San Francisco - Alison Bing [57]
Molinari
Caffe Trieste
* * *
FILBERT STREET STEPS Map
Telegraph Hill Blvd from Sansome St or Washington Sq; 39
Somewhere in the middle of the steep climb up Filbert Street Steps to Coit Tower, you might begin to wonder if it’s worth the trouble. Well, take a breather and look around. Already you’re passing hidden cottages along a wooden boardwalk called Napier Lane, sculpture tucked in among gardens flowering year-round, and sweeping vistas of the Bay Bridge. If you need a few words of encouragement, the wild parrots in the trees have been known to interject a few choice words that your gym instructor would probably get sued for using.
COIT TOWER & TELEGRAPH HILL Map
415-362-0808; Telegraph Hill Blvd; adult/senior & child $3.75/2; 10am-6:30pm; 39
Go ahead and snicker at the wacky hose-shaped concrete projectile that eccentric Ms Lillie Hancock Coit left a third of her considerable fortune to build – everyone does – but the climb here is no joke, the tower’s dedication to firefighters is heartfelt and the views inside the tower will win you over to Lillie’s point of view.
The heiress had some radical ideas (see the boxed text, opposite), and the tower built in her name in 1934 has plenty of its own, as seen in the worker-glorifying WPA murals that line the lobby. For decades after their completion, the murals and the 25 artists who worked on them were denounced as communist. But the red-baiting backfired: for the controversy they ignited as well as the artistic effort involved, San Franciscans embraced the tower and its murals as a beloved city landmark.
After climbing the Greenwich St or Filbert St Steps to get here, the wait for the elevator is well worth it. From the top of the tower, you can take in panoramic views and spot colorful flocks of parrots turning the treetops red and blue.
JACK KEROUAC ALLEY Map
btwn Grant & Columbus Aves; 15, 30, 41
Fans of On the Road and Dharma Bums will appreciate how fitting it is that Kerouac’s namesake alleyway offers a poetic and slightly seedy shortcut between Chinatown and North Beach via favorite Kerouac haunts City Lights Bookstore and Vesuvio – Kerouac took his books, Buddhism and drink to heart.
COLUMBUS TOWER Map
916 Kearny St; 15, 30, 41
Like most SF landmarks worthy of the title, this one has a seriously checkered career. Built by shady political boss Abe Ruef in 1905, the building was finished just in time to be reduced to its steel skeleton in the 1906 earthquake and fire. The new copper cladding was still shiny in 1907 when not-so-honest Abe was convicted of bribing city supervisors, and by the time he emerged bankrupt from San Quentin State Prison, the cupola was already oxidizing green.
Towering artistic aspirations found a home here, too. The Grammy-winning folk group the Kingston Trio bought the tower in the 1960s, and the Grateful Dead recorded in the basement. Since the 1970s it has been owned by Francis Ford Coppola, and film history has been made here by Coppola’s American Zoetrope, The Joy Luck Club director Wayne Wang and Academy Award–winning actor/director Sean Penn.
WASHINGTON SQUARE Map
Columbus Ave & Union St; 15, 30, 41, 45
Wild parrots, tai chi masters, nonagenarian churchgoing nonnas (grandmothers) and Ben Franklin are the company you’ll keep on this lively patch of lawn. The parrots keep their distance in the treetops, but like anyone else in North Beach, they can probably be bribed into friendship with focaccia from Liguria Bakery on the square’s northeast corner.
* * *
TRANSPORTATION: NORTH BEACH
Bus Lines 30 and 45 run up Stockton St from Union Square; buses 15 and 41 run along Columbus Ave.
Cable car The Powell-Mason St line skirts the top of North Beach – get off at Vallejo or Green Sts and walk about three blocks to Columbus Ave.
Parking Street parking is remotely possible, but a waste of time. Try your luck first at the public Good Luck Parking Garage, on Vallejo St between Powell and Stockton Sts.
* * *
The 1897 statue of Ben Franklin is a non sequitur, and the taps below his feet falsely