Frommer's San Francisco 2012 - Matthew Poole [27]
The seals of Pier 39.
COW HOLLOW Located west of Van Ness Avenue, between Russian Hill and the Presidio, this flat, grazable area supported 30 dairy farms in 1861. Today, Cow Hollow is largely residential and largely yuppie. Its two primary commercial thoroughfares are Lombard Street, known for its many relatively inexpensive motels, and Union Street, an upscale shopping sector filled with restaurants, pubs, cafes, and boutiques.
PACIFIC HEIGHTS The ultra-elite, such as the Gettys and Danielle Steel—and those lucky enough to buy before the real-estate boom—reside in the mansions and homes in this neighborhood. When the rich meander out of their fortresses, they wander down to Fillmore or Union Street and join the pretty people who frequent the chic boutiques and lively neighborhood restaurants, cafes, and bars.
JAPANTOWN Bounded by Octavia, Fillmore, California, and Geary streets, Japantown shelters only a small percentage of the city’s Japanese population, but exploring the Japanese knickknack shops and noodle restaurants inside the Japantown Center is a whole day’s cultural experience. Duck inside one of the photo booths and take home a dozen Hello Kitty stickers as a souvenir.
CIVIC CENTER Although millions of dollars have gone toward brick sidewalks, ornate lampposts, and elaborate street plantings, the southwestern section of Market Street can still feel a little sketchy due to the large number of homeless who wander the area. The Civic Center at the “bottom” of Market Street, however, is a stunning beacon of culture and refinement. This large complex of buildings includes the domed and dapper City Hall, the Opera House, Davies Symphony Hall, and the Asian Art Museum. The landscaped plaza connecting the buildings is the staging area for San Francisco’s frequent demonstrations for or against just about everything.
SOMA No part of San Francisco has been more affected by recent development than the area south of Market Street (dubbed “SoMa”), the area within the triangle of the Embarcadero, Hwy. 101, and Market Street. Until a decade ago it was a district of old warehouses and industrial spaces, with a few scattered underground nightclubs, restaurants, and shoddy residential areas. But when it became the hub of dot.commercialization and half-million-dollar-plus lofts, its fate changed forever. Today, though dot.coms don’t occupy much of the commercial space, the area is jumping thanks to fancy high-rise residences, AT&T Park (the Giants’ baseball stadium), a bevy of new businesses, restaurants, and nightclubs, and cultural institutions that include the Museum of Modern Art, Yerba Buena Gardens, the Jewish and African Diaspora museums, and Metreon. Though still gritty in some areas, it’s growing more glittery by the year, as big-bucks hotels and residence towers dominate over what’s left of the industrial zone.
MISSION DISTRICT This is another area that was greatly affected by the city’s Internet gold rush. Mexican and Latin American populations make this area home, with their cuisine, traditions, and art creating a vibrant cultural area. Some parts of the neighborhood are still poor and sprinkled with the homeless, gangs, and drug addicts, but young urbanites have also settled here, attracted by its “reasonably” (a relative term) priced rentals and endless oh-so-hot restaurants and bars that stretch from 16th and Valencia streets to 25th and Mission streets. Less adventurous tourists may just want to duck into Mission Dolores (San Francisco’s oldest building), cruise past a few