City of Neighborhoods

Monday morning - early start to the Civic Center area and the Tenderloin. At our last visit,  there was still a tent village for the homeless people, now it's cleaned up, with chess tables, playgrounds, table tennis, etc. Don't ask me where all the homeless and druggies were sent to,,,

The Asian Art Museum (below), the Main Public Library, the Davies Symphony Hall  (further below) and other concert venues as well as administrative buildings are rowing up in the Civic Center area with the City Hall in its center (above, left)

Tenderloin - all tidied up:

Davies Symphony Hall:

Closeby: Hayes Valles, ideal for a stroll with lots of shops, restaurants and bars (though,,, not so much on a Monday morning!

We continued on by streetcar to Castro, one of the first gay neighborhoods in the U.S. and still a center of the LGBTQ+ scene, activities and events.

 

A bus brought us then to the vivid, chaotic Mission District, famous for its superb and many murals and it's Latino population and infrastructure. The name is derived from the Mission San Francisco de Asís, built in 1776 by the Spanish (see photo further below).

 

There are murals everywhere, not just in the famous Balmy Alley (left, above),,,

Mission Street on the left, mission church below. 

Contrast: the probably best architecture in town - and the highest skyscraper, Salesforce Tower - to be found in SoMa, closeby the Transbay Terminal/Salesforce Transit Center. This public transportation hub got a gorgeous rooftop park, "Salesforce Park" a couple of years ago. Such a green oasis!

A 5.4 acre public park, with a walking trail lined with benches, lawns, a children’s play area, and an amphitheater. It is planted with 600 trees and 16,000 plants arranged in 13 different botanical areas.

Salesforce Tower - 360 m/1070 ft. high (the currently highest building in SF), built be César Pelli - below, left. On the right photo another modern highrise, 181 Fremont (245 m), is to be seen in the background:

At Fort Point Brewery at Valencia Street (Mission area) we grabbed a bite to eat at Happy Hour  before we continued home. Another long, interesting day, 15 km easily walked and many more miles on public transport.

Climbing Hills - SF's neighborhoods

Well, the weather wasn't perfect at all for photo-taking today. Not cold, not rainy, but grey! 

We had to move again, from Hotel Julian to an AirBnB closeby Van Ness Street. Walked over and it wasn't too strenuous despite of the steep hills. We deposited our luggage and went out again, through Cow Hollow - busy with young hip people getting their (expansive) brunch on a Sunday - to Lombard Street (below),"the crookedest street in the world", in the Russian Hill neighborhood. Earlier in the year, it would have looked more colorful with flowers, but now, it was rather dull,,,

Streetcars are another attraction here,,, tourists still seem to love it!

On to North Beach, the originally Italian neighborhood of San Francisco. It's called San Francisco's "Little Italy" with still some authentic Italian restaurants and bakeries. It was also the historic center of the Beat Culture and San Francisco's nightlife, especially along Broadway.

Rested a bit on the main square, "Washington Square", a park towered over by Saint Peter and Paul Church (where Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio had their wedding photos taken in 1954). On we went, passing by City Lights Bookstore (above), founded in 1953 by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, a "Literary Landmark". 

Broadway (left) not so much intellectual, though ,,, rather a hub of entertainment of all kinds,,,

Columbus Tower (above), also known as the Sentinel Building, was completed in 1907. The distinctive copper-green Flatiron style structure contrasts with the modern Pyramid closeby, our next stop. The Transamerica Pyramid is a  48-story modernist skyscraper was the tallest building in San Francisco from its completion in 1972 until 2017. Designed by architect  William Pereira it was redesigned and renovated in 2022 by Norman Foster and got an additional exhibition gallery, and an expanded Redwook garden.

Chinatown Autumn Moon Festival next - Grant Street in Chinatown was packed! Vendors, stages, info boothes, people,,,

Contrast below: Japantown in Western Addition (below), one of just three remaining Japan Towns in the US. In the core: the Japan Center East & West Malls and the Kinokuniya Mall – shops, restaurants and - again! - Gashapon machines and a Kiddleton shop -  a Japanese arcade filled with claw machines. Otherwise, not too much has changed since our last visit, but there is construction going on on the main square with the pagoda until 2026. A welcome update!

 

Admired some typical San Franciscan architecture on our way back to the accommodation (below) and passed by the first hotel we had stayed in SF on our first research trip: The Queen Ann Hotel (below, right). We called it a day then, with roasted chicken from Whole Foods nearby and some condiments, feet hurting from "climbing hills" all day!

Take me out to the ball game!

 

We took the bus and historic streetcar (see further below) to Ferry Plaza, where every Saturday a large farmers' market with 100+ vendors takes place in front and on the back of the Ferry Building. Lots of local farmers and producers sell their products then.

First, on our way to the building (in the background), we passed a newly set up impressive statue: Marco Cochrane's 45-ft-tall metal sculpture of a nude woman, "R-Evolution", on Embarcadero Plaza.

Breakfast consisted of fresh baking goods from the market and coffee, enjoyed in the sun, early morning, before we bought some provisions - bread and cheese - for dinner.

 

 

After breakfast and shopping we walked along the waterfront (Embarcadero) with its old piers, which are mostly converted and are differently used, e.g. Pier 27 as the cruiseship harbor:

Pier 39 (below), probably the most touristic and most frequented part of town with all its entertaiment, food, shops etc.

View from Pier 39 towards Fisherman's Wharf with its new Ferris Wheel:

Sea Lions are still there - stretched out leisurely on the planks of Pier 39:

View towards the other direction, Telegraph Hill (center) the Salesforce Center (highest building in SF?) and the Pyramid (more on that tomorrow, right).

The historic Streetcar - F Line - brought us back to the Ferry Building, later by bus to Oracle Stadium in China Basin to watch a baseball game of the local SF Giants : Colorado Rockies. The ballpark is in such a great location, views towards the bay, just gorgeous. The weather was beautiful, the game was good, and, the Giants won!

After the game we walked south, passing the Port of San Francisco, towards Mission Bay, to check out a couple of newly designed parks like the one above, closeby the ballpark. China Basin and (further south) Mission Bay are headquarters to many big companies like Uber, Visa, Open KI and other big tech companies, but there are also modern residential  buildings. Also, the Chase Center (professional basketball, Golden State Warriors) is located here (photo below, right).

It was a beautiful walk along the waterfront to the south! Took the streetcar back to SoMa (South of Market Street) to stop at Yerba Buena Gardens, a cultural park with concert hall, gallery, children's museum, movie theaters, gardens and more.

At one end of the park stands the fantastic SFMOMA, the Museum of Modern Art, in a beutiful building designed by Mario Botta (1995) and expanded by the famous architecture firm Snøhetta in 2016.

Got tired, again: over 10 mi of walking, and had a nightcap at Black Hammer Brewery in SoMa before heading "home". Great IPA, good atmosphere, but really expensive!