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By Root 1110 0

you got some staples at trendy, cheap H&M Click here – everyone loves a sweet deal – but otherwise locals are loath to patronize chain stores. Some people will claim political reasons (support local designers, the economy, fellow workers of the world etc, etc) but the real reason is individualist vanity. Many San Franciscans would rather spend Friday night at home than be caught at a party in the same Gap sweater as three other people. But since most rules are made to be broken in SF, even the most independent-minded fashionistas will sneak down to Union Square and the mall for after-holiday and end-of-summer sales.

Some things are worth splashing out for, especially costumes and local designers – no one wants to miss out on the next local sensation to follow Derek Lam and Peter Som. San Francisco dotes on its homegrown designers, including ADS Hats, Delilah Crown, Upper Playground, Mabel Chong, Loyal Army Clothing, Dema, Claudia Kussano and Sunhee Moon. Residents Apparel Gallery is a collective of local designers cutting out the middleman to give you the best prices, while Mingle, Mission Statement, Ooma, Candystore Collective, Velvet da Vinci and Doe offer a tantalizing range of local and indie designers. See the Shopping chapter Click here for store listings.

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TIMELINE

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June 1776 Captain Juan Bautista de Anza and Father Francisco Palou descend on SF with cattle and settlers. With Ohlone conscripts, they set up a military outpost and build the Misión San Francisco de Asís (now Mission Dolores).

1835 An emissary of President Andrew Jackson makes a formal offer of $500,000 to buy Northern California, but Mexico testily refuses, and tries to sell California as a package deal to England.

1846 The Mexican-American War breaks out, and drags on for two years, with much posturing but little actual bloodshed in California.

1848 Gold is discovered near present-day Placerville by mill employees. Sometime San Francisco newspaper publisher and full-time big mouth Sam Brannan lets word out, and the Gold Rush is on.

1850 With hopes of solid-gold tax revenues, the US hastily dubs California the 31st state.

1851 Gold discovery in Australia leads to cheering in the streets of Melbourne and panic in the streets of San Francisco as the price for California gold plummets. Brawls, arson and phony arrests of Australians ensue.

1861–65 While the US Civil War divides North from South back East, SF perversely profits in the West. Industry is diverted from factories burdened by the war effort, and SF’s rakes and ruffians find honest work.

May 10, 1869 The Golden Spike is nailed in place, completing the first transcontinental railroad linking the West and East Coasts. The event is reported blow-by-blow using San Franciscan David Brooks’ invention, the telegraph, in the world’s first real-time communication.

1873 When a nervous driver declines to test the braking power of Andrew Hallidie’s ‘wire rope railway,’ aka cable car, Hallidie jumps into the driver’s seat and steers the car downhill as crowds cheer.

1882 The US Chinese Exclusion Act suspends new immigration from China. These racially targeted laws stay on the books until 1943, setting the tone for similar measures in Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

April 18, 1906 A massive earthquake levels entire blocks of SF in 47 seconds flat, setting off fires that rage for three days. Survivors start rebuilding while the town is still smoldering, at an astonishing rate of 15 buildings per day.

1910 Angel Island opens as the West Coast immigration station. Over the next 30 years, 175,000 arrivals from Asia are subjected to months or years of interrogation, deprivation, medical examinations and a prisonlike existence.

1914 The Red Light Abatement Act prohibits dancing in the city’s 2800 bars; police arrest female barkeeps, burlesque dancers and prostitutes. Dancehall regulars don’t take kindly to soda-pop and waltzes, so the scene soon retreats to speakeasies.

1915 Scrappy post-quake San Francisco challenges other US cities to win