South Beach, San Francisco

San Francisco, California, has both major, well-known neighborhoods and districts as well as smaller, specific subsections and developments. While there is considerable fluidity among the sources, one guidebook identifies five major districts, corresponding to the four quadrants plus a south central district. These five broad districts, counterclockwise are: Central/downtown, Richmond, Sunset, Upper Market and beyond (south central) and Bernal Heights/Bayview and beyond (southeast). Within each of these five districts are located major neighborhoods, and again there is considerable fluidity seen in the sources. The San Francisco Planning Department officially identifies 36 neighborhoods. A group of researchers at Theory.org did a study of classified advertising of housing rentals to extract neighborhood names in the vernacular, and identified 40 neighborhood names in common use. Within these 36 official neighborhoods are a large number of minor districts, some of which are historical, and some of which are overlapping.

Alamo Square is a subset of the Western Addition neighborhood. Its boundaries are not well-defined, but are generally considered to be Webster Street on the east, Golden Gate Avenue on the north, Divisadero Street on the west, and Oak Street on the south. It is characterized by Victorian architecture that was left largely untouched by the urban renewal projects in other parts of the Western Addition. On a clear day, the Transamerica Pyramid building and the tops of the Golden Gate Bridge and Bay Bridge can be seen from the park's center. San Francisco's City Hall can be seen directly down Fulton Street. A row of Victorian houses facing the park on Steiner Street, known as the painted ladies, are often shown in the foreground of panoramic pictures of the city's downtown area.

Ashbury Heights is a neighborhood on the hill to the south of the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood.

Balboa Terrace is a small residential neighborhood in southwestern San Francisco bounded by Junipero Serra Boulevard, Monterey Avenue, Aptos Avenue and Ocean Avenue along the southern edge of the exclusive St. Francis Wood development.

The Bayview stretches along Third Street south of Evans Avenue, west of the Hunters Point neighborhood. The neighborhood library was recently renamed the Linda Brooks-Burton Branch Library after a new and larger building was constructed at the same location on Third Street and Revere. Within a block or two of the library are three urban gardens and public art projects, developed entirely by residents, known as the Quesada Gardens Initiative (the Quesada Garden, Bridgeview Garden, and Latona Garden). The Bayview is known for its friendly and diverse residents, warm weather and inviting vistas, community gardens, independent businesses, artists' community, and rich history as an African American and working-class neighborhood. During the 1950s it was largely a Maltese and Italian neighborhood, centered on St. Paul of the Shipwreck Church and the Maltese American Social Club, both on Oakdale Ave. The area is served by the T-Third light rail line, and is home to the Bayview Opera House and City College Evans and Southeast Campus. The area is undergoing rapid development as the City tries to meet the demands of population growth and corporate investors have revalued the relatively large amount of buildable land. Hunters Point Shipyard and Candlestick Park areas are primary centers of development in the neighborhood. Despite its diversity, residents have a long history of coming together to create change and protect neighborhood assets. Bayview Footprints Network is telling a positive story about an often maligned place and maintains the neighborhood' longest-running blog, and the Bay View Newspaper is a respected voice for the underserved. Hunters Point Shipyard, a former Super-Fund site, and a polluting power plant have been focal points for environmental activists. Elders remember when, during the civil rights era, the neighborhood was one of the most highly organized, led by social justice advocates such as Julia Commer, Osceola Washington, Ruth Williams, Rosie Williams and Eloise Westbrook, Essie Webb, Espanola Jackson, Shirley Jones, Alex Pitcher, and many others. Sam Jordan, boxing champion and tavern owner, was the first African American to run for Mayor of San Francisco.

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