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Who names your SF 'hood?
San Francisco is a quilt-like city, each square an individual and unique area sewn together by strips of road and park land. Sometimes understanding the way the city has been divided into districts can be confusing, since there are 10.
San Francisco Association of Realtors, in August of last year, took steps to either make the map more confusing or less confusing, depending on how you look at things. The boundary changes can be viewed more closely if you click on the hyperlink for the source of the map below (once on the site, you can click again to zoom into to area).
New Boundaries, delineated (not a complete list. Full list here, if you click)
* Dividing line between 7b (Pacific Heights) and 7d (Cow Hollow) jogs south for one block at the west end and changes so that both sides of Green are in 7d (Cow Hollow) between Lyon and Divisadero. The boundary between Divisadero and Van Ness remains the same, keeping both sides of Green in 7b (Pacific Heights)
* 9h (South Beach) expands into portions of 9f (SOMA) and 9d (Mission Bay)
* Dividing line between 6b (Hayes Valley) and 8f (Van Ness/Civic Center) moves from Gough to Franklin
* Dividing line between 6c (Lower Pacific Heights) and 8f (Van Ness/Civic Center) moves from Gough to Franklin between Sutter and California
* Dividing line between District 8a (Downtown) and 8j (Tenderloin) moves from Geary to O’Farrell
Newly added "districts," created within existing districts:
* 9G (Yerba Buena), carved out of portions of 9f (SOMA)
* 10M (Candlestick Point), carved out of portions of 10K (Bayview Heights)
* 10N (Little Hollywood), carved out of portions of 10K (Bayview Heights)
Districts, renamed:
* 8b (Financial District) is renamed Financial District/Barbary Coast
* 9j (Central Waterfront) is renamed Central Waterfront/Dogpatch
* 5e (Parnassus/Ashbury Heights) is renamed Cole Valley/Parnassus Heights
* 1d (Lake) is renamed Lake Street (the word "Street" is added)
* 5f (Buena Vista Park) is renamed Buena Vista/Ashbury Heights
Got that, or are you now totally lost? Can't help that when you look inside the districts, you find multiple neighborhoods as well, also constantly being de-and re-named. It's a bit disorienting.
Add to that the more colloquial nomenclature available, for Realtors are not the only folk who name SF neighborhoods. For instance, the writers at Burrito Justice blog came up with this alternative map, called "The Islands" of San Francisco in which the city's many areas are bisected by "canals" in the style of Venice or Amsterdam. (Again, click the hyperlink to view.)
Burrito Justice has new 'hood names too. Here's just one:
BUTCHERTOWN, ISLAIS LANDING: v9: The warehouse/industrial area between 101 and 280 doesn't really have a name but I'm hard pressed to call it Bayview since it's not residential. 80 years ago it was the marshy outlet of Islais Creek, and the adjacent area near 3rd was called Butchertown. So using the powers vested in me by this blog, I hereby declare the area as Islais Landing / Butchertown (because let's face it, Butchertown is too cool a name to waste).
Most residents of the city have their own names for areas too. When we first moved to the city in the late 1990's, we used to call lower to mid-Polk "Tranny and Tweaker-ville." Haight we called "Fake Homeless Street" in honor of perfectly able-bodied youths demanding our spare change and then hurling insulting (in the full vigor of health!) upon denial. The Marina was called "Halter Top Shop" because even on freezing, angry wind swept nights, the women there would insist on skimpy tops.
Burrito Justice readers have similar ideas for their little squares of city. One reader, "Jeff D." suggests "south side of Mission St., 16th-19th Streets, should be called 'Mental Ward,' and the inmates are running the asylum!" Reader "BC" writes "I'm at 26th and Guerrero. We call it The Envy or L'Envy for meaning 'East Noe Valley.' Cool, right:)!?"
Speaking of cool, how about San Francisco's Parthenon instead of India Basin?
So come on, readers, you don't need real estate agents what to call the places you call home! What are your pet names for your pet 'hoods? Only rule is nothing cruel and nothing XXX-rated.
| January 20 2011 at 09:30 AM
Daily commentary on the nation's most diverse and unpredictable real estate market.
By Anna Marie Hibble, Jenny Pisillo, Carolyn Said, Robert Selna, Read Bios
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