© McCormack's Guides
Zip Code: 94133, 94108, 94105
Side-by-side
neighborhoods near downtown San Francisco. Many mid size and tall apartment
buildings. Sweeping views of Bay from many apartments; depends on location. www.mccormacks.com
Not too
long ago, it was almost
impossible to say North Beach without adding Italian. Many Italians settled in
the neighborhood; the restaurants, bakeries and delicatessens and shops
strongly reflected Italy.
Click for regional or detailed map
The
Italian presence is still strong but — an old San Francisco story —
it’s being shared by other immigrant groups, mainly Asian. Chinatown is still
favored by the Chinese but many of the descendents of the first and second immigrants
have moved to the suburbs or other parts of San Francisco.
North
Beach’s glittery strip of Broadway, for years the domain of topless clubs, has
taken on a more diverse look. The nightlife is still active but many of the
strip joints are gone, replaced by cafes. No chain stores allowed; that's the
local law.
Kids play
in the streets or in mini parks with basketball courts. Chinese men and women
rise early, gather in groups and, in tai-chi slow-motion ballet, exercise their
bodies. Women walk to morning Mass at Saints Peter and Paul. Men chat at
Washington Square. Fisherman’s Wharf and Pier 39, the little
restaurant-amusement plaza, are part of North Beach. Old St. Mary's Church, in
2005, celebrated its 150th year.
In the
1950s. Freeways were the rage and the state and many local civic leaders
decided that what San Francisco needed was a freeway that connected the Bay
Bridge and the Golden Gate. Residents protested that the freeway would cut off
access to the Bay, ruin Fisherman’s Wharf and the landmark Ferry Building and
mar the beauty of shore vistas. www.mccormacks.com
But their
objections were in vain and work was begun on what came to be called the Embarcadero
Freeway. This infuriated the opponents all the more and they fought the project
through the ballot box, the courts, the bureaucracies and in countless appeals
to public opinion.
And one
day, lo and behold, the state gave up. The freeway, which commuters loved, ran
for about a half mile down the Embarcadero, the shore road, dumped its traffic
onto Broadway, and abruptly ended.
Came 1989
and the earthquake that damaged many freeway access roads and the Embarcadero.
The freeway lovers said, let’s rebuild, the rest of the City said, No Way! And
down came the Embarcadero Freeway, worsening the traffic flow in the downtown
but opening the waterfront completely to the Bay.
There
followed an overhaul of the Ferry Building into an emporium of restaurants and
food stores with a farmers market that became v. popular. The city planted palm
trees and spruced up the sidewalks and turned the Embarcadero into a lovely
promenade that runs from Fisherman’s Wharf to Giants Stadium, south of the Bay
Bridge.
Developers,
noting the vistas, came in with hotels and office and apartment high rises that
set off a boom along the shore. Other forces were at work, foremost Mission
Bay, the bio-tech complex near the stadium. www.mccormacks.com
The
building continues. San Francisco really is rebuilding almost its entire east
shore. The work has been going on fitfully for probably 40 years but has
accelerated in the last 20. The pace varies by neighborhood. North Beach and
Chinatown, long established, are moving slowly. Closer to the shore and south
of the Bay Bridge, the new is much more apparent.
If you are
shopping for housing in the downtown, drive or even walk the neighborhoods. It’s
about two miles from Fisherman’s Wharf to the Giant Stadium. Rents and
apartments and condos will vary widely in price and appointments.
In many
ways, these are great neighborhoods, full of restaurants, interesting people,
bookstores, places to visit. North Beach is where the Beat Generation got its
start. The city has named a street in honor of local bookstore owner and poet,
Lawrence Ferlinghetti.
Parking’s
a problem but you can walk to work. Or ride the buses. The financial and office
sector starts right about Market Street and the Embarcadero.
Muni purchased old buses from other
states and from Italy and routed them from the downtown to Fisherman's Wharf,
traveling the Embarcadero. Nicely done and well received. www.mccormacks.com
Every few
years, a developer surfaces with a plan to demolish the old shore buildings and
erect something grand and touristy. But residents worry, with justification,
that the grand will clog streets with cars and debase the quality of life. The
last developer with big ideas gave up after a few years.
Not free
of crime but not considered a high-crime section. But still, watch your self.
• Big
event of 2007. The arrival of the Queen Mary, the giant ocean liner, 1,131 feet long. To get
under the Golden Gate Bridge, the ship had to wait until the tide was out
(low) and then cleared it by 30 feet. To enter its pier along the Embarcadero, the Queen Mary had to sit in the Bay
for hours until the tide slackened. Then within a few minutes, it glided into place
and the passengers made off for the delights of the City. Thousands lined
Embarcadero to see the ship.
Inevitably,
some argued that San Francisco should improve its docks to welcome more
passenger ships.
• North
Beach and neighboring streets flow over hills that in a few places have housing
that seem to defy gravity. About once or twice a decade, gravity wins and down
tumbles a hillside or some homes. In 2007, because of a slide, seven buildings
with about 120 inhabitants had to be evacuated until repairs were made. www.mccormacks.com
• One Rincon Hill. Under construction in 2007. One of two condo towers to be built just north of the Bay Bridge. One Rincon will top out at 741 feet, one of the highest buildings in the City. Aimed at rich. Tentative: $500,000 for one bedroom, 613 square feet (if it were a square, 25 feet by about 25 feet), $2 million for three bedrooms with great views. Has its fans and detractors, who say it's too tall and too pricey. To win approval, developer kicked in $20 million to subsidize housing elsewhere for poor and middle class.
