughout the <strong>San</strong><br />

<strong>Francisco</strong> Bay Area. Despite this, it remains a major tourist attraction — drawing more<br />

visitors than the Golden Gate Bridge, and being one of the largest and most prominent<br />

centers of Chinese activity outside of China.<br />

The dragon gate on Grant Avenue at Bush Street was a gift of the government of the<br />

Republic of China (Taiwan).


Location and sub-areas<br />

A typical street.<br />

Chinatown is located in downtown <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>. It is roughly bordered by Powell Street<br />

and the Nob Hill District on the west. On the east is Kearny Street and The City's<br />

Financial District. On the north is North Beach and Green Street and Columbus Street.<br />

On the south is Bush Street and the Union Square area. Despite its decline, it has been<br />

slowly expanding northward into the North Beach neighborhood north of Green and<br />

Columbus Street.<br />

Within Chinatown there are two major thoroughfares. One is Grant Avenue, with the<br />

famous Dragon gate on the corner of Bush Street and Grant Avenue; St. Mary's Park that<br />

boasts a statue of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen; a war memorial to Chinese war veterans; and a<br />

plethora of stores, restaurants and mini-malls that cater mainly to tourists. The other,<br />

Stockton Street, is frequented less often by tourists, and it presents an authentic Chinese<br />

look and feel, reminiscent of Hong Kong, with its produce and fish markets, stores, and<br />

restaurants. Chinatown boasts smaller side streets and alleyways that also provide an<br />

authentic character.<br />

Another major focal point in Chinatown is Portsmouth Square. Due to its being one of the<br />

few open spaces in Chinatown, Portsmouth Square bustles with activity such as Tai Chi<br />

and old men playing Chinese chess. A replica of the Goddess of Democracy used in the<br />

Tiananmen Square protest was built in 1999 by Thomas Marsh, and stands in the square.<br />

It is made of bronze and weighs approximately 600 lb (270 kg).<br />

In recent years, other Chinatown areas have been established within the city of <strong>San</strong><br />

<strong>Francisco</strong> proper, including the Richmond and Sunset districts. These areas have been<br />

settled largely by Chinese from Southeast Asia. There are also many suburban Chinese<br />

communities in the Bay Area, especially in Silicon Valley, such as Cupertino, Fremont,<br />

and Milpitas, where Taiwanese Americans are dominant. Despite these developments,<br />

many continue to commute in from these outer neighborhoods and cities to shop in


Chinatown, causing gridlock on roads and public transit, especially on weekends. To<br />

address this problem, the local public transit agency, Muni, is proposing to extend the<br />

city's subway network to the neighborhood via the new Central Subway.<br />

History<br />

The Street of Gamblers (Ross Alley) Arnold Genthe, 1898. The population was<br />

predominantly male because U.S. policies at the time made it difficult for Chinese<br />

women to enter the country.<br />

<strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>'s Chinatown was the port of entry for early Taishanese and Zhongshanese<br />

Chinese immigrants from the southern Guangdong province of China from the 1850s to<br />

the 1900s. The majority of shopkeepers, restaurant owners, and hired workers in <strong>San</strong><br />

<strong>Francisco</strong> Chinatown were predominantly Taishanese and male. They had come as<br />

laborers to build California's growing railway networks, most famously the<br />

Transcontinental Railroad or as mine workers or independent prospectors hoping to strike<br />

it rich during the 1849 Gold Rush. With massive national unemployment in the wake of<br />

the Panic of 1873, racial tensions in the city boiled over into full blown race riots. In<br />

response to this, the Chinese residents formed the Consolidated Chinese Benevolent<br />

Association or the Chinese Six Companies, which evolved out of the labor recruiting<br />

organizations for different areas of Guangdong. The xenophobia became law as the<br />

United States Government passed the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 – the first<br />

immigration restriction law aimed at a single ethnic group. This law, along with other<br />

immigration restriction laws such as the Geary Act, greatly reduced the numbers of<br />

Chinese allowed into the country and the city, and in theory limited Chinese immigration<br />

to single males only. Exceptions were in fact granted to the families of wealthy<br />

merchants, but the law was still effective enough to reduce the population of the<br />

neighborhood to an all time low in the 1920s. The exclusion act was repealed during<br />

World War Two under the Magnuson Act in recognition of the important role of China as<br />

an ally in the war, although tight quotas still applied.


The neighborhood was completely destroyed in the 1906 earthquake that leveled most of<br />

the city. During the city's rebuilding process, racist city planners and real-estate<br />

developers had hatched plans to move Chinatown to the Hunters Point neighborhood at<br />

the southern edge of the city, even further south in Daly City, or even back to China; and<br />

the neighborhood would then be absorbed into the financial district. Their plans failed as<br />

the Chinese, particularly with the efforts of Consolidated Chinese Box companies, the<br />

Chinese government, and American commercial interests reclaimed the neighborhood<br />

and convinced the city government to relent. Part of their efforts in doing so was to plan<br />

and rebuild the neighborhood as a western friendly tourist attraction. The rebuilt area that<br />

is seen today, resembles such plans.[1]<br />

Many early Chinese immigrants to <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> and beyond were processed at Angel<br />

Island, now a state park, in the <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Bay. Unlike Ellis Island in the East where<br />

prospective European immigrants might be held for up to a week, Angel Island typically<br />

detained Chinese immigrants for months while they were interrogated closely to<br />

determine if they were really who their papers said they were. Several monuments and<br />

memorials have been erected to those who made it through the questioning and those who<br />

did not and were deported; and the entire detention facility has been renovated in 2005<br />

and 2006 under a special federal grant.<br />

The repeal of the Exclusion act and the other immigration restriction laws and the War<br />

Brides Act, which allowed Chinese-American veterans to bring their families outside of<br />

national quotas, led to a major population boom in the area during the 1950s. In the<br />

1960s, the shifting of underutilized national immigration quotas brought in another huge<br />

wave of immigrants mostly from Hong Kong, which changed <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Chinatown<br />

from predominantly Taishan-speaking to Cantonese-speaking. The end of the Vietnam<br />

War brought a wave of Vietnamese refugees of Chinese descent, who put their own<br />

stamp on <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Chinatown.<br />

There were many Chinese in Northern California living outside of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong><br />

Chinatown, but except for Oakland, they did not set up any special town with shopping<br />

and restaurants. With the growth of the Chinese-American population and the increasing<br />

difficulty of traveling into the congestion around downtown <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, commercial<br />

developments began in the outer neighborhoods of the Richmond District and Sunset<br />

District and in other suburbs across the <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Bay Area as well as newer<br />

immigrants – such as Mandarin-speaking immigrants from Taiwan who have tended to<br />

settled in suburban Milbrae, Cupertino, Milpitas, and Mountain View – avoiding <strong>San</strong><br />

<strong>Francisco</strong> as well as Oakland entirely. This suburbanization continues today.<br />

In the summer of 1977, an ongoing rivalry between two Chinese American gangs erupted<br />

in violence and bloodshed, culminating in a shooting spree at the Golden Dragon<br />

Restaurant on Washington Street. Five persons were killed and 11 were wounded, and the<br />

incident has become infamously known as the Golden Dragon massacre. The restaurant<br />

still stands today and remains a popular dim sum restaurant for tourists.


While the neighborhood continues to receive newer immigrants and maintains a lively<br />

and active character, suburban flight has left the neighborhood relatively poor, decrepit in<br />

many parts, and largely elderly. Grant Avenue has changed completely into a tourist<br />

street.<br />

Today, the historic and multistory Sam Wo Restaurant is among the most popular and<br />

notorious Chinese restaurants in Chinatown and a favorite late-night hangout for college<br />

students throughout the Bay Area. It once had the supposedly "world's rudest waiter"<br />

named Edsel Ford Fong, who was born and raised in Chinatown and died in the 1980s;<br />

Eddie refused to serve customers who got on his wrong side and would take the liberty of<br />

changing orders that he thought were stupid. The restaurant has been used as a location<br />

for several television series and films.<br />

Demographics<br />

In recent decades, Cantonese-speaking immigrants from Hong Kong and Mainland China<br />

has gradually led to the the replacement of the Taishanese dialect with the Hong Kong<br />

Cantonese dialect as a lingua franca. Cantonese has over 70 million speakers worldwide,<br />

and its Hong Kong form become fashionable among teenagers in other parts of China<br />

because of the popularity of Hong Kong movies worldwide.<br />

Taishanese is spoken less and less, even in China, and will probably be gone in a<br />

generation from America. There is a degree of mutual intelligibility between Taishanese<br />

and Cantonese, but the vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation have major differences.<br />

Taishanese speakers born in China can usually understand Cantonese; American-born<br />

Taishanese speakers can typically understand only about 10 percent of what they hear in<br />

Cantonese and have great difficulty remembering the right tones when trying to speak it.<br />

Many working-class Hong Kong Chinese immigrants began arriving in large numbers in<br />

the 1960s and despite their status and professions in Hong Kong, immigrants had to find<br />

low-pay employment in restaurants and garment factories in Chinatown because of<br />

limited English ability.<br />

Miscellaneous<br />

<strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>'s Chinatown is home to the well-known and historic Chinese Consolidated<br />

Benevolent Association (known as the Chinese Six Companies), which is the umbrella<br />

organization for local Chinese family and regional associations in Chinatown. It has<br />

spawned lodges in other Chinatowns in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including<br />

Chinatown, Los Angeles and Chinatown, Portland.


Author Amy Tan grew up in the neighborhood. Her book the Joy Luck Club is based on<br />

her experiences here as well as it chronicles the neighborhood's history.<br />

The Chinatown has served as a backdrop for several movies and television shows. It has<br />

also been featured in several food television programs dealing with ethnic Chinese<br />

cuisine.<br />

New "Chinatowns" in the Bay Area<br />

Within the city of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong><br />

Because of aforementioned conditions in Chinatown, several Chinese enclaves or "new<br />

Chinatowns" have sprung up across the city. Most notable are a section of Clement Street<br />

between Arguello Boulevard & Park Presidio in the Richmond District, Irving Street<br />

between 19th Avenue and 24th Avenue, and Noriega Street between 19th Avenue and<br />

25th Avenue, both in the Sunset District.<br />

Unlike in most Chinatowns in North America, ethnic Chinese refugees from Vietnam<br />

have not established businesses in <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>'s Chinatown district – undisputedly the<br />

largest of its kind in North America – due to high property values and rents. Instead,<br />

many Chinese Vietnamese – as opposed to ethnic Vietnamese who tended to congregate<br />

in larger numbers in <strong>San</strong> Jose – have established a separate Vietnamese enclave on<br />

Larkin Street in the heavily working-class Tenderloin district of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, where it<br />

is now known as the city's "Little Saigon" and not as a "Chinatown" per se. As with<br />

historic Chinatown, Little Saigon plans to construct an arch signifying its entrance, as<br />

well as directional street signs leading to the community.<br />

Surrounding areas<br />

Countless suburban strip mall alternatives to the original Chinatown in the city of <strong>San</strong><br />

<strong>Francisco</strong> proper have been developed throughout the <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Bay Area and these<br />

are considered the most notable and provide comparative ease and conveniences to<br />

immigrant shoppers thus reducing the incentive and necessity for immigrants to go to the<br />

filthy and heavy traffic Chinatown. This is partly to be attributed to the aggressive growth<br />

of the highly popular 99 Ranch Market chain of south California in recent years and<br />

putting them in direct competition with the older established Chinatown enclaves, which<br />

have more mom-and-pop operations. Often, unlike the traditional Cantonese-speaking<br />

Chinatowns in <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> or Oakland as populated by mostly old-timers, Mandarin<br />

Chinese is the lingua franca of these communities.


Outside the <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> area, suburban Cupertino in the <strong>San</strong> Jose area has emerged the<br />

major Taiwanese cultural and retail center in the Bay Area, especially with a major<br />

shopping center titled Cupertino Village anchored by the supermarket chain 99 Ranch<br />

Market. A similar, but larger shopping center by the name of Milpitas Square, also<br />

featuring 99 Ranch Market, can be found in Milpitas, adjacent to the northeast corner of<br />

<strong>San</strong> Jose. These plazas contain variety of regional Chinese cuisine and other varied Asian<br />

cuisine restaurants (namely Vietnamese, Thai, Japanese, and so on), book stores, boba tea<br />

shops, bakeries, and upscale boutiques.<br />

A smaller Chinese commercial district lines Castro Street in the suburb of Mountain<br />

View where immigrant businesses now occupy once abandoned 1950s-era downtown<br />

storefronts. (Source: <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Chronicle)<br />

Other suburban communities in the <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Bay Area with a large Chinese<br />

presence include Foster City and Daly City (also home to a large Filipino population) in<br />

<strong>San</strong> Mateo County and Fremont in Alameda County. All of these cities have Chinese<br />

themed shopping centers anchored by 99 Ranch Market. In addition, the Warm Springs<br />

district of Fremont includes a shopping center known as "Little Taipei" anchored by Lion<br />

Supermarket. More Asian-oriented strip malls can be found in the <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> and<br />

Oakland working-class suburbs of Richmond, California ('Pacific East Mall anchored by<br />

99 Ranch Market) and <strong>San</strong> Pablo (<strong>San</strong> Pablo Marketplace anchored by Shun Fat<br />

Supermarket).<br />

References<br />

Readings<br />

Chinn, Thomas W. Bridging the Pacific: <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Chinatown and its People.<br />

Chinese Historical Society of America, 1989. ISBN 0961419830, ISBN 0961419849 PB<br />

See also<br />

49-Mile Scenic Drive<br />

External links<br />

Chinese Cultural Center<br />

Chinatown


America's Chinese communities shifting to Mandarin - A Seattle Post-Intelligencer<br />

newspaper article on the changing dynamic of Chinatown.<br />

What Is the Future for <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>'s Chinese Matriarchs Pueng Vongs, Pacific News<br />

Service. 2005.<br />

<strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Chinatown Events<br />

<strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Chinatown Visitors <strong>Guide</strong><br />

Crocker-Amazon, <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>,<br />

California<br />

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<br />

The Crocker-Amazon is a neighborhood in <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California bordering the<br />

Excelsior District. Crocker-Amazon covers the area south of Mission Street and Geneva<br />

Avenue, extending towards Daly City. The neighborhood is adjacent to Crocker-Amazon<br />

Park, named after the Charles Crocker land holdings that once made up the area, and<br />

Amazon Street in the Excelsior.<br />

The Crocker-Amazon neighborhood is slightly more affluent than the Excelsior, but<br />

retains much of the same racial diversity, including a large Filipino community. Even<br />

many <strong>San</strong> Franciscans are unaware of its existence, leading to more reasonable house<br />

prices than in other, more well-known areas of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>. There is a certain suburban<br />

feel to this commuter neighborhood, although the houses are as tightly packed together as<br />

those in other areas of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>. The neighborhood benefits from some of the best<br />

weather in the city; the late afternoon fog breaks over the Excelsior, meaning the<br />

Crocker-Amazon area has more sun than most other areas of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>. There are<br />

outstanding views towards the top of the neighborhood; downtown <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> can be<br />

seen in the gap between McLaren Park and Twin Peaks (<strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>).


Diamond Heights, <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>,<br />

California<br />

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<br />

Diamond Heights is a neighborhood in <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California. It is located in the<br />

middle part of the city, roughly bordered by Diamond Heights Boulevard and Noe Valley<br />

on the east side and Glen Canyon Park on the west side. It was the <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong><br />

Planning and Urban Research Association's first project, intended to use redevelopment<br />

powers to use land on the hills in the center of the city to be developed with, rather than<br />

against, the topography. Few existing residents needed to be relocated for the<br />

redevelopment program, which included housing for a range of incomes, churches,<br />

schools, parks, and a commercial center.<br />

Notable features of Diamond Heights include a shopping center on Diamond Heights<br />

Boulevard between Duncan Street and Gold Mine Way, and the <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Police<br />

Department's police academy on Turquoise Way. George Christopher Playground is<br />

located behind the shopping center, and Walter Haas Playground is at the intersection of<br />

Diamond Heights Boulevard and Addison Street. School of the Arts high school and the<br />

California Youth Authority's Youth Guidance Center are both just northwest of Diamond<br />

Heights, at the intersection of Portola and Woodside.<br />

Public transportation in Diamond Heights is provided by Muni's 35 Eureka and 52<br />

Excelsior lines. Both connect to the Muni Metro system; the 35 goes to Castro Street<br />

Station and the 52 goes to Forest Hill Station. Additionally, the 52 connects to the Bay<br />

Area Rapid Transit system at the Glen Park Station.<br />

References<br />

<strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Planning and Urban Research Website<br />

*Diamond Heights mid-century modern housing tract developed by architect Claude<br />

Oakland for Eichler Homes


Dogpatch, <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California<br />

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<br />

Dogpatch is a neighborhood on <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>'s eastern side, adjacent to the waterfront<br />

of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Bay, and to the east of, and below, Bernal Heights. Its boundaries are<br />

roughly Mariposa Street to the north, I-280 to the west, 23rd Street to the south, and the<br />

Pier 70 complex to the east. It contains housing, some remaining heavy industry, more<br />

recent light industry, and a new but growing arts district.<br />

Because it survived the 1906 earthquake and fire relatively undamaged, and until recently<br />

had not been redeveloped, Dogpatch has some of the oldest houses in <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>,<br />

dating from the 1860s. Between the 1860s and 1880s, the marshes at the edge of the Bay<br />

were filled, and the area was connected to the main part of the city by means of bridges<br />

across what was then Mission Bay (which itself has now been filled in). This permitted<br />

development of industry and housing. Waterfront-oriented industry, including<br />

shipbuilding, drydocks and ship outfitting and repairs, warehouses, steel mills, and<br />

similar industry flourished until after World War II, when it began to decline.<br />

Dogpatch endured several decades of decline which lasted until the 1990s, when<br />

economic pressures led to modest gentrification of the existing housing stock, and new<br />

construction including loft-style condominiums, many of which were designated as "livework"<br />

units for artists, graphic designers, and similar occupations. The conversion of<br />

existing industrial space to live-work units or other housing has been controversial.<br />

The main commercial artery of Dogpatch is Third Street, with a number of retail and<br />

service businesses. A light rail line operated by <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>'s transit agency, the <strong>San</strong><br />

<strong>Francisco</strong> Municipal Railway, is scheduled to open before the end of 2006. The Third<br />

Street corridor connects Dogpatch to <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>'s downtown, via new development<br />

zones including Mission Bay and the new UCSF research campus.<br />

Notable features of Dogpatch include Irving M. Scott School, the oldest public school<br />

building in <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, built 1895; the historic shipyards at Pier 70; Dogpatch Studios,<br />

a film studio, design center, and event venue; and numerous historical residences.<br />

External links<br />

Dogpatch Home Page<br />

Dogpatch's balancing act


Duboce Triangle, <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>,<br />

California<br />

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<br />

Tree-lined sidewalk access to parking, Victorians, and more modern buildings on<br />

<strong>San</strong>chez Street near 14th Street in Duboce Triangle.<br />

The Duboce Triangle neighborhood is located near the center of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, on the<br />

hilly slopes of Buena Vista between the neighborhoods of the Castro/Eureka Valley, the<br />

Mission District, the Haight-Ashbury and the Western Addition.<br />

There's some disagreement as to what streets form the boundaries of Duboce Triangle:<br />

According to the Duboce Triangle Neighborhood Association, the neighborhood is<br />

bounded by Market, Castro and Waller Street and therefore includes Duboce Park and<br />

some blocks to its north.<br />

According to the <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Association of Realtors, it's "District 5J", a simple<br />

triangle limited by Castro, Market and Duboce. (The SFAR considers blocks to the north<br />

of Duboce Park to be part of Hayes Valley, although they're more popularly considered<br />

part of the Lower Haight.)


In either case, it's well served by Muni metro, streetcars and buses. Sheltered from the<br />

fogs by Buena Vista and Twin Peaks to the West and Alamo Square to the North, the area<br />

is one of the sunnier districts in <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>.<br />

Duboce Park and several smaller "pocket" parks provide attractive public green spaces,<br />

but the Duboce Triangle is most notable for its lushly landscaped sidewalks and wellmaintained<br />

Victorian flats and apartment buildings. These are the direct result of <strong>San</strong><br />

<strong>Francisco</strong>'s rejection of the wholescale demolition of Victorians and their replacement<br />

with slablike public housing that marred the Western Addition in the 1960s. The city<br />

used the federal government's slum clearance dollars to renovate the mostly-19th Century<br />

housing stock instead, and also to plant street trees, bury utility wires underground, and to<br />

widen sidewalks and narrow streets. With its now-mature trees and rejuvenated homes,<br />

the Duboce Triangle's distinctly residential and yet urbane feel is more remarkable given<br />

its proximity to busy Market Street, the city's main thoroughfare.<br />

The official Duboce Triangle Neighborhood Association map excludes the point of the<br />

triangle at Market and Waller. This area is sometimes known as Mint Hill, after the<br />

United States Mint, an imposing building on a steep rocky cliff overlooking the<br />

intersection of Market and Duboce streets. However, most of the homes in this area are<br />

similar in character of the rest of Duboce Triangle.<br />

Demographics<br />

In 2000, about 40% of likely voters in Duboce/Reverse Triangle identified as "gay,<br />

bisexual, or other", compared to 11% city-wide.<br />

References<br />

Demographics: "District 8: Under the rainbow" by Betsey Culp. <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Call, 25<br />

September 2000. [1]<br />

External links<br />

Duboce Triangle Neighborhood Association<br />

DTNA official map


Embarcadero (<strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>)<br />

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<br />

The Embarcadero's Ferry Building<br />

The Embarcadero is the name given the eastern waterfront roadway of the Port of <strong>San</strong><br />

<strong>Francisco</strong>, <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California, along <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Bay. It sits atop an engineered<br />

seawall on filled land.<br />

History<br />

<strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>'s shoreline historically ran south and inland from Clarke's Point below<br />

Telegraph Hill to present-day Montgomerey Street and eastward toward Rincon Point,<br />

enclosing a cove named Yerba Buena Cove. As the city grew, the cove was filled. Over<br />

fifty years a large offshore seawall was built and the mudflats filled, creating what today<br />

is <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>'s Financial District. The <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Belt Railroad, a short line<br />

railroad for freight, once ran along the Embarcadero.<br />

During the early 20th century when the seaport was at its busiest and before the<br />

construction of Bay Bridge, the plaza in front of the Ferry Building was one of the busiest<br />

areas of foot traffic in the world; only Charing Cross Station in London and Grand<br />

Central Station in New York City were busier. There was once a pedestrian footbridge<br />

that connected Market Street directly with the Ferry building and a subterranean roadway<br />

to move cars below the plaza. In the earliest days, a maze cable car tracks terminated


here, servicing the ferry commuters. These were eventually replaced by a loop for several<br />

streetcar lines.<br />

However, after the completion of the Bay Bridge and the rapid decline of Ferries and the<br />

Ferry Building, the neighborhood fell into decline. The transition to container shipping,<br />

which moved most shipping to Oakland, led to further decline. Automobile transit efforts<br />

led to the Embarcadero Freeway being built in the 1960s. This improved automobile<br />

access to the Bay Bridge, but detracted aesthetically from the city. For 30 years, the<br />

highway divided the waterfront and the Ferry Building from downtown. It was torn down<br />

in 1991, after being severely damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.<br />

After the freeway had been cleared, massive redevelopment begun as grand palm-lined<br />

boulevard was created, squares and plazas were created and/or restored, and the Muni N<br />

and F lines were extended to run along it; the N goes to 4th and King Streets (at AT&T<br />

Park and the Caltrain terminal) and the F now goes to Fisherman's Wharf. The Market<br />

Street Railway is also planning a new ‘E’ line to run up the Embarcadero, past the<br />

wharves, to Aquatic Park. A unique sculpture resembling cupid's bow and arrow with the<br />

arrow implanted in the ground was built there in 2003, symbolizing where Tony Bennett<br />

"left his heart".<br />

Rail Station<br />

The Embarcadero Station, a BART and Muni Metro subway station, is located at the foot<br />

of Market Street, by The Embarcadero. While not in the original station plans, the area<br />

had become quite busy at the time of the BART construction. The late addition is the<br />

reason for the station's distinctive design.<br />

Embarcadero Center<br />

Villancourt Fountain at Embarcadero Center<br />

The Embarcadero Center consists of four buildings and the Villancourt Fountain. Until<br />

2001, there was a viewing deck on top of the Embarcadero. At Christmas time at night,<br />

lights covering the corners of all four buildings are lit up.


Regional note<br />

There is also an Embarcadero (both street and waterfront area) in Oakland, California.<br />

External links<br />

The Chronicle's standing article about North Beach<br />

Union Square <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Blog<br />

Nob Hill <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Blog<br />

Eureka Valley, <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California<br />

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<br />

The Eureka Valley, looking north on Castro Street from 20th. Visible is the giant rainbow<br />

flag at Castro and Market. In the summer months, fog tends to roll in over Twin Peaks<br />

and other hills to the west in the evenings and retreat again the next morning.<br />

Eureka Valley is a term for the greater Castro district of the city of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>,<br />

California. The term Eureka Valley describes a larger area, including many residential<br />

areas, while "the Castro" denotes mainly the predominantly gay-oriented commercial<br />

district on Castro Street and 18th Street. The term Eureka Valley, though, is largely out of<br />

use, replaced by "the Castro" as the gay community grew in the area.


As a curious note, the Castro Street Muni Metro station replaced an older Eureka Street<br />

station only a few blocks away, symbolic of the neighborhood shift away from Eureka<br />

Street and toward Castro in the late 1970s.<br />

Excelsior District, <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>,<br />

California<br />

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<br />

The Excelsior District in <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> is the area along Mission Street, south of<br />

Interstate 280 and north of Geneva Avenue. Its central point is arguably the intersection<br />

of Mission Street and Ocean Avenue. The area is characterized by the names of the<br />

streets, many of which are named for European countries and cities. Excelsior is an<br />

ethnically diverse neighborhood with Latinos, Cantonese-speaking Chinese, Filipinos,<br />

Italians, Irish and African Americans. It holds an annual street festival every October.<br />

Mexican, Italian, Salvadorean, Filipino and Chinese cuisines are particularly wellrepresented.<br />

Famous Excelsiorites include surrealist poet Philip Lamantia, Grateful Dead<br />

singer/guitarist Jerry Garcia, Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame shortstop Joe Cronin, DJ<br />

Qbert, and <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> mayoral assassin Dan White.<br />

Central to the neighborhood was the Granada Theater at the intersection of Mission and<br />

Ocean, which opened in 1922 as the Excelsior. In 1931 when the downtown Granada<br />

Theater changed its name to the Paramount, the name and a vertical "Granada" sign were<br />

deployed in the Excelsior. The theater closed in 1982.<br />

External links<br />

http://www.jerryday.org<br />

http://www.mamasf.com<br />

http://www.eagsf.org<br />

http://www.excelsiorfestival.org<br />

http://www.excelsiordistrict.org


Fillmore District, <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>,<br />

California<br />

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<br />

The Fillmore District, also called The Fillmore or The Lower Fillmore, is a<br />

neighborhood in <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California. Though its boundaries are not well-defined, it<br />

is usually considered to be the subset of the Western Addition neighborhood bordered by<br />

Fillmore Street on the west, Van Ness Avenue on the east, approximately Geary<br />

Boulevard on the north, and approximately Grove Street on the south. Sometimes the<br />

western boundary is extended to Divisadero Street north of Golden Gate Avenue. The<br />

neighborhood is in <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>'s fifth district, and is served by several Muni bus lines<br />

including the 38, 31, 5, and 22.<br />

The Fillmore was the site of a massive and controversial Urban renewal project begun in<br />

the 1950's, the last vestiges of which are still ongoing. It has an ethnically and<br />

economically diverse population, and is the historical center of African-American culture<br />

in <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>. Today, despite the persistence of poverty and violent crime, the<br />

Fillmore is seeing increased residential and commercial development. In particular the<br />

area is reviving as a center of music, with a branch of Oakland-based jazz club Yoshi's<br />

and a jazz history museum expected to open in 2007, joining existing venues such as the<br />

Boom Boom Room, Rassalla's, the Sheba Lounge, and the well-known Fillmore<br />

Auditorium.<br />

History<br />

In the 1800's, the Fillmore was a predominantly Jewish neighborhood, with vegetable<br />

farms surrounding the developed area around Fillmore Street. Many Japanese immigrants<br />

also came to the Fillmore around the turn of the century. After the 1906 earthquake<br />

Fillmore Street, which had largely avoided heavy damage, temporarily became a major<br />

commercial center as the city's downtown rebuilt.<br />

In 1942, during World War II, President Roosevelt signed an executive order to relocate<br />

all people of Japanese origin to internment camps. The vacant homes in the Fillmore<br />

attracted African-American industrial workers, musicians, and artists. Soon many<br />

nighclubs were opened, bringing major musical icons to the neighborhood including Ella<br />

Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, and Billie Holiday. The neighborhood struggled<br />

economically, however, and many of its Victorian homes fell into disrepair.


As a result of this, in 1948 the Fillmore was designated a redevelopment area. The city's<br />

Redevelopment Agency, led by Justin Herman, demolished most of the neighborhood's<br />

existing homes and businesses over the course of the next decade. In their place<br />

developers built large, mostly low-rise housing developments, along with some mixeduse<br />

buildings concentrated around Fillmore Street. Many of these developments included<br />

subsidized units for low-income residents. The project took longer than expected,<br />

however, with some plots remaining vacant until well into the 21st century. While the<br />

residents of the original homes were in theory entitled to return to the neighborhood,<br />

many did not do so. As a result of the project's displacement of residents and businesses,<br />

its mixed (and arguably discriminatory) economic impact, and its architecture (now seen<br />

as outmoded), the redevelopment of the Fillmore is considered by many to have been<br />

unsuccessful and regrettable.<br />

As surrounding neighborhoods have gentrified, however, some effects have been felt in<br />

the Fillmore. While lower Fillmore Street is still dominated by chain establishments now<br />

disfavored by most <strong>San</strong> Franciscans, restaurants and jazz clubs are beginning to reappear.<br />

Some of the neighborhood's subsidized housing projects have been rebuilt along more<br />

modern lines, and some market-rate housing is also being built and refurbished.<br />

External links<br />

[PBS documentary on redevelopment of the Fillmore]<br />

[<strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Redevelopment Agency Western Addition A-1 area]<br />

[What's Really Wrong with the Lower Fillmore]


Financial District, <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>,<br />

California<br />

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<br />

The Financial District and the Transamerica Pyramid as seen from Coit Tower.<br />

The Financial District is a neighborhood in <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California that serves as its<br />

main central business district.<br />

Location<br />

The area is marked by the cluster of high-rise towers that lies between Grant Street east<br />

of the Union Square shopping district, Sacramento Street and Columbus Street, south of<br />

Chinatown and North Beach, and the Embarcadero that rings the waterfront. The city's<br />

tallest buildings, including the Bank of America tower and the Transamerica Pyramid, are<br />

located here.<br />

The District is home to the city's largest concentration of corporate headquarters, law<br />

firms, banks, savings & loans and other financial institutions, such as the corporate<br />

headquarters of VISA, Wells Fargo Bank, the Charles Schwab Corporation, Barclays<br />

Global Investors, The Gap, and the Union Bank of California among others. The<br />

headquarters of the Bank of California, the 12th district of the United States Federal<br />

Reserve, and the Pacific Stock Exchange (although no longer located in that building) are<br />

located in the area as well. Montgomery Street ("Wall Street of the West") is the<br />

traditional heart of the district. There are several shopping malls in the area including the


Crocker Galleria, the Embarcadero Center, the Ferry Building, and the Rincon Center<br />

complex.<br />

History<br />

A statue on Market Street in the heart of the Financial District commemorates the United<br />

States annexing <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> and California from Mexico during the Mexican American<br />

war in 1848.<br />

The area was the center of European and American settlement during Spanish and later<br />

Mexican rule. Following American annexation and the Gold Rush, the area boomed<br />

rapidly and the Bay shoreline, which originally ended at Battery St, was filled in and<br />

extended to the Embarcadero. Gold Rush wealth and business made it the financial<br />

capital of the west coast as many banks and businesses set up in the neighborhood. The<br />

west coast's first and only skyscrapers, were built in the area along Market Street.<br />

The neighborhood was completey destroyed in the 1906 Earthquake & Fire (although<br />

miraculously, the area's skyscrapers survived), and rebuilt. Because of state wide height<br />

restrictions due to earthquake fears, the district remained realtively low-rise throughout<br />

the 20th century until the late 1950s, when due to new building and earthquake<br />

retrofitting technologies, the height restrictions were lifted, fueling a skyscraper building<br />

boom. This boom accelerated under mayor Diane Feinstein during the 1980s under her<br />

plan of "Manhattanization". This caused widespread oppostion citywide leading to the<br />

"skyscraper revolt" similar to the "freeway revolt" in the city years earlier. The<br />

skyscraper revolt led to the city imposing extremeley strict, European style height<br />

restrictions on building construction citywide.


The Financial District along Market Street. The headquarters 12th District of the United<br />

States Federal Reserve is the glass sheathed building to the left<br />

Due to these height restrictions, (which have been relaxed and overlooked over the<br />

years), overcrowding, and changes and demand in the local real esate market,<br />

development in the area, as well as the district's boundaries as a whole have shifted to<br />

SOMA as the focus has shifted from building office space, to high rise condominiums<br />

and hotels. Notable examples include the Four Seasons Hotel, and The Paramount,<br />

currently the tallest condominums on the west coast.<br />

See also<br />

49-Mile Scenic Drive<br />

External links<br />

Coordinates: 37.7952° N -122.4029° E<br />

Maps and aerial photos<br />

WikiSatellite view at WikiMapia<br />

Street map from MapQuest or Google Local<br />

Topographic map from TopoZone<br />

Aerial image from TerraServer-USA


Satellite image from Google Local or Windows Live Local<br />

Tourist info about the Financial District including photos<br />

Union Square <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Blog<br />

Nob Hill <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Blog<br />

Skyscrapers.com's page on <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong><br />

Fisherman's Wharf, <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>,<br />

California<br />

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<br />

Fisherman's Wharf sign<br />

Fisherman's Wharf is a neighborhood in <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California, U.S. Roughly<br />

speaking it encompasses the northern waterfront area of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> from Ghirardelli<br />

Square or Van Ness Street east to Pier 35 or Kearney Street. It is mainly a tourist<br />

attraction, known for being the location of Pier 39, <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Maritime National<br />

Historical Park, Ghirardelli Square, Ripley's Believe it or Not, the Musée Mécanique,<br />

ferry rides to Alcatraz and restaurants that serve seafood, most notably dungeness crab.<br />

Transportation to Fisherman's Wharf can be an attraction of itself, the F Market runs<br />

through the area, the Powell-Hyde cable car lines runs to Aquatic Park, at the edge of<br />

Fisherman's Wharf, and the Powell-Mason cable car line runs a few blocks away. Other<br />

popular areas in <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, such as Chinatown, Lombard Street and North Beach are<br />

all located in proximity to Fisherman's Wharf.<br />

The intro video of ABC's Full House features Fisherman's Wharf, where Bob Saget,<br />

Candace Cameron, and Jodie Sweetin are fishing around in front of Alcatraz prison.


A popular resident of Fisherman's Wharf is The World Famous Bushman, a local man<br />

who sits behind some branches and startles people who walk by, but all in good fun. He<br />

has gained quite a following during the 25 years he has been doing it.<br />

See also<br />

49-Mile Scenic Drive<br />

External links<br />

Fisherman's Wharf Merchant Association<br />

Street map from Mapquest<br />

<strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Fisherman's Wharf Virtual Tour<br />

Welcome to Fisherman's Wharf - basic information and the essential Internet resources.<br />

See also<br />

Fisherman's Wharfs in other places<br />

F Market, the <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Municipal Railway historic streetcar linking the Wharf to<br />

Market Street, the MUNI Metro, and the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system.


Forest Hill, <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California<br />

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<br />

Stairway into Forest Hill from Pacheco Street and Dewey Boulevard up to Castenada<br />

Avenue<br />

Forest Hill is an affluent neighborhood in <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California. It is located near the<br />

middle of the city, north-east of West Portal, south of the Inner Sunset and north of<br />

Dewey Boulevard. Construction on the neighborhood began in 1912, on land originally<br />

owned by Adolph Sutro that was purchased from his heirs by a private firm. Streets in<br />

Forest Hill were not built to city standards, and not maintained by the city until 1978. [1]<br />

The area south of Dewey Boulevard is known as Laguna Honda or Forest Hill<br />

Extension. The name Laguna Honda means "Deep Lagoon" in the Spanish language,<br />

presumably referring to the Laguna Honda Reservoir, at the intersection of Laguna<br />

Honda Boulevard and Clarendon Avenue.<br />

Laguna Honda Hospital and the Muni Metro Forest Hill Station are located between<br />

Forest Hill and Laguna Honda, near the intersection of Laguna Honda Boulevard and<br />

Dewey Boulevard. School of the Arts high school is on Portola Drive near Woodside<br />

Avenue, in the south-eastern corner of Laguna Honda.<br />

External links<br />

Coordinates: 37.748° N -122.463° E<br />

Maps and aerial photos<br />

Street map from Google Maps or Yahoo! Maps


Topographic map from TopoZone<br />

Aerial image or topographic map from TerraServer-USA<br />

Satellite image from Google Maps or Microsoft Virtual Earth<br />

Surrounding area map from the United States Census Bureau<br />

Glen Park, <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California<br />

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<br />

Glen Park is a small neighborhood in <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California. It is located at the<br />

southern edge of the hills in the interior of the city, to the south of Diamond Heights and<br />

Noe Valley, west of Bernal Heights, and east of Glen Canyon Park. The intersection of<br />

Diamond Street and Bosworth Street is generally considered the center of the<br />

neighborhood. Because of Glen Park's small size and mom and pop stores, restaurants,<br />

and saloons, the neighborhood is often described as having a village atmosphere. The<br />

neighborhood is served by a small storefront branch of the <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Public Library.<br />

[1] Many residents have noticed the beginnings of a change in the atmosphere of the<br />

neighborhood, possibly starting at a fire which burnt down the Diamond Super grocer and<br />

market in the late 1990s. Since then many "trendy" new stores have moved in, and<br />

recently with the construction of a large supermarket/office/apartment complex in the lot<br />

where Diamond Super once stood many of the smaller stores which once defined the<br />

neighborhood are closing down. It has been speculated by some residents that Glen Park<br />

will soon shift from being a predominantly working-class family area to a more yuppie<br />

demographic.<br />

Transportation<br />

Interstate 280 and the Glen Park BART station are both located at the southern edge of<br />

the neighborhood. Glen Park is served by the Muni bus lines 23, 26, 35, 44 and 52 plus<br />

the J Church Muni Metro line.


External links<br />

Coordinates: 37.736° N -122.433° E<br />

Maps and aerial photos<br />

Street map from Google Maps or Yahoo! Maps<br />

Topographic map from TopoZone<br />

Aerial image or topographic map from TerraServer-USA<br />

Satellite image from Google Maps or Microsoft Virtual Earth<br />

Surrounding area map from the United States Census Bureau<br />

Chenery Park Restaurant<br />

Glen-Park.com A neighborhood guide<br />

Glen Park: The Architecture and Social History<br />

Glen Park Community Plan <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Planning Dept. page<br />

References<br />

Demographics: "District 8: Under the rainbow" by Betsey Culp. <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Call, 25<br />

September 2000. [2]<br />

Golden Gate Park<br />

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<br />

An aerial view of the Golden Gate Park


Golden Gate Park is the largest urban park in <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California, USA. At 1017<br />

acres (4.1 km²), it is in the shape of a long rectangle, similar in shape but 174 acres (0.7<br />

km²) larger than Central Park in New York.<br />

History<br />

The domed Conservatory of Flowers is one of the world's largest. It is built of traditional<br />

wood sash and glass pane construction. It has been extensively renovated several times<br />

since its construction<br />

In the 1860s, <strong>San</strong> Franciscans began to feel the need for a spacious public park like the<br />

one that was taking shape in New York. Golden Gate Park was carved out of<br />

unpromising sand and shore dunes that were known as the "outside lands." The tireless<br />

field engineer William Hammond Hall prepared a survey and topographic map of the<br />

park site in 1870 and became commissioner in 1871. He was later named California's first<br />

State Engineer and developed an integrated flood control system for the Sacramento<br />

Valley when he was not working on Golden Gate Park. The actual plan and planting were<br />

developed by Hall and his assistant, John McLaren, who had apprenticed in Scotland, the<br />

source of many of the 19th century's best professional gardeners. The initial plan called<br />

for grade separations of transverse roadways through the park, as Frederick Law Olmsted<br />

Jr. had provided for Central Park, but budget constraints and the positioning of the<br />

Arboretum and the Concourse aborted the plan. In 1876, the plan was almost exchanged<br />

for a racetrack favored by "the Big Four" millionaires, Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins,<br />

Collis P. Huntington, and Charles Crocker. Hall resigned and all the park commissioners<br />

followed him. Fortunately for the city, the original plan was soon back on track. By 1886,<br />

streetcars delivered over 47,000 people to Golden Gate Park on one weekend afternoon;<br />

the city's population at the time was about 250,000. Hall selected McLaren as his<br />

successor in 1887.


The North Windmill<br />

The first stage stabilized the ocean dunes that covered three-quarters of the park area with<br />

tree plantings. By 1875, about 60,000 trees, mostly Blue Gum Eucalyptus, Monterey pine<br />

and Monterey cypress were planted. By 1879, that figure more than doubled to 155,000<br />

trees over 1,000 acres (4 km²). Later McLaren scoured the world through his<br />

correspondents for trees. Only Bolivia escaped his net. When McLaren refused to retire at<br />

age 60, as was customary, the <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> city government was bombarded with<br />

letters: when he reached 70 a charter amendment was passed to exempt him from forced<br />

retirement. He lived in McLaren Lodge in Golden Gate Park until he died at age 90, in<br />

1943.<br />

In 1903 a pair of Dutch-style windmills were built at the extreme western end of the park.<br />

These pumped water throughout the park. The north windmill has been restored to its<br />

original appearance and is adjacent to a flower garden, a gift of Queen Wilhelmina of the<br />

Netherlands. These are planted with tulip bulbs for Winter display and other flowers in<br />

appropriate seasons. Murphy's Windmill in the south of the park is currently being<br />

restored.<br />

Most of the water used for landscape watering and for various water features is now<br />

provided by the use of highly processed and recycled effluent from the city's sewage<br />

treatment plant, located at the beach some miles away to the south near the <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong><br />

Zoo. In the 1950s there was some consternation caused by the use of this effluent during<br />

cold weather, with the introduction of artificial detergents but before the advent of<br />

modern biodegradable products. These "hard" detergents would cause long lasting<br />

billowing piles of foam to form on the creeks connecting the artificial lakes, and could<br />

even be blown upon the roads, forming a traffic hazard.


Major features<br />

Japanese Tea Garden<br />

A step-stone bridge in the Japanese Tea Garden<br />

The Japanese tea garden, an immensely popular feature, was originally built as part of a<br />

sprawling World's Fair, the 1894 California Midwinter International Exposition[1].<br />

Notable as the oldest public Japanese garden in the U.S., this intricate complex of<br />

many paths, ponds and a teahouse features native Japanese and Chinese plants. Also<br />

hidden throughout its five acres (20,000 m²) are beautiful sculptures and bridges. Makato<br />

Hagiwara, a Japanese gardener who was official caretaker of the garden from 1895 to<br />

1942, was also the inventor of the fortune cookie. A persistent (but likely apocryphal)<br />

legend records that the Japanese ambassador, after being shown its features and asked his<br />

opinion, gasped, "We have nothing to equal it in Japan."<br />

The Music Concourse Area<br />

The Music Concourse is an open area with three water fountains surrounded with maple<br />

trees positioned uniformally. There is also a stage on the east side. The buildings near the<br />

conourse area include The Academy of Sciences and the De Young Museum.<br />

In 2003 Music Concourse is also undergoing a series improvements to include an<br />

underground 800-car parking garage, narrowing of the roadways in the Music Concourse,<br />

the addition of bike lanes, and the elimination of existing surface parking.


De Young Museum<br />

Main article De Young Museum<br />

The De Young Museum was opened January 1921. Its original building had been part of<br />

The Midwinter Fair. The California Academy of Sciences, a complex of a library, a<br />

research lab, a planetarium, an aquarium and a natural-history museum, is also located in<br />

Golden Gate Park. The de Young has been completely rebuilt and re-opened in 2005<br />

Academy of Sciences<br />

Main article Academy of Sciences<br />

The California Academy of Sciences is a Natural History Museum which also houses the<br />

Steinhart Aquarium and the Morrison Planetarium. The Academy of Sciences carries<br />

exibits of reptiles and amphibians, astrology, prehistoric life, various gems and minerals,<br />

earthquakes, and aquatic life.<br />

In September 12, 2005, Academy of Sciences started a complete reconstruction, with<br />

completion scheduled for 2008; until will be temporarily located downtown in the SoMa<br />

area.<br />

Strybing Arboretum<br />

Main article Strybing Arboretum<br />

The Strybing Arboretum was laid out in the 1890s, but funding was insufficient until<br />

Helene Strybing willed funds in 1926. Planting was begun in 1937 with WPA funds<br />

supplemented by local donations. This 70 acre (280,000 m²) arboretum contains more<br />

than 6,000 plant species.<br />

A trail through the redwood forest section of the arboretum.


Aids Memorial Grove<br />

Main article AIDS Memorial Grove<br />

The AIDS Memorial Grove has been in progress since 1988 and is still the only national<br />

AIDS memorial in the U.S.. The Grove's executive director, Thom Weyand, has said that<br />

"part of the beauty of the grove is that as a memorial which receives no federal money, it<br />

is blessedly removed from the fight over the controversy of AIDS."<br />

Stow Lake<br />

Stow Lake surrounds the prominent Strawberry Hill, now an island with an electrically<br />

pumped waterfall. There are rowboats and pedalboats available for rental at the<br />

boathouse. Much of the western portion of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> may be seen from the top of<br />

this hill, which at its top contains one of the reservoirs that supply a network of high<br />

pressure water mains that exclusively supply specialized fire hydrants throughout the<br />

city.<br />

Spreckels Lake<br />

Spreckels Lake is located on the northern side of the park near 36 th Avenue. One can<br />

usually find model yachts sailing on Spreckels Lake. Many of these are of the type used<br />

before the advent of the modern radio controlled model. The yachts are set up by their<br />

owners and most include an auxiliary wind vane to control the rudder through a linkage.<br />

The yachts are then released, and pole handlers will walk down each side of the lake with<br />

a padded pole to prevent the yachts from colliding with the lake edge. The lake has been<br />

specifically designed for this type of operation as it has a vertical edging (allowing the<br />

yachts to closely approach the shore) and a paved walkway around the entire edge. At<br />

one location near a grassy area "duckling ramps" allow young wildlife to safely exit the<br />

pond.<br />

Conservatory of Flowers<br />

Main article Conservatory of Flowers.


The Conservatory of Flowers is one of the world's largest conservatories built of<br />

traditional wood and glass panes. It was pre-fabricated for local entrepreneur James Lick<br />

for his <strong>San</strong>ta Clara, California estate, but was still in its crates when he died in 1876. A<br />

group of <strong>San</strong> Franciscans bought it, offered it to the city, and it was erected in Golden<br />

Gate Park and opened to the public in 1879. But in 1883 the boiler exploded and the main<br />

dome caught fire. Charles Crocker restored it. It survived the earthquake of 1906 only to<br />

suffer another fire in 1918. In 1933 it was declared unsound and closed to the public until<br />

1946. In 1995 a severe storm with 100 mph (160 km/h) winds damaged it, shattering 40%<br />

of the glass, and it had to be closed again. It was cautiously dissected for repairs and<br />

finally reopened in September 2003.<br />

Kezar Stadium<br />

Main article Kezar Stadium<br />

Kezar Stadium, the one-time home of the AAFC and NFL <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> 49ers, was built<br />

between 1922 and 1925 in the southeast corner of the park. The old, 59,000 seat stadium<br />

was demolished in 1989, and replaced with a modern, 10,000 seat stadium.<br />

John F. Kennedy Drive<br />

John F. Kennedy Memorial Drive was the new name for North Drive, winding from the<br />

East end of the park to the Great Highway after the Kennedy Assassination. The portion<br />

east of the 19th ave. park crossing is closed to motor traffic on Sundays and holidays,<br />

providing a popular oasis for pedestrians, bicyclists, and skaters. In 1983 the other major<br />

transverse road, South Drive, was renamed as Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.<br />

Minor Features<br />

There are also a number of more naturalistically landscaped lakes throughout the park,<br />

several linked together into chains, with pumped water creating flowing creeks.<br />

A paddock corrals a small herd of bison, captive in the Park since 1892.


See also<br />

Lloyd Lake in Golden Gate Park<br />

AIDS Memorial Grove<br />

M. H. de Young Memorial Museum<br />

Kezar Stadium<br />

Conservatory of Flowers<br />

California Academy of Sciences<br />

Strybing Arboretum<br />

External links<br />

Park History with maps from <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Recreation and Park Department<br />

Park Map<br />

Google map including satellite image ca. early 2004<br />

Friends of the Music Concourse - local preservation and advocacy group<br />

Conservatory history.<br />

Another capsule biography of Hall<br />

Park history from <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Historical Society<br />

Golden Gate Park Virtual Tour<br />

Article regarding Golden Gate Park Playground<br />

Photos of Golden Gate Park - Terra Galleria<br />

Golden Gate Park Concourse Authority redevelopment program<br />

Brief vita of John McLaren, the park superintendent


Haight-Ashbury, <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>,<br />

California<br />

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<br />

The corner of Haight and Ashbury in 2005<br />

The Haight-Ashbury is a district of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California, USA named after the<br />

intersection of Haight Street and Ashbury Street, commonly known as The Haight or, in<br />

recent years, The Upper Haight. The names of the streets themselves are taken from<br />

Henry Huntly Haight, Governor of California in the 1870's, and one of the city<br />

supervisors of the time, a Mr. Ashbury. Both of them had a hand in the planning of the<br />

neighborhood, and, more importantly, Golden Gate Park at its inception.<br />

The district is famous for its role as a center of the 1960s hippie movement, a post-runner<br />

and closely associated offshoot of the Beat generation who swarmed <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>'s "in"<br />

North Beach neighborhood 2-8 years before the "Summer of Love" in 1967.<br />

History<br />

Before the completion of the Haight Street Cable Railroad in 1883, what is now the<br />

Haight-Ashbury was a collection of isolated farms and acres of sand dunes, most of<br />

which was not graded or developed in any way. The new cable car line, completed in<br />

1883, connected the west end of Golden Gate Park with Market Street and downtown <strong>San</strong><br />

<strong>Francisco</strong>. Shortly afterward, in the 1890s and early part of the 20th century, the Haight-<br />

Ashbury was developed as an upper middle-class residential district. It was one of the<br />

fortunate districts spared in the disastrous fires that followed the catastrophic <strong>San</strong><br />

<strong>Francisco</strong> Earthquake of 1906.<br />

The Haight was hit hard by the Depression, as was much of the rest of the city. Residents<br />

with enough money to spare left the declining and “crowded” neighborhood for greener<br />

pastures such as Forest Hill and St. Francis Wood. During the housing shortage of World<br />

War II, the large single-family Victorians were divided into apartments to house war<br />

workers; others were converted into boarding houses. By the 1950s, the Haight was a<br />

neighborhood in decline. Deferred maintenance took its toll, and the exodus of middleclass<br />

residents to newer suburbs to the south and west continued.


The Haight-Ashbury's elaborately detailed 19th-century multi-story wooden houses<br />

became a haven for hippies during the 1960s, due to the availability of cheap Victorian<br />

properties for rent in the district and the bohemian subculture that subsequently<br />

flourished there.<br />

It gained a reputation as a center of illegal drug culture, especially with the use of<br />

marijuana. The area was thus sometimes known as The Hashbury, but, ca. 1967, its<br />

fame chiefly rested on the fact that it became the neighborhood of choice for a number of<br />

important psychedelic rock performers and groups of the mid-1960s. Acts like the<br />

Jefferson Airplane, The Grateful Dead and Janis Joplin, who all lived a short distance<br />

from the famous intersection, not only immortalized the scene in song, but knew many<br />

within the community as friends and family. Its mystique was further enhanced by the<br />

1967 Scott MacKenzie hit "<strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> (Be Sure To Wear Some Flowers In Your<br />

Hair)," written by The Mamas & the Papas member John Phillips. Some said the song<br />

was a blatantly commercial pop song that climbed the charts much to locals' chagrin.<br />

Finally the fallout from hard drugs and irreverence to social norms took its toll. By the<br />

mid 70's, thirty percent of the 20 some square blocks of housing in the neighborhood<br />

were condemned, and nearly a third of the storefront property stayed vacant into the early<br />

eighties.<br />

Present-day Haight-Ashbury<br />

Haight street near the district, feb '06<br />

Today the district has lost little of its status as a center of alternative lifestyles, though<br />

much has changed. The area still maintains a lot of its bohemian atmosphere, it has<br />

become a major tourist attraction and has experienced the effects of gentrification to<br />

some degree. Perhaps the best illustration of the district's slide into the mainstream is the<br />

presence of a Gap store, a major international retailer that (ironically) started in <strong>San</strong><br />

<strong>Francisco</strong> in the late 60's, now fell to mixed reviews by the city's trendy inhabitants.<br />

Though the Gap and Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream are now located at the famous Haight-<br />

Ashbury intersection, the neighborhood remains a thriving center of independent local<br />

business. It is home to a number of independent restaurants and bars, as well as clothing,<br />

smoke, and record shops, including Amoeba Music: <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>'s largest new and used


ecord store, as well as shops catering to anything retro, nuevo, or strange. The<br />

cohabitation between throw-backs to the fifties lounge scene, organic and spiritual new<br />

age, the punk of the 70's and beyond is one of the neighborhood's most interesting and<br />

endearing aspects. The Haight-Ashbury Street Fair is held on the second Sunday each<br />

June. The twenty-ninth annual street fair will occur on June 11, 2006.<br />

Current issues<br />

Because of its past and present reputation and its location between Buena Vista Park and<br />

Golden Gate Park, the district draws the homeless and teen runaways. To a great degree,<br />

the main commercial area's blend of diverse street life engulfs all types in the<br />

carnivalesque and liberal surroundings, just as it had in the sixties. Recent police and<br />

community efforts help maintain park curfews and "no camping policies" as well. The<br />

area suffers little in the way of crime, compared to rougher <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> neighborhoods.<br />

Both commercial and residential property in the district are in high demand today, a<br />

testament to the area's long history and many charms.<br />

References in Popular Culture<br />

In the game, Grand Theft Auto: <strong>San</strong> Andreas, there is an area in fictional <strong>San</strong> Fierro,<br />

based on the real city of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> called "Hashbury", combining the name Haight<br />

and Ashbury, also from the nickname.<br />

See also<br />

Summer of Love<br />

The Diggers<br />

Buena Vista Park<br />

The Red Victorian<br />

Amoeba Music


External links<br />

Timeline of the Haight-Ashbury<br />

Photo tour of the Haight-Ashbury<br />

Documentary Haight-Ashbury in the Sixties commentary, video clips and images<br />

Haight-Ashbury Street Fair<br />

Other Sites related to the Haight-Ashbury<br />

Haight-Fillmore, <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>,<br />

California<br />

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<br />

Haight-Fillmore, or the Lower Haight, is a neighbourhood in <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California.<br />

Geography<br />

Haight-Fillmore is also known as Lower Haight (as opposed to Haight-Ashbury / Upper<br />

Haight). In general terms, it lies between Oak Street and Duboce Avenue, and between<br />

Divisadero Street and Market Street.<br />

The area slopes down from Oak Street toward Duboce. Duboce Park, toward the corner<br />

of Duboce and Scott, is a small park with a playground, used mainly for dog-walking. It<br />

is not uncommon to witness drug use at night.<br />

Description<br />

A mixture of restaurants, independent nightclubs, drinking establishments, residences,<br />

and hair salons characterize the Haight-Fillmore atmosphere. Highlights include<br />

Toronado's ridiculously abundant supply of local, domestic, and foreign beers on tap,<br />

Indian Oven's delicious curry cuisine, and native lower haight clothing store Upper<br />

Playground.


There are also several stores that cater to the DJ and electronic music buff. For example,<br />

Tweekin Records has carried some of the best house vinyl in the city since 1992.<br />

Differences between Lower and Upper Haight include the housing projects in the Lower<br />

Haight, and the greater number and variety of shops. The houses tend to be less ornately<br />

painted than in the Upper Haight, and rent can be cheaper.<br />

The neighborhood is also home to a large Buddhist enclave associated with <strong>San</strong><br />

<strong>Francisco</strong> Zen Center.<br />

Transportation<br />

The area is very well served by several <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Municipal Railway (MUNI) bus<br />

lines and it is a few blocks away from all of the MUNI Metro lines. The heart of the<br />

neighborhood, at the corner of Fillmore and Haight, is mere blocks away from the transit<br />

nexus of Church and Market, which is also the location of the city's largest supermarket.<br />

Surveys show that this neighborhood has one of the highest number of daily trips by bike<br />

per capita of any <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> neighborhood, and walking is also very popular.<br />

Buses<br />

The neighborhood is served by the east-west Haight Street lines of 6, 7, 66 and 71, which<br />

connect downtown with various neighborhoods around and west of the Upper Haight.<br />

The 22 line runs north-south along Fillmore Street, connecting the Marina District with<br />

the bay side of Potrero Hill. The 24 line also runs north-south, along Divisadero,<br />

connecting Pacific Heights with the Mission and Hunter's Point neighborhoods. The 16<br />

follows Oak (inbound) and Fell (outbound) Streets, but is a commuter express with only<br />

one stop inbound (A.M., at Oak and Franklin) and outbound (P.M., at Fell and Gough).<br />

Metro<br />

All five Muni Metro lines pass through the adjacent Duboce Triangle neighborhood. The<br />

N and J lines stop at Duboce and Church. The K, L and M stop at Church Street Station,<br />

at Church and Market.<br />

Parking<br />

There are no commercial parking lots in this neighborhood, and the on-street parking is<br />

extremely congested. As with most central and downtown <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> neighborhoods,<br />

it is advisable to find other methods of transportation, such as bicycles, public<br />

transportation, or taxis.


Bars and Restaurants<br />

Naan and Chuntney<br />

Noc Noc<br />

Toronado<br />

Mad Dog in the Fog<br />

Molotov's<br />

Mythic Pizza<br />

Love and Haight<br />

Squat and Gobble<br />

RNM<br />

Indian Oven<br />

Raja Cuisine<br />

Thep Phenom<br />

Axum<br />

Kate's Kitchen<br />

Hanabi<br />

The Grind<br />

Cafe International<br />

Memphis Minnie's<br />

Rosamunde Sausage Grill<br />

Burger Joint<br />

Cafe du Soleil<br />

Metro Cafe


Hayes Valley, <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California<br />

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<br />

Looking south along Octavia Boulevard from Fell Street, where the Central Freeway<br />

once was.<br />

Hayes Valley is a neighborhood in <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California.Often called Bobo or<br />

“bohemian-bourgeois”, the rapidly evolving Hayes Valley neighborhood serves as an<br />

eatery for those going to the Opera, Ballet and Symphony. The neighborhood's numerous,<br />

excellent restaurants are always crowded. Hip Boutiques offer upscale shoes, clothes<br />

from young designers, and the latest in upscale decoration. In this historic neighborhood<br />

sandwiched between the historical districts of Alamo Square and Civic Center, historical<br />

Victorians, Queen Ann's and Edwardians abound. The boundaries are not very well<br />

defined, but it is generally considered to be the area around Hayes Street west from<br />

Fillmore Street (near Alamo Square) and to Franklin to the East. Northward and<br />

southward, it extends a few blocks away from Hayes Street in either direction. At one<br />

time the Central Freeway ran though the neighborhood, but it was closed and later<br />

demolished after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. The path of the highway can be seen<br />

running through the neighborhood in the form of empty lots and surface parking lots,<br />

slated for development of new senior and affordable housing. As of 2005, a section of the<br />

freeway has been rebuilt to exit at Market Street, with a boulevard running north from the<br />

exit at Market Street through the Hayes Valley along Octavia Street to Fell Street.<br />

Between Fell Street and Hayes Street, Hayes Green replaces the middle lanes of this new<br />

Octavia Boulevard. Hayes Green provides seating, green space, and a play structure for<br />

the neighborhood. It was recently the showcase for a temple structure for the renowned<br />

artist David Best.


Rapidly gentrifying Hayes Valley has an eclectic, very urban, mix of boutiques, high end<br />

restaurants, hip stores, condominiums and Victorians coupled with public housing and<br />

some mixed, and one-time rough, neighborhoods.<br />

Hunters Point, <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California<br />

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<br />

Hunters Point or Bayview-Hunters Point is a neighborhood in the southeastern portion<br />

of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California, zip code 94124.<br />

The neighborhood<br />

This thematic map shows the population levels of African Americans in <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>.<br />

Hunters Point is in the extreme southeastern part of the city with the highest<br />

concentration of African Americans in the city.<br />

Hunter's Point is a neighborhood strung along the main artery of Third Street from India<br />

Basin to Candlestick Point. The neighborhood's population has changed over the years --<br />

a traditionally Black community established around blue-collar jobs and reasonable<br />

housing prices has recently seen a declining African American population, due to<br />

gentrification. The African American population has attempted to stay in place but some<br />

have moved to other Bay Area cities, notably Antioch, Oakland and Richmond while<br />

Latinos, Asians, and whites represent a growing part of the neighborhood.<br />

Murals featuring African American pride are common in Hunters Point.<br />

Prostitution and illicit drug sales occur on the streets and gun violence is common. Of the<br />

130 homicides committed in <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> in 2003 and the first seven months of 2004,<br />

25 -- or 19 percent -- occurred in Bayview-Hunters Point. [1]


Babies in Hunters Point are 2.5 times more likely to die in their first year than those in<br />

other areas of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>. [2]<br />

One of the city's current projects with this neighborhood is the Third Street Light Rail<br />

Project, expanding mass transit system into less serviced neighborhoods.<br />

Hunters Point also has a unique microclimate - the warmest in all of foggy <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>,<br />

often never experienced by most of the city's residents.<br />

Many community groups, such as the India Basin Neighborhood Association work with<br />

community members, other organizations and city wide agencies to strengthen and<br />

improve this diverse part of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>.<br />

History of the Shipyard<br />

Main article: <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Naval Shipyard<br />

Hunter's Point as a community grew up around the two graving docks purchased and<br />

upbuilt in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century by the Union Iron Works,<br />

owned by the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Company, located at Potrero Point. The original<br />

docks were built on solid rock. In 1916, the drydocks were thought to be the largest<br />

drydocks in the world, for the time. At a length of over 1000 feet, they were said to large<br />

enough to accommodate the largest warships and passenger steamers afloat. Soundings<br />

showed an off shore depth of sixty-five feet. The Navy used the docks as a mid-site<br />

between <strong>San</strong> Diego and Bremerton, Washington. Much of the shoreline was extended by<br />

landfill extensions into the <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Bay during the early 20th century. The Navy<br />

recognized the importance of shipbuilding and repair in the <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> bay and began<br />

negotiating for use and apropriation of the Hunter's Point Drydocks during World War<br />

One. A Congressional hearing on Pacific Coast Naval Bases was held in <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> in<br />

1920 at <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> City Hall wherein city representatives, Mayor Rolph and City<br />

Engineer O'Shaughnessy and others testified on behalf of permanently siting the Navy in<br />

the Hunter's Point.<br />

The land was again appropriated by the United States Navy at the onset of World War II<br />

and became one of the major shipyards of the west coast. Many workers, including<br />

African Americans, moved into the area to work at this shipyard and other wartime<br />

related industries in the area. After the war, the area remained a naval base and<br />

commercial shipyard, as many blue collar industries moved here. The Navy closed the<br />

shipyard and Naval base in 1994 and gave it back to the city. Right now, there is a<br />

renaissance of the Hunters Point Shipyard.<br />

As in most industrial zones of the era, Hunter's Point has had a succession of coal and oil<br />

fired power generation facilities, and these have left a legacy of pollution, both from<br />

smokestack effluvients and leftover byproducts that were dumped in the vicinity.


External links<br />

Bay View Newspaper<br />

Historic Hunter's Point in pictures<br />

India Basin Neighborhood Association<br />

Map of Hunters Point gangs circa 2004<br />

Map of India Basin<br />

Hunters Point infant mortality rate is comparable to Bulgaria<br />

Hunters Point Shipyard redevelopment<br />

1966 Hunter Point riot<br />

Review of a documentary film about Hunters Point<br />

Property values in 94124<br />

Japantown, <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California<br />

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<br />

The commercial district along Geary Boulevard is bookended by the Japan Center pagoda<br />

and the AMC Kabuki 8 movie theater complex.


Japantown (also known as "Nihonmachi", "Little Osaka," and "J Town") comprises<br />

about six square city blocks in the Western Addition in <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>. 12,000 of<br />

Japanese ancestry live within the area. The area is home to a large number of Japanese,<br />

and some Korean and Chinese, restaurants, supermarkets, indoor shopping malls, hotels,<br />

banks, and other shops, including one of the few US branches of the large Kinokuniya<br />

bookstores. The main thoroughfare is Post Street. Its focal point is Japan Center, opened<br />

in 1968, the site of three Japanese oriented shopping centers and the Peace Pagoda. The<br />

Peace Pagoda is a five-tiered concrete stupa designed by Japanese architect Yoshiro<br />

Taniguchi and presented to <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> by the people of Osaka, Japan.<br />

History<br />

<strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> has the largest Japantown in California, although it is only a shadow of<br />

what it once was before World War II. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the<br />

U.S. government took Japanese Americans into custody and interned them in<br />

concentration camps, as many large sections of the neighborhood remained vacant. The<br />

void was quickly filled by thousands of African Americans who had left the South to find<br />

wartime industrial jobs in California. Following the war, some Japanese Americans<br />

returned, and the city made efforts to rejuvenate the neighborhood. During the massive<br />

redevelopment initiated by Justin Herman in the Western Addition in the 1960s through<br />

the 1980s, large numbers of African Americans were pushed west towards the Fillmore<br />

District, east towards the Tenderloin, or south towards Hunters Point where the majority<br />

of the city's African American population resides today, while many Japanese returned,<br />

followed by new Japanese immigrants as well as investment from the Japanese<br />

Government and Japanese companies.<br />

See also<br />

Japantown for other Japanese neighborhoods<br />

Japanese American internment<br />

Neighborhoods of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong><br />

49-Mile Scenic Drive<br />

External links<br />

http://www.sfjapantown.org/<br />

<strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>/Japantown travel guide from Wikitravel<br />

Google Maps Bird's eye view of the Peace Pagoda.


Japantown Task Force, Inc.<br />

An interior plaza in the Japan Center mall.<br />

Looking across Post Street north on Buchanan Street.<br />

The five-tiered Peace Pagoda made of concrete


Little Saigon, <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California<br />

<strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> has now officially designated a Little Saigon on Larkin Street in the<br />

Tenderloin district. Long being a major Vietnamese community (unlike <strong>San</strong> Jose with its<br />

larger ethnic Vietnamese population, the ethnic Chinese from Vietnam are especially<br />

represented in <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> as a result of self-imposed segregation from ethnic<br />

Vietnamese), and attracting Vietnamese from <strong>San</strong> Jose, a number of community activists<br />

have supported making this Tenderloin neighborhood into a Little Saigon. Soon, there<br />

will be an official entrance constructed, much in the same way as the Japantown and<br />

Chinatown in <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>. Read more from the <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Chronicle here.<br />

Marina District, <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>,<br />

California<br />

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<br />

The Marina District is an affluent, picturesque neighborhood of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>,<br />

California. The area is bounded to the east by Van Ness Ave, on the west by Lyon Street<br />

and the Presidio, on the south by Lombard St. The neighborhood sits on the site of the<br />

1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition, staged after the 1906 <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong><br />

earthquake to celebrate the reemergence of the world-class city. The grounds for this<br />

world's fair were created from a former lagoon on landfill. Aside from the Palace of Fine<br />

Arts (POFA), all other buildings were demolished to make a residential neighborhood.<br />

Many current residents are what the natives refer to as transplants.


Chestnut Street, looking eastward from Scott<br />

Cow Hollow, Russian Hill, Pacific Heights, and the Presidio bound the Marina District to<br />

the south, east and west.<br />

ZIP Code: 94123<br />

Population (2000[1]): 22,903<br />

Housing units: 14,851<br />

Land area: 1.0 mile² (2.6 km²)<br />

Water area: zero<br />

White population: 19814<br />

Black population: 117<br />

American Indian population: 34<br />

Asian population: 2189<br />

Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander population: 21<br />

Some other race population: 240<br />

Two or more races population: 488<br />

Urban population: 22903<br />

Rural population: 0<br />

Median age: 35.3<br />

Average household size: 1.61<br />

Median household income (1999): $84,710<br />

History<br />

On the bay north of Cow Hollow, a sea wall was erected parallel to the shoreline, and the<br />

marshland in between was filled with sand pumped up from the bottom of the ocean.<br />

Dredging left enough deep water for the creation of the St Francis and Golden Gate<br />

Yacht Clubs, which occupy prestigious spots at the foot of Baker Street. Slightly to the<br />

east is Marina Green, a large stretch of turf frequented for the most part by runners. A<br />

less strenuous exercise is the Golden Gate Promenade that runs parallel to Marina<br />

Boulevard, continuing a couple of miles further before reaching the eponymous bridge. A<br />

massive landscaping effort recreated natural marshlands and tidepools at Crissy Field, the<br />

long swath of land and tidal marsh that reaches from Marina Green to the bridge.<br />

The creation of the Marina District is shrouded in myth and folklore. Many people claim<br />

that the area was created out of the rubble dumped into the Bay in the period after the<br />

great quake of 1906. Photographs of the Marina District as recently as 1912 show most of<br />

the area still as being in the bay, posing the question of why it would take six years for<br />

the rubble to be dumped to form the Marina. In 1885, Filbert Street was still the old<br />

Presidio Road. North onto Buchanan Street toward the bay, two blocks away, Lombard<br />

Street was sand dunes, about 35 feet higher than present. The shoreline was already being<br />

pushed northward by industrial power companies. The area now covered by Moscone<br />

Recreation Center and Marina Middle School was Lobos Square, a flat spot where the


dunes had been leveled out to reach a hodgepodge of wharves and industrial plants<br />

extending from Laguna Street to Steiner Street.<br />

Most of it came down in 1906, including the <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Gas Light Company<br />

generating house. But the brick meter house stood its sand, and the date of completion is<br />

still visible: “1893,” in the archway at Buchanan and North Point streets, behind the<br />

Marina Safeway (aka "Dateway").<br />

West from there on North Point is a slope in the sidewalk where shore met sea. It was<br />

here on North Point, west of Webster Street, that speculator James Fair built a seawall in<br />

the 1890s, in a grand plan to create 70 acres (283,000 m²) of shallow waters and build an<br />

industrial park. The walls were completed at the moment they ran out of sand to fill it<br />

with, so there it sat, like a full bathtub.<br />

Until 1912, standing at the intersection North Point and Fillmore Streets, in the heart of<br />

today’s Marina, would mean standing in the bay. The creators of the Panama-Pacific<br />

International Exposition leased James Fair’s pond and finished the project. Two dredges<br />

and 146 days later, the bathtub was filled with 1.3 million cubic yards (100,000 m³) of<br />

sand and mud.<br />

After the exposition closed in 1915, the Fair heirs got the land back and sold it to the<br />

Marina Development Corporation. City Engineer M. M. O'Shaughnessy created a<br />

hodgepodge of streets that connected to the original city grid. The layout is out of<br />

character with the older portions of the city, creating the maze-like feel of much of the<br />

Marina District. The Marina Development Corporation carved this area into 634<br />

residential lots, plus the Marina Green. When it was built out in the 1920s, the area<br />

previously known as Harbor View or North End became known as The Marina.<br />

The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake caused substantial damage, but the neighborhood was<br />

quickly rebuilt. Much of the damage was due to liquefaction of the fill upon which the<br />

neighborhood is built.<br />

Geography<br />

U.S. Route 101/Lombard Street is a boulevard that bisects the southern edge of the<br />

Marina District. The street is dotted with motels built in celebration of the opening of the<br />

Golden Gate Bridge and a collection of retail, fast food, and residential units. On a typical<br />

afternoon the street is a strange mix of tourists searching for Ghirardelli Square and the<br />

Golden Gate Bridge, older gentlemen visiting motels with their arrangements, and<br />

children walking towards Marina Middle School.<br />

The neighborhood’s commercial center runs along Chestnut Street near Fillmore. The<br />

street has a reputation as a haven for swinging singles, and the local watering holes are<br />

known as “high intensity breeder bars.” Even the local Safeway has been dubbed “The<br />

Body Shop” or "The Single Way" because of the inordinate amount of cruising that goes


on in its aisles. The Street now features such landmarks as The Grove, a trendy cafe that<br />

the online website Friendster was based upon.<br />

Moscone Recreation Center sports the largest children's park in the city and also has<br />

tennis courts, basketball courts, and a volleyball area. It has served as a meeting location<br />

for generations of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> natives, and can be seen in several historic films. The<br />

slice of land that was the site of the Tower Of Jewels during the 1915 World's Fair was<br />

initially named Funston Park. The park was renamed after the assassination of mayor<br />

George Moscone as a political payback to the conservative neighborhood activists in the<br />

Marina District that opposed Moscone's progressive policies.<br />

The Marina Green is a picturesque park adjacent to the boat marina itself, and the <strong>San</strong><br />

<strong>Francisco</strong> bay. The wind at the Marina Green frequently exceeds 50 MPH, which lends<br />

itself to windsurfing at the nearby East Beach.<br />

Schools in the Marina include the Tule Elk Child Development Center and Marina<br />

Middle School.<br />

Earthquakes<br />

Much of the Marina is on landfill (http://gis.abag.ca.gov/website/liq/viewer.htm - click<br />

Map of Location, then Search by Zip Code 94123), and is susceptible to liquefaction<br />

during strong earthquakes.<br />

There are areas in The Marina which are not on landfill. This area is referred to as The<br />

Gold Box, bordered by Fort Mason, Octavia St, Lombard St, and Van Ness Avenue. The<br />

area is called The Gold Box because of its prime location on sandstone/bedrock geology.<br />

Those who live in this area are equidistant from the shops and restaurants of Chestnut St.<br />

(Marina), Union St. (Cow Hollow), and Polk St. (Russian Hill). Furthermore, this<br />

location is close to Fort Mason, Moscone Recreation Center, and The Marina Safeway.<br />

Important structures<br />

Marina Safeway. <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>'s Marina Boulevard Safeway location (the first such<br />

modern concept store in June 1959), continues to operate with only minor exterior<br />

modifications 40 years after construction. The “Marina” Prototype: A classic piece of<br />

architecture named for the first Safeway store so designed, on Marina Boulevard in <strong>San</strong><br />

<strong>Francisco</strong>. Hundreds of these remain around the country, including the original. Most<br />

have been remodeled and expanded. The Marina Safeway is particularly notable for its<br />

singles scene - it is frequently listed as one of the city's best pick-up spots and is<br />

affectionately known as the "Dateway."<br />

The Exploratorium is a popular tourist destination in the Marina District. The<br />

Exploratorium is located at the Palace of Fine Arts and provides an opportunity for<br />

patrons to explore the physical sciences in a hands-on fashion.


Sociology<br />

Today the neighborhood remains as popular as ever with the post-college crowd, young<br />

East Coast professionals, natives of Southern California, and relocated Midwesterners.<br />

Most arrived after the 1989 earthquake, when many of the older population left and the<br />

area transformed into a hip district for young, successful professionals.<br />

Films Primarily or Partially Set In The Marina<br />

10.5 (2004)<br />

Red Diaper Baby (2004)<br />

Twisted (2004)<br />

What the Bleep Do We Know (2004)<br />

Julie and Jack (2003)<br />

MDs (2002-2003)<br />

The Sweetest Thing (2002)<br />

Doctor Dolittle 2 (2001)<br />

First Years / This Life (TV pilot 2001)<br />

Boys and Girls (2000)<br />

Down to You (2000)<br />

Groove (2000)<br />

Playing Mona Lisa (2000)<br />

Woman on Top (2000)<br />

The Bachelor (1999)<br />

Bicentennial Man (1999)


EDtv (1999)<br />

The Other Sister (1999)<br />

Stigmata (1999)<br />

Doctor Dolittle (1998)<br />

More Tales of the City (1998)<br />

A Friend's Betrayal (1996, TV)<br />

Nash Bridges (1996-2001)<br />

Copycat (1995)<br />

Murder in the First (1995)<br />

Mrs. Doubtfire (1993)<br />

Wolf (1989, TV)<br />

Turnover Smith (1980)<br />

Foul Play (1978)<br />

The Enforcer (1976)<br />

The Conversation (1974)<br />

Mabel and Fatty Viewing the World's Fair at S.F. (1915)<br />

Famous residents past and present<br />

Joe Dimaggio<br />

Alex Michel<br />

Artbox<br />

Anna Nicole Smith<br />

Tatum Reed


Josh Benveniste (past)<br />

Morgan Webb<br />

James Sung<br />

Gavin Newsom (past)<br />

David Kaplan(past)<br />

Philip J. Kaplan (past)<br />

Links<br />

The Chronicle's standing article about the Marina<br />

Strangers in the night - Bars, cheap sex, and boozy anthropology. <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Bay<br />

Guardian.<br />

Forgive Me, for I Live in the Marina. SF Weekly.<br />

Joy of Shopping - Mission vs. Marina Drinking Contest. SF Weekly.<br />

Mission Bay, <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California<br />

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<br />

Mission Bay is a 303 acre neighborhood on the central bayshore of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>,<br />

bounded by Townsend Street on the north, <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Bay on the east, Mariposa<br />

Street on the south, and 7th Street and Interstate 280 on the west. It was created in 1998<br />

by the Board of Supervisors as a redevelopment project. Much of the land was long a<br />

railyard of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, and transferred to Catellus<br />

Development Corporation when it was spun off as part of the aborted merger of Southern<br />

Pacific and the <strong>San</strong>ta Fe Railway in to the Southern Pacific <strong>San</strong>ta Fe Railroad. Catellus<br />

subsequently sold or sub-contracted several parcels to other developers. It has rapidly<br />

evolved in to a wealthy neighborhood of luxury condominiums, high-end restaurants and<br />

retail, and biotechnology research and development.


Notable features include:<br />

The headquarters of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine<br />

A new research campus of the University of California, <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, UCSF Mission<br />

Bay<br />

The northern terminus of the Third Street Light Rail Project of the <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong><br />

Municipal Railway<br />

The northern terminus of Caltrain<br />

An AT&T Fiber to the premises greenfield project<br />

The first new branch of the <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Public Library in over 40 years, The Mission<br />

Bay Branch Library, will be located on the ground floor of a new multi-use facility,<br />

which includes an adult day health center, affordable senior housing, retail space and a<br />

large community meeting room. The new library is approximately 7,500 square feet, and<br />

is the 27th branch of the <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Public Library.<br />

Mission Bay is served by the N Judah line of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>'s Muni Metro.<br />

Although near to and often associated with AT&T Park, the ballpark is in the adjacent<br />

South Beach neighborhood. UCSF has announced plans to build a new Women and<br />

Children's Hospital and Cancer Center on a portion of their property in the neighborhood.<br />

External links<br />

The <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Redevelopment Agency, Mission Bay<br />

The University of California, <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>'s clinical and research planning for their<br />

property in Mission Bay


Mission District, <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>,<br />

California<br />

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<br />

Mission Theatre on Mission Street<br />

The Inner Mission often called "The Mission", "The Heart of the Mission" or (also:<br />

La Misión or El Corazón de la Misión in Spanish) is the name of a neighborhood in the<br />

Mission District, <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California in the United States. It is built roughly on<br />

what used to be Spanish-Mexican ranchos owned by the Valencianos,Guerreros, Dolores,<br />

Bernals, Noes and DeHaros and built near the sixth Alta California mission - Mission <strong>San</strong><br />

<strong>Francisco</strong> de Asis. Today the neighborhood is both ethnically and economically diverse,<br />

with significant contingents of Chicanos/Latin-Americans, African Americans, Asian-<br />

Americans Cantonese-speaking Chinese, European-Americans and multi-racial or (also:<br />

"Mestizos" in Spanish).<br />

The actual Mission District used to comprise of the following neighborhoods: Bernal<br />

heights, Castro Village, Cayuga, College Hill, Crescent, Crocker Amazon, Diamond<br />

Heights, Dolores Heights, Eureka Valley, The Excelsior, Fairmont, Glen Park, Holly<br />

Park, Inner Mission, and Mission Tarrace. Today the Mission District is part of <strong>San</strong><br />

<strong>Francisco</strong>'s Districts 5, 9 and 10.<br />

This article is mainly about the Inner Mission.


Geography<br />

As its name suggests, the principal thoroughfare of the Inner Mission of the Mission<br />

District of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> is Mission Street. Its borders are U.S. Route 101 to the east<br />

which forms the boundary between the Inner Mission and its eastern neighbor, Potrero<br />

Hill, while Valencia Street separates the neigborhoods from Mission Dolores, Eureka<br />

Valley "The Castro" and Noe Valley to the west. Cesar Chavez Street (formerly Army<br />

Street) is the south border which lies next to Bernal Heights and roughly by Duboce<br />

Street is the north boundary neighboring South of Market.<br />

Also along Mission Street, further south-central is the Excelsior and Crocker-Amazon<br />

neigbohoods often referred to as the "Outer Mission".<br />

As of 2006, the Inner Mission is part of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>'s District 9.<br />

Climate<br />

The microclimates of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> create a system by which each neighborhood has<br />

radically different weather at any given time. The Mission's geographical location<br />

insulates it from the fog and wind from the west. As a result, the Mission has a tendency<br />

to be warmer and sunnier than the rest of the city, earning it the nickname "Banana Belt".<br />

This climatic phenomenon becomes apparent to visitors who walk down 24th Street from<br />

Noe Valley towards Mission Street.<br />

History<br />

The large Latino population in the Mission District can be seen highlighted in this<br />

thematic map of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong><br />

The Ohlone Indians inhabited the region of what is now the Mission District for over<br />

2,000 years. Spanish missionaries arrived in the area during the late 18th century. They<br />

found the Ohlone living peacefully in a village at the edge of a lagoon, hunting and<br />

gathering. In this location, the Spanish founded a Mission, Mission <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> de<br />

Asis, in June, 1776. This period marked the beginning of the end of the Ohlone culture.<br />

Archaeologists, anthropologists, and historians observe that the Franciscan friars used<br />

Ohlone slave labor to complete the Mission building in 1790.


During European settlement of the City in the 19th and 20th century, large numbers of<br />

Irish and German immigrant workers moved into the area. Development and settlement<br />

intensified after the 1906 Earthquake, as many of city's displaced businesses and<br />

residents moved into the area, making Mission Street a major commercial thoroughfare.<br />

In 1926, the Polish Community of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> converted a church on 22nd Street and<br />

Shotwell Street and opened its doors as the Polish Club of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>. Today its<br />

commonly referred to as "Dom Polski", or Polish Home. During the 1940-1960s, large<br />

numbers of Mexicans moved into the area as whites moved out, giving the Mission the<br />

Latin character it is known for today. During the 1980s to 1990s, the Mexican population<br />

was joined by large numbers of immigrants and refugees from Central and South<br />

America fleeing civil war in their home countries.<br />

Despite rising rents and housing prices, gentrification, a stubbornly high crime rate, and<br />

gang warfare, many Mexican and Central American immigrants continue to move into<br />

the Mission district.<br />

Culture of the Inner Mission<br />

The Inner Mission ("The Mission" or "La Misión") has been for several decades the<br />

central nexus of the Chicano and Latin-American community of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Bay Area,<br />

and though it faces stiff competition from the Outer Mission, the Fruitvale community<br />

across the bay in Oakland as well as down south in <strong>San</strong> Jose, and by a constant influx of<br />

new populations moving into the area, The Mission is a vibrant community of a rich<br />

multicultural history.<br />

Between late 1960's and 1970's the musician Carlos <strong>San</strong>tana, who grew up here, became<br />

famous with his band The <strong>San</strong>tana Blues Band - one of the most influencial American<br />

band in Latin America and Europe.<br />

In 1970 the local bilingual newspaper El Tecolote was founded.<br />

In the same year 1970, the Galería de la Raza was founded by local artists active in el<br />

Movimiento (the Chicano civil rights moment). Today the Galery a non-profit,<br />

community-based Latino arts organization located in the heart of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>’s<br />

Mission District is nationally recognized and is one of the Bay Area’s oldest, most wellrespected<br />

arts organizations.<br />

By 1971, artists, musicians and performers attracted by low rents for former industrial<br />

spaces; created one of the most well-known spaces named Project Artaud, which is home<br />

to several theaters (Theater Artuad, Theater of Yugen, A Traveling Jewish Theater) and<br />

dance studios as well as Southern Exposure Gallery and many genuine live-work artists'<br />

lofts.<br />

By 1977 the Mission Cultural Center for the Latino Arts was established by chicano<br />

artists and activists. The center became the pilot project of a series of community art


centers that were established around the city. Today, the center is a rich art space serving<br />

young, teens, adults and elders.<br />

During those years also The Mission was the pioneer in the Low-rider culture as well as a<br />

hotbed of violent gang warfare, primarily between the Norteños (commonly referred to as<br />

the Nortes and sometimes the Bloods, due to their sharing the same gang color [red] and<br />

alliance with that group) and the Sureños gangs that still continues off and on today.<br />

From the 1980's and on many Central American banks and companies have set up<br />

branches, offices, and even their regional headquarters on Mission Street.<br />

Today the <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Labor Temple (aka the Redstone Building) is the home of the<br />

Theater Rhinocerous and a number of community and activist groups.<br />

The Roxie Theater, the oldest continuously operating movie theater in <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, is<br />

host to repertory and independent films as well as local film festivals.<br />

Last, every late May, the city's annual Carnival festival and parade is held here. Meant to<br />

mimic the festival in Rio de Janeiro, it is held in late May instead of the traditional late<br />

February to correspond with local weather.<br />

Due to these cultural attractions, relatively less expensive housing and commercial space,<br />

and the high density of restaurants and drinking establishments, the Mission has become<br />

a magnet for young people, including a clearly identifiable hipster crowd on Valencia<br />

Street and a lively independent arts community with many studios, galleries and open<br />

spaces including organizations such as Cellspace, ArtsExplosion and Independent Arts<br />

and Media. Consequently the neighborhood was dubbed "the New Bohemia" by the <strong>San</strong><br />

<strong>Francisco</strong> Chronicle in 1995 (see link below).<br />

The headquarters of the Electronic Frontier Foundation is in the Mission District.<br />

Nightlife<br />

There are bars, pubs, and clubs all over the Inner Mission sometimes bordering<br />

neighborhoods. They tend to appear in clusters.<br />

16th St. between Valencia and Guerrero: (Inner Mission and Mission Dolores<br />

Neigborhoods)<br />

Dalva<br />

Delirium<br />

Cama


Valencia St. between 16th and 17th:<br />

Casanova Lounge<br />

Blondie's<br />

Mission St. between 21st and 22nd Streets:<br />

Doc's Clock<br />

Lazlo (attached to the restaurant Foreign Cinema)<br />

Sky Lounge () above Medjool<br />

22nd St. between Mission and Valencia:<br />

Makeout Room<br />

Latin American Club<br />

Transportation<br />

The neighborhood is serviced by the BART rail system to the 16th Street or the 24th<br />

Street stations, and by Muni bus numbers 26, 12, 14, 49, 48, 33, 22 and 27. To the west,<br />

the J Church Muni Metro line runs down Church Street, and is a popular way of getting<br />

to the Mission (16th Street) from the western districts.<br />

Highlights of The Inner Mission<br />

Murals innitiated by the Chicano Art Mural Movement of the 70's and insprired by the<br />

traditional Mexican paintings made famous by Diego Rivera... 24th Street, Balmy Alley,<br />

and Clarion Alley<br />

Dolores Park, around the north-west corner<br />

Nightlife centers on the 16th and Valencia Ave intersection


The Roxie and the Victoria on 16th Street are the only remaining neighborhood movie<br />

theatres in the Mission. The Roxie has struggled for years financially and was purchased<br />

by a local college in 2005. The college will run its film studies program out of the Roxie<br />

during the day and show independent films in the evening.<br />

Excellent Mexican food, especially burritos; the Mission district is the original home of<br />

the <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> burrito style.<br />

Also excellent restaurants serving food in the styles of El Salvador, Nicaragua, Thailand,<br />

India, Pakistan, Japan, Italy and China.<br />

External links<br />

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:<br />

Mission<br />

WikiTravel — overview of the district<br />

Western Half of The Mission — <strong>Guide</strong>d photographic tour<br />

Eastern Half of The Mission — <strong>Guide</strong>d photographic tour<br />

Mission Street Itself — <strong>Guide</strong>d photo tour<br />

The Mission — Neighborhoods: The Hidden Cities of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong><br />

Women's Building Mural<br />

oddwall.com Murals and street art of the mission and throughout <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong><br />

Project Artaud<br />

Polish Club Inc. — Polish Community center in the Mission District since 1926<br />

<strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Chronicle, 26 November 1995: 'Neo-Hipsters Keep the Beat in the<br />

Mission'<br />

Hipster Bingo Card<br />

Sureño and Norteño gangs in the Mission


Mount Davidson, <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>,<br />

California<br />

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<br />

The cross atop Mt. Davidson<br />

Mount Davidson is the highest natural point in <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California, with an<br />

estimated elevation between 927 and 938 feet. It is located near the center of the city,<br />

south of Twin Peaks and Portola Boulevard and to the west of Diamond Heights and<br />

Glen Park. It dominates the southeastern view from most of major artery Portola Blvd.<br />

Mt. Davidson's most notable feature, aside from its height, is the 103 foot concrete cross<br />

situated at the peak of the hill. It is the site of a yearly prayer service, performed on<br />

Easter, when the cross is illuminated with colored lights.<br />

Mout Davidson Park tops the hill, located between Myra Way to the east, Dalewood Way<br />

to the southwest and Juanita Way to the north. Public transportation to the park is<br />

provided by the 36 Teresita Muni line, which stops at the Dalewood Way & Myra Way<br />

entrance to the park.<br />

The neighborhoods around Mount Davidson Park may also be called Mount Davidson,<br />

although they are also known as Miraloma Park, to the east, and Sherwood Forest, to the<br />

southwest. City College of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> is located just south of the peak.


History<br />

Adolph Sutro purchased the land in 1881. Under his ownership, what was then called<br />

"Blue Mountain" was renamed "Mount Davidson," for George Davidson, a charter<br />

member of the Sierra Club. Sutro then sold this land, along with much of the land<br />

immediately north and south of Mt Davidson, to his appraiser, A. S. Baldwin.<br />

The first cross was erected in 1923 for a service led by Dean J. Wilmer Gresham of Grace<br />

Cathedral. Several more were built and destroyed until 1933 (the land was purchased by<br />

the City in 1929), when Mayor Angelo Rossi, former Mayor "Sonny Jim" James Rolph,<br />

the Easter Sunrise Service Committee, and the Native Sons and Daughters of the Golden<br />

West pledged to construct a permanent cross to commemorate the early California<br />

pioneers. The cross was completed the next year with President Franklin D. Roosevelt<br />

lighting the cross via telegraph on March 25, 1934- one week before Easter.<br />

The cross itself has been the subject of much discussion among the residents of <strong>San</strong><br />

<strong>Francisco</strong>. Specifically, trying to balance the cross' obvious religious stature and its<br />

position as a secular, historic landmark. As a result, the City auctioned 0.38 acres of land,<br />

including the cross, to the highest bidder in 1997. The cross was sold to the Council of<br />

Armenian-American Organizations of Northern California, and has since served as a<br />

memorial of the 1915 Armenian genocide.<br />

See also<br />

Armenian Genocide<br />

Satellite image from Google<br />

History of Mount Davidson<br />

Nob Hill, <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California<br />

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<br />

Nob Hill refers to a small district in <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California adjacent to the intersection<br />

of California and Powell streets (and the respective cable car lines).


Location<br />

The actual peak of Nob Hill lies slightly to the northwest in the area of Jones and<br />

Sacramento, Clay, and Washington Streets. From this area of the hill, all directions are<br />

downhill. South of Nob Hill is the shopping district of Union Square, the seedier area<br />

called the Tenderloin, and then Market Street. To the east is <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>'s Chinatown<br />

and a little farther, the city's financial district. Northeast of Nob Hill is North Beach and<br />

Telegraph Hill. North of Nob Hill is the Cable Car Museum and eventually, the touristcentered<br />

areas of the waterfront such as Pier 39 and Fisherman's Wharf.<br />

History and significance<br />

Nob Hill is perhaps one of the most affluent districts in <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> (the other being<br />

Pacific Heights) and is home to many of the city's old money families.<br />

The area was settled in the rapid urbanization happening in the city in the late 19th<br />

century. Because of the views and its central position, it became the exclusive enclave of<br />

the rich and famous on the west coast who built large mansions in the neighborhood. This<br />

included prominent tycoons such as Leland Stanford and other members of the Big Four.<br />

The neighborhood was completely destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and fire; the Flood<br />

mansion and the Fairmont Hotel were the only buildings that survived. While the<br />

neighborhood was able to maintain its affluence following the quake, many of the rich<br />

rebuilt their mansions further west in Pacific Heights and Cow Hollow. Many of the<br />

today's exclusive hotels were built over the ruins of the former mansions.<br />

The intersection of California and Powell streets is also the home to the fanciest hotels in<br />

<strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>: the Fairmont Hotel, the Mark Hopkins Intercontinental Hotel, the<br />

Stanford Court, and the Huntington Hotel. Views from the top of the hill (and especially<br />

from the tower of the Fairmont Hotel) extend in all directions around the <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong><br />

Bay Area. At the center of the neighborhood is the former mansion of tycoon James<br />

Flood, now the headquarters of the exclusive old guard, old money Pacific Union Club.<br />

To be a member of the Pacific-Union Club is to say that one made it through a rigorous<br />

vetting to filter out the "not us." Also, at the top of Nob Hill enclave stands Grace<br />

Cathedral. As such, Nob Hill is often a <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> set-piece scene used in many<br />

movies, especially if a high-speed chase is called for.<br />

Movies featuring Nob Hill<br />

The Rock — "I'm only borrowing your Hum-Vee!" (from the Fairmont's parking valet)<br />

Bullitt<br />

Vertigo


Magnum Force<br />

The Wedding Planner<br />

Dirty Harry<br />

See also<br />

Russian Hill<br />

49-Mile Scenic Drive<br />

External links<br />

The Chronicle's standing article about Nob Hill<br />

Nob Hill <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Blog<br />

The Cable Car Museum site<br />

Music City SF Center for the Performing Arts<br />

"Nob Hill" historical novel/thriller<br />

Noe Valley, <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California<br />

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<br />

Noe Valley is a neighborhood in the central part of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California. Its borders<br />

are generally considered to be roughly 21st Street to the North, 30th Street to the South,<br />

Dolores Street to the East, and Grandview Street and the Diamond Heights neigborhood<br />

to the West, although these borders are somewhat flexible, particularly among real estate<br />

agents. The Castro neighborhood is directly to Noe Valley's North and The Mission is to<br />

its East.


Like many other <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> neighborhoods, Noe Valley started out as a working-class<br />

neighborhood for employees in <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>'s once-thriving blue-collar economy, and<br />

their families. Also like other <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> neighborhoods, Noe Valley has since<br />

undergone successive waves of gentrification and is now considered an upscale, yuppie<br />

area. It is home to many urban professionals, particularly young couples with young<br />

children, and it is not unusual for a well-maintained house in Noe Valley to sell for a<br />

million dollars or more.<br />

Public transportation to Noe Valley is provided by the Muni 24, 35, and 48 bus lines, and<br />

by the J Church Muni Metro line.<br />

History<br />

The Neighborhood is named after Jose de Jesus Noe, the last Mexican alcalde (or mayor)<br />

of Yerba Buena (present day <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>).<br />

Noe Valley was primarily built up at the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of<br />

the 20th century, especially in the years just after the 1906 <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Earthquake. As<br />

a result, the neighborhood contains many examples of the "classic" Victorian and<br />

Edwardian residential architecture for which <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> is famous. Noe Valley being<br />

a working-class neighborhood, houses were built in rows, with some of the efficient, lowcost<br />

row houses being more ornate than others, depending on the owner's taste and<br />

finances. Today, Noe Valley has the highest concentration of row houses in <strong>San</strong><br />

<strong>Francisco</strong>, with streets having three to four and sometimes as many as a dozen on the<br />

same side of the same street. Few rows remain untouched.<br />

Many Noe Valley streets were laid out and named by John Meirs Horner, who named<br />

Elizabeth Street after his wife and Jersey Street after the state where he was born. Most of<br />

Noe Valley is still called Horner's Addition for tax purposes by the city assessor's office.<br />

Geography<br />

The topographic layout is actually two main valleys. One flows from the<br />

Clipper/22nd/Grandview area down 24th/Jersey to Church, and the other flows from the<br />

27th/Diamond/30th area down Day to Church where it meets the first valley; the<br />

conjoined valleys then both exit the Noe Valley district. This makes the hilly area<br />

relatively dry, and the soil stable regarding earthquake liquefaction. Most houses up the<br />

hills sit directly on bed rock as can be seen at Douglass Park (bare red rock). Traffic flow<br />

is limited - one main North access through Castro Street to Eureka Valley, one main West<br />

access up Clipper Street toward the former Twin Peaks toll plaza and West of the city,<br />

several East access to Mission through 24th, Cesar Chavez and other numbered streets,<br />

and the main North-South Church access used by the Muni Light Rail J-Church. There<br />

are no traffic lights except along Dolores Street, at the 24th/Castro intersection, and one<br />

at 23rd and Church.


The neighborhood is primarily residential, although there is a bustling commercial strip<br />

along 24th Street, between Church Street and Castro Street.<br />

Demographics<br />

In November 2000, the Noe Valley Voice reported the following statistics for the<br />

neighborhood, citing a 1999 poll of registered voters by David Binder Research, a<br />

prominent local polling agency.<br />

European American: 80%<br />

Age 30-49: 53%<br />

Female: 51%<br />

Sexually straight: 71%<br />

Rent housing (vs. own): 52%<br />

College graduate: 78%<br />

Democrat: 72%<br />

Republican: 11%<br />

Religious affiliation: 63%<br />

Not religious: 38%<br />

References<br />

1999 demographics: "AND NOW FOR THE RUMORS BEHIND THE NEWS" by<br />

Mazook. Noe Valley Voice, November 2000. [1] The same numbers were re-reported in<br />

2003: "Rumors Behind the News" by Mazook. Noe Valley Voice, November 2003. [2]<br />

External links<br />

Noe Valley Neighborhood <strong>Guide</strong><br />

Noe Valley Voice newspaper<br />

Noe-Valley.com - neighborhood resource


North Beach, <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California<br />

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<br />

Looking south-east Columbus Street (on the left), Stockton (on the right), and Green<br />

Street (not visible). The Transamerica Pyramid in the Financial District is visible in the<br />

background on Columbus Street. Part of Chinatown is visible along Stockton Street. The<br />

array of overhead wires supply power for the electric trolley buses, such as the one on<br />

Stockton Street<br />

North Beach is a <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California neighborhood bounded by the former<br />

Barbary Coast, now Jackson Square, and the Financial District south of Broadway<br />

(except North Beach institutions extend down *Columbus to Washington and<br />

Montgomery where the Black Cat originally was), Chinatown to the southwest of<br />

Columbus below Green, and then Russian Hill to the west, Telegraph Hill to the east and<br />

Fisherman's Wharf at Bay Street to the north.<br />

Originally, the city's northeast shoreline extended only to what is today Taylor and<br />

<strong>Francisco</strong> streets. The area, what is largely known today as North Beach, was an actual<br />

beach. It was later filled and covered over to create the land that is present today.<br />

Typical intersections are Union and Columbus, the southwest corner of Washington<br />

Square, Grant Avenue and Vallejo, location of Caffe Trieste, Mason and <strong>Francisco</strong>,<br />

where there is some shopping and dining.<br />

The neighborhood, particularly on Broadway west of Columbus, is home of the city's redlight<br />

district and a major night club and night life spot. The Condor Club on the corner of<br />

Columbus and Broadway was also reputedly the world's first officially recognized strip<br />

club. It is now a night club and a municipal landmark.<br />

There is a street fair on Grant Avenue on Father's Day and a parade along Columbus<br />

Avenue to Aquatic Park around Columbus Day. There is a National Shrine at Vallejo and<br />

Columbus and Saints Peter and Paul cathedral on Filbert north of Washington Square.


The Powell Mason cable car line ends in the outer portion of North Beach where there is<br />

no beach.<br />

The neighborhood attracted many Italians, Beats, Chinese and really all kinds of<br />

ordinary, artistic, friendly people, and has many sights and places to gather. North Beach<br />

has historically been an Italian neighborhood, and while the area has diversified, many<br />

Italian restaurants, cafès, and ice cream parlors remain. An alleyway off of Columbus<br />

between Kearny and Broadway is named after Jack Kerouac who once lived here and<br />

frequented the renowned (as well as a municipal landmark) City Lights bookstore on the<br />

corner of Columbus and Broadway as well as the numerous coffee shops here. Baseball<br />

legend Joe Dimaggio grew up in the neighborhood and briefly returned to live here with<br />

his wife Marilyn Monroe. Famed progressive trial attorney Tony Serra keeps an office<br />

near the corner of Columbus and Broadway.<br />

It is a somewhat compact layout of three-story buildings painted in light colors dating<br />

from the 1920s when people rebuilt after the earthquake and fire of 1906. The weather is<br />

excellent with gentle, sunny hours between noon, after the morning fog burns off, and<br />

four, before the fog starts rolling back in from the Golden Gate.<br />

The <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Art Institute is located in the Northern end of North Beach, on Russian<br />

Hill.<br />

Restaurants<br />

Fior d'Italia<br />

North Beach Restaurant<br />

Rose Pistola<br />

Capps<br />

Il Pollaio<br />

Ristorante Volare<br />

Figaro<br />

Mara's bakery<br />

Caffe Trieste


Residents Past and Present<br />

Joe Dimaggio<br />

Joseph L. Alioto<br />

Philip Kaufman<br />

Jack Kerouac<br />

Lawrence Ferlinghetti<br />

Juana Briones<br />

Wayne Wang<br />

Richard Faillace<br />

Francis Ford Coppola<br />

Enrico Banducci<br />

Josh Benveniste<br />

See also<br />

49-Mile Scenic Drive<br />

External links<br />

North Beach Yahoo Maps<br />

<strong>Guide</strong>d photo tour<br />

The Chronicle's standing article about North Beach<br />

North Beach <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Blog<br />

JB Monaco - Turn of the Century North Beach Photographer


Ocean Beach, <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California<br />

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<br />

Cloudy Weekend at Ocean Beach<br />

Ocean Beach is a beach that runs along the west coast of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California at the<br />

Pacific Ocean. It is adjacent to Golden Gate Park, the Richmond District and the Sunset<br />

District. The Great Highway runs along side the beach and the Cliff House and the site of<br />

the former Sutro Baths sit at the northern end. The beach is a part of the Golden Gate<br />

National Recreation Area and operated by the National Park Service.<br />

The beach throughout the late spring and summer is almost always enveloped in <strong>San</strong><br />

<strong>Francisco</strong>'s characteristic foggy weather leaving average temperatures there at 50-55F (9-<br />

12C), thus scaring away many tourists and beach goers. Conversely, the beach is popular<br />

with surfers, campers and bonfire parties. More beach friendly weather occurs in late fall<br />

and early spring, when the fog dissipates.<br />

The northern part of Ocean Beach on february, along with Seal Rock


The northern end of Ocean Beach and the Great Highway, as seen from Sutro Heights<br />

Park<br />

The water at Ocean Beach is noteworthy for its strong currents and fierce waves, which<br />

makes it popular among many serious surfers. The water is also quite cold, due to a<br />

process known as upwelling, in which frigid water from below the ocean surface rises up<br />

to replace the surface water that moves away from the beach as a result of the Coriolis<br />

effect. The rapid rip currents and cold water make the ocean dangerous for casual<br />

swimmers or even for those who simply want to set foot in it, and many swimmers have<br />

been swept away and drowned as a result. This attracts many surfers making it one of the<br />

world's top, if not challenging, surfing spots.<br />

Surfers and other swimmers have died at Ocean Beach; as of May 2006, the most recent<br />

death is documented here [1] with the next-previous death taking place in January of<br />

2006 [2]. Prior to that, it had been about four years since anyone died at Ocean Beach. In<br />

1998, a record seven people lost their lives here[3].<br />

Both the north and south ends of Ocean Beach are equipped with their own surf shops<br />

(North being Mollusk Surf Shop and South being Aqua), as well as a handful of local<br />

surfers devoted to its freezing waters and dangerous break.<br />

Seal Rock is a prominent local feature of the area.<br />

History<br />

Due in part to its sometimes inhospitable weather (high winds, cold weather and fog) the<br />

area was largely undeveloped throughout most of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>'s early history as it was<br />

known as the "Outside Lands". Development finally came in the late 19th century with<br />

the construction of the Sutro Baths below the site where the Cliff House now stands.<br />

Following a brief stint as a refugee camp following the 1906 earthquake, the area was<br />

touted as a resort, as a small amusement park, Playland at the Beach, was built where<br />

Cabrillo and Balboa streets now stands. Major development occurred in the 1920s and<br />

1930s with the construction of the Great Highway, the Sunset District and the Richmond<br />

District that extended right up to the beach. After the destruction of the Sutro Baths in the


1960s, the neighborhood lost its resort appeal as the amusement park was also torn down<br />

and replaced by apartment blocks and a supermarket.<br />

See also<br />

49-Mile Scenic Drive<br />

External links<br />

Visit the Ocean Beach and Cliff House Virtual Tour as well as other tours of the area<br />

around.<br />

Turkey Beach Trot: Annual Ocean Beach run & walk, held on Thanksgiving morning.<br />

Ocean Beach Fire Ban Advocacy Web Site: A coalition of activists working to preserve<br />

fires on Ocean Beach<br />

Pacific Heights, <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California<br />

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<br />

The sidewalk on Fillmore Street, looking north from Bush Street.


Northern view from Alta Plaza Park. The Marina District and <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Bay can be<br />

seen below.<br />

Pacific Heights is an affluent neighborhood of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California, on the north<br />

side of the city. Pacific Heights is located in one of the most scenic and park-like settings<br />

in Northern California, offering panoramic views of the Golden Gate Bridge, the <strong>San</strong><br />

<strong>Francisco</strong> Bay, Alcatraz and the Presidio. Pacific Heights’s idyllic location provides a<br />

temperate microclimate that is clearer, but not always warmer, than the other areas in <strong>San</strong><br />

<strong>Francisco</strong>. The neighborhood extends from Presidio Avenue to Van Ness Avenue, and<br />

from California Street to Broadway. It is home to young urban professionals and many<br />

wealthy people.<br />

Geography<br />

Pacific Heights is located on the crest of one of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>’s 42 hills, 370 feet above<br />

sea level at its peak, and covers 130 city blocks. The Streets of Jackson, Pacific, and<br />

Broadway extend along some of the most scenic areas along the hilltop crest. The section<br />

of Broadway extending from Divisadero to Lyon Street is know as the "Gold Coast".<br />

Pacific Heights features two parks, Lafayette and Alta Plaza, each with spectacular views<br />

of the city. To the north of the neighborhood, easily visible from the top of the hill, are<br />

the Marin Headlands, the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz Island, as well as the Marina<br />

District.<br />

ZIP Code: 94115<br />

Population (2000[1]): 33,115<br />

Male: 15,947 (48%)<br />

Female: 17,168 (52%)<br />

Housing units: 18,422<br />

Single-family owner-occupied homes: 1,293<br />

Elevation / Land area: 370 feet above sea level and covers 130 square blocks.<br />

Water area: zero<br />

Real Estate<br />

Pacific Heights is home to the most breathtaking view of the Golden Gate Bridge,<br />

Alcatraz and the <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Bay. The neighborhood was first developed in 1870s with<br />

small Victorian homes built until the turn of the century when many were replaced with<br />

period homes. Still residential, the area is characterized by painted Victorians, historic<br />

chateau's and architecturally superior mansions. Many international consulates are<br />

located in <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> and several including the consulate generals of Russia, Greece,<br />

Egypt, Vietnam, Italy and Indonesia are located in stately Pacific Heights buildings.<br />

Today, there are also many consular residences in Pacific Heights including the consular<br />

generals of Norway and France. It is home of many <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>'s first families, as well<br />

as successful entrepreneurs and artists. Pacific Heights is also home to the City's best<br />

private schools and finishing schools.


The oldest building in Pacific Heights, located at 2475 Pacific Avenue, was built in 1853,<br />

though the majority of the neighborhood was built after the 1906 earthquake. The<br />

architecture of the neighborhood is varied; Victorian, Mission Revival, Edwardian, and<br />

Chateau styles are common.<br />

Shopping<br />

Most of the neighborhood boutiques and restaurants are along Fillmore Street, south of<br />

Pacific Avenue. Other businesses in Pacific Heights are located on California and<br />

Divisadero Streets, along with Van Ness Avenue.<br />

Pacific Heights is also home to California Pacific Medical Center.<br />

Adjacent neighborhoods are:<br />

Japantown and the Lower Pacific Heights to the south with California Street as the<br />

border.<br />

Polk Gulch to the east with Van Ness Avenue as the border.<br />

Presidio Heights and Presidio Park to the west with Presidio Avenue (formerly Central<br />

Avenue) as the border.<br />

Cow Hollow and Marina District to the north.<br />

Transportation<br />

Franklin and Gough Streets are often used as alternate routes to busy Van Ness, and Pine<br />

and Bush Streets are used as alternate routes to busy California Street. As for public<br />

transportation, the following Muni lines service the area: 1-California, 1BX-California 'B'<br />

Express, 3-Jackson, 12-Folsom/Pacific, 24-Divisadero and 22-Fillmore.<br />

Trivia<br />

The house in the movie Pacific Heights is not in this neighborhood; it is in Potrero Hill.<br />

Mrs. Doubtfire (1993) shows two Pacific Heights properties. The family house is a white<br />

Victorian located at 2640 Steiner Street. From his apartment located at 1200 Washington<br />

Street, Robin Williams's character has a panoramic view of the city.


Famous Movies Filmed in Pacific Heights<br />

Allison Sidney Harrison (1980)<br />

Around the Fire (1998)<br />

Basic Instinct (1992)<br />

Bullitt (1968)<br />

The Conversation (1974)<br />

Days of Wine and Roses (1962)<br />

Dr. Dolittle (1998)<br />

Dr. Dolittle 2 (2001)<br />

Foreign Correspondents (1999)<br />

Foul Play (1978)<br />

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)<br />

Guinevere (1999)<br />

Heart and Souls (1993)<br />

Mrs. Doubtfire (1993)<br />

The Navigator (1924)<br />

Pacific Heights (1990)<br />

Pal Joey (1957)<br />

Portrait in Black (1960)<br />

The Princess Diaries (2001)<br />

So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993)<br />

Sudden Fear (1952)<br />

Sweet November (2001)


The Towering Inferno (1974)<br />

The Wedding Planner (2001)<br />

What's Up, Doc (1972)<br />

Famous residents<br />

The social elite includes many <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>'s first families, famous authors, business<br />

people, successful entrepreneurs, artists, musicians and even an actor or two who call<br />

Pacific Heights their home.<br />

Current Residents<br />

Nicholas Cage and Patricia Arquette<br />

Larry Ellison (Broadway)<br />

Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Richard Blum (Vallejo at Lyon Street)<br />

Donald Fisher (Vallejo at Scott)<br />

Ann and Gordon Getty (Broadway)<br />

Mimi Haas (relative of Walter A. Haas)<br />

Don Johnson<br />

Frank Jordan<br />

Jessica McClintock<br />

Danielle Steel<br />

Paul Otellini<br />

Former Residents<br />

Francis Ford Coppola<br />

Gavin Newsom<br />

Sharon Stone


External links<br />

Pacific Heights Neighborhood <strong>Guide</strong> (author)<br />

Pacific Heights Residents Association<br />

The Chronicle's standing article about Pacific Heights<br />

The Perfect Pacific Heights Commute The Scene from Pacific Heights to Lucas Film in<br />

the Presidio<br />

Park Merced, <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California<br />

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<br />

Park Merced is a neighborhood and large apartment complex in <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>,<br />

California. It is located south of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> State University, west of 19th Avenue,<br />

and east of Lake Merced and the Harding Park Golf Club. Construction on it started in<br />

the 1940s, but was halted because of WWII. It was completed in the 1950s and was a first<br />

home to many military families returning from the Korean War. Recently, it was owned<br />

by Leona Helmsley until it was sold in 2000. A sister complex was built by the<br />

Metropolitan Life Insurance group as postwar housing. The sister complex, Park La Brea<br />

in Los Angeles, CA, features the same street layout as Park Merced in <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>.<br />

Transportation<br />

Bus service through Park Merced is primarily provided by Muni's 17 Parkmerced line,<br />

and peak hour service to and from Balboa Park Station is provided by the 88 line.<br />

Additionally, bus lines 28, 28L and 29 and the Muni Metro M Oceanview line all run on<br />

19th Avenue and bus line 18 runs on Lake Merced Boulevard.<br />

External Links<br />

The Villas Parkmerced official website<br />

Terraserver Photo of Park Merced


Potrero Hill, <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California<br />

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<br />

Potrero Hill is a neighborhood in <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California, located on the east side of<br />

the city, east of the Mission District and south of the South of Market area. It is roughly<br />

bordered by 16th Street to the north, Potrero Avenue or U.S. Route 101 to the west and<br />

Cesar Chavez Street to the south. There are many docks located on the eastern edge of<br />

the neighborhood, which are mainly built atop landfill.<br />

Notable features of Potrero Hill include a powder blue water tower, located near 22nd<br />

Street and Wisconsin Street, the Anchor Steam Brewery located on Mariposa Street,<br />

between Carolina and DeHaro Streets and owned by the washing machine heir Fritz<br />

Maytag, and a section of Vermont Street between 20th Street and 22nd Street that has<br />

many switchbacks, similar to Lombard Street.<br />

Notable Residents<br />

OJ Simpson, the star football player who played for Galileo High School, <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong><br />

City College, University of Southern California, and the Buffalo Bills grew up on Potrero<br />

Hill, Wayne Thiebaud, the famous, skillful and prolific painter lived on and painted<br />

Potrero Hill for years, and Robert Bechtle, the photorealist painter has also used the hill<br />

for both a home and subject matter for his art. Peter Orlovsky, poet Allen Ginsberg's<br />

partner, lived at 5 Turner Terrace, one of several Potrero Hill public housing projects, in<br />

the 1950s. Ginsberg probably worked on Howl, a poem that changed the world's<br />

expectations of poetry, in that apartment. Lawrence Ferlinghetti bought a house at 706<br />

Wisconsin St. for $9,995 in 1957. He is a poet and co-founder of City Lights, America's<br />

first all-paperback bookstore.<br />

Transportation<br />

Two freeways run through Potrero Hill, U.S. Route 101 on the western side Interstate 280<br />

on the eastern side.<br />

Public transportation is provided by Muni along several bus lines, including lines 10, 15,<br />

19, 22, 48, and 53. In mid-2006, the Third Street Light Rail Project will be completed and<br />

bus service by the 15 Third line on Third Street will be replaced by a Muni Metro line.<br />

Additionally, there is a Caltrain station located at 22nd Street, near Pennsylvania Avenue.


See also<br />

Mission Bay, <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California<br />

<strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>'s Potrero Hill by Peter Linenthal, Abigail Johnston,and the Potrero Hill<br />

Archives Project,was published by Arcadia Publishing Co. in their Images of America<br />

series in 2005. Its 128 pages are full of photos and neighborhood history. It includes early<br />

Native American Ohlone history, Mission Dolores, early industry, both world wars, the<br />

1960s, and recent developments. Many photos come from family collections.<br />

External links<br />

<strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Neighborhoods: Potrero Hill - neighborhood guide from the <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong><br />

Chronicle<br />

Potrero Hill SF - neighborhood guide and blog<br />

Presidio of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong><br />

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<br />

The Parade Grounds at the Presidio of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>.<br />

The Presidio of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> (originally, El Presidio de <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>) is a park on<br />

the northern tip of the <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Peninsula in the City and County of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>.<br />

It is operated by the National Park Service of the United States as a part of the Golden


Gate National Recreation Area. The park is characterized by many wooded areas, hills,<br />

and scenic vistas overlooking the <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Bay.<br />

The Presidio was originally a Spanish fort sited by Juan Bautista de Anza on March 28,<br />

1776 built by a party led by José Joaquín Moraga later that year. It was seized by the U.S.<br />

Military in 1848 and was home to the United States 6th Army. Several famous U.S.<br />

generals from William Sherman to John Pershing made their homes here. Until its closure<br />

in 1995, it was the longest continuously-operated military base in the United States.<br />

Presidio of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong><br />

After a hard-fought battle the Presidio averted an auction and came under the<br />

management of the Presidio Trust, a US Government Corporation established by an act of<br />

Congress in 1996. The Presidio Trust now manages the park in partnership with the<br />

National Park Service. The Trust has jurisdiction over the interior 80 percent of the<br />

Presidio, including nearly all of its historic structures. The National Park Service<br />

manages coastal areas.<br />

One of main objectives of Presidio Trust’s program is achieving financial self-sufficiency<br />

by fiscal year 2013. Until then, the Trust continues to receive federal funds to support its<br />

operation. Immediately after its inception, the Trust began preparing rehabilation plans<br />

for the park. Many areas had to be decontaminated before they could be prepared for<br />

public use.<br />

Crissy Field, a former airfield, has undergone extensive restoration and now serves as<br />

very popular recreational area. It borders on the <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Marina in the East and on<br />

the Golden Gate bridge in the West.<br />

Presidio of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong><br />

The park has a large network of buildings (~ 800), many of them historical. By 2004<br />

about 50% of the buildings on park grounds have been restored and (partially) remodeled.


The Trust has contracted commercial real estate management companies to help attract<br />

and retain residential and commercial tenants. The total capacity is estimated at 5,000<br />

residents when all buildings have been rehabilitated. The Presidio of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> is the<br />

only U.S. national park with a residential program.<br />

Presidio of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong><br />

A major financial win for the Trust was a controversial deal signed with Lucasfilm. The<br />

company has built its new headquarters of Industrial Light and Magic and LucasArts on<br />

the site of the former Letterman hospital. George Lucas won the development rights for<br />

15 acres (61,000 m²) of the Presidio in June 1999 after beating out a number of rival<br />

plans [1] including a leading proposal by the Shorenstein Company. A massive $300<br />

million development with nearly 900,000 square feet (84,000 m²) of office space and a<br />

150,000 square foot (14,000 m²) underground parking garage with planned capacity of<br />

2,500 employees has replaced the former ILM and LucasArts headquarters in <strong>San</strong> Rafael.<br />

Lucas Learning Ltd., Lucas Online, and the George Lucas Educational Foundation will<br />

also move to the site. Lucas' proposal included plans for a high-tech Presidio museum<br />

and a seven acre (28,000 m²) "Great Lawn" that is now open to the public.<br />

Presidio of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong><br />

The Trust plans to create a promenade that will link the Lombard gate, the new Lucasfilm<br />

campus to the Main Post and ultimately to the Golden Gate Bridge. The promenade is<br />

part of a trails expansion plan that will add 24 miles (39 km) of new pathways and eight<br />

scenic overlooks throughout the park.<br />

In the fictional universe of Star Trek, the Presidio is the location of Starfleet<br />

Headquarters.


See also<br />

49-Mile Scenic Drive<br />

The Presidio (film)<br />

External links<br />

An account by the builder of the Presidio<br />

The National Park Service's official site of the Presidio<br />

WebCam showing Seacliff, Lands End and Pacific Ocean from the Presidio's Baker<br />

Beach<br />

Letterman Digital Arts Center website<br />

S. F Chronicle article regarding self-sufficiency<br />

2002 article about Real Estate in the Presidio and its development<br />

Presido Mutiny<br />

Presidio RX: <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> running group that meets for recreational runs on the Presidio<br />

trails.<br />

Photos<br />

Photos of the Presidio<br />

Aerial photo of the Presidio<br />

Richmond District, <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>,<br />

California<br />

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Geary Boulevard, looking eastward from 36th Avenue<br />

The Richmond District (election district 1) is a neighborhood in the northwest corner of<br />

<strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California. Lying directly north of Golden Gate Park, "the Richmond" is<br />

bounded roughly by Fulton Street to the south, Arguello Street and Laurel Heights to the<br />

east, The Presidio and Lincoln Park to the north, and Ocean Beach and the Pacific Ocean<br />

to the west. Park Presidio Boulevard, a major thoroughfare, divides the Richmond into<br />

the western "Outer Richmond" and the eastern portion, called the "Inner Richmond."<br />

Geary Boulevard is a major east-west thoroughfare that runs through the Richmond and<br />

to downtown.<br />

Originally an expanse of rolling sand dunes, the Richmond District was developed<br />

initially in the late 19th century. After the 1906 earthquake, development increased with<br />

the need to provide replacement housing.<br />

In the 1950s and most especially after the re-structuring of US immigration law in 1965,<br />

Chinese Americans began to replace the ethnic Jewish and Irish Americans who had<br />

dominated the district before World War II. The area became known as the "New<br />

Chinatown," particularly along Clement Street between Arguello and Park Presidio,<br />

which is a bustling commercial strip of restaurants and shops. The Richmond District also<br />

features a prominent Russian community with many stores catering to the Russian<br />

community along Geary Boulevard and a high concentration of Eastern European<br />

immigrants.<br />

Adolph Sutro was one of the first large-scale developers of the neighborhood. He is<br />

responsible for building the Sutro Baths, along with his mansion on the western end of<br />

the district, near Ocean Beach.<br />

The Richmond district was home to Anton Szandor LaVey, founder and leader of the<br />

Church of Satan from 1966 until his death in 1997. His home on California Street, an<br />

imposing Victorian known as the "Black House," was demolished in 2001.<br />

The Avenues<br />

The Richmond District and the neighboring Sunset District (on the south side of Golden<br />

Gate Park) are often collectively known as The Avenues, because the majority of both<br />

neighborhoods are spanned by numbered north-south avenues. The first numbered<br />

Avenue is 2nd, starting one block west of Arguello Boulevard (which takes the place of


1st Avenue), and increasing incrementally to as high as 48th Avenue near Ocean Beach<br />

(the last road before the beach being named Great Highway instead of 49th Avenue). The<br />

only exception is that there is no 13th Avenue; instead, it is known as Funston Avenue<br />

(named for Frederick Funston, a Spanish-American War general who was sent to the city<br />

to direct its recovery from the 1906 earthquake). Most of the east-west streets in the<br />

Richmond and Sunset Districts are named after Spanish explorers in ascending<br />

alphabetical order in a southward direction. In the Richmond District, these streets are:<br />

Anza, Balboa and Cabrillo. In the Sunset District, these streets are: Hugo, Irving, Judah,<br />

Kirkham, Lawton, Moraga, Noriega, Ortega, Pacheco, Quintara, Rivera, <strong>San</strong>tiago,<br />

Taraval, Ulloa, Vicente, Wawona, and Yorba (Fulton Street, on the north side of Golden<br />

Gate Park, and Lincoln Way on the south, taking the place of the streets which would<br />

otherwise have begun with "D" and "G" respectively, with "E" and "F"" being preempted<br />

by Golden Gate Park and "X" and "Z" being omitted).<br />

Supervisors of District 1<br />

Jake McGoldrick 2001 - Present<br />

Michael Yaki 1996 - 2001<br />

External links<br />

Park Presidio Neighbors Association<br />

Richmond district guided photo tour<br />

Coordinates: 37.778° N -122.483° E<br />

Maps and aerial photos<br />

Street map from Google Maps or Yahoo! Maps<br />

Topographic map from TopoZone<br />

Aerial image or topographic map from TerraServer-USA<br />

Satellite image from Google Maps or Microsoft Virtual Earth<br />

Surrounding area map from the United States Census Bureau<br />

<strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>'s street naming controversy of 1909 - the story of how Anza through<br />

Yorba streets -- and the numbered Avenues -- got their names<br />


Russian Hill, <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California<br />

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<br />

A view of Lombard Street and Russian Hill from Telegraph Hill. Centered in the picture<br />

is the famous "World's crookedest street" portion of Lombard Street.<br />

Russian Hill is an affluent, largely residential neighborhood of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California,<br />

in the United States. Views from the top of the hill extend in several directions around the<br />

Bay Area, including the Bay Bridge, Marin County, the Golden Gate Bridge, and<br />

Alcatraz. Russian Hill is also home to the prestigious <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Art Institute, located<br />

on Chestnut Street between Jones and Leavenworth Streets.<br />

Location<br />

Russian Hill is directly to the north (and slightly downhill) from the highly affluent Nob<br />

Hill, to the south (uphill) from Fisherman's Wharf, and to the west of the North Beach<br />

neighborhood. The Hill is bordered on its west side by parts of the neighborhoods of<br />

Pacific Heights, Cow Hollow, and the Marina District.<br />

The boundaries of Russian Hill are generally considered to be Van Ness Avenue on the<br />

west, Pacific Avenue on the south, Columbus Avenue on the east (northeast), and <strong>San</strong><br />

<strong>Francisco</strong> Bay on the North. The portion of Lombard Street (between Hyde and<br />

Leavenworth streets), that is sometimes referred to as "the crookedest (winding) street in


the world" is on Russian Hill, and the Powell-Hyde Cable Car line passes directly over<br />

Russian Hill onits way to Fisherman's Wharf.<br />

Downhill to the north is Ghirardelli Square, which sits on the waterfront of the <strong>San</strong><br />

<strong>Francisco</strong> Bay, Aquatic Park, and Fisherman's Wharf, an extremely popular tourist area.<br />

Down the turns of Lombard Street and along Columbus Avenue to the east is the<br />

neighborhood of North Beach. Down the hill to the west, past Van Ness Avenue, are Cow<br />

Hollow and the Marina districts.<br />

History<br />

The neighborhood's name goes back to the Gold Rush-era when settlers discovered a<br />

small Russian cemetery at the top of the hill. Athough the bodies were never officially<br />

identified, it is assumed that the bodies probably belonged to Russian fur-traders and<br />

sailors from nearby Fort Ross. The cemetery was removed, but the name remains to this<br />

day. There is no significant Russian presence here as the city's Russian community is<br />

located primarily in the Richmond District.<br />

See also<br />

Nob Hill<br />

Telegraph Hill<br />

Russian colonization of the Americas<br />

External links<br />

The Chronicle's standing article about Russian Hill<br />

Nob Hill <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Blog<br />

Russian Hill Neighbors association


Sea Cliff, <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California<br />

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<br />

Sea Cliff (sometimes spelled Seacliff) is a very affluent neighborhood located in<br />

northwestern <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California. It is adjacent to the Pacific Ocean and Baker<br />

Beach, southwest of the Presidio of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> and east of Lincoln Park. The Sea Cliff<br />

neighborhood is renowned for the large size of its homes (which can resemble large<br />

suburban estates) as well as for the impressive views from many of the homes of the<br />

Pacific Ocean, the Golden Gate Bridge and the Marin Headlands.<br />

A small public beach named China Beach is located in the neighborhood.<br />

Some of the neighborhood's more famous current and past residents have included actor<br />

Robin Williams, actress Sharon Stone, theatrical producer Carole Shorenstein Hays, and<br />

musician Chris Isaak.<br />

WebCam showing Seacliff, Lands End and Pacific Ocean from the Presidio<br />

South of Market, <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>,<br />

California<br />

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<br />

South of Market or SoMa (South of Market) is a neighborhood in <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>,<br />

California. Its borders are Market Street to the north-northwest, the <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Bay to<br />

the east, Townsend Street to the south-southeast, and U.S. Route 101 to the westsouthwest.<br />

It is the part of the city in which the street grid runs parallel to and<br />

perpendicular to Market Street. The eastern edge along the Embarcadero and south-


eastern corner of this area (where Mission Creek meets the bay) is known as South<br />

Beach, a separate neighborhood, and the border below Townsend Street begins Mission<br />

Bay. The north-eastern corner (where Market Street meets the bay) is often considered<br />

part of the Financial District.<br />

South of Market was originally a warehouse district, with longer blocks than other parts<br />

of the city. Today, in addition to warehouses, there are a great many bars and nightclubs,<br />

restaurants, and residential lofts in the area. Since the 1950s, South of Market has been a<br />

center for the leather subculture of the gay community. At the end of each September the<br />

Folsom Street Fair is held on Folsom Street between 7th and 12th Streets. The smaller<br />

and less commercialized but also leather subculture-oriented Up Your Alley Fair<br />

(commonly referred to as the Dore Alley Fair) is also held in the neighborhood, in late<br />

July on Folsom between 9th and 10th Streets and in Dore Alley between Folsom and<br />

Howard. During the late 1990s, South of Market was known for being a local center of<br />

the dot-com boom, due to its central location and relatively cheap housing and office<br />

space.<br />

Especially near the waterfront, Yerba Buena Gardens and Financial District, South of<br />

Market is rapidly gentrifying, with a large number of new residential high-rises and<br />

hotels.<br />

Because of its historic blue-collar nature, South of Market is also an area of settlement for<br />

new immigrants. Entire communities made their homes in the district--from Irish<br />

Americans and Italian Americans to Greek Americans. Presently the largest migrant<br />

group living in South of Market are Filipino Americans.<br />

The conference center, Moscone Center, occupies 3 blocks and hosts many major trade<br />

shows. Moscone South opened its doors in December 1981. Moscone North opened in<br />

May 1992, and most recently Moscone West in June 2003.<br />

With the opening of the <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Museum of Modern Art in 1995, the Yerba Buena<br />

Center region of the South of Market has become a hub for museums. Other museums in<br />

the area include the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the Museum of the African<br />

Diaspora, the Cartoon Art Museum, the children's Zeum, and the temporary home of the<br />

California Academy of Sciences. The planned sites for the Contemporary Jewish<br />

Museum and the Mexican Museum are also in the Yerba Buena area. The Center for the<br />

Arts, along with Yerba Buena Gardens and the Sony Metreon, is built on top of Moscone<br />

North. Across Howard Street, built on top of Moscone South, is a children's park<br />

featuring a large play area, an ice skating rink, a bowling alley, a restaurant, the Zeum,<br />

and the restored merry-go-round from Playland At the Beach. The children's park and<br />

Zeum are joined to Yerba Buena Gardens by a foot bridge over Howard Street.<br />

A major transformation of the neighborhood is planned with the Transbay Terminal<br />

Replacement Project, which if funded, is planned to be open by 2013. In addition, many<br />

residential projects are set to transform the overall <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> skyline, with highrises<br />

up to 55 stories like One Rincon Hill(see sfcityscape.com). According to an article on


May 25, 2006 (see [1]), the Transbay Joint Powers Authority proposed to raise the height<br />

limits around the new transbay terminal. That will mean instead of having one 70 story,<br />

925 ft. tower, a trio of towers, with two at about the same height as the 853<br />

ft.Transamerica Pyramid and a third one of at least 1,000 ft. will be built. The third tower<br />

could be the tallest on the West Coast, beating out the US Bank Tower in Los Angeles<br />

and it will probably have the most floors on the West Coast, overtaking Seattle's<br />

Columbia Center. This proposal is said to give <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> a internationally recognized<br />

skyline by having a central peak and in addition, balance the off-centered existing skyline<br />

due to the Transamerica Pyramid and the Bank of America Building.<br />

Most <strong>San</strong> Franciscans prefer to refer to the neighborhood by its full name, South of<br />

Market, though there is a trend to shorten the name to SOMA or SoMa, probably in<br />

reference to SoHo (South of Houston) in New York City, and, in turn, Soho in London.<br />

Before being called South of Market this area was called "South of the Slot". The reason<br />

being that cable cars used to run on Market Street and the cable car tracks have a center<br />

slot where the cable car attaches to the cable. While the cable cars have long since<br />

disappeared some "old timers" still refer to this area as "South of the Slot".<br />

See also<br />

<strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong><br />

Union Square<br />

External links<br />

Transbay Joint Powers Authority Official Site<br />

One Rincon Hill<br />

sfcityscape.com


St. Francis Wood, <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>,<br />

California<br />

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<br />

St. Francis Wood is an affluent residential neighborhood located in southwestern <strong>San</strong><br />

<strong>Francisco</strong>, California, south of the West Portal neighborhood and west of Mount<br />

Davidson. Although characterized by impressive single family homes on spacious lots<br />

(by urban <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> standards), St. Francis Wood is lesser known than other, more<br />

centrally-located wealthy <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> neighbrhoods such as the Marina District and<br />

Pacific Heights, or even the Pacific Ocean-adjacent Seacliff neighborhood in<br />

northwestern <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>.<br />

There are two large water fountains in St. Francis Wood along St. Francis Boulevard, a<br />

circular one in the intersection with <strong>San</strong>ta Ana Avenue and one built onto the hill at the<br />

eastern end of the street.<br />

External link<br />

A short history of St. Francis Wood


Sunset District, <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California<br />

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<br />

The Outer Sunset from Grand View Park<br />

The Sunset District (election district 4) is a neighborhood in the west-central part of <strong>San</strong><br />

<strong>Francisco</strong>, California, USA that is primarily residential and is built along a grid pattern. It<br />

was one of the last areas of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> to be developed, and most of its homes and<br />

buildings date from the 1920s through the 1950s, with the fastest rate of construction<br />

occurring during the 1930s and 1940s (although parts of the Inner Sunset were developed<br />

beginning in the 1890s).<br />

Geography<br />

Golden Gate Park forms the neighborhood's northern border and the Pacific Ocean (or,<br />

more specifically, the long, flat strand of beach known as Ocean Beach) forms its western<br />

border. The Sunset District's southern and eastern borders are not as clearly defined, but<br />

there is a general consensus that the neighborhood extends no further than Sigmund Stern<br />

Grove and Sloat Boulevard in the south and no further east than the Parnassus campus of<br />

the University of California, <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> and Laguna Honda Hospital. Prior to the<br />

residential and commercial development of the Sunset District, the area was covered by<br />

sand dunes and was originally referred to by 19th-century <strong>San</strong> Franciscans as "the<br />

Outside Lands."


This thematic maps shows the Sunset District's large Asian population in southwest <strong>San</strong><br />

<strong>Francisco</strong><br />

The Sunset District is in fact often considered to be two separate neighborhoods: the<br />

Inner Sunset and the Outer Sunset. The commercial area of the Inner Sunset is centered<br />

around Irving Street between 7th and 11th Avenues, and the Outer Sunset is generally<br />

considered to begin at 19th Avenue and to extend for approximately 30 blocks to Ocean<br />

Beach. When "Sunset" is used alone, it is generally taken to mean the Outer Sunset. The<br />

southern half of the Outer Sunset is sometimes reckoned as a separate neighborhood,<br />

known as Parkside.<br />

Characteristics<br />

Though relatively prosperous economically, the area is considered by many observers to<br />

be one of the less fashionable neighborhoods in <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, due to its reputation for<br />

frequently foggy weather and the prevalence of its mid-20th century single-family<br />

housing stock. However, the neighborhood has several assets that belie this reputation,<br />

including a low crime rate and the proximity to Ocean Beach and Golden Gate Park. The<br />

Church of St. Anne of the Sunset on Judah Street is a striking landmark, and the<br />

commercial area along Irving Street is animated and attractive. The <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong><br />

Conservatory of Music at 19th Avenue and Ortega Street provides almost daily free<br />

classical music concerts. The steeply hilly area that rises to the south of Irving Street,<br />

around Grand View Park and the Golden Gate View Park, contains attractively winding<br />

streets sometimes linked by staircases, and many striking and desirable properties with<br />

stupendous views over the city and out to the ocean and the Marin headlands. The N<br />

Judah and L Taraval lines of the Muni Metro provide a fast and convenient link to<br />

downtown, with easy connections to BART. Despite the Sunset's less-than-glamorous<br />

reputation, the neighborhood's property values have risen along with those in the rest of<br />

<strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, most spectacularly during the late 1990s. Wood-frame & stucco homes of<br />

1,000-1,500 square feet, originally built in the 1930s & 1940s for $6,000-$10,000, now<br />

sell for prices that often reach $800,000 and beyond.<br />

The Inner Sunset is now a popular evening destination, primarily due to a diverse mix of<br />

restaurants along 9th Avenue and Irving Street (the intersection of which is the focal<br />

point of the area). The fortunes of the Inner Sunset have only risen in the last decade,


however. Prior to the late 1990s, smaller service businesses such as laundromats and<br />

grocery stores dominated the Sunset's commercial character; while this still remains true<br />

to a point in the Outer Sunset, a more gentrified and popular neighborhood character has<br />

risen in parts of the Inner Sunset.<br />

Demographics and subcultures<br />

At least half of the Sunset's residents are Asian American (mostly Chinese American), a<br />

result of a demographic shift that began in the late 1960s and accelerated from the 1980s<br />

as Asian immigration to <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> increased dramatically and much of the original,<br />

nearly exclusively white, heavily Irish American population of the Sunset moved to<br />

outlying suburban areas. A major commercial area of the Sunset District, Irving Street<br />

between 19th Avenue and 24th Avenue, is today lined with businesses catering to Asian<br />

Americans, with additional commercial areas filled with Asian grocery stores and<br />

restaurants in other parts of the Sunset District as well, such as on Taraval Street west of<br />

19th Avenue. In addition, there is still a significant Irish American and Irish minority in<br />

the neigborhood and there are several Irish pubs in the Sunset.<br />

The strip near the Pacific Ocean has a notable population of surfers who take advantage<br />

of the strong waves and currents of Ocean Beach.<br />

The Outer Sunset — and especially Parkside — is regarded by the city's political<br />

observers as being one of the most conservative communities in <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>. Often, the<br />

area's residents have been more opposed to gay rights ordinances and rent control than<br />

voters in other parts of the city, and more strongly in favor of stricter policies toward the<br />

homeless.<br />

The Avenues<br />

The Sunset District and the neighboring Richmond District (on the north side of Golden<br />

Gate Park) are often collectively known as The Avenues, because the majority of both<br />

neighborhoods are spanned by numbered north-south avenues. The first numbered<br />

Avenue is 2nd, starting one block west of Arguello Boulevard (which takes the place of<br />

1st Avenue), and increasing incrementally to as high as 48th Avenue near Ocean Beach<br />

(the last road before the beach being named Great Highway instead of 49th Avenue). The<br />

only exception is that there is no 13th Avenue; instead, it is known as Funston Avenue<br />

(named for Frederick Funston, a Spanish-American War general who was sent to the city<br />

to direct its recovery from the 1906 earthquake). Most of the east-west streets in the<br />

Richmond and Sunset Districts are named after Spanish explorers in ascending<br />

alphabetical order in a southward direction. In the Richmond District, these streets are:<br />

Anza, Balboa and Cabrillo. In the Sunset District, these streets are: Irving, Judah,<br />

Kirkham, Lawton, Moraga, Noriega, Ortega, Pacheco, Quintara, Rivera, <strong>San</strong>tiago,<br />

Taraval, Ulloa, Vicente, Wawona, and Yorba (Fulton Street, on the north side of Golden<br />

Gate Park, and Lincoln Way on the south, taking the place of the streets which would


otherwise have begun with "D" and "G" respectively, with "E" and "F" being pre-empted<br />

by Golden Gate Park and "X" and "Z" being omitted).<br />

Supervisors of District 4<br />

Fiona Ma 2002 - Present<br />

Leland Yee 1997 -2002<br />

External links<br />

Inner Sunset guided photo tour<br />

Center and Outer Sunset guided photo tour<br />

Western Neighborhoods Project<br />

Inner Sunset Neighborhood <strong>Guide</strong><br />

Outer Sunset Neighborhood <strong>Guide</strong><br />

Sunset Beacon, local newspaper<br />

Aerial photo<br />

Aerial photo of the Sunset District from Microsoft's TerraServer site<br />

Telegraph Hill, <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong><br />

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<br />

Telegraph Hill refers to a small district in <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California. Its main feature is<br />

Coit Tower, which stands atop the hill.<br />

Location<br />

A much quieter neighborhood than adjoining North Beach and its bustling cafés and<br />

nightlife, Telegraph Hill is a mostly residential area. Aside from Coit Tower, it is wellknown<br />

for its gardens flowing down Filbert Street down to Levi's Plaza. The<br />

neighborhood is bounded by Vallejo to the south, <strong>San</strong>some Street to the east, <strong>Francisco</strong>


Street to the north and Powell Street and Columbus Avenue to the west, where the<br />

southwestern corner of Telegraph Hill overlaps with the North Beach neighborhood.<br />

History<br />

Originally named Loma Alta by the Spaniards, the hill was then familarly known as Goat<br />

Hill by the early <strong>San</strong> Franciscans, and became the neighborhood of choice for many Irish<br />

immigrants. From 1825 through 1847, the area between <strong>San</strong>some & Battery, Broadway<br />

and Vallejo streets was used as a burial ground for foreign non-Catholic seamen.<br />

The hill owes its current name to a semaphore, a windmill-like structure erected in<br />

September 1849, for the purpose of signaling to the rest of the city the nature of the ships<br />

entering the Golden Gate. Atop the newly built house, the marine telegraph consisted of a<br />

pole with two raisable arms that could form various configurations, each corresponding a<br />

specific meaning: steamer, sailing boat, etc. The information was used by observers<br />

operating for financiers, merchants, wholesalers and speculators. As some of these<br />

information consumers would know the nature of the cargo carried by the ship they could<br />

quickly predict the upcoming (generally lower) local prices for those goods and<br />

commodities carried. Those who did not have advance information on the cargo might<br />

pay a too-high price from a merchant unloading his stock of a commodity - a price that<br />

was about to drop.<br />

On October 18, 1850, the ship Oregon signaled to the hill as it was entering the Golden<br />

Gate the news of California's recently acquired statehood. A redundant station was built<br />

at Point Lobos in 1853. However, with the advent of the electrical telegraph in 1862, the<br />

system quickly became obsolete and was eventually dismantled, but the hill and its<br />

surrounding neighborhood have retained the name of Telegraph Hill.<br />

In the 1920s, Telegraph Hill became with North Beach a destination for poets and<br />

bohemian intellectuals, dreaming of turning it into a West Coast West Village.<br />

Movies featuring Telegraph Hill<br />

After the Thin Man<br />

Dark Passage<br />

The House on Telegraph Hill<br />

Invasion of the Body Snatchers<br />

The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill<br />

The Enforcer, the third film in Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry series


Trivia<br />

The 1360 Montgomery building, featured in the 1947 film noir Dark Passage and where<br />

Lauren Bacall's character resides, is a typical example of modern architecture.<br />

The local wild parrots (depicted in the 2003 documentary The Wild Parrots of Telegraph<br />

Hill) are Cherry-headed conures, also known as red-masked parakeets, an indigenous<br />

species from Peru. They are also often spotted farther east on Embarcadero Plaza, and<br />

seem to have spawned a colony in the Cupertino area, in the South Bay.<br />

See also<br />

Coit Tower<br />

Filbert Steps<br />

Tenderloin, <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California<br />

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<br />

The Tenderloin is a neighborhood in <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>. It is known for its drug trade,<br />

prostitution, ethnic restaurant and bar scene, and close proximity to the Financial District,<br />

Downtown and Civic Center.<br />

The squalid conditions, homelessness, crime, drug sales, prostitution, liquor stores (over<br />

60), and strip clubs give the area a seedy reputation. Many tourist publications suggest<br />

avoiding the Tenderloin all together and its notoriously exaggerated mythology of danger<br />

keeps many <strong>San</strong> Franciscans away from the area after dark. However, these conditions<br />

have also served to make rents more affordable in a city known as among the priciest in<br />

the country. Though the area is commonly thought of as being uninhabited by families, it<br />

is one of the few areas of the city affordable to poor and working-class families and has<br />

one of the city's highest concentrations of children.<br />

With some of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>'s most prestigious real estate only a few blocks to the north,<br />

and the Financial District's high towers and hotels just to the east (along Geary Street),<br />

the Tenderloin is often striking to tourists as a definitive example of microculture within<br />

the city. As with other lower-income neighborhoods like the Mission and SOMA<br />

districts, many artists and writers make the Tenderloin their home.<br />

While the streets close to Market Street are among <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>'s most undesirable<br />

neighborhoods, a gradual but distinct rise in income levels occurs as one travels north,


ascending to the Nob Hill sector. Relative to other areas, the Tenderloin is the only<br />

largely working-class neighborhood within the downtown area. The uphill area of the<br />

neighborhood is known as the "Upper Tenderloin".<br />

The Dot Com boom in the late 1990s brought a great deal of redevelopment and resident<br />

inhabitation to the SOMA district in particular, but some revitalization funds put into the<br />

Tenderloin made a prominent impact —evident today by a much broader section of new<br />

ethnic restaurants and bars, as well as a more long-term young working class.<br />

Area<br />

The Tenderloin is not quite as easy to define as other <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> neighborhoods. A<br />

conservative description is for it to be bounded on the North by Post Street, on the East<br />

by Taylor and 6th Streets, on the South by Mission Street and on the West by Van Ness<br />

and 9th Streets. The northern boundary with Nob Hill is especially hard to define and can<br />

range as far north as Pine Street in western sections of the Tenderloin, such as the Polk<br />

Gulch neighborhood.<br />

The Tenderloin roughly lies west of Union Square, south of Nob Hill, east of Western<br />

Addition and Van Ness corridor and north of SOMA ("South of Market").<br />

It includes neighborhoods referred to as Mid-Market, Civic Center, Theater District,<br />

Lower Nob Hill, Polk Gulch, and Little Saigon. 'The Tenderloin' is almost never actually<br />

used in any real-estate listing; instead it is usually one of the above neighborhood names.<br />

The extension of the Tenderloin south of Market Street in the vicinity of Sixth, Seventh,<br />

and Mission Streets is known locally as Mid-Market and is "Skid Row", or sarcastically,<br />

as "the Wine Country", an allusion to "winos" (street- dwelling alcoholics). The northern<br />

part of it beginning at Post Street is called a variety of nicknames including the Upper<br />

Tenderloin, "Lower Nob Hill" (widely used in real estate listings), or facetiously "The<br />

Tendernob", "Tenderloin Heights", or the "Trenderloin" (a reference to the area's<br />

increasing gentrification.) The eastern extent where it meets Union Square is known as<br />

the Theater District. Part of the western extent of the Tenderloin, Larkin and Hyde Streets<br />

between Turk and O'Farrell, was officially named "Little Saigon" by Mayor Gavin<br />

Newsom shortly after his election in 2004.<br />

Nestled between successful commercial areas and high priced residential areas, parts of<br />

the Tenderloin have historically resisted gentrification, maintaining a seedy character and<br />

reputation for crime. The region includes City Hall, <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Public Library, and the<br />

Asian Art Museum. Abandoned architectual landmarks are also located here, such as the<br />

old Hibernia Bank located on the dilapidated corner of Jones and McAllister Street, near<br />

a methadone clinic and Saint Anthony's soup kitchen.


History<br />

The Tenderloin was born in the aftermath of the devastating 1906 Earthquake, when a<br />

large number of hotels were erected to accommodate the displaced victims of the disaster.<br />

By the 20s, the city's wealthier refugees had moved on, and the abandoned hotels were<br />

converted into low-income housing. The Tenderloin became notorious for its<br />

concentration of illegal bars, or "speakeasies" during Prohibition, and has since remained<br />

the core of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>'s underworld.<br />

There are a number of stories about how the Tenderloin got its name. One is that it is a<br />

reference to an older neighborhood in New York with the same name and similar<br />

characteristics. Another is a reference to the neighborhood as the "soft underbelly"<br />

(analogous to the cut of meat) of the city, with allusions to vice, graft, and corruption.<br />

There are also some legends about the name, probably folklore, including that the<br />

neighborhood earned its name from the words of a local police captain, who was<br />

overheard saying that when he was assigned to another part of town, he could only afford<br />

to eat chuck steak on the salary he was earning, but after he was transferred to this<br />

neighborhood he was making so much money on the side soliciting bribes that now he<br />

could eat tenderloin instead. Another version of that story says that the officers that<br />

worked in the Tenderloin received a "hazard pay" bonus for working in such a violent<br />

area, and that is how they were able to afford the good cut of meat. Yet another story,<br />

also likely apocryphal, is that the name is a reference to the sexual parts of prostitutes<br />

(i.e., "loins").<br />

Prior to the emergence of the Castro as a major gay village, the Polk Gulch at the western<br />

side of the Tenderloin was one of the city's first gay neighborhoods. Few of the gay bars<br />

and clubs still exist on Polk Street. Parts of Polk Street now cater to the recent<br />

gentrification of the neighborhood - such bars as Vertigo, Hemlock, and Lush Lounge.<br />

However, many failed businesses in the area (such as a women's gym) attest to a<br />

continuing resistance to gentrification.<br />

Both the movie and book The Maltese Falcon were based in <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>'s Tenderloin.<br />

There is also an alley, in what is now Nob Hill, named for the book's author (Dashiell<br />

Hammett). It lies outside the Tenderloin because the boundary was defined differently<br />

than it is today. Some locations, such as Sam Spade's apartment and John's Grill, also no<br />

longer lie in the Tenderloin because local economics and real estate have changed the<br />

character and labeling of areas over time.<br />

Community<br />

The Tenderloin is an ethnically diverse community, consisting of middle class families,<br />

hip young people living in cheap apartments, and recent immigrants from Southeast Asia<br />

and Latin America. It is also home to a large population of homeless and those living in<br />

extreme poverty. The neighborhood is home to numerous non-profit social service


agencies and to numerous Single Room Occupancy hotels. All of this comes together to<br />

make this one of the most interesting and diverse neighborhoods in <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>.<br />

With few exceptions, housing is rented in dense 4-6 story Edwardian apartment<br />

buildings. The Hamilton, on O'Farrell Street, is a 20 story former hotel which has<br />

condominiumized and is owner occupied.<br />

White middle-upper income inhabitation ("gentrification") accelerated somewhat during<br />

and after the Dot-com boom of 1999-2001 in the northern blocks ranging from O'Farrell<br />

Street to Sutter Street.<br />

One of the centers of community in the Tenderloin is Glide Memorial Church on Ellis &<br />

Taylor Streets. Glide provides social service programs to the area's residents and<br />

homeless and has been doing so for over 40 years. They serve over 1,000,000 meals a<br />

year to homeless and poor residents of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> - most of whom reside in the<br />

Tenderloin.<br />

Cecil Williams has been leading Glide since 1963 and the Sunday Morning<br />

"Celebrations" are famous for their world-renowned gospel-jazz choir and band. Here the<br />

famous sit next to the homeless for Sunday worship in one of the most diverse<br />

congregations in the world. They have two services every Sunday, 9am and 11am. Both<br />

services fill up, with about 1,000 people in attendance at each.<br />

Parks<br />

A park at the corner of Ellis and Jones Streets is unused by children and is commonly<br />

occupied by drug addicts or intoxicated people during the daytime.<br />

Sgt. John Macaulay Park, a gated playground at the corner of O'Farrell and Larkin<br />

Streets, is commonly occupied by parents and their young children. The playground is<br />

well maintained and lies next to a public restroom. It is across the street from a strip club.<br />

Restaurants<br />

"Original Joe's" at Taylor and Turk Streets is a neighborhood Italian American style steak<br />

house.<br />

A variety of Vietnamese restaurants and coffee shops line Larkin Street in Little Saigon.<br />

One well-known restaurant is "VietNam II" at the corner of Larkin and Ellis Streets. The<br />

neighborhood is also known for Vietnamese sandwiches, with several good sandwich<br />

shops scattered up and down Larkin Street. Saigon <strong>San</strong>dwiches at the corner of Larkin<br />

and Eddy is particularly well-regarded.<br />

There are numerous Indian and Pakistani restaurants throughout the Tenderloin, causing<br />

some <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> residents, who only visit the neighborhood for the Indian food, to


call it "The Tandoori-loin". At Jones & O'Farrell Streets there are three Indian/Pakistani<br />

restaurants. Around the corner, at 398 Eddy Street (at Leavenworth), is Naan N Curry,<br />

considered by the <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Chronicle and many locals (including cab drivers and<br />

cops) to be the best of the bunch (thanks to the affable gray-haired manager named "Arif"<br />

and several of his family members) as well as extremely affordable (one person can often<br />

have quite a decent meal for less than $10, and the sweetened "Chai" tea is free with<br />

meals). Fans of these small places all have a favorite, and Shalimar at Jones & O'Farrell<br />

is another good choice. Chutney, which is across the street from Shalimar is the newest<br />

of the group and is quite popular since Naan n Curry moved around the corner. Naan n<br />

Curry has become so popular, it has spawned at least two other locations in <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong><br />

(on Irving near 7th close to UCSF Med Center and on Jackson at Columbus near the<br />

Transamerica Pyramid) and one across the bay in Berkeley.<br />

Many Thai restaurants can be found in the neighborhood, including Thai House Express<br />

at Geary & Larkin and OSHA Thai Noodle at Geary & Leavenworth.<br />

An Asian vegetarian restaurant Golden Era can be found on O'Farrell Street near Jones<br />

Street.<br />

On weekend mornings you will find a large line winding outside of Dottie's True Blue<br />

Cafe, a popular breakfast place. They make their own bread and have huge egg<br />

scrambles. A local, hipster crowd mixes with tourists.<br />

Night life<br />

Bars & Lounges<br />

Many Tenderloin bars have withstood the test of time with their 1920s character and<br />

there is a mix of new bars and lounges.<br />

Bambudda Lounge at 601 Eddy St. & Larkin is a very popular lounge at the Phoenix<br />

Hotel. There is a 20 foot reclining Buddha on the roof. Asian food and DJ Music. They<br />

have poolside bar and indoor / outdoor fireplace.<br />

Olive Bar is at 743 Larkin and O'Farrell, an upscale bar for the neighborhood, known for<br />

their martinis and great food. They serve complimentary olives.<br />

The Nite Cap at Hyde and O'Farrell is a dive bar with lively character and a young<br />

clientele in the evening.<br />

The Owl Tree at Post and Taylor is an ancient dark English style tavern with an owl<br />

theme and a resident terrier.<br />

Edinburgh Castle on Geary at Polk is a Scottish-themed pub with a variety of beers. It is<br />

well known for literary events. They serve authentic fish & chips wrapped in newspaper<br />

from the stand down the block.


Ha Ra is a small, quiet bar with a boxing theme. There are posters of Rocky Marciano<br />

and other old time boxers on the walls. This bar is noted in the book "Dive Bars of <strong>San</strong><br />

<strong>Francisco</strong>".<br />

Whiskey Thieves at Geary & Hyde is one of the few bars in <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> that can<br />

legally permit smoking. They have a pool table, big screen tv on game nights and young<br />

crowd.<br />

There are also numerous Korean bars in the neighborhood, notorious for attractive female<br />

bartenders who aggressively work customers for drinks and tips.<br />

Music<br />

The Great American Music Hall, located on O'Farrell Street near Larkin Street, is a<br />

medium capacity venue that offers music from folk to rock to pop.<br />

The <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Rock and Roll Hall of Fame located in the Music City SF recording<br />

studio complex is currently under construction.<br />

The Warfield on Market Street is a large capacity theater that serves popular music<br />

concerts.<br />

The Hemlock Tavern on Polk and Hemlock has revived the local punk/indie scene with<br />

legendary, almost nightly shows by talented unknown bands.<br />

Stage<br />

Many of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>'s theaters are either within the boundaries of the Tenderloin or<br />

adjacent.<br />

The Orpheum Theater on Hyde and Market Streets. Broadway shows in <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>,<br />

such as The Lion King, Evita, RENT.<br />

The Golden Gate Theater is found at Taylor and Market Streets. Another theater showing<br />

Browadway productions.<br />

The Curran Theater is on Geary & Mason. Another Broadway house.<br />

The Music City SF Center for the Performing Arts is currently in construction and will<br />

contain a large capacity performance space for shows.<br />

The ACT Theater is next to the Curran at Geary & Mason. A local professional theater<br />

company.


Crime<br />

Prostitution is commonly seen on the streets in the area. Transgendered streetwalkers<br />

center on the area around Post and Polk Streets near one of the most famous transgender<br />

bars of the Tenderloin, Divas.<br />

Dealing and use of illicit drugs occurs on the streets. Property crimes are common,<br />

especially theft from parked vehicles. Gun violence is rare but has been known to occur.<br />

External links<br />

The First Annual Anti-War Dive Crawl (photos of various Tenderloin dives and<br />

buildings)<br />

Tenderloin Photo Tour Complete with narration, part of a massive guide to <strong>San</strong><br />

<strong>Francisco</strong>.<br />

<strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Neighborhood <strong>Guide</strong> Tenderloin entry on sfgate.com.<br />

The Tenderloin: <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>'s Fountainhead - article arguing for the importance of<br />

working class neighborhoods to a city's vitality.<br />

The Tendernob - 21st Century <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Enclave for the Nouveau Poor<br />

Music City <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>: Center for the Performing Arts<br />

Glide Memorial in the Tenderloin<br />

Once Upon a Time in the Tenderloin: a personal treatise about one year spent living and<br />

working at a Tenderloin residential hotel<br />

Tenderloin Timeline


Treasure Island, California<br />

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<br />

An aerial view of Treasure Island in the foreground, with its link to Yerba Buena Island<br />

in the background. Note the <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Bay Bridge's tunnel.<br />

Aerial photo of Treasure Island and Yerba Buena Island.


Treasure Island is an artificial island in the <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Bay between <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong><br />

and Oakland. It is connected by a small isthmus to Yerba Buena Island, a naturally<br />

formed island. It was created in 1939 for the "Golden Gate International Exposition" by<br />

dredging up dirt from the bay.<br />

Treasure Island is wholly within the City and County of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, which territory<br />

extends far into <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Bay and to the tip of the island of Alameda, California.<br />

The Administration Building, a Streamline Moderne-styled remnant of that World's Fair,<br />

is one of the few buildings remaining from the exposition. Today it serves largely as<br />

offices for The Villages, a private apartment-rental agency. The former housing for<br />

officers and their families is rented out to the general public, pending redevelopment and<br />

reconstruction of buildings on the island slated for 2008.<br />

After the World's Fair 1939–40 exhibition, the island was scheduled to be used as an<br />

airport when the navy stepped in and offered to exchange Mills Field on the <strong>San</strong><br />

<strong>Francisco</strong> Peninsula near the city of Burlingame for the island. The City and County of<br />

<strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> accepted the swap and the airport was built at Mills Field.<br />

During World War II Treasure Island became part of the Treasure Island Naval Base,<br />

where it served largely as an electronics and radio communications training school, and<br />

as the major navy departure point for sailors active in the Pacific theatre of the war.<br />

In 1996 Treasure Island and the Presidio Army Base were decommissioned and opened<br />

to public control, under stipulations.<br />

Treasure Island is now part of District 6 of the City and County of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, though<br />

it continues to be owned by the navy.<br />

A substantial part of the island is undergoing environmental cleanup by the federal<br />

government.<br />

The island has no gas station, and is served by a single bus, the <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Municipal<br />

Railway 108. It has a job training center and is home to many low-income <strong>San</strong><br />

Franciscans.<br />

The island has a raised walkway which circumnavigates almost its entire bulk, which is<br />

popular for recreation. Sea lions can be observed in the water from the shoreline, and<br />

construction of the new eastern span of the <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>-Oakland Bay Bridge can be<br />

observed from the eastern part of the island.<br />

Treasure Island's old aircraft hangars also served for three years as the site of Comedy<br />

Central's Battlebots television show, and later as the set where the movie version of Rent<br />

was filmed. The Nash Bridges offices were also located on the island during the<br />

production of that show (1996–2001).


In 2005, one of the largest developers of the United Sates, Lennar Corporation, proposed<br />

to build a self-sustaining city on Treasure Island. According to the <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong><br />

Chronicle, the proposal has 5,500 units of housing in several lowrise buildings, a few<br />

highrise buildings with solar panels and restaurants, including a 60 story tower. It also<br />

has an organic farm, a wind farm, and a ferry terminal facing <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, parkland,<br />

and tidal marshes. The proposal is designed to be as car-independent as possible, with the<br />

ferry terminal and basic goods within a 10 minute walk of the residences. This is a<br />

change from the original plan which was more car-dependent and it had only one highrise<br />

tower. See www.sfgov.org for more information.<br />

See also<br />

Islands of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Bay<br />

External links<br />

Maps and aerial photos Coordinates: 37.82334° -122.36827°<br />

Street map from Google Maps or Yahoo! Maps<br />

Topographic map from TopoZone<br />

Aerial image or topographic map from TerraServer-USA<br />

Satellite image from Google Maps or Windows Live Local<br />

Sky photo of Treasure Island from Microsoft Terraserver<br />

Weather satellite image from NASA<br />

Treasure Island message board<br />

1942 Naval Seizure controversy<br />

SF filming locations for Nash Bridges


Twin Peaks, <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California<br />

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<br />

The Twin Peaks.<br />

The view of downtown <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> from Twin Peaks.<br />

The Twin Peaks are two hills with an elevation of about 904 feet that are located in <strong>San</strong><br />

<strong>Francisco</strong>, California. They are the second highest hills in <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, after Mount<br />

Davidson. Twin Peaks Boulevard is the only road that goes to the summit of the peaks,<br />

and on the north side of the hills it connects to Christmas Tree Point, where there is a<br />

parking lot and an observation area which offers unobstructed views of most <strong>San</strong><br />

<strong>Francisco</strong> and the <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Bay.<br />

One of the city's many reservoirs is located to the north of the hills, at the east end of Palo<br />

Alto Avenue.<br />

The Muni Metro Twin Peaks Tunnel runs beneath the Twin Peaks, linking Downtown<br />

with West Portal and the southwestern part of the city. There is no public transportation<br />

service directly to the summit of the peaks, but the 37 Corbett Muni line stops near a path<br />

that goes up the hills on Crestline Drive.<br />

The name Twin Peaks can also be applied to the neighborhood surrounding the hills.


Demographics<br />

In 2000, about 40% of likely voters in Twin Peak/Corona Heights identified as "gay,<br />

bisexual, or other", compared to 11% city-wide. Many local residents proudly refer to<br />

their neighborhood as the "Swish" Alps.<br />

References<br />

Demographics: "District 8: Under the rainbow" by Betsey Culp. <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Call, 25<br />

September 2000. [1]<br />

See also<br />

49-Mile Scenic Drive<br />

External links<br />

Coordinates: 37.752° N -122.448° E<br />

Maps and aerial photos<br />

Street map from Google Maps or Yahoo! Maps<br />

Topographic map from TopoZone<br />

Aerial image or topographic map from TerraServer-USA<br />

Satellite image from Google Maps or Microsoft Virtual Earth<br />

Surrounding area map from the United States Census Bureau


Union Square, <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California<br />

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<br />

Looking down into Union Square from Macy's<br />

Union Square is the central shopping, hotel and theater district in <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>,<br />

California. Its name is derived from the one-block park situated between Post, Geary,<br />

Powell and Stockton Streets, but its importance as the largest collection of large<br />

department stores, swank boutiques, tourist trinket shops and salons in the West<br />

continues to make Union Square a major visitor draw and downtown <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> a<br />

vital, cosmopolitan place. Grand hotels and small inns, and repertory, off-broadway and<br />

single-act theaters contribute to the area's dynamic, 24-hour character.<br />

While Union Square proper dates from the United States Civil War era, the park has<br />

undergone many notable changes: the 1906 <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> earthquake leveled most of the<br />

buildings that surrounded it, a large underground parking garage was installed in the early<br />

1940s and relocated the park's lawns, shrubs and landmark statuary to the garage "roof,"<br />

and in the 1990s, the square was remodeled again to create more paved surfaces (for<br />

easier maintenance) with outdoor cafes. Union Square today retains its role as the<br />

ceremonial "heart" of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, serving as the site of many public concerts,<br />

impromptu protests, speeches by visiting dignitaries, and the annual Christmas tree and<br />

Menorah. Two cable car lines pass the Square on Powell Street, and public views of the<br />

park can be had from such high places as the St. Francis Hotel tower, the Sir Francis<br />

Drake Hotel, Macy's top floor, and the Grand Hyatt hotel.


Union Square from The Cheesecake Factory.<br />

Union Square has also come to describe not only the immediate vicinity of the park but<br />

the general shopping, dining and theater sub-districts within the surrounding blocks. The<br />

Geary and Curran theaters one block west on Geary anchor the "theater district" and<br />

border the Tenderloin. At the end of Powell Street two blocks south, where the cable cars<br />

turn around beside Hallidie Plaza at Market Street, is a growing retail corridor that leads<br />

to the Yerba Buena Gardens, with its own arts and entertainment centers, more large<br />

hotels, the Moscone Convention Center and the <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Museum of Modern Art.<br />

Also south of Market and near Yerba Buena Gardens is the historic United States Mint<br />

Building, built in 1874 of granite: a rare survivor of the 1906 quake. Nob Hill, with its<br />

grand mansions, apartment buildings and hotels, stands to the northwest of Union Square.<br />

This area is also home to some of the most upscale luxury hotels in <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>.<br />

To the north is Chinatown, with its gate at Grant Avenue and Bush Street, one of the<br />

largest Chinese communities outside Asia. The city's historic "French Quarter" runs east<br />

along Bush Street and tucks into the alleys of Belden Place and Claude near the French<br />

Consulate and the landmark Notre-Dame-des-Victoires Church.<br />

Union Square is the central shopping, hotel and theater district in <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>.<br />

This area was the home to the city's first French settlers, who, according to historian<br />

Gladys Hansen, were most sympathetic of the housing and employment needs of the<br />

Chinese settlers in the nascent days of Chinatown and shared Dupont street as a business<br />

address -- a tolerance that was only tested, according to Alexandre Dumas in A Gil Blas<br />

in California (1852), when Chinese cooks began to tamper with French cuisine. The<br />

cafes, hotels and restaurants of the French Quarter today maintain a distinct joie de vivre<br />

befitting the Quarter's heritage. Every year, the area is the site of the boisterous Bastille


Day celebration, the nation's largest, and Bush Street is temporarily re-named Buisson.<br />

Directly east of the Square is Maiden Lane, a narrow alley of exclusive shops and cafes<br />

that leads to the Financial District and boasts <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>'s only building designed by<br />

Frank Lloyd Wright — most notable for being the predecessor for New York City's<br />

Guggenheim Museum.<br />

Besides the cable cars, Union Square is served by numerous trolley and bus lines and the<br />

F Market streetcar. The Muni Metro and BART subway sytems both serve the area at<br />

nearby Powell Street Station.<br />

See also<br />

List of upscale shopping districts<br />

49-Mile Scenic Drive<br />

External links<br />

Photographs of Union Square<br />

Union Square Weblog<br />

Visitacion Valley, <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>,<br />

California<br />

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<br />

Visitacion Valley is a neighbourhood located in the south eastern quadrant of <strong>San</strong><br />

<strong>Francisco</strong>, California.<br />

The Visitacion Valley is roughly defined by McLaren Park to the West, Mansell Blvd to<br />

the North, Bayview Hill and Candlestick Cove to the East, and the <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> / <strong>San</strong><br />

Mateo County line to the South.<br />

The area has long had a large proportion of immigrants and is now home to many people<br />

who were originally from Asia, particularly Vietnam.


External Links<br />

Visitacion Valley Community Development Centre<br />

Western Addition, <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>,<br />

California<br />

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<br />

A southern view from Alta Plaza Park, which is in the Pacific Heights neighborhood.<br />

Most of the valley in the central part of this image is in the Western Addition<br />

neighborhood. In the background on the right can be seen Sutro Tower, which is west of<br />

Twin Peaks. The darker hill to the left and slightly more in the foreground is Buena Vista<br />

Heights, which is directly south of Haight Street (between the Haight-Fillmore and<br />

Haight-Ashbury neighborhoods). Cathedral Hill is visible to the left, just west of Van<br />

Ness Avenue and north of Hayes Valley.<br />

The Western Addition is a neighborhood in <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California. Historically, it<br />

was an addition to the city west of Van Ness Avenue sandwiched between the Haight<br />

district and Pacific Heights. The area was first developed around the turn of the 20th<br />

century as a middle-class suburb served by cable cars. Aside from Hayes Valley, it<br />

survived the 1906 <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> earthquake with its Victorian-style buildings largely<br />

intact. Today, the term Western Addition is generally used in two ways: to denote the<br />

development's original geographic area, and to denote the eastern portion of the<br />

neighborhood (also called the Fillmore District) that was redeveloped in the 1950's.<br />

Those who use the term in the former sense generally consider its (relatively ill-defined)<br />

boundaries to be Van Ness Avenue on the east, Masonic Avenue on the west, Post Street<br />

on the north, and Oak Street on the south. From there, it is often divided into smaller


neighborhoods such as Japantown, The Fillmore, Hayes Valley, Lower Pacific Heights,<br />

North Panhandle, Cathedral Hill, Alamo Square, and Anza Vista.<br />

After the Second World War, the Western Addition---particularly the Fillmore District---<br />

became a population base and a cultural center for <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>'s African American<br />

community. Since then, urban renewal schemes and <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>'s changing<br />

demographics have led to major changes in the economic and ethnic makeup of the<br />

neighborhood, as the Fillmore District suffered from crime and poverty while many other<br />

districts underwent significant gentrification. Today, many areas of the neighborhood are<br />

again solidly middle-class.<br />

The Central Freeway used to run through the neighborhood to Turk Street, but that<br />

section of the freeway was closed immediately after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake<br />

and later demolished.<br />

External links<br />

<strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Muni Map showing the location of the Western Addition and smaller subneighborhoods<br />

(when zoomed in).<br />

West Portal, <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>, California<br />

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<br />

West Portal is a principal shopping street for much of southwestern <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>,<br />

California, and is also considered a neighborhood itself. Named for the western terminus<br />

of the Muni tunnel beneath Twin Peaks that opened in 1918, the street (West Portal<br />

Avenue) and adjacent district is still dominated by the frequent trundlings of the three<br />

Muni Metro lines (K, L and M) that emerge from the subway to run in the street median.<br />

The ride in the subway from West Portal to downtown/Union Square is about fifteen<br />

minutes.<br />

West Portal lies directly adjacent to several larger <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> neighborhoods: the<br />

affluent and lushly verdant Forest Hill and St. Francis Wood neighborhoods on the east<br />

and south, Parkside (a southern sub-district of the Sunset District) on the north, and at the<br />

western end of the Avenue, Lakeshore Village and Merced Manor. The residential areas<br />

of the West Portal neighborhood, like several of the adjacent districts, are unusual for <strong>San</strong><br />

<strong>Francisco</strong> in that the homes are often detached, albeit with small yards. The frequent fog<br />

helps keep the area green in the usually rainless summer months, and on a clear day, a<br />

view from the park above the tunnel can be had of the Marin Headlands and the Farallon<br />

Islands in the Pacific.


In addition to the streetcar tunnel, West Portal's landmarks include a large movie theater,<br />

a library, a school, churches (including the prominent West Portal Lutheran Church and<br />

School), restaurants, bars (Portal's Tavern[1]), bookstores (Waldenbooks and West Portal<br />

Books [2]), drugstores (Walgreens and Rite Aid), markets, and coffeeshops. These along<br />

with many other unique neighborhood shops give the area a distinctly smaller-city,<br />

"retro" charm. The West Portal Muni Metro Station is located at the entrance to the Muni<br />

tunnel at the northern end of West Portal Avenue.<br />

Westwood Park, <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>,<br />

California<br />

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<br />

Westwood Park is an affluent residential neighborhood located in southwestern <strong>San</strong><br />

<strong>Francisco</strong>, California, near St. Francis Wood and City College of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>.<br />

Westwood Park was built as an upperclass neighborhood for downtown merchants. Most<br />

streets in this neighborhood have a suffix of "wood," such as Eastwood, Northwood,<br />

Rollingwood, and so forth.<br />

External links<br />

Westwood Park Association<br />

A short history of Westwood Park<br />

Pictures of Westwood Park Houses<br />

<strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Chronicle article on Westwood Park


Yerba Buena Island<br />

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<br />

An aerial view of Yerba Buena Island in the background, with its link to Treasure Island<br />

in the foreground. Note the <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Bay Bridge's tunnel.<br />

Aerial photo of Treasure Island and Yerba Buena Island.


Yerba Buena Island sits in the <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Bay between <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> and Oakland,<br />

California. The Yerba Buena Tunnel runs through its center and connects the western and<br />

eastern spans of the <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>-Oakland Bay Bridge. It has had several other names<br />

over the decades: Sea Bird Island, Wood Island, and Goat Island.<br />

Located west of the island is Blossom Rock, a treacherous submerged stone which caused<br />

a number of shipwrecks, until ships learned to use some nearby redwood trees as<br />

navigation helpers to avoid it. The site of these trees (now located in Redwood Regional<br />

Park) is a California Historical Landmark.<br />

As the natural base for the artificial Treasure Island, Yerba Buena and Treasure Islands<br />

formed the Treasure Island Naval Base, beginning during World War II until 1996, when<br />

it and the Presidio of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> were decommissioned, and opened to public control,<br />

under stipulations.<br />

In his book Two Years Before the Mast, published in 1840, Richard Henry Dana<br />

mentioned the island and called it "Wood Island."<br />

The first California legislature on February 18, 1850, passed an act establishing the<br />

boundaries of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> County and named the island Yerba Buena, after the former<br />

name for the city of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>.<br />

Officially, the island was Yerba Buena until 1895, when on a decision by the U.S.<br />

Geographic Board, it was changed to "Goat Island." It was changed back to "Yerba<br />

Buena" on June 3, 1931. "Yerba Buena" literally means "Good Herb" in Spanish.<br />

The island is currently part of District 6 of the City and County of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong>.<br />

See also<br />

Islands of <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Bay<br />

External links<br />

Treasure Island message board<br />

Naval Training Station: <strong>San</strong> <strong>Francisco</strong> Bay, Calif., Yerba Buena Island. Retrieved on July<br />

12, 2005.<br />

Maps and aerial photos<br />

WikiSatellite view at WikiMapia<br />

Street map from MapQuest or Google Local


Topographic map from TopoZone<br />

Aerial image or topographic map from TerraServer-USA<br />

Satellite image from Google Local or Microsoft Virtual Earth

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