San Francisco Symphony Hall, War Memorial Opera House, City Hall, United Nations Plaza, the Asian Art Museum. BART, Muni bus, plenty of pedestrian-friendly, walkable blocks. World-renowned restaurants and shopping steps away in Hayes Valley or along Market. If only there was something to do around here…

Van Ness Ave. serves as a natural boundary for many San Francisco neighborhoods, but life along the corridor has its own distinct style. Step a block a two to the west or east and you’ll find yourself in distinctly different neighborhoods. Life on the Van Ness corridor isn’t for those seeking to get away from […]

Not quite as glamorous as the Financial District, not quite as tough as the Tenderloin. Midrise mixed-use buildings dominate in the district that includes tourist-heavy destinations and world-class shopping district Union Square.

Tourists who wander too far afield from the cozy confines of Union Square wonder if they’ve walked into an alternate SF universe. Gentrification is a dirty word in this city, and it hasn’t changed a thing in this gritty neighborhood that is infamous for open-air drug use, prostitution, and crime (some of it major). Single-room […]

The Financial District/Barbary Coast is the beating financial heart of San Francisco — probably the only part of town where “going to work” means putting on a suit. The name is a nod to the present and the past: big banks are now situated where brothels, saloons, and dance halls served the 49ers who flooded […]

The Comstock. Jones St. Drop-dead downtown views. Polk Street. When elegant begins to get a bit denser and estates become co-ops and full-floor penthouse homes, you’ll know you’ve crossed Van Ness and arrived in Nob Hill.

Marilyn Monroe married Joe DiMaggio in the neighborhood. The rest is history. Welcome to a neighborhood as old as San Francisco, with historic Italian roots, fragrant garlic feasts, and plenty of neighborhood haunts frequented by SF movers and martini-shakers. Here’s to you, Herb!

Not quite Telegraph Hill. Definitely not North Beach. Home of Fisherman’s Wharf (although locals don’t discuss this, we just spend the tax revenue). It flies underneath the radar yet is walkable to downtown. Adjacent to all that an Embarcadero rebuilt after Loma Prieta now has to offer.