The Central and Outer Sunset District
The squarish part of the red, farthest from the center of the city.
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On Moraga Park
aka Golden Gate Heights
Near 14th and Lawton
(Looking West)
Picture credit: Steve Lai
Thanks to former High School classmate Steve Lai who contributed this picture,
I can show you the center and outer Sunset from the intoxicating heights
of Moraga Park. That park is the pinnacle of Golden Gate heights,
a subsection of the Sunset. Moraga Park, which I really recommend
for a long, lazy, leisurely picnic has stunning views in every direction,
is located at 14th Avenue and Lawton. First of all the big dirt construction
area in the center of the picture is on 19th Avenue, which is a very busy,
car-crowded major artery for the Sunset. 19th Avenue runs left to
right in this picture. Looking near the horizon, the flat cement
area on the upper left is a water reservoir which is surrounded by a nice
park. Along the very edge of visibility where the sun washes out
the ocean, you might notice a tiny line of trees running left to right;
that is Sunset Boulevard. Sunset Boulevard is the pleasant, tree-lined
park-like, low-traffic version of 19th avenue, a wide thoroughfare taking
up an entire block for its six lanes surrounded by tall trees and bushes.
When I was house-shopping, I found that even though the houses were pretty
identical on both sides, homes on this (the eastern) side of Sunset Boulevard
were considered a better location. I was very surprised by this because
I thought proximity to the ocean would be a huge selling point, but there
you go. In this tour, I will show you both sides. Here, the
ritzy part of the Sunset boasts homes with million-dollar views.
From here on out, the Sunset is laid out like bleachers slanting down towards
the ocean and the setting sun, which is probably how the neighborhood got
its name.
Note: For reference, Sunset boulevard runs between 36th and 37th avenue,
and the picture above is located East of that, around 14th avenue.
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On Taraval Street near 25th Avenue
(Looking East)
We are pretty far from the previous picture, we are in the center of the
Sunset now, but still East of Sunset Boulevard. Taraval is another
commercial street, but if you turn the corner you are in ResidentialLand.
The Sunset is the statistically lowest-crime neighborhood in the area.
What I wanted to show with this picture is how everything blends in
very peacefully and harmoniously. The L Taraval rides on unbtrusive
rails you can barely notice embedded in the asphalt. The barely-visible
brick building on the left, three blocks away, is the Sunset branch of
the public library, and it sits on a one-block public park, you can
see the giant eucalyptus trees rising from it. This park is also
faced by the neighborhood police station, and contains a baseball area
and some basketball courts. Six blocks away, 19th Avenue serves as
a very busy North/South six-lane street. |
On Taraval Street Near 29th Avenue
(Looking West)
Here we see the Outer Sunset in all its glory. These terms, "inner
and outer" are really only for reference, the Sunset as a whole is pretty
similar throughout. The treeline you see going from left to right
about five blocks away is Sunset Boulevard. A very pretty street
that manages to hide its many lanes with shrubbery, trees, and grass mini-meadows
is lined with bike lanes that are recommended for reaching Lake Merced
at the southern edge of the city. Lake Merced is San Francisco's
largest remaining natural lake, and it abuts the San Francisco zoo.
They're hard to read in this picture, but some of the signs on
Taraval show the strong Asian integration in the Sunset. The edge
of the continent is at 48th Avenue, which means the breakers you can barely
glimpse in the mists at the very end of Taraval are 19 blocks away.
The tall mustard-colored building at the corner is highly unusual,
almost everything is two stories around here. That means the
people who snagged the apartment at the top of the building must have a
spectacular view. But, ha! I used to have an even better view.
I will show you! (In a couple of pictures) |
On 29th Avenue near Santiago
(Looking South)
I thought it might be cool to show you what was "around the corner".
You can see the same mustard-colored building again, on the right.
29th Avenue tumbles downhill, southward, for three more blocks until it
washes up against the school building at the bottom. The gentle reader
will recall from the orientation page that, in the avenues, street names
are alphabetical; so looking down 29th avenue, we are standing on Ulloa,
the camera zooms in on the mustard building on Taraval, the car is making
a stop at Ulloa, and the school rests along Vicente street. Behind
the school we can see part of Sigmund Stern Grove, where in summer many
free concerts are held. Hidden behind the Grove is quite a bit -
Sloat Boulevard and the Easternmost "arm" of Lake Merced. What you
can
see above Sigmund Stern Grove, in the misty hills beyond, are the homes
and apartment buildings south of Lake Merced, the San Francisco city limit
and the beginnings of Daly City. |
Near Vicente Street and 43rd Avenue
(Looking West)
Toldya I would show you! This was the view from my former beloved
apartment, only five blocks away from the ocean! Vicente
and 43rd is the closest intersection, you can see it on the left side of
the picture. The rectangular San Francisco blocks are short in the
East/West direction. I took this picture from the roof of my old
place, I used to live on the top floor of this four-story modern apartment
building. Vicente Street is on your left, seeming to crash headlong
into the beach at the middle left of the picture. By now, this close
to the beach, we are in a fairly flat part of the Sunset, and things have
a wonderfuly casual beach town feel to them. Wide, silent sunny streets
where only the wind and the soothing waves are heard. It's hard to believe
we are in a busy metropolis so desirable that other cities have grown up
around it for dozens of miles. You're likely to see, on occasion,
a car with a surfboard on top rolling down Vicente towards the beach, its
driver
most probably beginning to smile at the anticipation with the waves in
sight. At the very end of Vicente you can barely make out a sand
berm with sea grass growing all over it. This berm extends all the
way along Ocean Beach. There is a bike / jogging path atop this berm,
and if you walk along the sandy edge on a summer night you are likely to
see one or two bonfires as people have beach parties at the ocean's edge.
What a great place this is! |
At 28th Avenue and Rivera Street
(Looking North)
What's interesting to me about this picture is the wide expanses of clean
street and blue sky. That is why I chose it out of the dozens of
pictures I took. Most of the picture is wide with freedom and openness,
and that's the feeling that I, at least, get when I go for a walk in the
Sunset. I love the ocean breezes, the wide skies, and the sunny and
quiet streets. This picture also gives you a good feel for what a
typical Sunset block looks like, a nice orderly jumble of somewhat similar
houses that still manage to display individuality in their coloring and
style. They're similar, really, only in that they are all two-storey
and that they want to display details reminiscent of San Francisco's classic
Victorian houses. |
At 29th Avenue and Rivera Street
(Looking West)
Looking to the west in many places in the Sunset will yield a peace-inducing
view of the endless ocean. Notice how this block is subtly more upscale
than the above picture, though it's only one block away. The houses
here have a more massive and substantial look to them. The Sunset
has the highest rate of home ownership (as opposed to rentals) of any neighborhood
in San Francisco. This probably contributes to the relative stability
of the area. It's estimated that about 50% of the homes in the Sunset
have converted their garage to what's called an "in-law"
apartment, which may or may not be legal and up to code. It looks
just like a normal apartment once you're inside the in-law, except you
have to go through the garage. This is a popular rental option for
students of nearby San Francisco State University. My neighbor told
me the charming story of how these in-laws came to be. During WWII,
when the whole country was pulling together, many home owners decided to
build an apartment in part of their garage to that any seaman on leave
in San Francisco would have a place to stay for free, no questions asked.
If you were a fighting boy protecting our country, you had a clean bed
and a place to stay.
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On 28th Avenue near Rivera Street
(Looking North)
Along with all the big views, I also wanted to give you a "close up" picture
that gave you a "you are there" feeling. This, folks, is what 95%
of the Sunset looks like; nice middle-class housing built between the 20s
and the 50s. Still, there are variations with some houses being more
massive and finely built, some (like these) a bit less so but still proud
and pretty. What I also wanted to show you is how San Francisco's
colorful personality still shows in the varied pastel colors chosen for
its houses. The Sunset used to be sand dunes (yes, everything), so
much so that on my neighbor's hallway hangs a newspaper cartoon from the
'30s showing a desert caravan and bedouins with camels in the Sunset.
The neighborhood got built up after WWII, when all the men coming home
and their new families raised the demand for housing. Almost all
of the Sunset is two-storey houses just like this, with varying degrees
of care devoted to decoration and upkeep. The astute reader will
realize that this is a close-up of the houses from two pictures ago. |
On Vicente Street near 16th Avenue
(Looking west)
And that, my friends, is why we call it the Sunset district.
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