| Page Views: 3,639 Last Visit to San Francisco: May, 2005 | San Francisco: Welcome to my Home Town by mydreamquest - last update: Mar 24, 2006 |
I am a San Franciscan | Sun's Final Word over an SF Summer Evening |
I grew up and went to school in San Francisco so my knowledge and perspective of the city will be different than tourists
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Unlike many who found themselves here, I consider myself to be a true San Franciscan.
I define this as someone whose father or mother was born here and still lives here today.
It amazes me the number people who aren't San Franciscans and claim to be.
Beat poet Ferlinghetti is a perfect example.
Yes he's lived here since 1950, but he was born in Yonkers and grew up in Florida and therefore, his true perceptions of SF are that of a Floridian or a New Yorker.
Although I was born in Tokyo (born of a father in the military), I always considered myself a San Franciscan. For the first 12 years of my life, I was a San Franciscan living in military housing telling everyone that I was a San Franciscan. I'm definitely not a Tokyo-ite or Tokyoian, or Tokyo-yo ...what is it you call a person from Tokyo???
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Today, like most San Franciscans, I've moved out of the city due to outsiders purchasing and overinflating the cost of real estate in this city and have discovered that just 10 miles east, in Oakland, the sun actually comes out more than just "few times a year."
San Francisco seems be like a sink where all the leftover influences of eastern and western thought, past, present,
and future innovations, and imaginations flow into, and from these eclectic seeds sprouts a fascinating subculture of sorts both transient and permanent in nature.
The Golden Gate Bridge is like a symbol, the last chance to make it big before you reach the "end of the world" or the Pacific Ocean.
Historically, California symbolized the last chance in America to purchase land.
It boomed because of the discovery of gold during the mid-1800s and metaphorically symbolizes the last stop one goes to,
to make it big, prior to killing themselves..something all too common with the suicides that happen regularly off of the Golden Gate Bridge.
To tourists, there is a very romantic charm about San Francisco.
Being a resident, it's a difficult city to live in because of the lack of parking, traffic,
and extremely expensive cost of living.
Still there are many great places to explore.
When there is a sunset, such as this one I took yesterday,
May 29, 2005, there are usually 5 or 6 other photographers with their loved ones,
etc. catching such a rare event here off the Marina Green.
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| SF from the Top of the Mark |
|  | Things to do; Bests and Worsts There are many great little neighborhoods where there is great food and drink. Noe Valley, Potrero Hill, the Lower Sunset, and the Richmond District are my favorite places to eat. Pizza is perhaps the best thing to eat. I suggest Pizza Orgasmica on Clement around 8th Ave. Also, North Beach, on Grant Avenue has some great Italian Restaurants. Try to eat in a restaurant that serves Carpaccio (rare beef and capers). The wine is always good wherever you go. Over in Ghiradelli Square are some great places with good views of the bay. McCormick's and Culettos is an excellent place to eat because of it's fancy environment, variety of foods, and flexible costs.
Union and Lombard Street are parallel, Fillmore and Scott Streets intersect them. In this area are a variety of "party bars" known as "the triangle." You pretty much hang out here to dance, get drunk, and have a good time. If you are college or just out of college, this is where you go for drinks every night.
Just to break the monotony, here are some of my bests and worsts of SF:
1. Ugliest Building: The ugly concrete bird poopified Holiday Inn Chinatown Building on Kearney and Clay.
2. Best place to people watch: Golden Gate Park on a Sunday.
3. Most overhyped area: I'd say the run down Haight-Ashbury District. Although it was an amazing place during the summer of love in 1969, now, it's run down, dirty area where drunks, young teen punks stoned on drugs with an unnecessary chip on their shoulders and cliche goth stores.
4. Favorite Record Store: Actually, I like the Tower Records on Bay and Columbus near Fisherman's Wharf/Ghiradhelli Square.
5. Best place to watch a movie: Either the Castro Theatre, the Red Vic in the Haight incidently, or the Kabuki in Japantown. The Bridge Theatre is a great place to watch B-Movies. I'm not sure if it's still there.
6. Best Steak: leave San Francisco and drive to Texas Roadhouse in Union City. It's the best steak in California and it's not a rip off.
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Other Things to do A burrito on any corner restaurant on Valencia Avenue is a must; indoor rock climbing on Harrison Street is very fun for you athletic types; Viewing San Francisco from Twin Peaks (two peaks in the center of the city that look like breasts, about 1000 feet high) offer breathtaking views of San Francisco at any time of the day (as long as it isn't foggy). Van Ness Avenue is where you find the Opera House and Symphony; Chinatown is a great place to eat and shop for souvenoirs. Japan town is fun, but you may notice that it probably should be called "korea town" because of all the korean restaurants in the area. Coit Tower is a fun place to view the city. And if you like hiking, take the ferry to Angel Island. You'll see San Francisco from a different angle and can have a romantic hike and picnic with wine and cheese. My favorite spot is across the bay on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley just next to UC Berkeley, one of the great Universities of the World. I love walking there because I feel smarter being around the greatest minds of all arts of all the world. It's intellectually stimulating being around there. Other Favorites: 1. Best Chinese Bakery: Golden Gate Bakery on Grant. 2. Favorite neighborhood: Lower Sunset next to Golden Gate Park from Irving to Judah and from 7th Ave to 9th Ave. 3. Favorite place to shop: Stonestown over near SF State University or Chestnut Street at around Fillmore. 4. Favorite Jog: Around Lake Merced (about about 4.5 miles). 5. Favorite Park for pick up basketball: Moscone Park. 6. Favorite Pizzeria: Goathill Pizza on Potrero Hill. 7. Favorite Coffee: I like coffee that wakes me up: Peete's Coffee. 8. Most Useful Website on What's Happening around San Francisco: SFGate
9. Another Website that Goes into SF's History Nicely:SF HistorySpecial note:In my research, I discovered the City and County's Department of Health web page. Note in my restaurant tips that I will provide you with a link that contains recent health code violations at the restaurants. What I will say is that when I ate there, I did not come across anything unsanitary; nor did I have stomach problems after dinning there, unless stated in my description. | | | SF from Vista Point, in Marin County late May 2005 |
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| Pros: | "Very good food, culturally diverse, transportation" | | Cons: | "Rude drivers (road rage) , Lack of Parking, Expensive" | | In A Nutshell: | "Where the World Ends and Begins in Constant Change" |
mydreamquest's San Francisco Travel Tips
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 Comments for mydreamquest about San Francisco | | | | |
Andraf Fri Mar 23, 2007 22:08 UTC
Nothing like seeing SF through the eyes of a local. I've lived here six years but I don't introduce myself as San Franciscan. I know I'll always look at the city with the eyes of an outsider. Still, it took me four years to visit Alcatraz :) | la_beba Thu Nov 3, 2005 16:45 UTC
Gotta love Frisco!!!!!! lots of tips, great page Tones! | perseushermes Tue Oct 25, 2005 16:44 UTC
Lombard street. Nice. remembered the stop from the cable car stop. The view from the top of the street was fun too! thanks . | littlesam1 Thu Jul 14, 2005 20:03 UTC
Great page. Perfect reading for my trip to San Francisco the last week of this month. |
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