the sutro baths were featured in a run of "house of secrets". both in their former glory and their current condition.
Musee Mechanique has moved from near the Baths to the touristy Wharf, where out-of-towners buy creamy clam chowder in sourdough bread bowls, and feed the hordes of fish-stinky sea lions.
There are electric buses everywhere (they run along wires hung over the street), and people use them despite frequent transit worker strikes and breakdowns. Same for the BART trains.
Rents are ASTRONOMICAL, so even young professionals have housemates. Food, on the other hand, isn't that bad - once I went out to a Chinese place (very Chinese - had trouble translating the menu) with four friends and spent $30 for all five of us. Berkeley and Oakland are to SF as Hoboken and Union City are to Manhattan. I'm not sure what the corresponding cities would be in London, but the deal is they're close enough that you can say "I live in San Francisco" to someone from out of town, but it'll take you more than half an hour to actually get across the bay into town.
Paradoxically, it's my impression that places near the Pacific Ocean are more affordable and less "hip" than places inland, closer to the city center. I have a friend with a nice place in Sunrise that would probably cost at least twice as much in the Haight.
The Mission District is run down, being gentrified (constantly) and the best area to get Mexican food.
There are a *lot* of bicyclists. I think the "Critical Mass" thing started in SF - it's certainly the first place I heard of/saw one. (It's an event when a huge number of cyclists congregate and ride together down a set route in the middle of the city, reminding motorists that bicycles use the streets too.)
There are a LOT of hills, and watching fog roll in over the "twin peaks" is fairly dramatic.
If you go north over the Golden Gate Bridge, you'll wind up in Sausalito (think 20-foot sailing yachts, nouvelle cuisine bistros) and then in Muir Woods, one of the most mystically dramatic places on the planet. |
. Are there actually any Barbelithers in SF at all?