San Francisco

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The Castro

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May's Coffee Shop

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San Francisco

I've lived in San Francisco since 1986, in the Haight-Ashbury apartment from 1987 or 1988 until 1996, and since then in the Castro. I spent the first one and a half-years of my time on the west coast in three short-lived rentals: the first in San Raphael, the second in Redwood City, and the last in another forgettable neighborhood near the corner of Bush and Gough Streets in SF.

San Francisco postcard

(San Francisco is abbreviated by residents as "ess eff", never as "Frisco". One local paper has been trying to foster a rather transparent upper-crust image by referring to SF as "The City", which sounds as pompus as it reads.)

pride flag SF is a fun place to live. It doesn't have the educated, young flavor that Boston enjoys (what with its tidal wave of college students attending the many institutes of learning that fill and surround it), or the vibrant crush of being the center of the universe that New York City has, but what SF lacks in rich flavor it makes up for with frenetic carryings-on (not to mention better parking than those other two fun places to be). From the Bay to Breakers footrace, where over 100,000 people dress in costume and jog across the city, to the colossal Gay Pride Parade, SF revels in a diversity that's stunning. If memory serves, I believe at last count 118 languages and dialects are used in SF, with the voting materials printed in thirty of them. Each neighborhood is a microcosm of the city at large, with its strange mixings of cultures and cuisines and conversations.

True, some of those cuisines are woefully under-represented, but a lot of them just can't be easily found elsewhere. And there's something about the culture, something that makes people leave their hearts (and tourist money) in San Francisco. From the flower children of Haight Street to the Golden Gate Bridge, SF is a place of legend and song. But it's not a myth. It's a bit of the real San Francisco that I'll try and capture on these pages.

Here are some panoramae of our fair city (the thumbnails are distorted to show you the entire image):

San Francisco from Twin Peaks
San Francisco from Twin Peaks

Golden Gate Bridge panorama
Golden Gate panorama

San Francisco from Sausalito panorama
San Francisco from Sausalito Panorama

San Francisco from Golden Gate Bridge panorama
San Francisco from Golden Gate Bridge panorama, with my wife at right

Here the best thing ever written about what it's like living here.

and here's what this weblet has to offer:

Castro
  The Castro, located in the center of San Francisco, is where we've lived since 1996.
  events
  1998 Gay Pride Parade
  Every summer San Francisco celebrates the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transexual communities. You know how everyone is a little bit Irish on St. Patricks day...?
  1998 Gay Pride Parade: Gallery 1
  1998 Gay Pride Parade: Gallery 2
  1998 Gay Pride Parade: Gallery 3
  1998 Gay Pride Parade: Gallery 4
  1998 Gay Pride Parade: Gallery 5
  1998 Gay Pride Parade: Gallery 6
  1998 Gay Pride Parade: Gallery 7
  1998 Gay Pride Parade: Gallery 8
  1998 Gay Pride Parade: Pink Saturday
  food
  Ma Tante Sumi
  Ma Tante Sumi - my Aunt Sumi - is a neighborhood secret with a loyal clientèle and food deserving of passion.
events
  1996 Olympic Torch Relay
  The Olympic flame passed through San Francisco in 1996. I was there with digital camera in hand.
Golden Gate Bridge
  The Gateway to the Pacific Ocean.
Golden Gate Park
  The favorite patch of green of residents of Baghdad-by-the-Bay.
Haight-Ashbury
  The Haight-Ashbury neighborhood is the home of the flower children, and where I lived for a decade.
  food
  The People's Café
  After For Heaven's Cake gave way to Balazo Tacqueria, this is where I spent a good part of a half-decade; writing, drinking, computing.
kids
  May's Coffee Shop
  Randall Museum
MetroBlogging San Francisco
  MetroBlogging San Francisco
other
  The Great San Francisco Bubble: Life in America's last great progressive cocoon, as conservatives snicker and pule
West Portal
  The West Portal neighborhood is at the, uh, west end of the, uh, portal that was built from the center of town outwards for the underground trolleys.
  food
  Old Krakow
  For my father, a native son of Poland, coming here is the best of both everything: old-world charm and language and new-world careful restauranteering. An authentic adventure.

Have you found errors nontrivial or marginal, factual, analytical and illogical, arithmetical, temporal, or even typographical? Please let me know; drop me email. Thanks!
 

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