San Francisco

INTRODUCTION

One of America’s most beautiful cities (and one whose locals are not afraid to harp on the claim), San Francisco sits poised on the 47-square-mile fingertip of a peninsula at the western edge of America. Indeed, the city has much to gloat about, not least the breathtaking natural beauty that surrounds it – from rugged coastline and tranquil Bay waters to rambling, fog-capped hills and dense, unspoiled woods. Along the steep streets of the city itself rest a cluster of distinct neighborhoods – by turn quaint or hip, lined by rows of preserved Victorian houses or dotted with chic clubs in converted warehouses. Residents like to think of their home as the cultured northern counterpart to sunny Los Angeles, mass entertainment capital of southern California, and to an extent they’re right – this was the place that gave birth to the United Nations and is forever associated in the public consciousness with the Beat literary and gay rights movements. Still, San Francisco is undeniably Californian; after all, this is also the city where blue jeans, mountain biking, and topless waitressing first took off.

From its earliest days as a stop on the Spanish chain of missions, through its explosive expansion during the Gold Rush and right up into the shortlived Internet boom of the 1990s, San Francisco’s turbulent history is relatively short. Named for Saint Francis of Assisi, the kindly monk who harbored society’s outcasts, the city sprang up almost overnight in the late 1840s from a sleepy fishing village named Yerba Buena. The hilly terrain did not daunt the rough-and-ready prospectors who built on it according to a grid pattern that ignored even the steepest inclines; with its whimsical architecture, its vast irrigated park on the site of a former sand dune, and its cliff-hugging resort buildings, the late nineteenth-century city defied the elements and served as much as a playground as an economic center, luring writers, architects, immigrants, and thousands of transient sailors eager to "make it" in the newest, westernmost metropolis. Though earthquakes, fires, droughts, landslides, and other natural disasters have put the city’s very existence to the test, residents have never taken long to rebuild and resettle, refusing to give in to nature’s tantrums. Politically, San Franciscans are known for the same unbreakable character, infusing their city with an activist spirit most evident in the high visibility of once disenfranchised groups, especially Asian-Americans, gays, and people with AIDS.

Many visitors are drawn as much by the city’s nonconformist spirit as its sights – for some, it’s a veritable pilgrimage site. But the most common lure of San Francisco is its easy charm – with inescapably quaint pastel street scenes and blossoming parks offset by a sophisticated selection of international cuisine and world-class clubs, making it the ideal American city in which to linger without a serious agenda. Indeed, despite all its activity, San Francisco remains a small town, where having a car is a liability owing to traffic-jammed streets and a dearth of parking spaces. Provided you don’t mind hills, every major sight in town is a short walk, bike, or bus ride away.

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