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Many San Franciscans name
the Inner Sunset as their
favorite neighborhood,
despite the fact that it
suffers some of the worst
weather in the entire Bay
Area. Located between Golden
Gate Park to the north and
Vicente Street to the south,
from Stanyan Boulevard to
the east and 19th Avenue to
the west, the Inner Sunset
is just three miles from the
Pacific Ocean and smack in
the middle of the fog zone.
Year-round, most mornings
and evenings are foggy, and
some days the sun doesn't
come out at all. Inner
Sunset Overview
So why do locals love it so
much? Because, despite
gentrification, it retains
the laid-back feeling of a
small town -- one that just
happens to have a funky
edge, an intriguing ethnic
mix and great restaurants.
Hang out long enough, and
you'll notice that residents
know each other. They chat
over coffee at the Beanery,
greet each other when they
walk into Art's Cafe and
stop on the street to say
hello, often in a thick
Irish brogue or the clipped
English of a person who grew
up speaking Cantonese.
The history of the Inner
Sunset is reflected in these
accents. Prior to 1887, the
area was comprised entirely
of sand dunes. That year,
developer Aurelius E.
Buckingham built a cluster
of homes around what is now
Lincoln Way and 5th Avenue
and touted his suburb as the
"Sunset District." It's
doubtful that any of the
buyers were fooled by
Buckingham's misleading name
-- most of them were Irish
immigrants who had an
intimate knowledge of fog
and chill. Instead, it is
much more likely that they
were attracted by the price,
which was very reasonable
for San Francisco.
These first residents had to
regularly clear drifts of
sand from the sides of their
houses and off the wooden
walkways that provided the
only access to their
doorsteps. Then, in 1897,
the University of California
laid the cornerstone for
their new medical campus on
the slopes of Mount Sutro.
The school brought more
residents to the
neighborhood -- students who
were involved in the study
of medicine, dentistry and
pharmaceuticals.
Those students subsisted on
the Inner Sunset's low
rental prices, which stayed
relatively low for the
better part of a century and
attracted new waves of
immigrants, mostly from
Asia. Chinese, Korean,
Vietnamese, Japanese and
Pacific Islander families
bought homes, raised their
families and opened
businesses in the Inner
Sunset, giving it more of a
"global village" feel.
In the mid-1980s, about the
same time that dining out
became a chic pastime, Bay
Area real estate prices went
through the roof. Suddenly,
those San Franciscans who
wouldn't have previously
chosen to buy a home in the
Sunset -- or open a trendy
new restaurant there -- did
so. Chains like Starbucks
and Noah's Bagels followed,
and housing prices soared.
Many longtime residents
opposed the changes, while
others welcomed the boom.
Today, the average resident
of the Inner Sunset owns his
or her own home, is married
and is raising a family, and
earns over $50,000 a year.
The neighborhood contains
several excellent primary
and high schools, and young
children are as omnipresent
as UCSF grad students. The
area has gentrified, but not
at the rate or to the extent
of other San Francisco
neighborhoods. Thanks to the
fog -- the one feature that
hasn't changed -- there are
still plenty of mom-and-pop
diners, drug stores, shoe
repair shops and grocery
stores to keep the Inner
Sunset real.
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