San Francisco - Alison Bing [37]
October 17, 1989 The Loma Prieta earthquake hits 6.9 on the Richter scale and a freeway in SF and part of the Bay Bridge collapse in 15 seconds, killing 41. The seismic retrofitting of the bridge would take 20 years to complete.
March 10, 2000 After the NASDAQ index peaks at double its value a year earlier, the dot-com bubble pops and share prices drop. By 2001, San Franciscans can no longer get ice cream and videos ordered online delivered in an hour…pity.
February 12, 2004 Defying California’s same-sex marriage ban, SF mayor Gavin Newsom licenses 4037 same-sex marriages. Courts declare the marriages void, but the civil rights challenge stands.
November 4, 2008 California voters approve Proposition 8. Opponents of the measure included President Obama, Amnesty International, San Francisco Chronicle, Apple, Google and a wide majority of SF voters.
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NEIGHBORHOODS
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ITINERARY BUILDER
HOW TO USE THIS TABLE
EMBARCADERO & THE PIERS
FISHERMAN’S WHARF
BARBARY COAST
DOWNTOWN
FINANCIAL DISTRICT
UNION SQUARE
JACKSON SQUARE
CIVIC CENTER & THE TENDERLOIN
ASIAN ART MUSEUM
CHINATOWN
CHINATOWN RAMBLE
NORTH BEACH
NORTH BEACH BEAT
RUSSIAN & NOB HILLS
STERLING PARK
JAPANTOWN & PACIFIC HEIGHTS
THE MARINA & THE PRESIDIO
THE MARINA & COW HOLLOW
FORT MASON
THE PRESIDIO
FREEWHEELING OVER THE BRIDGE
SOMA
SAN FRANCISCO MUSEUM OF MODERN ART
THE MISSION & POTRERO HILL
MISSION ART TRAMP
THE CASTRO & NOE VALLEY
CASTRO THEATRE
THE HAIGHT
UPPER HAIGHT
LOWER HAIGHT
COLE VALLEY
NOPA & DIVISADERO
WESTERN ADDITION & ALAMO SQUARE
HAIGHT FLASHBACK
HAYES VALLEY
GOLDEN GATE PARK & THE AVENUES
THE RICHMOND
THE SUNSET
GOLDEN GATE PARK
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top picks
Alcatraz
Chinatown alleyways
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
California Academy of Sciences
Ferry Building
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What’s your recommendation? www.lonelyplanet.com/san-francisco
Don’t believe San Francisco’s false modesty on a map. Yes, the city is about the size of California’s thumb and packs in under a million people even in high-tourist season, yet there really is something here for everyone. ‘Eclectic’ doesn’t begin to describe a town where you can begin your day with a leisurely breakfast of huevos rancheros (ranch-style eggs) in the morning Mission sun, picnic on Italian panini among parrots and poets on a North Beach stairway garden, get goose bumps watching the fog roll in from the Pacific on a Presidio nude beach, dine Downtown on wildly inventive cuisine inspired by California’s cornucopia of produce, and end up the next morning still partying at 5am with SoMa clubsters of indeterminate sexual orientation in a universal groove. City streets are ethnic enclaves that are difficult to define and never entirely exclusive: largely Latin American 24th St is also Southeast Asian, lesbian and arty hipster, while Clement St highlights include authentic Irish bars, Taiwanese and Thai restaurants and Japanese convenience stores.
Since the Gold Rush, Embarcadero and the Piers has been the point of entry for new arrivals, and it’s where you’ll enjoy gourmet treats, sea-lion antics, old-school video games and getaways to and from Alcatraz. Your next stop is Downtown for art galleries, swanky hotels, first-run theaters, a mall full of brand names and XXX cinemas. Civic Center and the Tenderloin is quite the urban conundrum: great performances and Asian art treasures on one side, dive bars, soup kitchens and bargain banh mi (Vietnamese sandwiches) on the other. On the main streets of Chinatown, dumplings and rare teas are served under pagoda roofs, but in its historic back alleys there’s temple incense, mah-jong tile clatter and long-ago echoes of revolution. In North Beach wild parrots circle overhead, while the idle chatter in Italian cafes and bohemian bars below runs from soccer to filmmaking over the sound of opera on the jukebox. Russian