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North
Beach |
| A colorful & flavorful valley |
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Montgomery Street and Columbus Avenue
(Looking North)
Wow, look at this view. Columbus is the big street on the left going off
at an angle, that's what we want to look at right now. Don't look at the
pretty hill with the tower. Bad! Bad web visitor! Look at Columbus! Okay.
:) Columbus is the centerline of the North Beach neighborhood. Columbus
runs on a Northwest/Southeast diagonal. North Beach is a valley between
two big mounds; Telegraph Hill with Coit Tower on one side, visible in
the center of this picture, and Russian Hill which is covered up on the
left of this picture by the walls of the building. Columbus Avenue is
a prime nightlife and restaurant area with a rich Italian history. I believe
it's a special zone where you have to get city approval to change the
character of anything away from its Italian heritage, same thing for Chinatown
I think. Anyway, there's a wealth of lounges, great Italian restaurants,
cafes, nightclubs, gelato shops, and a large-ish concert venue called
Bimbo's, all packed thickly in an enjoyable, safe, uppercrust-like area
surrounded by wealthier neighborhoods on the two aforementioned hills.
When you come here, you may notice that it's not a beach at all, it's
about half a mile away from the docks at the shore of the bay. Well, the
secret is, it used to be a beach. You see Telegraph Hill? The waves
used to lap at at beach at the bottom. What happened was the 1906 earthquake.
All the debris from the destroyed city was used as landfill beyond North
Beach to create the yuppie Marina area. Because landfill shakes so much
during an earthquake, that's where all the fires and fallen buildings
were that you saw on the news during the 1989 Loma Prieta 7.1 earthquake,
with people trying to rescue victims and trying to prop up the buildings
with wooden beams. Anyway, at the far end of Columbus Avenue you see a
church, that's where Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio got married, and
in MTV's The Real World where devious Puck and the hot nutty latina
Republican attend church. Let's drive over there next to the church and
look back at ourselves.
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On Columbus Avenue
(Looking SouthEast)
Aha! Here we are, magically transported to the place we were looking at.
See the same church on the left? I think it's called Saints Peter and
Paul church. And see the tall pyramid building in the center? That's the
Transamerica Pyramid, one of the two tallest buildings in SF. I think
it's 60+ floors including the triangular tip which they light up at Christmastime.
In the previous picture we were standing in an office right across the
street from the Pyramid. And you see the building to the right with the
two needle-like spires? That was nicknamed "Tweezer Towers"
by much-beloved long-time San Francisco columnist Herb Caen, may he be
greatly enjoying his afterlife. That building is also in the "Photo
tour of downtown" page. Anyway, obviously I took this picture while
driving, just to show you how much I risk my life to bring you these shots.
:) On the sidewalks you can really see what I mean about the restaurants
and the night life, neon, a happy kind of traffic, a bit of a party energy
especially on Friday and Saturday nights. And by the way, even though
the restaurants can serve you really good food, they're not snooty in
requiring formal manners or fancy dress, it's all very down to earth.
If you love garlic, don't miss the very fun The Stinking Rose restaurant,
where the theme is absolutely most certainly "garlic", in everything,
very strong. The walls are painted with frescoes, they sell whimsical
t-shirts and little bottles of seasoning with names like "Assplosion".
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Down inside North Beach
(Looking South)
I apologize that these following pictures don't look as good as the ones
above, these were taken in 1998 with my trustly little Sony floppy camera,
and the technology wasn't as good as now. I'm not even quite sure I remember
where in North Beach I was, but I may be a block off Columbus. I hope
at least this gives you a feeling for what the residential areas off the
main drag look like. I am *totally* guessing here, but I think that the
trees down the block may be the park in front of the church.
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North Beach shopping street
(Looking East)
This is right off Columbus, if I remember correctly. Still rich with little
individualistic shops offering really good stuff.
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Columbus Avenue, heart of North Beach
(Looking West)
This is Columbus street itself. I know that this shot kinda makes the
area look a bit run-down, but it's an artifact of the smudgy quality of
the camera and how the perspective makes the buildings look jumbled, but
when you're there it actually comes off like an expression of the artistic
history of this area. You can see how the diagonal direction of Columbus
makes for an intersection at an obtuse angle with the cross street.
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