San Francisco tips - if youre still searching!
From: Michelle Lee
Date: Wed, May 5, 2010 at 4:28 AM
Subject: San Francisco tips - if youre still searching!
To: Paul Irish
Hey Paul - So I dropped a line to my friends up in SF, and here’s what they had to say about neighborhoods:
(From Nate, he works at Google, lives in Noe Valley I believe):
Awesome. Some thoughts…
- SF is a town dominated by privately owned flats and houses. Craigslist is king…no surprise why it started here.
- When your buddy gets here, he can check out a Google-internal mailing list called “housing-sfo” dedicated to housing options in SF (mainly other Googlers posting vacancies and such)
- Depending on what sort of new hire package he got, your friend may be entitled to a Relocation Agent that takes him on a “Get to know the city” tour and an apartment-finding day. Was a huge help for me!
- Anything is fair game in this market. Places that were once out of reach rent-wise are now at an all-time low. Got a couple friends pickin up and moving into PacHeights and Marina because they found amazing deals.
- PED TRAFFIC (that’s pedestrian, not pedophile): Hayes has lots of foot traffic in the day (especially Hayes Valley Park), Noe Valley on the weekends, as you know, there’s plenty of traffic in the Mission during the day and a really good energy at night, but North Beach in my opinion has the most traffic all the time. At least from my perspective, other SFers please chime in.
Everyone’s got an opinion about SF neighborhood’s. Really depends on what flavor you’re looking for. My favorite walking neighborhood is Noe: good weather, nice shops, eats, okay parking, family-friendly, lots of babies and SAHMs. But not sure if that would appeal to singles. Cow hollow: good for blondes and yuppies. Great weather, good shops, okay eats and bars, LOUSY parking. Hayes Valley: more trendy, like the Mission but for fatter wallets, great eats. Kind of small. Pac Heights: Kinda posh, kinda nice, not much to walk to. Have to go down to the marina for shops, restaurants, bars.
If you want less crowded, I’d say Noe is a nice relaxed neighborhood, and relatively easy to get to on J Church muni line. Pac Height/cow hollow/Marina are easier to get around on Muni, but parking sucks. Hayes Valley is kind of near Civic Center. Outside of the small neighborhood, can be a bit sketchy.
Other neighborhoods he might want to look at if he wants good walking neighborhoods are Inner Sunsetand Inner Richmond. Not so easy to get to by Muni, but lots of foot traffic in both neighborhoods. Gotta love Golden Gate Park. Inner Sunset is probably my fave neighborhood, but weather is foggy in the summer when the rest of the city is sunny. Inner Richmond is another mini-chinatown; has lots of good, cheap food, but crowded. Not as bad as downtown Chinatown. North Beach is really insane, but if you’re young and single…Fred lived there for a few years and it was kinda nice, but it gets old. Mission is also great for walking, but kinda crowded, too.
Hidden gem neighborhoods that have their own mini-walking blocks are Potrero Hill and Bernal Heights. But a bit out of the way. There’s also China Basin, near AT&T Park. Newer development, lots of condos. Haven’t hung out too much down there, but people seem to like it.
Forgot to add Cole Valley: Cute little neighborhood. Better weather than Inner Sunset. Close to the Haight, but away from the crowds.Also like Russian Hill: good weather; up the hill from North Beach. Polk Street (north of Broadway): small stretch of Polk Street that’s pretty hip, at least it was 10 years ago when we were youngish!
From my own trips to SF, my favorite neighborhoods are definitely: Russian Hill, Noe Valley & Sunset - but I’m only ever in town for a couple days at a time. Hope you’re not too stressed out by the move!
Michelle
