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Junipero Serra near Ocean Boulevard
(Facing NorthEast)
Merced Manor is an L-shaped area, socioeconomically between the leafy semi-mansions
of nearyby St. Francis Woods, and the hoi-polloi suburbian feel of the Sunset,
but it's not really a part of either, so I call it a neighborhood of its
own.. The green strip at extreme right is the eastern boundary of the neighborhood,
separating these homes from very busy six-lane (but still residential-feeling)
Junipero Serra boulevard. I say it feels residential because it's wide,
tree-lined, and has nice big houses on either side.
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Ocean Avenue near Lagunitas Drive
(Facing North)
In the last picture, we were on the Eastern edge of Merced Manor, looking
towards the East. Now we're at the Southern edge, facing North. On a sunny
day, you can see Sutro Tower and the cross atop I'm up in a small 4-storey
office building. We're on Ocean Boulevard, which is known mostly for going
through modest/poor neighbhorhoods near City College and the freeways. It's
an odd rarity that it ends its run in the four blocks of this semi-ritzy
area. Ocean is area's main drag, lined with cute / quaint / non-chain little
shops and restaurants except for the big Walgreens. The curvy streets lend
an off-the-grid quiet exclusivity to this hidden little enclave. The tree
line you see way at the back of the picture is Sigmund Stern Grove. It's
a large, sudden and deep depression in the ground, with a flat bottom, all
of which we've turned into a park. There's a lake and a stage on the bottom.
You walk or drive down steep lanes or trails down to the flat bottom. You've
heard me talk about Stern Grove as the place where during summers the city
holds free concerts, everything from Hawaiian dancing to the San Francisco
ballet and the Opera hold parties for (estimated) ten thousand people. Get
there pretty early to grab a good spot, bring a sun hat AND sweaters for
our ever-changing weather, you'll probably need them both during the same
concert.
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 Ocean
Avenue At Woodacre
(Facing West)
Facing West, of course, since that's yet another glorious San Francisco
sunset over the horizon. See that 3-storey building at the center of the
image? That's the building from which I took the second picture, the one
immediately above. That picture spans towards the left, so this is what
the area to the right of the building looks like. Don't be fooled by the
empty-looking streets and sidewalks, it's a somehwat busy area especially
traffic-wise at this time of day 5:30 pm. It only looks empty because of
the time-lapse, this picture took 1.5 seconds to expose. You can see more
of the cute little shops I was talking about. Under the big streetlight
near the left edge, you can see the long black awning of Ambrosia, a non-chain
bakery. About two blocks down towards the red sunset, running left to right,
is supremely busy 19th Avenue, a six-lane thoroughfare. But here in this
little enclave if you turned right onto Woodacre, you would find sinous
streets with very nice detached homes as shown in the second picture.
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