San Francisco Voice

People who aren’t from San Francisco arrive here for the first time and they can see a spot of the city which they sometimes call “Downtown”.  This area, located north of the SoMA and adjacent to Chinatown, is where San Francisco’s skyscrapers peak out above the city, creating a portion of the skyline that tourists may see from some of the peak viewing places.  This is San Francisco’s Financial District, the area of the city where the people with important things to do are hustling and bustling about in their suits and ties, making money move and decisions get finalized …read more

Comments Off

I once explored the situation of city and neighborhood nicknames in San Francisco, discovering that it’s okay by locals to hear you say San Francisco, SF or “The City” but not San Fran or “Frisco”.  I also learned through the ensuing online discussion that SoMA is an okay phrase for the South of Market neighborhood, although there was distinct disagreement as to whether it was more locals or more tourists who called it that.  I never really got any answers, but I’m content to call it SoMA myself – and I’m happy to spend my time there.
The SoMA neighborhood is …read more

Comments Off

There are several different areas of San Francisco which you can be referring to if you say that you’re heading up to The Haight.  There’s the residential Haight just outside of the Golden Gate Park area.  There’s the lower Haight which is still residences with some shopping but which also has more local flavor to it than the upper Haight, which is the area you’re likely to be talking about if you’re a tourist.  In other words, if you’re a traveler looking for the Haight, it’s the Haight Ashbury area that you’re going to point your internal GPS system towards.
Haight …read more

1 Comment

One of the most amazing things about San Francisco is that there are so many different neighborhoods located so close to one another, each offering their own unique experience within the larger experience of San Francisco life.  The neighborhoods are defined by their geographic boundaries, but more than this, they are defined by their history and their present, their attractions and their locals-only spots, their cultural make-up and their political offerings.
This post’s San Francisco neighborhood pick: The Mission
I remember before I moved here, when my kid brother was living in San Francisco and first mentioned The Mission to me.  He …read more

3 Comments

The neighborhoods of San Francisco differ greatly from one another.  You can be in the midst of one socio-cultural experience one block and then walk for just a few minutes and find that the entire world around you has changed.  Given the small geographic boundaries which make up the city, this helps to create the wonderfully diverse, open, tolerant that makes up the beautiful attitude of San Francisco life.  There’s lots of good information out there about San Francisco neighborhoods – including where to eat, what historical sites there are and which history makes up the area.  But I’m here …read more

6 Comments

San Francisco is a city which has more diversity between its close-to-each-other neighborhoods than almost any other place in the world.  This comes from a unique combination of changing architecture, cultural diversity, historical influence and modern social trends and is one of the things which really makes the city stand out as different from other places across the United States.  San Fran Voice is happily committed to exploring the ins and outs of different neighborhoods, so keep your eye on the page to learn more about the areas of the city which are most interesting to you!

1 Comment