After finally making it downtown (and by the way, don’t bother taking a car into the city. If you’re hotel is any good, they’ll have a shuttle to the airport where you can pickup the BART.) and I did a LOT of walking. I basically walked the entire downtown area, and was pretty impressed with what I saw:
- Civic Center: City hall has a dome that rises higher than the Capital Rotunda in D.C. Watch out for the drug dealers and crazy hobos on the street though.
- Market Street: This is the main artery of the city. Felt like any major street in NYC, with all the craziness that I would expect. The original Gap is also here!
- Chinatown: Had great dim sum here for $7, and went to this seemingly tiny store that expanded to 3 floors of pan-Chinese goods, including these amazing $6000 wood carved statues of dragons, boats, and godesses.
- Embarcadero: Conceived as some sort of corporate Lincoln Center, this series of towers, featuring the Transamerican Pyramid, has a multilevel shopping mall and one of the best independent film theaters in the Bay Area.
- Coit Tower: Made famous by SimCity 4 (?), this tower rises above the east city atop Prospect Park. I saw my most amazing views here. In this part of the city the roads are so steep that whole sections of road turn into pedestrian steps. I was also very jealous of those who had houses with these amazing views.
- Lombard Street: The world’s most curvaceous street actually is more interesting than you might think. Although it’s a quick tourist spot, it’s definitely worth stopping by for a visit.
I have to admit, San Francisco, or at least the part I saw yesterday, was much more than I expected. I honestly kind of had this vision of huddled masses eating Tofu bars and wearing Doc Martens, with the distinct odor of Patchouli in the air (although I haven’t been to Haight or Berkeley yet). Instead, what I found was a manageable sized city (somewhere between D.C. and Philly), with a vibrant beating heart, and a California Flavor.
I met a lady on the ride back last night who asked what California Flavor meant to me. I told her that I felt like downtown San Francisco was a miniature Manhattan with happier (gayer?) people, and more vibrant colors. New Yorkers look just a bit more scowled, and even in the summer stick to their greyscale and earthtones — but that’s why I love ‘em.
I’ll have to spend some more time travelling around, but I have to say, I could almost imagine myself living here. I looked at rents in the Bay Area and I was pretty surprised at the number of apartments on the Peninsula between $1000 and $1250/mn. But just like NYC, you either live downtown or you don’t. And if you don’t, it’s a pain to get downtown – same reason I don’t get into Manhattan as often as I would like.
Anyways, I’ve decided to see the rest of the city today instead of driving El Camino, so I’m going to get to it.