San Francisco

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Quote

"San Francisco is 49 square miles surrounded by reality." -- Paul Kantner of Jefferson Starship

"May you live in interesting times." — Chinese curse

Appearance

"No city invites the heart to come to life as San Francisco does. Arrival in San Francisco is an experience in living." -- William Saroyan, Armenian-American novelist

City Device

Climate

San Francisco has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen Csb) characteristic of California's coast, with moist mild winters and dry summers. San Francisco's weather is strongly influenced by the cool currents of the Pacific Ocean on the west side of the city, and the water of San Francisco Bay to the north and east. This moderates temperature swings and produces a remarkably mild year-round climate with little seasonal temperature variation.

Fog is a regular feature of San Francisco summers. Among major U.S. cities, San Francisco has the coolest daily mean, maximum, and minimum temperatures for June, July, and August. During the summer, rising hot air in California's interior valleys creates a low pressure area that draws winds from the North Pacific High through the Golden Gate, which creates the city's characteristic cool winds and fog. The fog is less pronounced in eastern neighborhoods and during the late summer and early fall. As a result, the year's warmest month, on average, is September, and on average, October is warmer than July, especially in daytime.

Because of its sharp topography and maritime influences, San Francisco exhibits a multitude of distinct microclimates. The high hills in the geographic center of the city are responsible for a 20% variance in annual rainfall between different parts of the city. They also protect neighborhoods directly to their east from the foggy and sometimes very cold and windy conditions experienced in the Sunset District; for those who live on the eastern side of the city, San Francisco is sunnier, with an average of 260 clear days, and only 105 cloudy days per year.

Temperatures reach or exceed 80 °F (27 °C) on an average of only 21 and 23 days a year at downtown and San Francisco International Airport (SFO), respectively.[96] The dry period of May to October is mild to warm, with the normal monthly mean temperature peaking in September at 62.7 °F (17.1 °C). The rainy period of November to April is slightly cooler, with the normal monthly mean temperature reaching its lowest in January at 51.3 °F (10.7 °C). On average, there are 73 rainy days a year, and annual precipitation averages 23.65 inches (601 mm). Variation in precipitation from year to year is high. Above average rain years are often associated with warm El Niño conditions in the Pacific while dry years often occur in cold water La Niña periods. In 2013 (a "La Niña" year), a record low 5.59 in (142 mm) of rainfall was recorded at downtown San Francisco, where records have been kept since 1849. Snowfall in the city is very rare, with only 10 measurable accumulations recorded since 1852, most recently in 1976 when up to 5 inches (130 mm) fell on Twin Peaks.

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Geography

Whoever after due and proper warning shall be heard to utter the abominable word "Frisco",
which has no linguistic or other warrant, shall be deemed guilty of High Misdemeanour, and
shall pay into the Imperial Treasury as penalty the sum of twenty-five dollars. -- Emperor Norton

San Francisco is located on the West Coast of the United States at the north end of the San Francisco Peninsula and includes significant stretches of the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay within its boundaries. Several picturesque islands—Alcatraz, Treasure Island and the adjacent Yerba Buena Island, and small portions of Alameda Island, Red Rock Island, and Angel Island—are part of the city. Also included are the uninhabited Farallon Islands, 27 miles (43 km) offshore in the Pacific Ocean. The mainland within the city limits roughly forms a "seven-by-seven-mile square", a common local colloquialism referring to the city's shape, though its total area, including water, is nearly 232 square miles (600 km2).

There are more than 50 hills within the city limits. Some neighborhoods are named after the hill on which they are situated, including Nob Hill, Potrero Hill, and Russian Hill. Near the geographic center of the city, southwest of the downtown area, are a series of less densely populated hills. Twin Peaks, a pair of hills forming one of the city's highest points, forms an overlook spot. San Francisco's tallest hill, Mount Davidson, is 928 feet (283 m) high and is capped with a 103-foot (31 m) tall cross built in 1934. Dominating this area is Sutro Tower, a large red and white radio and television transmission tower.

The nearby San Andreas and Hayward Faults are responsible for much earthquake activity, although neither physically passes through the city itself. The San Andreas Fault caused the earthquakes in 1906 and 1989. Minor earthquakes occur on a regular basis. The threat of major earthquakes plays a large role in the city's infrastructure development. The city constructed an auxiliary water supply system and has repeatedly upgraded its building codes, requiring retrofits for older buildings and higher engineering standards for new construction. However, there are still thousands of smaller buildings that remain vulnerable to quake damage. USGS has released the California earthquake forecast which models earthquake occurrence in California.

San Francisco's shoreline has grown beyond its natural limits. Entire neighborhoods such as the Marina, Mission Bay, and Hunters Point, as well as large sections of the Embarcadero, sit on areas of landfill. Treasure Island was constructed from material dredged from the bay as well as material resulting from the excavation of the Yerba Buena Tunnel through Yerba Buena Island during the construction of the Bay Bridge. Such land tends to be unstable during earthquakes. The resulting soil liquefaction causes extensive damage to property built upon it, as was evidenced in the Marina district during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Most of the city's natural watercourses, such as Islais Creek and Mission Creek, have been culverted and built over, although the Public Utilities Commission is studying proposals to daylight or restore some creeks.

Neighborhoods

The historic center of San Francisco is the northeast quadrant of the city anchored by Market Street and the waterfront. It is here that the Financial District is centered, with Union Square, the principal shopping and hotel district, and the Tenderloin nearby. Cable cars carry riders up steep inclines to the summit of Nob Hill, once the home of the city's business tycoons, and down to the waterfront tourist attractions of Fisherman's Wharf, and Pier 39, where many restaurants feature Dungeness crab from a still-active fishing industry. Also in this quadrant are Russian Hill, a residential neighborhood with the famously crooked Lombard Street; North Beach, the city's Little Italy and the former center of the Beat Generation; and Telegraph Hill, which features Coit Tower. Abutting Russian Hill and North Beach is San Francisco's Chinatown, the oldest Chinatown in North America.[88][89][90][91] The South of Market, which was once San Francisco's industrial core, has seen significant redevelopment following the construction of Oracle Park and an infusion of startup companies. New skyscrapers, live-work lofts, and condominiums dot the area. Further development is taking place just to the south in Mission Bay area, a former railroad yard, which now has a second campus of the University of California, San Francisco and Chase Center, which opened in 2019 as the new home of the Golden State Warriors.

West of downtown, across Van Ness Avenue, lies the large Western Addition neighborhood, which became established with a large African American population after World War II. The Western Addition is usually divided into smaller neighborhoods including Hayes Valley, the Fillmore, and Japantown, which was once the largest Japantown in North America but suffered when its Japanese American residents were forcibly removed and interned during World War II. The Western Addition survived the 1906 earthquake with its Victorians largely intact, including the famous "Painted Ladies", standing alongside Alamo Square. To the south, near the geographic center of the city is Haight-Ashbury, famously associated with 1960s hippie culture. The Haight is now home to some expensive boutiques and a few controversial chain stores, although it still retains some bohemian character.

North of the Western Addition is Pacific Heights, an affluent neighborhood that features the homes built by wealthy San Franciscans in the wake of the 1906 earthquake. Directly north of Pacific Heights facing the waterfront is the Marina, a neighborhood popular with young professionals that was largely built on reclaimed land from the Bay.

In the south-east quadrant of the city is the Mission District—populated in the 19th century by Californios and working-class immigrants from Germany, Ireland, Italy, and Scandinavia. In the 1910s, a wave of Central American immigrants settled in the Mission and, in the 1950s, immigrants from Mexico began to predominate. In recent years, gentrification has changed the demographics of parts of the Mission from Latino, to twenty-something professionals. Noe Valley to the southwest and Bernal Heights to the south are both increasingly popular among young families with children. East of the Mission is the Potrero Hill neighborhood, a mostly residential neighborhood that features sweeping views of downtown San Francisco. West of the Mission, the area historically known as Eureka Valley, now popularly called the Castro, was once a working-class Scandinavian and Irish area. It has become North America's first gay village, and is now the center of gay life in the city. Located near the city's southern border, the Excelsior District is one of the most ethnically diverse neighborhoods in San Francisco. The predominantly African American Bayview-Hunters Point in the far southeast corner of the city is one of the poorest neighborhoods and suffers from a high rate of crime, though the area has been the focus of several revitalizing and controversial urban renewal projects.

The construction of the Twin Peaks Tunnel in 1918 connected southwest neighborhoods to downtown via streetcar, hastening the development of West Portal, and nearby affluent Forest Hill and St. Francis Wood. Further west, stretching all the way to the Pacific Ocean and north to Golden Gate Park lies the vast Sunset District, a large middle class area with a predominantly Asian population.[98] The northwestern quadrant of the city contains the Richmond, also a mostly middle-class neighborhood north of Golden Gate Park, home to immigrants from other parts of Asia as well as many Russian and Ukrainian immigrants. Together, these areas are known as The Avenues. These two districts are each sometimes further divided into two regions: the Outer Richmond and Outer Sunset can refer to the more western portions of their respective district and the Inner Richmond and Inner Sunset can refer to the more eastern portions.

Many piers remained derelict for years until the demolition of the Embarcadero Freeway reopened the downtown waterfront, allowing for redevelopment. The centerpiece of the port, the Ferry Building, while still receiving commuter ferry traffic, has been restored and redeveloped as a gourmet marketplace.

Downtown

Downtown San Francisco is the eastern part of the city, mostly north of Market Street, extending to Fisherman's Wharf in the north and as far west as Van Ness Avenue. It includes such landmarks as Nob Hill, Telegraph Hill, Russian Hill, Chinatown, North Beach, and Union Square. Nearly this entire area was destroyed by the fire following the 1906 earthquake. Rebuilt over the next couple of decades, it enjoys a rare architectural consistency. Neo-classical styled row buildings of three and four stories line most streets, replacing the redwood Victorians claimed by the flames.

Most areas are crowded with residents and visitors day and night. Traffic is congested, a condition exacerbated by the steep hills. Parking is difficult, if not impossible, with most street parking banned during rush hour periods and parking structures charging outrageously hourly prices. Fortunately for residents, there are many shops, markets, and restaurants to serve them, making ownership of a car mostly unnecessary. The weather is almost always fit for walking and scenic views abound. Buses run frequently and reliably, and taxis are available everywhere. Stretched limos, usually white, prowl the streets in search of tourists willing to pay the hefty hourly rates to be shuttled around the city in luxury. And, of course, there are the famous cable cars.

Main Thoroughfares=

Market Street is the city's main street. Beginning across from the Embarcadero and the Ferry Building, it cuts diagonally across town, eventually turning and twisting its way up Twin Peaks. Clogged with cars and buses, it is several lanes wide. As it cuts across streets on an odd angle, and has limited left turns, it is often difficult for a driver to find a way across Market when trying to get from one side of the city to the other. Market Street is a major shopping avenue featuring places like Nordstrom's and the Emporium. A number of fine hotels are also located along here. Women's sho stores seem particularly abundant.

Southwest of Powell and Fifth Streets, the neighborhoods begin to undergo a quick change. Upscale stores are replaced by bargain clothing outlets and adult theaters as one enters the area known as the Tenderloin. Street people are more abundant and drugs more commonly for sale on the street. Market continues to serve as a commercial strip until it begins to rise into the mountains.

Van Ness is a six-lane, divided street that marks the early limits of the city. It bustles with traffic and is lined by auto dealers (including Ferrari), appliance outlets, furniture stores, and restaurants like the Hard Rock Cafe.

Chinatown

One of the city's most famous landmarks, Chinatown is a tourist attraction and world unto itself. Narrow Grant street is home to the Chinatown familiar to tourists. Beginning at Bush, it is entered by Foo Dog-guarded gates. The commercial shopping district found here continues north for several blocks. Strung with overhead lanterns and banners, the street is lined with innumerable restaurants, chintzy souvenir shops, overcrowded gift stores, and countless live seafood stores, more authentic tea markets, and Asian bakeries. The small alleys and cul-de-sacs of Chinatown house near-infinite restaurants, goldfish stores, and secreted Buddhist shrines.

A short stretch of Stockton also runs above the tunnel. Little used and comparatively remote from the rest of the city, it is the site of the expensive Carlton-Ritz Hotel, opened just a few years ago. Of stunning classical design, it was formerly a college. Since it is located away from tourists and downtown, it has become a favorite with shy celebrities and foreign diplomats wishing to avoid publicity. The hotel features a white Rolls-Royce courtesy car and motorcades of policemen are frequently seen lining up in the horseshoe driveway.

The Chinatown of the 19th century was a well-known haven of opium smugglers, Chinese slavers, and prostitution. Chinese gangsters, hatchet men, and highbinders stalked the streets, fighting in vicious tong wars with axes and revolvers. Even then, though, it had a reputation as a "must-see" for the daring tourist.

Vicious Asian gangs roam Chinatown, many probably spawned in the foreboding Chinese housing project on the south side of Pacific between Stockton and Grant. Rarely interfering with tourists or anyone outside the Chinese community, these gangs prefer to extort she owners for protection money, and war with each other over drugs and other illegal trade. The 1970's massacre at the Golden Dragon restaurant, where several patrons were killed and many more wounded, was an exception. In the midst of a war over the illegal fireworks trade and mistakenly believing that members of a rival gang were attending the restaurant, the gunmen entered and opened fire indiscriminately. Although denied by some, these gangs are the direct descendent of the vicious tongs of earlier days and closely watched by the police. Civic Center Plaza

The center of the city's government, this area contains the opulent Beaux Art-styled domed City Hall, the Opera House, Davies Symphony Hall, the Main Public Library, and other facilities. Part of a larger design never completed, most of the buildings were constructed just prior to World War I, replacing the buildings destroyed by the earthquake and fire. A farmer's market operates here on Saturdays and Wednesdays and the plaza is busy most days with business people, shoppers, bureaucrats, protesters, and the ever-present homeless. Bordered on the north by the Tenderloin and on the west by a span of depressed housing projects, the sunny plaza and its benches are a magnet for the unemployed and unoccupied. To the east is the United Nations plaza dominated by the Federal building, an unpleasant-looking 1950s high-rise housing the FBI, IRS, and other institutions.

In the late 80s and early 90s, with the rise of the homeless, the broad plaza became a campsite for hundreds. After more than two years and any number of complaints, many from the tuxedoed and evening-gowned opera and symphony crowds, several additional shelters were opened by the city and the homeless driven out in 1990. By day they are everywhere, but at night are forced to leave the area.

Embarcadero

Embarcadero is the name of the main street running along the eastern edge of the city, but also refers to the general waterfront area. A double-decked freeway formerly ran down the center of the Embarcadero, spoiling views of the bay and Ferry Building but, damaged by the 1989 quake, it was torn down.

For more than a century the wharves were the bustling center of San Francisco’s economy, visited by whalers and traders, shipping out gold and bringing supplies in. It is now a quiet, nearly desolate place, the long wharves unpopulated, their warehouses for the most part empty. A few salvage and diving companies operate out of here but the commercial shipping trade died years ago, moving over to Oakland’s containerized facilities across the bay. A few wharves not completely abandoned now house private pleasure craft and an occasional surprise like Greenpeace’s Rainbow Warrior, hidden away at a dock just south of the Bay Bridge.

Fisherman's Wharf

San Francisco’s number one tourist attraction is Fisherman’s Wharf. Running along the north shore of the city for more than a half-mile, from Pier 39 to Aquatic Park, it is a crowded place busy nearly any time of the day or evening, year-round. Actual fishing activity in and out of the area is far less than it once was, though charter boats are available for the sport fisherman. Fresh seafood markets abound, as do restaurants and stalls serving clam chowder and shrimp cocktails eaten on the street. Street artists and entertainers are everywhere, singing, dancing, playing guitars.

Most of the main promenade is given over to the tourist attractions like Ripley’s and the Guiness Records Museum, boutiques, restaurants, and nightclubs. The old cannery buildings have been remodeled into open air shopping malls. Pier 39 is the most famous attraction on the wharf and now features a dock invaded and completely taken over by native sea lions. Forbidden by law to harm or drive the protected creatures off, owners of the pier have instead moved the boats out and installed special floats for the creatures to bask upon, creating one more tourist attraction.

A number of ferry lines operate off of the wharf, offering trips to Alcatraz, Angel Island, Sausalito, Tiburon, and Vallejo, as well as tours of the bay. Helicopters can also be chartered. The piers east of 39 house a number of cruise ships that make trips up and down the West Coast. A World War II vintage submarine is docked in the area and available for tours while the Hyde Street pier features several authentic early sailing vessels and steamships.

Ghirardelli Square is nearby. A shopping area, it is also home to San Francisco’s famous Ghirardelli chocolate. Aquatic Park, at the foot of the square, is an old facility. Few bathers dare the cold waters; it’s mostly used by sunbathers sprawling on the broad concrete steps above the narrow beach. The curving public pier shelters the water from the waves and currents of the bay. The National Maritime Museum stands at the foot of the park.

Financial District

Despite the growth of cities like Los Angeles, San Diego, Portland, and Seattle, San Francisco remains the financial center of the West Coast and the home of the Pacific Stock Exchange. Although there are taller skyscrapers on the coast, San Francisco's sixty-odd story Bank of America Tower and the unique pyramid-shaped TransAmerica Building are among the best known and most widely recognized. The city's no distinctive skyline is a recent development. It was long a city of low-rise buildings; the few multi-story hotels and business offices were formerly congregated around Powell and Sutter, and atop Nob Hill. Rampant development began in the 1970s, first with the erection of the Bank of America building in the city (and only a few feet higher than the hulking BoA tower) is the distinctive TransAmerica pyramid at 855 feet. Nearby stand the four massive Embarcadero towers lined up in a march down to the bay. Filled with multi-floored shopping plazas in the lower levels, they end at the sunny plaza of Vallencourt Fountain which overlooks the water and is usually busy with skateboarders.

The Financial District occupies the land at the eastern foot of Nob Hill, on ground that used to be part of the bay. Formerly Yerba Buena Cove, this area was steadily filled in over the years as streets ended in wharves extending out into the bay. Beneath the foundations of San Francisco's skyscrapers lie the remains of fires, earthquakes, and more than a hundred wooden sailing ships that one lay derelict in the harbor when crews deserted for work in the gold mines. Busy by day with bankers, stockbrokers, and others, the area seems dead after dark and on weekends. Jackson Square

This historic area lies just north of the Financial District, in the shadow of the TransAmerica Pyramid and the Embarcadero Center, squeezed in between the waterfront, North Beach, and Chinatown. Once the infamous Barbary Coast, it is now one of the quietest parts of downtown. Surprisingly, while the rest of the city burned during the 1906 fire, the Barbary Coast remained relatively untouched. Many of the area's buildings are mid-to-late 19th century brick low-rises, former warehouses, and distilleries. Once the sites of some of the most infamous dives and brothels in America, they are now home to antique shops, graphic design firms, and the occasional attorney's office. At the northern end of the district lies Levi Plaza, headquarters of the famous jeans manufacturers. Any number of buildings in the area are of "unreinforced masonry," a fact noted on warning plaques affixed to such structures following the 1989 earthquake.

The immediate area has long been a hotbed of literary and intellectual figures. California's first magazine, The Golden Era, was published out of offices on Montgomery Street near Jackson in the 1850s and helped launch the careers of Bret Harte and Samuel Clemens (also known as Mark Twain). Oscar Wilde paid a visit to neighborhood artist Jules Tavernier in 1882; later, John Steinbeck and William Saroyan used to spend nights drinking in the now-vanished Black Cat Cafe. The Marxist artist, Diego Rivera, dwelled here in the 1930s. The particular block now occupied by the TransAmerica Pyramid once held a small office building populated by writers, artists, and political radicals. Twain, Harte, Ambrose Bierce, and Joaquin Miller were all frequent visitors to its first floor bar and restaurant. George Sterling and Maynard Dixon visited years later and Sun-Yat-Sen, publishing his newspaper, Young China, from a second-floor office, plotted the overthrow of the Manchu Dynasty.

Nob Hill

Long known as the haunt of San Francisco's millionaires, the outrageous mansions raised by railroad barons and silver bosses that once stood atop this 338-foot high rock were long ago destroyed by the fire following the 1906 earthquake. Only the brownstone Flood mansion remains intact on the corner of California and Mason; it currently serves as headquarters for the exclusive Pacific Union Club. The Hopkins, Stanford, Crocker, and other mansions were all lost, leaving only a few deserted ruins as a lonely reminder of their past glory. Opulent hotels now grace the hilltop: the Mark Hopkins, Stanford Court, and the world-famous Fairmont Hotel. Nearby Huntington Square is a small green with a fountain and benches, frequented most often by young, upscale residents of the town houses on quiet Sacramento and Clay Streets. Next door to the square stands the imposing structure of Grace Episcopal Cathedral, a smaller version of Notre Dame in Paris. Directly across the street is the equally massive Masonic Temple.

Lower Nob Hill is the neighborhood south of California, spread across the broad southern face of the hill, roughly situated between Stockton and Polk Streets and extending as far south as Geary and the Theatre District. This is a residential neighborhood filled with neoclassical row apartment buildings three, four, five, or more stories in height surrounded by numerous markets, cleaners, delis, and diners.

Hidden in among the endless row apartments are a dozen or more longstanding private clubs. The most notorious is perhaps the Bohemian Club found at Post and Taylor. Organized in the late 1800s by artists and newspapermen, it soon evolved into a businessman's club with an arty slant. Former members include Ambrose Bierce and Jack London.

The San Francisco Academy of Arts also occupies quite a number of buildings in the area, its main headquarters on Powell between Bush and Sutter. This, along with the always active Theatre District nearby, lends a bohemian slant to much of the lower hill.

North Beach

North Beach is a favorite area with young, upscale singles. Occupying the lowlands between Telegraph Hill and Russian Hill, and bordered on the south by Chinatown, North Beach is a brightly lit and active nighttime area.

North Beach was long the city's Italian enclave. Though still populated by many older Italians, and sporting any number of Italian restaurants big and small, the area has undergone many changes in recent decades. Famous in the fifties as the stomping grounds of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, famous "beat" clubs like the Purple Onion and the Hungry i still standoff the north side of Broadway across the street from the City Lights bookstore. Next door to them are North Beach's contribution to the early 1960s: America's first topless bars.

North around the corner, narrow Grant Street is filled with crowds patronizing the restaurants, pizza parlors, and the three blues clubs found along this stretch: the Saloon (the city's oldest bar), the Last Chance Saloon, and Grant Green at the end of the block. All feature one or two bands a night, seven nights a week.

Washington Square Park is a flat green, by day a place for art shows, lunch, and old Italians sitting on benches, by night a place troubled by drug dealers and other criminals. The Church of Sts. Peter and Paul, known for its twin spires, faces south onto the park.

South of Market Area

Known as the SoMa, it is that area south of Market Street composed of streets running at an angle to the normal north-south axis of the city’s plan. Like most of the area immediately south of Market, it is smooth flatlands, populated by banks and businesses near the waterfront with more and more hotels and shipping areas as one moves inland. Upscale near Market, the neighborhood quickly deteriorates as one travels past Howard and Mission. Off Market, the area is a mixed bag of old, sleazy city populated by junkies and muggers, and upscale, high-rise condo developments with doormen and secure parking facilities. Restaurants and nightspots proliferate in some spots while other streets display bleak panoramas of abandoned warehouses. Some of these older buildings have seen renovation and are now rent out as “artist’s lofts.” The struggle between reclamation and decay seems as of yet undecided.

Second Street near Market has lately become the headquarters for many electronic development firms, earning it the nickname “Multimedia Gulch.” It is near the foot of what is left of Rincon Hill, now leveled to serve as the foundation of the Bay Bridge’s main pier. A number if condos and townhouses have been lately erected along the waterfront in this area, replacing the old, disused warehouses and light industry that used to stand here.

Located on Fifth near Mission is the pillared San Francisco Mint. No longer operative, it is open for tours. Farther down Fifth are the offices of the San Francisco Chronicle.

The Transbay Terminal is located at First and Mission, a depot for buses from Oakland, Marin, and San Mateo. A large bus station with shoe repair shops, dry cleaning outlets, diners, and a cocktail lounge, it has long been a refuge for many of the city’s homeless. The train station is found at Fourth and Townsend and runs hourly to San Jose and back.

Telegraph Hill

The lowest of the three major downtown hills, Telegraph still affords some of the best views available. Located north of the Financial District’s skyscrapers, it is distinctively marked by the white, cylindrical Coit Tower, erected in 1933 by Lillie Coit in honor of San Francisco volunteer firefighters. Climbing to the top of the tower, or even standing on the small plaza beneath it, one is given a magnificent view encompassing everything from the Golden Gate Bridge in the west to Berkeley and Oakland in the east.

Telegraph Hill was long ago blasted for its rock by entrepreneurs seeking ballast for outgoing ships. Although the blasting was finally halted by city order, the eastern face is quite sheer and badly cracked. Homes perched along this edge face uncertain futures as earth tremors and alternating droughts and rainstorms create small landslides, undermining foundations.

A narrow territory roughly south of Geary Street between Mason and Van Ness, the Tenderloin borders on and spills over into the Civic Center Plaza, as well as the tourist areas around Union Square. Unlike many urban neighborhoods which once enjoyed better times, San Francisco’s Tenderloin has always been known for its crime and seedy denizens. Traditionally the neighborhood of oppressed minorities, it is currently populated by sizable Vietnamese and Laotian communities, refugees from their homelands.

Prostitutes, pimps, and drug dealers prowl the streets while muggers and carjackers lurk in alleys. The corruption spreads to nearby areas, visiting the Theatre District, rubbing shoulders with the tourist areas, and invading Civic Center Plaza. The streets are dirty, littered, and typically increasingly degenerate as one proceeds further downhill. Daytime is reasonably safe, but nighttime is an entirely different story.

Aside from the usual shops and markets, video rental stores, head shops, porn shops, and adult theatres are all common fare. Not surprisingly, the Tenderloin contains some of the city’s cheapest hotels.

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The Tenderloin

Introduction

The Tenderloin is a neighborhood in downtown San Francisco, in the flatlands on the southern slope of Nob Hill, situated between the Union Square shopping district to the northeast and the Civic Center office district to the southwest. It encompasses about 50 square blocks, and is a large wedge/triangle in shape (point faces East). It is historically bounded on the north by Geary Street, on the east by Mason Street, on the south by Market Street and on the west by Van Ness Avenue. The northern boundary with Lower Nob Hill historically has been set at Geary Street.

The terms "Tenderloin Heights" and "The Tendernob" refer to the area around the indefinite boundary between the Upper Tenderloin and Lower Nob Hill. The eastern extent, near Union Square, overlaps with the Theater District.

Part of the western extent of the Tenderloin, Larkin and Hyde Streets between Turk and O'Farrell, was officially named "Little Saigon" by the City of San Francisco.

History

The Tenderloin took its name from an older neighborhood in New York with similar characteristics. There are several explanations of how that neighborhood was named. Some said it was a reference to the neighborhood as the "soft underbelly" (analogous to the cut of meat) of the city, with allusions to vice and corruption, especially graft. Another popular explanation, probably folklore, attributes the name to a New York City police captain, Alexander S. Williams, who was overheard saying that when he was assigned to another part of the city, he could only afford to eat chuck steak on the salary he was earning, but after he was transferred to this neighborhood he was making so much money on the side soliciting bribes that now he could eat tenderloin instead. Another version of that story says that the officers who worked in the Tenderloin received a "hazard pay" bonus for working in such a violent area, and thus were able to afford the good cut of meat. Yet another story, also likely apocryphal, is that the name is a reference to the "loins" of prostitutes.

The Tenderloin borders the Mission/Market Street corridor, which follows the Spaniards' El Camino Real, which in turn traced an ancient north–south Indian trail. The Tenderloin is sheltered by Nob Hill, and far enough from the bay to be on solid ground. There is evidence that a community resided here several thousand years ago. In the 1960s, the area was excavated to develop the BART/MUNI subway station at Civic Center.

The Tenderloin has been a downtown residential community since shortly after the California Gold Rush in 1849. However, the name "Tenderloin" does not appear on any maps of San Francisco prior to the 1930s; before then, it was labeled as "Downtown", although it was informally referred to as "the Tenderloin" as early as the 1890s. The area had an active nightlife in the late 19th century with many theaters, restaurants and hotels. Notorious madam Tessie Wall opened her first brothel on O'Farrell Street in 1898. Almost all of the buildings in the neighborhood were destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and the backfires that were set by firefighters to contain the devastation. The area was immediately rebuilt with some hotels opening by 1907 and apartment buildings shortly thereafter, including the historic Cadillac Hotel. By the 1920s, the neighborhood was notorious for its gambling, billiard halls, boxing gyms, "speakeasies", theaters, restaurants and other nightlife depicted in the hard boiled detective fiction of Dashiell Hammett, who lived at 891 Post Street, the apartment he gave to Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon. Also around this time, due to Red Light Abatement Act, prostitution and other vice began to be pushed out from the Barbary Coast district to the more southern and less business-occupied Tenderloin.

In the mid-20th century, the Tenderloin provided work for many musicians in the neighborhood's theaters, hotels, burlesque houses, bars and clubs and was the location of the Musician's Union Building on Jones Street. The most famous jazz club was the Black Hawk at Hyde and Turk Streets where Dave Brubeck, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Gerry Mulligan, and other jazz greats recorded live albums for Fantasy Records in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

With housing consisting almost entirely of single-room-occupancy hotel rooms, studio and one bedroom apartments, the Tenderloin historically housed single adults and couples. After World War II, with the decline in central cities throughout the United States, the Tenderloin lost population, creating a large amount of vacant housing units by the mid-1970s. Beginning in the late 1970s, after the Vietnam War, the Tenderloin received large numbers of refugees from Southeast Asia—first ethnic Chinese from Vietnam, then Khmer from Cambodia and Hmong from Laos. The low-cost vacant housing, and the proximity to Chinatown through the Stockton Street Tunnel, made the area appealing to refugees and resettlement agencies. Studio apartments became home for families of four and five people and became what a local police officer called "vertical villages." The Tenderloin quickly increased from having just a few children to having over 3,500 and this population has remained. A number of neighborhood Southeast Asian restaurants, bánh mì coffee shops, ethnic grocery stores, video shops, and other stores opened at this time, which still exist.

The Tenderloin has a long history as a center of alternate sexualities, including several historic confrontations with police. The legendary female impersonator Ray Bourbon, a performer during the Pansy Craze, was arrested in 1933 while his show "Boys Will Be Girls" was being broadcast live on the radio from Tait's Cafe at 44 Ellis Street. In the evening of August 13, 1961, 103 gay and lesbian patrons were raided in the Tay-Bush Inn, a café frequently visited by gay and lesbian patrons.[14] As a response to police harassment, S.F. bar owners formed the San Francisco Tavern Guild. A study into prostitution in the Tenderloin found that while trans women face discrimination from certain professions and their sexual partners, sex workers in the Tenderloin area were adept at overcoming some such difficulties.

On New Year's Day in 1965, police raided a Mardi Gras Ball at California Hall[17] on Polk Street sponsored by the Council on Religion and the Homosexual, lining up and photographing 600 participants and arresting several prominent citizens. One of the first "gay riots", pre-dating the Stonewall riots in New York, happened at Compton's Cafeteria[18] at Turk and Taylor Streets in August 1966 when the police, attempting to arrest a drag queen, sparked a riot that spilled into the streets. The group ended up smashing the windows of the police car and burned a nearby newspaper stand to the ground; the riot promoted the formation of the Gay Activists Alliance.[19] Prior to the emergence of The Castro as a major gay village, the center of the Tenderloin at Turk and Taylor and the Polk Gulch at the western side of the Tenderloin were two of the city's first gay neighborhoods and a few of these historic gay bars and clubs still exist.

The apartment where Dashiell Hammett wrote The Maltese Falcon was once in the boundaries of the Tenderloin at the corner of Hyde and Post. Both the movie and book were based in San Francisco's Tenderloin. There is also an alley in what is now Nob Hill, named for the book's author (Dashiell Hammett). It lies outside the Tenderloin because the boundary was defined with borders different from today's. Some locations, such as Sam Spade's apartment and John's Grill, also no longer lie in the Tenderloin because local economics and real estate have changed the character and labeling of areas over time.

In July 2008, the area was designated as a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places.

In 2017, a portion was declared the Compton's Transgender Cultural District commemorating the historic transgender population and culture and in particular, the 1966 transgender and queer uprising, the Compton's Cafeteria riot.

Attractions and Characteristics

Nestled near the downtown area, the Tenderloin has historically resisted gentrification, maintaining a seedy character and reputation for crime. Squalid conditions, homelessness, crime, illegal drug trade, prostitution, liquor stores, and strip clubs give the neighborhood a seedy reputation.

Part of the neighborhood forms part of the theater district. Prominent theatres include the Geary, the home of the American Conservatory Theater,[23] and the Curran, Golden Gate and Orpheum Theatres operated by the Shorenstein Nederlander Organization. Alternative theaters in the Tenderloin include EXIT Theatre, which operates four storefront theaters and produces the San Francisco Fringe Festival, the New Conservatory Theater, the Phoenix Theater, CounterPulse, PianoFight, the New Music Center and others. Alternate galleries include The Luggage Store, the 509 Cultural Center, and others. The neighborhood had many bars dating to prohibition and before with dive bars, including some left over from when the neighborhood housed large numbers of merchant seamen but most of those have closed or been transformed. One bar is built on the site of a previous speakeasy, Bourbon and Branch, at the corner of Jones and O'Farrell Streets. The original speakeasy was restored in the bar's basement, including many of the original decorations. Many bars have entertainment including the historic drag bar Aunt Charlie's. Larger live music venues include the Great American Music Hall and the Warfield Theatre. Historically, the Tenderloin has had a number of strip clubs, although their number has decreased in recent decades. The best known is the Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theatre. The Tenderloin is also a hub for the gender diverse community. The categories of LGBTIQ created a new gender politics that helped to distinguish between the different groups; the Tenderloin was heavily populated by the transgender community. Many street activists paved the way for change, such as Anne Ogborn.

In his seminar 'Take Charge of Your Life', Jim Rohn recounted his visits to the Tenderloin to experience the "human tragedy". He described his visit to a bar in the Tenderloin where the bar tender told him about a dancer by the name of Cookie, who was severely crippled and had a child suffering from leukemia.

Gentrification

The position held by policy-makers regarding gentrification is often divided, with one side of the debate arguing that it is of benefit to the public economy and revitalisation of the built setting, whilst the other side argues that the huge social costs and displacement of people, especially the poor, outweigh all potential strengths of the process.

Murals

The Tenderloin serves as a mecca for the art scene in San Francisco, housing the "White Walls" gallery and "Shooting Gallery". The Tenderloin has been home to mural work by artists such as Johanna Poethig, Mona Caron, Banksy, Shepard Fairey, Barry McGee, Mike Giant, Blek Le Rat and Dan Plasma.

The "Book & Job" gallery has become known for hosting skating legends such as Tommy Guerrero and promoting "Zine Weekends."

Crime

The Tenderloin is a high-crime neighborhood, particularly violent street crime such as robbery and aggravated assault. Seven of the top 10 violent crime plots (out of 665 in the entire city as measured by the San Francisco Police Department) are adjacent plots in the Tenderloin and Sixth and Market area. The neighborhood was considered to be the origin of a notorious Bahala Na Gang (BNG) imported from the Philippines. In the late 1960s to the mid-1970s, the gang was involved in extortion, drug sales, and murder for hire.

Graffiti art and tagging are a common problem in the neighborhood. Dealing and use of illicit drugs occurs on the streets. Property crimes are common, especially theft from parked vehicles. Violent acts occur more often here and are generally related to drugs. The area has been the scene of escalating drug violence in 2007, including brazen daylight shootings, as local gangs from San Francisco, and others from around the Bay Area battle for turf. 14 of the city's 98 homicides took place in the area in 2007.

The first block of Turk Street, between Taylor and Mason, had one of the highest rates of violence and drug activity in San Francisco, according to a survey conducted by the Tenderloin Housing Clinic. On January 31, 2014, parking was banned on both sides of the street in an effort to reduce violence and drug activity. Without parked cars to hide illegal activity, there were fewer loiterers, and a decrease in drug activity.

Additionally, on April 10, 1984, notorious serial killer Richard Ramirez committed his first known murder in a hotel basement, where he was living, in the Tenderloin district.

Social Issues

High prevalence of sex work in the Tenderloin area has been associated with a high rate of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, especially among men who have sex with other men and those who also inject drugs. Contributing factors include a lack of sex education and safe sex practices, including condom use. In a 2000 survey, 59% of men who performed sex with other men did not report condom use, with higher rates of unsafe sex practices among those who are not engaged in paid sex work.

Social Services

The Tenderloin has been the home of Raphael House, the first provider in the city of shelter for homeless parents and children, since 1971. It is an ethnically diverse community, consisting of families, young people living in cheap apartments, downtown bohemian artists, and recent immigrants from Latin America and Southeast Asia. It is home to a large population of homeless, those living in extreme poverty, and numerous non-profit social service agencies, soup kitchens, religious rescue missions, homeless shelters and single room occupancy hotels. Many homeless youths in the Tenderloin district are at risk of serious emotional and psychological problems arising from past traumatic experiences. Lack of appropriately targeted options available in the area has meant many youths will have few viable paths to deal effectively with their problems.

The Tenderloin Housing Clinic has offered important social services to the poor of this neighborhood for decades. The Care Through Touch Institute, located between Hyde and Leavenworth Streets, offers free seated massage therapy to clients in the Tenderloin community. The founder and director of CTI, Mary Ann Finch, began offering services here in 1997, after being inspired by her volunteer work with Mother Teresa in India.

Religious institutions providing community services to the Tenderloin include Glide Memorial Church, which was reinvigorated by Cecil Williams in 1963, St. Anthony's, a program of the Franciscans and San Francisco City Impact founded in 1984 by Pastor Roger Huang. San Francisco City Impact's K-8 private school, the San Francisco City Academy, was the first K-8 school in the Tenderloin District; founded in 1997. These all provide meals and other social services to poor and homeless residents and others. Glide and the surrounding neighborhood provided much of the setting for the 2006 film The Pursuit of Happyness. In 2008, The Salvation Army opened the Ray and Joan Kroc Community Center, a multipurpose center featuring a gym, swimming pool and fitness center among other amenities. The funding for this center was made possible by a $1.5 billion bequest from Joan Kroc, the widow of McDonald's founder, Ray Kroc. Adjacent to the Kroc center is Railton Place, a 110-unit apartment complex run by the Salvation Army for former foster youth, homeless veterans, and adults recovering from addictions. In 2016, the Tenderloin Community Benefit District (TLCBD) announced the implementation of a new public-private initiative, Operation Leadership, which aims to help strengthen existing street cleaning and beautification services.

As transgender women often face barriers such as discrimination and stigma when accessing health care, and show reluctance to disclose their gender when seeking health related services, a collaborative project named 'TRANS' was set up near the Tenderloin to appropriately address the multifaceted needs of this diverse population, as well as offering support.

In their study, Sausa, Keatley, Operario (2007) concluded that sex work for transgender women of colour must be viewed as a forced consequence of structural barriers that they face, as well as an informed choice for survival as a result of these barriers.

The Tenderloin Senior Organizing Project (TSOP; formerly known as the Tenderloin Senior Outreach Project) was initiated when local university staff realized that many seniors felt afraid of crime, rent increases, and inadequate income. They facilitate interpersonal communication through coffee & refreshments, and groups of elderly people were encouraged to meet each other.

Larkin Street Youth Services is a non-profit organization that offers a continuum of services that inspires youth to move beyond the street. Services run the gamut from street outreach and temporary shelters to transitional living programs, health and wellness services, and comprehensive education and employment programs.

Culture

In recent years, residents have spearheaded a local arts revival.

In 1987, residents and others from the Aarti Hotel on Leavenworth Street founded the 509 Cultural Center at 509 Ellis Street. After the 1989 earthquake damaged that facility, artists founded The Luggage Store at 1007 Market, at the intersection of 6th Street, Market, Taylor and Golden Gate Avenue. In 1989 the Tenderloin Reflection and Education Center (TREC) spun off from St Anthony foundation and operated a cultural center including dance, music, writing quilting, and other arts workshops in the St. Boniface Neighborhood Center. Artists and activists such as Eric Ehn from the Iowa Writing Workshop and Theatre Artaud; Miya Masoaka, a recording artist with Asian Improv Records; Lucy Jane Bledsoe, published novelist and writer for the East Bay Express; Pearl Ubungen, choreographer; Ben Clarke, Founding Editor of Freedom Voices; and Maketa Groves, poet and published author at Curbstone Press; and Tenderloin resident and Athabaskan poet Mary TallMountain offered numerous free workshops. TREC and its publishing project Freedom Voices continue to offer workshops on an occasional basis at the Public Library, Hospitality House, the Faithful Fools and other locations in the neighborhood. Tender Leaves, the Center's literary journal was published from 1987 to 2006.

From 2006 to 2009, The Loin's Mouth – conceived by its editor Rachel M. – was a semi-quarterly publication about life in the Tenderloin and Tendernob areas. Since then, others have come about to fill the gap including the Tenderloin Reading Series, which is a quarterly literary event in the neighborhood as well as The Tender, a local journal focusing on the events, food, and politics of the neighborhood.

In 2006, Gray Area Foundation for the Arts was formed to produce, exhibit, and develop creativity with the most contemporary new media technologies. Initially located on Taylor Street in an 8,000 sq ft (740 m2) space, they have since moved across the street to rent space from The Warfield.

In years past, the local Vietnamese Community has hosted the Tết celebration of the Vietnamese Lunar New Year in the Little Saigon section of the Tenderloin.

Parks and Recreation

Historically, the downtown Tenderloin had no parks between Union Square to the East and Civic Center Plaza to the West until a number of activists, who organized the City's Citizens Committee for Open Space, advocated for more open space in the Tenderloin in the 1970s. As a result, a number of parks and playgrounds were created including first Boeddeker Park, a multi-use facility, then the youth-oriented Tenderloin Playground, followed by a number of mini-playgrounds.

Boeddeker Park, located at the corner of Eddy and Jones Streets, is one of the most used parks per square foot in the City. It underwent a renovation, completed in December 2014, which has revitalized the park. YMCA and the Boys and Girls Club occupy the clubhouse, providing programming for youth and seniors. "It's the hub of positive community togetherness", Tenderloin police Capt. Jason Cherniss said of the park. "It's not necessarily police, it's community. It's ripe for that now. We're all getting more connected and sharing information."

The Tenderloin Children's Playground, on Ellis Street between Leavenworth and Hyde Streets, was opened in 1995 and has attractive indoor and outdoor recreational facilities and hosts a number of community and family events.

Sgt. John Macaulay Park, named after a San Francisco police officer who was killed in the adjacent alley while on duty, is a small gated playground at the corner of O'Farrell and Larkin Streets. Although the park is located across the street from a strip club, it is frequented by parents and children from the neighborhood.

The "Tenderloin National Forest" (a project of the nonprofit organization The Luggage Store/509 Cultural Center) is an unofficial park that was established in 1987 that maintains the park and opening hours. It is located on Cohen Alley just off Ellis Street.

Renaming Attempt

In March 2011, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) Vice President Tracy Reiman sent Mayor Ed Lee a letter proposing for renaming of the neighborhood and suggesting an alternative name like the Tempeh District, claiming "the city deserves a neighborhood named after a delicious cruelty-free food instead of the flesh of an abused animal". The proposal was widely met with ridicule by locals and Mayor Lee responded that it was more important to improve the lives of the residents than rename the neighborhood.

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Theatre District

The city’s major theatre district lies on Geary Street roughly between Mason and Leavenworth. The Large theatres like the Curran and the ACT (American Conservatory Theatre) host Broadway shows and other major productions. Dozens of smaller theatres are also found in the area, some no more than second floor walk-ups over markets and restaurants. The well-known club Trader Vic’s is found in the neighborhood, in an L-shaped alley northwest of Taylor and Post. Medium-priced hotels are found in the area, as well as a number of upscale restaurants. However, the Tenderloin is nearby and street hustlers, prostitutes, and pimps are common. Union Square

Union Square is the closest thing to “center” found in San Francisco. Site of the annual Christmas tree lighting and other civic events, it is a sunny, landscaped square dominated by a tall pillar with a figure of winged Victory atop it. The monument was dedicated to Dewey, the victorious admiral of the Spanish-American War. Situated atop an underground parking garage and populated by street musicians, lunching office workers, and the occasional strolling police officer, it is a typically pigeon-populated urban green spot featuring weekend art sales and occasional noisy demonstrations. Despite a small contingent of street people from the nearby Tenderloin, criminal activity is limited or non-existent. The square, in the heart of the tourist district, is well-lit and well policed.

The square is also in the center of the hotel and shopping district. The venerable and swank 12-story St. Francis Hotel caters to some of the city’s most famous guests, and is the usual campsite of presidents and other U.S. officials. It was while leaving the St. Francis that President Gerald Ford was shot at by would-be assassin and former Charles Manson follower, Sarah Jane Moore. The St. Francis was also the scene of the infamous Fatty Arbuckle case, in which the popular silent film comedian was the prime suspect in the suspicious death of a young starlet. In those days, San Francisco was a favorite weekend party spot for Hollywood celebrities bored with the diversions offered by a relatively new Los Angeles. Behind and rising high above the old St. Francis is the ultramodern St. Francis Westin, a 36-story glass tower with external elevators riding up and down its eastern face.

The Sir Francis Drake Hotel, one block up Powell on the other side of the street, tries to compete with the St. Francis and features a doorman dressed in a beefeater costume. The hotel is large, but less convincing. The interior is somehow reminiscent of the hotel in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining.

Climbing the hill is broad Powell Street, the main artery of the area, lined with bookstores, camera shops, electronic outlets, a few restaurants, some outrageously priced, and the occasional “adults only” store dealing in video tapes and rubber goods.

At the foot of Powell is Hallidie Plaza, San Francisco’s version of Times Square. Here the tourist and businessman stand next to the vagrant and homeless from the Tenderloin just next door. Street vendors prevail and there are always musicians performing for the crowds lined up for the cable car. Preachers of a dozen different faiths, most proclaiming San Francisco the “new Sodom,” compete for attention of people desperately trying to ignore them. The most pitiful folk beg for coins from passersby while perennial chess games are staged year round on the concrete cubes set along the broad sidewalk of Market Street. Pickpockets work the area, but violent crime is minimal, at least during the day.

Districts (Outlying Areas)

Bernal Heights

Bernal Heights lies south of Mission District, beyond Army Street, rising sharply from the surrounding flatlands. Nondescript in nature and nearly strictly residential, its wooden row housing follows the usual pattern of higher rents nearer the summit. Expressway I-280 runs through a stretch of land south of Bernal, separating it from the hill known as McClaren Park.

Candlestick Point

Found along the southern shore of the bay, this is the location of Candlestick Park, home of the San Francisco Giants and 49ers. Cold and windy, often foggy, there is an ongoing campaign to close it up and build a new stadium nearer the city.

The Castro

San Francisco's gay village is mostly concentrated in the business district that is located on Castro Street from Market Street to 19th Street. It extends down Market Street toward Church Street and on both sides of the Castro neighborhood from Church Street to Eureka Street. Although the greater gay community was, and is, concentrated in the Castro, many gay people live in the surrounding residential areas bordered by Corona Heights, the Mission District, Noe Valley, Twin Peaks, and Haight-Ashbury neighborhoods. Some consider it to include Duboce Triangle and Dolores Heights, which both have a strong LGBT presence.

Castro Street, which originates a few blocks north at the intersection of Divisadero and Waller Streets, runs south through Noe Valley, crossing the 24th Street business district and ending as a continuous street a few blocks farther south as it moves toward the Glen Park neighborhood. It reappears in several discontinuous sections before ultimately terminating at Chenery Street, in the heart of Glen Park.

San Francisco’s well-known gay district, while still potentially shocking to Midwestern sensibilities, has become relatively respectable these days. Populated mostly by professionals, the Castro offers a wide variety of fine restaurants, book stores, and other shops.

History

Castro Street was named after José Castro (1808–1860), a Californian leader of Mexican opposition to U.S. rule in California in the 19th century, and alcalde of Alta California from 1835 to 1836.[6] The neighborhood known as the Castro, in the district of Eureka Valley, was created in 1887 when the Market Street Railway Company built a line linking Eureka Valley to downtown. Castro Street pedestrian crossing with rainbow flag color Corner of 20th and Castro Streets

In 1891, Alfred E. Clarke built his mansion at the corner of Douglass and Caselli Avenue at 250 Douglass which is commonly referenced as the Caselli Mansion. It survived the 1906 earthquake and fire which destroyed a large portion of San Francisco.

Late 19th century

During the California Gold Rush and in its aftermath, a substantial Finnish population had settled in San Francisco.[8][11] In addition to Etholén, Furuhjelm and Niebaum, a number of Finns had become household names in the social circles of San Francisco by the time when the Finnish corvette Kalevala anchored in San Francisco on November 14, 1861. Accordingly, Kalevala's visit in the city received a very warm welcome and created much attention.[8][12] A festive dinner party arranged in honor of Admiral Popoff and the naval officers of the Russian Pacific Fleet visiting San Francisco in 1863

In 1863, a six-vessel Russian Imperial Navy squadron, a part of the Russian Pacific Fleet, sailed via Vladivostok to the West Coast of the United States, to help defend the waters there against a possible attack by the United Kingdom or France, during the American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 10, 1865).[13][14][15] In addition to the Finnish-built corvette Kalevala now returning to the U.S. West Coast, this squadron included three other corvettes, Bogatyr, Rynda and Novik (Russian: "Новик"), as well as two Finnish-built clippers, the sister-ships Abrek (Russian: "Абрек") and Vsadnik (Russian: "Всадник"), both built in the southwestern Finnish town of Pori and launched in 1860. Finnish officers serving in the squadron included Theodor Kristian Avellan, who later became the Minister of Naval Affairs of the Russian Empire (similar role to Great Britain's First Lord of the Admiralty).[16] Among Finnish officers participating in the expedition were also Mr. Enqvist and Mr. Etholén (not Governor Etholén of Russian America).[9][13]

At the time when Finnish Sea Captain Gustave Niebaum, the founder of Inglenook Winery (1879) in Rutherford, California, was busy conducting business in the San Francisco Bay Area and Alaska – from the late 19th to the early 20th century –, both places had considerably large Finnish settlements. As the Governor of Russian America from 1858 to 1864, Finnish Johan Hampus Furuhjelm helped pave way for the American Alaska purchase, just like Gustave Niebaum did as the Consul of Russia for the United States in San Francisco in 1867 (at the time Finland was an autonomous Grand Duchy of Russia), when Alaska became part of the United States of America.

During his governorship of Russian America, Furuhjelm put an end to the hostilities involving groups of the native peoples of Alaska, and he succeeded in abolishing the Alaskan Ice Treaty with San Francisco. According to a contract which had been signed, Russian America had to deliver a certain amount of ice to San Francisco at a fixed price. The problem was that the product melted down on the way to the warmer climates. The ice contract became very awkward for the Russian colony. Furuhjelm arranged for a new contract to sell ice to San Francisco: 3,000 tons at $25.00 a ton.

Officially registered Finnish Club No. 1 was established in the Castro District of San Francisco in 1882. Soon after, two "Finnish Halls" were erected nearby. One was located at the corner of 24th Street and Hoffman Street. The other hall was located on Flint Street, on the "Rocky Hill" above Castro, an area densely populated by Finns at the time, consequently nicknamed Finn Town.

In 1899, the First Finnish Lutheran Church was founded on 50 Belcher Street, in what then was considered part of the Eureka Valley district of San Francisco, but what is located on the outskirts of what today is best known as the Castro District. Next to it, on September 17, 1905, the cornerstone was laid for the Danish St. Ansgar Church at 152 Church Street, between Market Street and Duboce Avenue. During the April 18, 1906, San Francisco earthquake and its aftermath, the parsonage served as a feeding station and hospital. In 1964, St. Ansgar merged with First Finnish Lutheran Church. The name for the united church, St. Francis Lutheran Church, was derived from San Francisco.

Before the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, nearly all the kids attending the McKinley school (now McKinley Elementary School) at 1025 14th Street (at Castro) were Finnish. Following the earthquake, a large number of Finns from San Francisco and elsewhere moved to Berkeley, where a Finnish community had been established already before the earthquake. A large part of the early Berkeley population was Finnish. The brick and wood frame of the St. Francis Lutheran Church building survived the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and then was used for several months as an infirmary. Following the earthquake, the same year, Finns founded the Lutheran Church of the Cross in Berkeley, at University Avenue, where the Lutheran congregation still operates today.

In c. 1910, a bathhouse called Finnila's Finnish Baths began serving customers in the Castro District, at 9 Douglass Street. Its opening as an official business serving the general public took place in 1913. In 1919, the business moved to 4032 17th Street, a half block west from the busy Castro Street. In 1932, the business moved again, now to 2284 Market Street. In 1986, after having been stationed in the Castro District for over seven decades, the business moved the final time, now to 465 Taraval Street in the San Francisco's Sunset District, where it continued as Finnila's Health Club, serving women only. Despite public outcry and attempts to prevent the closing of the popular Finnila's Market Street bathhouse, the old bathhouse building was demolished by Alfred Finnila soon after the farewell party held in the end of December 1985. Today, the Finnila family owns the new Market & Noe Center building at the location of the old bathhouse, in the corner of Market and Noe Streets. Change of character

From 1910 on, the Castro District of San Francisco and some of the surrounding areas were known by the term Little Scandinavia, because of the large number of the residents in the area originating from Finnish, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish ancestry.

The 1943 novel Mama's Bank Account by Kathryn Forbes focused on a Norwegian family living in the area in the 1910s. Forbes' book served as the inspiration for John Van Druten's 1944 play I Remember Mama. The play was adapted to a Broadway theater production in 1944; to a movie in 1948; to a CBS Mama television series running from 1949 until 1957; to a Lux Radio Theater play in the late 1950s; and to a Broadway musical in 1979. "Mama's Bank Account" reflected a (then) Eureka Valley neighborhood, where for generations Norwegians worshiped at the Norwegian Lutheran Church at 19th and Dolores streets, and met for fraternal, social events, and Saturday night dances at Dovre Hall, 3543 18th Street, now the Women's Building.

The Cove on Castro used to be called The Norse Cove at the time. The Scandinavian Seamen's Mission operated for a long time on 15th Street, off Market Street, just around the corner from the Swedish-American Hall, which remains in the district. In the 1920s – during prohibition – the downstairs of the Swedish-American Hall served as a speak-easy, one of many in the area. "Unlicensed saloons" were known as speak-easies, according to an 1889 newspaper. They were "so called because of the practice of speaking quietly about such a place in public, or when inside it, so as not to alert the police or neighbors".

Scandinavian-style "half-timber" construction can still be seen in some of the buildings along Market Street, between Castro and Church Streets. A restaurant called Scandinavian Deli operated for decades on Market Street, between Noe and Sanchez Streets, almost directly across the street from Finnila's.

Receiving an influx of Irish, Italian and other immigrants in the 1930s, the Castro gradually became an ethnically mixed working-class neighborhood, and it remained so until the mid-1960s. There was originally a cable car line with large double-ended cable cars that ran along Castro Street from Market Street to 29th St., until the tracks were dismantled in 1941 and the cable car line was replaced by the 24 MUNI bus. The Castro is at the end of the straight portion of the Market Street thoroughfare, and a mostly residential area follows Market Street as it curves and rises up and around the Twin Peaks mountains.

LGBT community

The U.S. military discharged thousands of gay servicemen from the Pacific theater in San Francisco during World War II (early 1940s) because of their sexuality. Many settled in the Bay Area, San Francisco and Sausalito. In San Francisco, an established gay community had begun in numerous areas including Polk Street (which used to be regarded as the city's gay center from the 1950s to the early 1980s), the Tenderloin and South of Market. The 1950s saw large numbers of families moving out of the Castro to the suburbs in what became known as the "White flight", leaving open large amounts of real estate and creating attractive locations for gay purchasers. The Missouri Mule first opened in 1935 by Norwegian Immigrant Hans K Lund and would find its place in San Francisco's history becoming a proud icon of the LBGTQ community following its reopening in 1963. "Missouri Mule".

The Castro's age as a gay mecca began during the late 1960s with the Summer of Love in the neighboring Haight-Ashbury district in 1967. The two neighborhoods are separated by a steep hill, topped by Buena Vista Park. The hippie and free love movements had fostered communal living and free society ideas including the housing of large groups of people in hippie communes. Androgyny became popular with men even in full beards as gay hippie men began to move into the area. The 1967 gathering brought tens of thousands of middle-class youth from all over the United States to the Haight which saw its own exodus when well-organized individuals and collectives started to see the Castro as an oasis from the massive influx. Many of the hippies had no way to support themselves or places to shelter. The Haight became drug-ridden and violent, chasing off the gay population, who looked for a more stable area to live.

The gay community created an upscale, fashionable urban center in the Castro District in the 1970s.[37] Many San Francisco gays also moved there in the years around 1970 from what was then the most prominent gay neighborhood, Polk Gulch, because large Victorian houses were available at low rents or available for purchase for low down payments when their former middle-class owners had fled to the suburbs.

By 1973, Harvey Milk, who would become the most famous resident of the neighborhood, opened a camera store, Castro Camera, and began political involvement as a gay activist, further contributing to the notion of the Castro as a gay destination. Some of the culture of the late 1970s included what was termed the "Castro clone", a mode of dress and personal grooming that exemplified butch-ness and masculinity of the working-class men in construction—tight denim jeans, black or sand combat boots, tight T-shirt or, often, an Izod crocodile shirt, possibly a red plaid flannel outer shirt, and usually sporting a mustache or full beard—in vogue with the gay male population at the time, and which gave rise to the nickname "Clone Canyon" for the stretch of Castro Street between 18th and Market Streets.

There were numerous famous watering holes in the area contributing to the nightlife, including the Corner Grocery Bar, Toad Hall, the Pendulum, the Midnight Sun, Twin Peaks, and the Elephant Walk. A typical daytime street scene of the period is perhaps best illustrated by mentioning the male belly dancers who could be found holding forth in good weather at the corner of 18th and Castro on "Hibernia Beach", in front of the financial institution from which it drew its name. Then at night, after the bars closed at 2 AM, the men remaining at that hour often would line up along the sidewalk of 18th Street to indicate that they were still available to go home with someone (aka The Meat Rack).

The area was heavily impacted by the HIV/AIDS crisis of the 1980s. Beginning in 1984, city officials began a crackdown on bathhouses and launched initiatives that aimed to prevent the spread of AIDS. Kiosks lining Market Street and Castro Street now have posters promoting safe sex and testing right alongside those advertising online dating services.

In 2019, San Francisco Board of Supervisors member Rafael Mandelman authored an ordinance to create the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District; the ordinance was passed unanimously.

Attractions

Stores on Castro near the intersection with 18th Street. Rainbow flags, which are commonly associated with gay pride, are hung as banners on streetlights along the road.

One of the more notable features of the neighborhood is Castro Theatre, a movie palace built in 1922 and one of San Francisco's premier movie houses.

18th and Castro is a major intersection in the Castro, where many historic events, marches, and protests have taken and continue to take place.

A major cultural destination in the neighborhood is the GLBT History Museum, which opened for previews on December 10, 2010, at 4127 18th St. The grand opening of the museum took place on the evening of January 13, 2011. The first full-scale, stand-alone museum of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender history in the United States (and only the second in the world after the Schwules Museum in Berlin), the GLBT History Museum is a project of the GLBT Historical Society.

The F Market heritage streetcar line turnaround at Market and 17th-streets where the Jane Warner city parklet sits. Across Castro street is the Harvey Milk Plaza in honor of its most famous resident with its iconic giant flag pole with an oversized rainbow flag, symbol of the LGBT community. Below street level is the main entrance to the Castro Street Station, a Muni Metro subway station and a multitiered park. Milk's camera store and campaign headquarters which were at 575 Castro has a memorial plaque and mural on the inside of the store, now housing the Human Rights Campaign Action Center and Store. There is a smaller mural above the sidewalk on the building showing Milk looking down on the street fondly.

Across Market Street from Harvey Milk Plaza, and slightly up the hill, is the Pink Triangle Park – 17th Street at Market, a city park and monument named after the pink triangles forcibly worn by gay prisoners persecuted by the Nazis during World War II.

Harvey's was formerly the Elephant Walk, raided by police after the White Night Riots.

Twin Peaks is the first gay bar in the city, and possibly the United States, with plate glass windows to fully visibly expose patrons to the public is located at the intersection of Market and Castro.

The Hartford Street Zen Center is also located in the Castro, as well as the Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church, 100 Diamond Street.

Special events, parade and street fairs that are held in the Castro include the Castro Street Fair, the Dyke March, the famed Halloween in the Castro which was discontinued in 2007 due to street violence, Pink Saturday discontinued in the Castro in 2016, and the San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival.

A LGBTQ Walk of Fame, the Rainbow Honor Walk, was installed in August 2014 with an inaugural twenty sidewalk bronze plaques representing past LGBTQ icons in their field, who continue to serve as inspirations. The walk is originally planned to coincide with the business district of the Castro and eventually include 500 bronze plaques.

The main business section of Castro St from Market to 19th street were under reconstruction and repaving in 2014 to address a number of neighborhood concerns. The area has heavy vehicular traffic as well as many visitors. As part of the work the sidewalks were widened and new trees were planted. Additionally 20 historical cement etchings covering from the inception to the area being settled to the 2010s sweeping gay marriage movement victories were installed in September 2014.

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Fillmore

The Fillmore District is a historical neighborhood in San Francisco located to the southwest of Nob Hill, west of Market Street and north of the Mission District. It has been given various nicknames such as “the Moe” or “the Fill”. The Fillmore District began to rise to prominence after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. As a result of not being affected by the earthquake itself nor the large fires that ensued, it quickly became one of the major commercial and cultural centers of the city.

After the earthquake, the district experienced a large influx of diverse ethnic populations. It began to house large numbers of African Americans, Japanese and Jews. Each group significantly contributed to the local culture and earned the Fillmore district a reputation for being "one of the most diverse neighborhoods in San Francisco". In particular, the district was known for having the largest jazz scene on the west coast of the United States up until its decline in the 1970s. A large Japantown was also historically located in the Fillmore District although technically it does not lie within the borders of the district today.

During the late 1960s and 1970s, the Fillmore District underwent a large-scale redevelopment. This has largely led to a decline of the jazz scene in the area. However, many people have claimed that jazz in the district has made a large rebound in recent years. Even today, the redevelopment of the Fillmore remains a controversial issue. Many of the people who were forced to move from the district say that redevelopment was a product of racism. The city planners claim redevelopment was a way to combat the high rates of crime in the area and to reinvigorate the local economy.

The small Fillmore District has long been a black neighborhood. Economically depressed, it still retains its character. Lively at night, it is cursed with drug problems and associated crime.

Fort Funston

This is the southernmost point of the city’s shoreline. A quiet stretch of white sand beach overlooked by high cliffs, it is a favorite spot among bay hang gliders. Fort Mason

Located on the bluffs overlooking the Golden Gate, Fort Mason was first manned by Spanish soldiers in 1797. It came into the hands of the U.S. Army in 1850 and during World War II, 1.6 million men passed through this facility on their way to and from the Pacific theater. Now a park open to the public, it is mostly rolling grasslands and trees with a few old barracks buildings, and used as a park by local residents. Three old piers jut out into the bay. Tied up to one of them is a World War II Liberty ship, also open to the public.

Golden Gate Park

A broad band of green in an arid city mostly covered in concrete, Golden Gate Park is an oasis of exotic flora, meadows, lakes, and facilities for nearly every conceivable sport or diversion. Begun in 1871, the area was slowly reclaimed from the thousands of acres of sand dunes that once covered the area. Beginning with quick-rooting barley, vegetation was slowly introduced that eventually anchored the soil.

The park is a half-mile wide and three miles long, plus the narrow strip to the east known as the Panhandle. Roads meander through the park, some of them closed to auto traffic on weekends, and trails lace the hills and glens. Eucalyptus and cypress trees are the most prevalent, but stands of palms, tree ferns, redwoods, and other natural-styles plantings are found everywhere. Formal, landscaped gardens of roses, rhododendrons, and others also decorate the park.

The eastern end of the park is the most developed and features the Steinhart Aquarium inside the California Academy of Sciences building, the de Young art museum, the Victorian glass Conservatory, and the Japanese Tea Garden left over from the 1894 World’s Fair. A paddock in the western end of the park holds a dozen bison. Athletic facilities run the gamut. There are baseball diamonds, football and soccer fields, a polo field, riding trails, horseshoe pits, fly-casting pools, archery ranges, stables, playgrounds, and even a nine-hole golf course. Most of these are cleverly hidden from site, allowing strollers to imagine the park as undeveloped and natural. At the western edge of the park, facing the sea, stand two huge windmills, originally installed to pump water from underground to supplement the skimpy rainfall.

The narrow Panhandle of the park extends another half-mile east. Landscaped and open, the fine Victorian homes lining both sides are prized residences.

Haight-Ashbury

San Francisco holds diverse cultures and widely different philosophies. Within the city are many neighborhoods, each unique in atmosphere and lifestyle. One of the most unusual enclaves exists in Haight-Ashbury. Catapulted into the headlines as the birthplace of the hippie movement, this formerly middle-class neighborhood became a fostering ground for idealists and iconoclasts. Although the halcyon days of "flower power" were short-lived, vestiges of the hippie presence can still be found amid the dirt and squalor of the World of Darkness.

History

After the United States acquired California in 1848, groups of squatters sought and won the right to settle an expanse of dunes along the western fringes of San Francisco. The area became one of the most poplar promenades during the 1880s because of its proximity to the newly opened Golden Gate Park. With the coming of the tramway connecting the park to the city, the Haight became prime territory for development. Elegant Victorian houses, as well as an assortment of hotels, restaurants, and saloons, soon made the Haight a desirable residential and commercial district.

Although barely damaged during the 1906 quake, the Haight suffered a decline in popularity as the gentry relocated to more fashionable neighborhoods. The stately homes in the area became apartment houses for the influx of immigrants who came west to seek their fortunes. In the years following World War II, a large number of lower-income families moved into the Haight. This incursion continued into the 1950s, when many artists and members of the Beat Generation settled in the area. These free-thinkers brought with them a bohemian lifestyle and became the foundation for the society that evolved during the next decade.

In the mid-1960s, the "hippie movement" found its spiritual and physical home in the blocks surrounding the corner of Haight and Ashbury Streets. Rejecting materialism and the politics of war, the hippies embraced a gospel of free love, free speech, and free living. Anarchist groups like the Diggers advocated a moneyless society, while the search for spiritual enlightenment sparked a new interest in Zen Buddhism and other non-Western philosophies. Experimentation with mind-altering drugs likewise became prevalent. The word "psychedelic" began making the rounds and was used to describe everything from the new music of the 1960s to the wildly apricots artistic styles inspired by the profusion of mind-altering experiences. The "Summer of Love" in 1967 marked the apex of the counterculture's dream. Nearly half a million people, most of them under the age of thirty, flocked to the Haight.

By the end of the decade, the fragile mood of universal peace and love had turned ugly. Commercialism took over the trappings of the hippie movement; being "hip" became big business. Free love gave way to casual rape, traffic in hard drugs increased, and violence ruled the streets. Many hippies left in disgust.

In recent years, though, the Haight has begun to enjoy a renaissance. The streets of Haight-Ashbury reflect a hybrid culture made up of New Agers, yuppies, old hippies, goths, punks, drifters, and modern entrepreneurs. This combination of bright-eyed idealists and hardcore cynics has resulted in a strange and sometimes sinister atmosphere.

Geography

Haight-Ashbury stretched eastward from Golden Gate Park as far west as Gough Street and the Central Freeway. California Street forms the northernmost boundary, while a line connecting Carmel Street, Roosevelt Way, Buena Vista Avenue East, and Duboce Avenue marks its southern edge. Within this territory, the heart of the Haight comprises a few blocks delineated by Stanyan (on the eastern edge of Golden Gate Park), Fulton, Fillmore, and Frederick Streets.

Supernatural Landmarks

• Buena Vista Park: Located atop one of the dunes, this lovely park offers spectacular views of the Golden Gate Bridge and Mount Tamalpais. A stream rises up from a spring in the park, supporting a variety of native flora. A dryad lives in this park in her guise as a coastal oak tree. From this place, she keeps watch on the surrounding area.
• Spreckles Mansion: Built in the late 19th century for a nephew of sugar magnate Alfred Spreckles, this Baroque-style mansion near Buena Vista Park was once a bed-and-breakfast and the temporary residence of both Jack London and Ambrose Bierce. In the World of Darkness, this house functions as a gathering place for many of the city's supernatural residents.
• Haight Street: This east-west thoroughfare runs the length of Haight-Ashbury. During the 1960s, it was home to The Drugstore Cafe, the Psychedelic Shop, The Print Mint, the I-Thou Coffeehouse, and a host of other stores owned by and catering to the hippie counterculture. Though these places are gone, other enterprises have taken their place. New Age shops, occult bookstores, secondhand clothing stores, and coffeehouses rub elbows with trendy shops and restaurants.

• The Wasteland: Once a theater, this shop now sells vintage clothing. Many changelings frequent the shop, drawn by the artistic displays of bygone fashions and the residual ambiance of the building itself.
• Holos Gallery: This gallery specializes in holograms and holographic products and is a favorite "hangout" for Kithain who patronize high-tech art, including members of House Dougal and a few ambitious nockers.
• Red Vic Movie House: A move house dedicated to art films. The Zoetrope Society uses this building as its unofficial headquarters.
• Nightbreak: This contemporary rock and New Wave club hosts both local and out-of-town bands. Depending on the talent and creativity of the nightly bill, there is often a good chance for a music-oriented Kithain to absorb Glamour along with the vibes. Seelie and Unseelie rock bands find this place a handy venue for their performances.
• Pipe Dreams: At the height of the hippie movement, this store was THE place for water pipes and other accoutrements related to smoking in all its forms. While it still offers an assortment of unusual pipes, in the current "smoke-free" culture it has broadened its merchandising base to include New Age paraphernalia, Egyptian jewelry, and T-shirts. Some grumps who remember "how it used to be" find the atmosphere suitably nostalgic.
• Haight-Ashbury Free Clinic: Originally founded to minister to the needs of the hippie community, the clinic now counts AIDS victims among its clientele. Some boggans, following their innate compulsion to help the needy, work here on a volunteer basis, while a wilder noble of House Liam serves on the clinic's medical staff.

The District at Large (Supernatural)

Haight-Ashbury includes a plethora of unusual and interesting shops, which can be adapted by a Storyteller for inclusion in their chronicles. Stores specializing in body-piercing (frequented by redcaps and numerous Unseelie wilders), numerous goth clubs and bars, shops devoted to a variety of international cultures and fashions (gathering places for the city's eshu and other eclectic Kithain), specialty bookstores of every type, comics and games shops, art and "pseudo-art" galleries, stores offering recycled clothing, cookware, and records... all of these and more can be found in Haight-Ashbury.

• The Toybox Coffee Shop
• Kurtzweiler's Toyshop
• Trickster's

Hunter's Point

Hunter’s Point was a navy shipyard during World War II. Temporary housing for the shipyard’s 35,000 workers now serves as a public housing facility. Far from the rest of the city, out of sight and out of mind, Hunter’s Point is a fearful place haunted by gangs, drugs, and guns.

Japantown

Bordered by California and Geary, Van Ness and Fillmore, this area is the traditional center of San Francisco’s Japanese community. Originally settled by Japanese sugar workers, it was emptied out during World War II when innocent Japanese were rounded up and incarcerated in concentration camps. Returning after the war, the Japanese found their old neighborhood populated mostly by blacks. The small area now reclaimed is basically a shopping center marked by a 100-foot tall pagoda and called the Japanese Cultural and Trade-Center. Along with shops and restaurants, the development includes the Kabuki movie theatre complex and the Kabuki Hot Springs baths.

Lake Merced

This small lake serves as a standby reservoir for the city. It is isolated, surrounded by homes and stands of trees. The main campus of San Francisco University overlooks the lake from the east.

Lincoln Park

Lincoln Park is a remote area on the far northwestern corner of the peninsula atop the headlands overlooking the Golden Gate. Trails run along the face of the cliffs as well as along the top. Accidents are not uncommon in this undeveloped area. A special Cliff Rescue unit is maintained by the city to save those who suffer falls or become otherwise stranded over the cold, churning waters around the mouth of the bay. From the tip known as Land’s End, one can look down on wrecked ships left partially exposed by retreating tides. Foghorns, no longer necessary in an era of radio navigation but still operated out of nostalgia, ring up and down the gate during heavy weather.

The rocky China Beach lies at the foot of the cliffs. Although often sunny and pleasant, cold waters and deadly currents make swimming dangerous and unattractive.

The Marina

This is a quite fashionable neighborhood of Mediterranean revival houses overlooking the bay and the marinas of the prestigious St. Francis and Golden Gate Yacht Clubs. Still expensive and exclusive, real estate values have fallen sharply since the quake of 1989 when this neighborhood suffered some of the worst devastation in the city. Originally the site of the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exhibition, the neighborhood is built upon landfill, mainly rubbles from the quake if 1906. The uncompacted soil quickly liquifies during tremors, causing buildings to sink on their foundations. A gas main fire touched off by such settling during the 1989 quake burned down an entire block of homes

The Mission District

The Mission is a sprawling flatland neighborhood of residences, shops, and stores. If it has anything resembling a center, it would be the intersection of Mission and 24th street, or along Dolores Boulevard to the west. Hemmed in by hills and mountains, it is the warmest part of the city and the site of official temperature readings taken by the U.S. Weather Bureau. Formerly the home of San Francisco’s sizable Irish population, it is now mostly Latino with a wide variety of other ethnic groups including Spanish-speaking Chinese immigrants from Peru. Many of the wooden row buildings along the main streets are brightly painted with Mexican-styled murals and other art works.

Various gangs, mostly Latino, roam this solidly blue-collar area, warring over turf, drugs, and women. A large number of clubs, restaurants, and bars attract nighttime visitors, but neighborhoods off the main drag can be risky late at night. Regardless, day or night it is one of the city’s liveliest neighborhoods.

The area is named after Mission Dolores, first established on the peninsula in 1776. The ancient mission still stands, the oldest building in San Francisco, and still an operating Catholic church. A small cemetery, one of the few in the city, stands out back, but nothing marks the graves of the more than 5000 Native Americans believed buried in the immediate area. Originally located on a flat plain near a pond from which Mission Creek ran to the bay, the old adobe building now stands oddly sandwiched between low-rent frame row house.

The Mountains

A chain of three mountains beginning just south of the eastern end of Golden Gate Park and extending nearly to the city limits dominates the city’s central skyline. They form a natural barrier to traffic as well as the fog that pours in off the Pacific. All three peaks are thickly populated, save the highest summits, and suburban in nature. As always, property values increase with altitude and homes near the peaks fetch prices nearing a million dollars, despite 30-foot lots, postage stamp backyards, and uninspiring stucco, row architecture. Winding roads cross these mountains, affording fantastic views of the city. Lesser peaks, like Diamond Heights and Mount Olympus, lay at the eastern foot of the mountains and are similarly populated.

The western flanks of the mountains are cool and foggy much of the year, particularly in summer. The eastern flanks are sun-warmed, the heat rising from them holding back the creeping fog which mounts in a wall sometimes a thousand feet high above the peaks.

Beginning in the south, Mount Davidson, at 925 feet, is the tallest of the three, though only by a few feet. It is topped by a great, concrete cross. Twin Peaks, at 910 and 904 feet, is a double peak bristling with a half-dozen 150-foot microwave towers. Mount Sutro, 909 feet, is capped by a 900-foot red and white steel broadcast tower that seems to dominate the entire City. High-rise apartments on the northern slopes of Sutro afford beautiful views of the Golden Gate Park and beyond. Ocean Beach & Sutro Heights

Running the length of the western edge of the city, Ocean Beach is a broad expanse of gray sand separating the pounding Pacific surf from the sea wall and the Great Highway beyond. Often chilly and windswept, the cold water and treacherous currents make it unsuitable for swimming. Sunbathing is possible on warmer days and a few hardy surfers dressed in wetsuits are usually seen out among the waves. The broad concrete steps at the base of the long seawall are usually buried in drifting sand that has to be periodically bulldozed back toward the water to prevent it from eventually topping the wall and invading the city. Otherwise, the beach is a nice place for a leisurely stroll, along either the water’s edge or the broad promenade above the seawall two hundred yards from the shoreline. It is a place to run the dog, build a sand-castle, or fly a kite.

At the northern end of the beach, around Fulton, the land rises in a series of rocky cliffs known as Sutro Heights. The popular Cliffhouse restaurant stands atop these cliffs, overlooking Seal Rock and its raucous sea lions. West of the Great Highway the cliffs rise higher still, to a plateau overlooking the ocean. Once the site of millionaire Adolf Sutro’s mansion and grounds, it is now open park land with little save a few specimens of exotic palm trees to remember the great home that once stood there.

Pacific Heights

After building their Nob Hill extravagances, then the mansions that lined Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco’s moneyed set turned to the rounded uplands called Pacific Heights. Today inhabited mostly by upwardly-mobile young professionals, it is a quiet part of town, high enough to provide views of the bay to the north and downtown to the east. A few foreign embassies, including the Russian one, maintain residences in this secluded neighborhood. A number of historic Victorian mansions surround the hilly, tree-covered Lafayette Square, including the Haas-Lilienthal house and the Spreckels mansion… the later built with the profits from the Hawaiian sugar industry. Alta Plaza Park, a dozen blocks west, is another high patch of land surrounded by sumptuous residences and affording views over the Marina and the bay. Potrero Hill

Located south of downtown, and now separated from the neighboring Mission District by a coursing expressway, the Potrero community has long enjoyed a sense of privacy and isolation from the city. Long a blue-collar retreat, rising real estate values have resulted in homes on the hill commanding high prices. A growing population of upscale yuppies inhabit the heights while the area surrounding the hill is composed of depressed neighborhoods of varying ethnic character.

San Francisco General Hospital is located on the western face of the hill.

The Presidio=

The Presidio has been occupied by the military ever since the late 18th century, when the Spanish decided to establish northern outposts in an attempt to enforce their claim to the California coast. Long ago taken over by the U.S. Army, it has seen little development and its 1400 acres, reclaimed from the sand dunes years ago, are green and leafy, covered by eucalyptus trees. Soon to be abandoned by the Army, it will be handed over to the city and turned into a park. In the meantime, it is headquarters for the Sixth Army and houses over 6000 soldiers and a National Military Cemetery covering twenty-nine acres. The nearby hospital treated many of the worst wounded of the Vietnam War, some of whom are still confined to the facility.

The main entrance to the Presidio is at Lombard Street. Here, a gate flanked by statuesque figures of Liberty and Victory leads to a quadrangle of buildings beyond. For the most part, the Presidio is open to the public.

The western edge of the Presidio is a series of cliffs overlooking breezy Baker Beach below. On the beach stands the huge replica of the 95,000-pound cannon originally installed in the site in 1905 by the Army to defend the bay. At the top of the cliffs, near the Bridge, stands a brick fortress built in 1850 to guard the bay. Known as Fort Point, it is dwarfed by the massive pier of the Golden Gate Bridge behind it. On the northern edge of the Presidio is a flat green meadow, Crissy Field, where Fourth of July fireworks and other outdoor festivals are staged. On its eastern edge stands the Palace of Fine Arts, a leftover from the World’s Fair of 1915. Nest door to it is the Exploratorium, a huge hands-on technological museum and art gallery inside a vast warehouse-like structure.

Richmond

The Richmond District is a neighborhood in the northwest corner of San Francisco, California, developed initially in the late 19th century. It is sometimes confused with the city of Richmond, which is 20 miles (32 km) northeast of San Francisco.

The Richmond is in many ways defined by its relation to the parks; bordered by Golden Gate Park on the south, the Pacific Ocean to the west, and Lincoln Park, Land's End, Mountain Lake Park and the Presidio of San Francisco to the north, bisected by the Presidio Greenbelt.

The Richmond has many influences from the Chinese-American culture. One of its three commercial strips, Clement Street in the inner Richmond segment is sometimes called the second Chinatown due to the high concentration of Chinese establishments.

The other two commercial strips are Geary Boulevard and Balboa Street.

The Richmond also has deep Irish and Russian roots and has many Catholic and Orthodox churches.

Sub-districts

• Inner Richmond

Sunset

Location

The Sunset District is the largest neighborhood within the city and county of San Francisco. Golden Gate Park forms the neighborhood's northern border, and the Pacific Ocean (or, more specifically, the long, flat strand of beach known as Ocean Beach) forms its western border. A section of the Sunset District towards its southeastern end is known as the Parkside neighborhood. Prior to the residential and commercial development of the Sunset District, much of the area was covered by sand dunes and was originally referred to by 19th century San Franciscans as the "Outside Lands."

The Sunset District and the neighboring Richmond District (on the north side of Golden Gate Park) are often collectively known as The Avenues, because the majority of both neighborhoods are spanned by numbered north-south avenues. When the city was originally laid out, the avenues were numbered from 1st to 49th, and the east-west streets were lettered A to X. In 1909, to reduce confusion for mail carriers, the east-west streets and 1st Avenue and 49th Avenue were renamed. The east-west streets were named in ascending alphabetical order in a southward direction after prominent 19th-century American politicians, military leaders, or explorers; 19th-century Mexican landowners; and Spanish conquistadors. 1st Avenue was renamed Arguello Boulevard, and 49th Avenue was renamed La Playa Street (Spanish for "the beach").

Today, the first numbered avenue is 2nd Avenue, starting one block west of Arguello Boulevard, and the last is 48th Avenue near Ocean Beach. The avenue numbers increase incrementally, with one exception: what would be 13th Avenue is known as Funston Avenue, named after Frederick Funston, a U.S. Army general known for his exploits during the Spanish–American War and Philippine–American War, and for directing the U.S. Army response to the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

The east-west streets in the Sunset appear mostly in alphabetical order. These streets are: Lincoln Way (bordering the south side of Golden Gate Park), Hugo (from Arguello to 7th Avenue only), Irving, Judah, Kirkham, Lawton, Moraga, Noriega, Ortega, Pacheco, Quintara, Rivera, Santiago, Taraval, Ulloa, Vicente, Wawona, Yorba, and Sloat Boulevard. "X" was originally proposed to be Xavier, but was changed to Yorba due to a pronunciation controversy.

History

The origin of the "Sunset" name is not entirely clear. One claim indicates that Aurelius Buckingham, a developer who owned property in the area, coined the term in 1886. Another claim comes from the California Midwinter Exposition, held in Golden Gate Park in 1894 and also known as "The Sunset City."

Before construction of the Twin Peaks Tunnel in 1917, the Sunset was a vast, sparsely inhabited area of large sand dunes and coastal scrub land known as the "Outside Lands." Development was initiated in the 1870s and 1880s with construction of Golden Gate Park, but it did not reach a full scale until after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, when small lots of tract homes and row homes now characteristic of the neighborhood were built into the sand dunes. These tract homes would displace a smaller original settlement built into the dunes called Carville, which was so named for squatters that lived in abandoned horse cars (horse-drawn trolleys) and cable cars that were dumped in the sand dunes. Development increased by the 1930s, as the Sunset was built and developed into a streetcar suburb. The post–World War II baby boom in the 1950s saw the last of the sand dunes leveled down and replaced with more single- and multifamily homes. In these developments, built mostly by Henry Doelger, entire blocks consist mainly of houses of the same general character, differentiated by variations in their stucco facades and mirrored floor plans, with most built upon 25-foot-wide (7.6 m) lots with no free space between houses. Later, Oliver Rousseau built more individualistic homes in the district.

Historically, the Sunset has been an Irish and Italian ethnic enclave. Beginning in the late 1960s the neighborhood saw a steady influx of Asian (mostly Chinese) immigrants following the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 which lifted racial quotas allowing for more non-European nationals to immigrate to the United States. Additionally, the Handover of Hong Kong motivated many Chinese to immigrate to the U.S. due to the political and economic uncertainties. In 1999, around 60% of the homeowners in the Sunset and Richmond districts were Chinese.

Sub-Districts

Inner Sunset

The Inner Sunset is bordered by Lincoln Way to the north, 2nd Ave to the east, Quintara Street to the south, and 19th Avenue to the west. This far-east section of the Sunset is located just west of Mount Sutro. The main commercial area is along Irving Street from 5th Avenue to 12th Avenue, and along 9th Avenue from Lincoln Way to Judah Street, much of which is dotted with a variety of restaurants and shops.

The Inner Sunset hosts a variety of local businesses, including restaurants, bars, breweries, book stores, bakeries, coffee shops, ice cream parlors, clothes and shoe stores, a tattoo parlor, and a wine bar. Many of these establishments are clustered around the intersection of 9th Avenue and Irving Street. Food offered by the restaurants located in the Inner Sunset includes pizza, Mexican, Thai, Persian, Korean, Malaysian, Hawaiian, Greek, Ethiopian, Pakistani, Cajun/Creole, Dim Sum, Turkish, Peruvian, Chinese, Vietnamese, California Cuisine, Mediterranean, Indian, Japanese, Vegetarian.

The Inner Sunset is the 12th wealthiest neighborhood in San Francisco with a median income of $112,050. [10] The median sale price of homes in the Sunset District is $1.5M.

Central Sunset

The Central Sunset is bounded by Lincoln Way to the north, 19th Avenue to the east, Quintara Street to the south, and Sunset Boulevard to the west. This area is mostly residential with cookie-cutter homes and large lots and a commercial strip along Irving Street from 19th Avenue to 24th Avenue and on Noriega Street from 19th Avenue to 27th Avenue and 30th Avenue to 33rd Avenue. Features of the area include the Sunset Reservoir (which takes up eight square blocks between Ortega and Quintara streets and 24th and 28th avenues), which has a small park surrounding its outer rim; Golden Gate Park; the Sunset Recreation Center; and Abraham Lincoln High School.

• Abraham Lincoln High School

Outer Sunset

The Outer Sunset is bordered by Lincoln Way to the north, Sunset Boulevard (between 36th and 37th avenues) to the east, Sloat Boulevard to the south, and Ocean Beach to the west. The primary commercial avenues are Judah, Noriega, and Taraval. The Outer Sunset is the foggiest section in San Francisco due to its close proximity to Ocean Beach. The area's main attractions include the San Francisco Zoo, Golden Gate Park, Ocean Beach, and Lake Merced.

Attractions

The western part of the Sunset borders the cold northern California Pacific Ocean coastline, so it tends to get much of the fog San Francisco is famous for. The Sunset can be foggy and chilly for some days during summer. The Sunset's finest weather is usually from August through December, when regional air patterns transition from onshore to offshore weather and the area is free of fog. Sand carried by Pacific Ocean winds can be found on roadways and driveways within the first five to ten blocks east of Ocean Beach.

The Sunset District contains several large park and recreation areas. The San Francisco Zoo is located in the southwestern corner of the neighborhood by Lake Merced, the largest lake within San Francisco. Also within the Lake Merced area are several golf courses: the private Olympic Club and San Francisco Golf Club, and the public TPC Harding Park. Across from Lake Merced is Fort Funston, an old coastal battery, now part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Fort Funston notably has some of the last remnants of the sand dune ecosystem that once covered the entire Sunset District.

There is a year-round, Sunday morning farmers' market which is located at 1315 8th Avenue (the parking lot between 8th and 9th Avenues). The market is operated by the Pacific Coast Farmers' Market Association and is sponsored by the Inner Sunset Park Neighbors. The Inner Sunset Farmers' Market offers California-grown produce, fish, eggs, and meat, as well as local food vendors and artisans.

Stern Grove, a heavily wooded park and amphitheater located on Sloat Boulevard between 19th and 34th avenues, is known for its annual summer festival.

Three parks lie on the far east border of the district: the northernmost is Grand View Park (also referred to as Turtle Hill) a small, elevated park surrounded by 14th and 15th Avenues, as well as Noriega Street; moving south, next is Golden Gate Heights Park, just east of 14th Avenue north of Quintara; and Hawk Hill Park, also east of 14th Avenue at Santiago. These natural areas belong to a remnant ridge-top system and include some of the last-remaining sand-dune communities in the city.

Education

The San Francisco Unified School District operates public K–12 schools.

Educational institutions include the Parnassus campus and medical center of the University of California, San Francisco, located in Inner Sunset; the main campus of San Francisco State University, located in the southwestern corner of the neighborhood across from Lake Merced; Abraham Lincoln High School, located in the center of the Sunset District; St. Ignatius College Preparatory (a private, coeducational school operating in San Francisco since 1855) located since 1969 adjacent to Sunset Boulevard; and Lowell High School, the oldest public high school west of the Mississippi and one of the top performing ones in the United States.

Beach Culture

The strip near the Pacific Ocean has a notable population of surfers who take advantage of the sometimes excellent surf conditions of Ocean Beach. Because of the cold Pacific current that brings ocean water from Alaska, it is usually necessary to wear a wet-suit when surfing at Ocean Beach. Several surf shops can be found near the beach in the Outer Sunset.

Several playgrounds are located in the Sunset, including Sunset Playground and Recreation Center, Blue Boat Playground, West Sunset, McCoppin Square, and South Sunset.

Climate

Like much of the coast of Northern California, Sunset district has a cool summer Mediterranean climate, albeit with an unusual annual temperature distribution. The warmest days of the year occur in October and then the coldest nights of the year occur just two months later in December. Its climate is strongly influenced by the Pacific Ocean and therefore has even cooler summers and milder winters than downtown San Francisco. Rainfall follows a seasonal pattern with plentiful precipitation in the winter (almost all of this falling as rain) and extremely dry albeit foggy summers.

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The Western Addition

Lying west of Van Ness Avenue, bordered by the main thoroughfare of Geary on the north and roughly Fell on the south, the Western Addition extends as far west as the edge of Golden gate Park and includes the small University of San Francisco. The area derives its name from being one of the first residential areas developed outside the central city. Technically, it encompasses many other neighborhoods such as Fillmore, the Lower Haight, and Japantown. Once solidly lower-middle class, it has become a somewhat seedy neighborhood sharing a border with the Tenderloin. Some of the best neighborhoods are found around Alamo Square, a high plateau of green park land. A famous view of San Francisco showing a row of Victorian houses in the foreground and the spires of downtown in the background is taken from Alamo Square.

Mostly untouched in the 1906 fire, the Western Addition offers some of the finest examples of San Francisco Victorian row houses, known popularly as “painted ladies.” Professional colorists earn their living creating and executing color schemes that highlight the redwood gingerbread decorating these houses. Once built for the middle class, these old Victorians, mostly Italianates and a local hybrid called Stick-Eastlake, are now in high demand, fetching prices of three-quarters of a million dollars and more.

A point of interest is the old Fillmore Auditorium on the corner of Fillmore and Geary. It was the site of much of the late 1960s music scene when under the hand of master promoter Bill Graham. Another interesting location is a vacant lot on Geary between Scott and Steiner streets. This was the former site of Jim Jones’ People’s Temple before the move to Guyana and the resulting Jamestown Massacre. The building mysteriously burned to the ground in 1990.

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History

A rich and at times tragic history precedes the current state of affairs in San Francisco, though many of the vampires embroiled in the conflict are unaware of it (and perhaps doomed to repeat it). What both Kindred and Kuei-jin know is that history has picked up its pace in the Bay Area as well as the rest of the world for some time now. It is a pendulum racing on the downward swing , a prisoner of both gravity and momentum and subject to forces and paths not of its choosing. Aware of this, both sides fear there may be no stopping the events they set in motion within the city.

The Earliest Days

While San Francisco’s history only covers a two- century span, the history of the Bay area extends back much farther than that. Native American tribes like the Ohlone and the Miwok inhabited the region long before the arrival of the first Europeans or Asians landed on the shores of North America. These people knew nothing of t he Curse of Caine or the Fall of the Wan Xian, although they understood the creatures haunting the world’s dark and wild places. For the most part, the tribes remained small, warding off undue attention from their preternatural predators. They lived in relative peace with the Changing Folk of the wilds, never dreaming their fellow mortals from across the Atlantic would prove the greatest threat to their existence.

Exploration & Settlement

The first European visitors to curse the shores of California came in 1542, when Portuguese explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo circumnavigated the tip of South America and sailed as far north as the Russian River, mapping the western coast of South and North America along his route. In 1579, famed English sailor Sir Francis Drake landed on California’ s northern coast, pausing briefly to claim the land for Queen Elizabeth before repairing his ships and setting sail once again. Sebastian Cermeno, another Portuguese explorer, “discovered” Punta de los Reyes (King’ s Point) in the 1590s. All the visiting Europeans missed the narrow entrance to San Francisco Bay, however, shrouded as it was by mist and nearly invisible from the sea. It would be centuries more before a European discovered the site of what would become the city of San Francisco.

In 1769, a Spanish soldier named Gaspar de Protola accidentally stumbled upon the bay’s entrance while sailing to Monterey Bay in the south. Six years later, Juan Ayala actually sailed into San Francisco Bay on a mapping expedition for the Spanish crown. It did not take the Spanish long to realize the value of their new discovery, given its strategic and economic potential.

In 1776, about a week before the thirteen English colonies on the other side of the continent declared their independence, Juan Bautista de Anza and some thirty Spanish-speaking families made their way from Sonora, Mexico to San Francisco Bay. They claimed the land for Spain and settled there. Their headquarters was an adobe fort they named the Presidio.

The settlers established a mission about a mile away from the fort. The priests officially named the mission Nuestra Senora de Dolores or Mission Delores, and dedicated the church to St. Francis of Assisi; it was known as “San Francisco,” the name later applied to the bay itself. The mission’ s priests took an interest in the spiritual welfare of the local Indian tribes, ensuring they were baptized and converted to Christianity; for the most part, the natives welcomed trade with the new settlers.

Independence & Growth

In 1821, Mexico won its independence from Spain, secularizing the Spanish missions and abandoning interest in the spiritual well being of the natives — or anyone else, for that matter. Freed from European rule, California’s ports opened for trade and shipped a wealth of goods (mostly hides, furs, wood and tallow) by sea around Cape Horn to the burgeoning factories in New England and New York. Trappers and hunters told tall tales about the strange beasts they encountered in the California hills, but few paid them any heed so long as the goods continued to flow.

The area’s growing prosperity was enough to convince English sailor William Richardson to jump ship in 1822 and settle there. He fell in love with the daughter of the Presidio’ s commandant and converted to Catholicism to marry her. He established a trading post that he named Yerba Buena (or “good herb”) for the wild mint growing in the area. The aptly chosen name later became a source of great humor to the people of San Francisco in the 1960s. Richardson’ s enterprise was wildly successful, and Yerba Buena grew from a trading post to a small town, with a saloon of ill repute frequented by English-speaking hunters and trappers.

Even though Yerba Buena and Mission Dolores grew, their population remained a few hundred at best, comprised of mostly farmers, trappers and a handful of soldiers stationed at the Presidio. During the war between the United States and Mexico in 1847, U.S. Marines from the warship Portsmouth seized the Presidio and the main plaza of Yerba Buena. The dozen or so Mexican soldiers at the Presidio surrendered without firing a single shot. Commander John Montgomery raised the U.S. flag and declared California an American territory. Among the first acts of the new territorial government was to change the settlement’s name to that of the bay: San Francisco.

Such small political victories were certainly of no interest to either the Kindred hunting in the nighttime streets of Boston, New York and Philadelphia, or to those sleeping by day in the mansions of Louisiana, Georgia or Carolina. The events in San Francisco were of even less interest to the Kuei-jin, who barely knew of California at all and remained far more concerned with the Opium Wars brought on by European (and Kindred) incursion into the Middle Kingdom. That, however, was about to change with a single word....

Gum San: The Golden Mountain

“Gold! Gold in the American River!” Mormon preacher Sam Brannan shouted that memorable statement while running through San Francisco’s streets in 1848. Although Brannan was a notorious charlatan, in this case he shouted the truth. Gold was found in the riverbed at a sawmill owned by Swiss-born John Augustus Sutter. Despite Sutter’s best efforts to keep the discovery quiet, the news spread like wildfire. Sam Brannan, incidentally, purchased large tracts of coastal land in San Francisco, as well as cornering the market on shovels, pickaxes and canned goods before making his fateful announcement. He became fabulously wealthy without turning over a single spade of dirt.

It seemed the world was primed for the news from San Francisco. The “Year of Revolutions” swept through Europe, with political and social unrest in many of her major cities. The Potato Famine stalked Ireland, driving people from their homes in hope of a new life elsewhere. The United States caught its breath following the war with Mexico while the conflicts leading to the Civil War simmered beneath the surface. China reeled from the Opium Wars and the abdication of Hong Kong to the British, while reforms swept through Japan. All this was dry tinder for the spark of hope ignited by the discovery of riches in California.

People from around the world flocked to San Francisco in droves. Ships departed from docks in Europe and America groaning from the weight of passengers and mining equipment. Ship-crews immediately deserted upon reaching California’s shores, leaving boats abandoned and turning Yerba Buena Cove into a “forest of masts.” Townspeople in America’ s heartland headed west in wagon trains, leaving behind empty homes and shops with signs in their windows reading, “GONE TO THE DIGGINGS.”

In 1849, San Francisco’s population soared from 900 to 26,000. Another 100,000 people drifted through the area on their way into the California hills and hinterlands in search of their fortune. San Francisco crushed the equivalent of fifty years of growth and development into the course of a single year.

The effects of San Francisco’ s sudden gold boom did not escape the Kindred. While their elders continued their affairs in Europe and the Eastern Seaboard, the promise of wealth and blood offered by an overcrowded boomtown drew young vampires from across the nation. Ambitious Camarilla neonates saw the potential to create domains of their own, away from the stifling grip of their elders. Meanwhile, Sabbat packs and anarchs anticipated a new, unspoiled frontier where they could do as they pleased. The Kindred certainly found opportunities in San Francisco, where the arrival of a ship laden with heavy crates was commonplace. In a place where so many new people intermingled, hardly anyone noticed one or two strangers among thousands... or cared if a few of those new arrivals mysteriously vanished.

Although there was no gold in San Francisco itself, it was the largest port community near the gold fields, making it the destination of choice for disembarking prospectors. Although a few of them actually found gold, most didn’t. Instead, most of the money in the area was made in a more traditional fashion. It didn’t take long for the locals to discover that it was far more profitable catering to the miners and prospectors than searching for gold themselves. Shops, saloons and all manner of businesses sprang up in San Francisco, looking to serve the needs of the burgeoning population.

The abandoned ships in Yerba Buena Cove were put to good use in helping the city grow. The city fathers handled the problem by hauling the ships up onto the shore, where they were either broken up and used to construct new buildings and furniture or simply turned into buildings themselves. Cut a door or two in the hull of an overturned ship and you had a saloon. Many such structures sprang up along the harbor.

In the shadows between these new buildings and in the tent cities of the newcomers, the Kindred hunted with near abandon. Prospectors in the San Francisco Bay area fell victim to accidents, the elements, starvation and despair. They committed suicide at the rate of over 1,000 a year. It was not uncommon to stumble across a dried-up corpse bearing a pickaxe and shovel in the hills; common enough, in fact, that inquiry into the deaths were unheard of. Nobody cared how the poor wretch died.

The hunting was plentiful and good, so much so that vampires all but ignored the traditional conflicts between Camarilla and Sabbat while glutting themselves on the bounty of blood. Naturally, vampires fought over certain watering holes, but the conflicts simply demonstrated how easily they fell to their baser needs. Kindred and Cainite were all too similar in their bestial tendencies — except when the Sabbat and Camarilla sects stepped in to enforce opinion and policy. Regardless of allegiance, however, all vampires quickly learned to confine their hunting to the new city. The Lupines stalked the wilds outside San Francisco as guards encircling a prison. They shredded the first vampires to stray into their domain as a warning to the rest.

A Land of New Promise

Of course, new arrivals to San Francisco came not only from Europe, Mexico and the United States, but also from the Middle Kingdom. China’s Opium Wars against England and the ongoing encroachment of gweilo — white barbarians — everywhere strained the situation in the Far East. To many Chinese, California was Gum San, the “Golden Mountain,” a land of promise and opportunity away from war and starvation. Around the time of the Gold Rush, the first ship laden with some three hundred Chinese arrived in San Francisco.

Unfortunately, these immigrants discovered their “golden land of promise” was a rough frontier following the Golden Rule: Those with the gold make the rules. The Chinese remained a close-knit community even after their arrival, laying the foundations for San Francisco’ s modern Chinatown. Rather than becoming prospectors and miners (though some of them did), many Chinese found employment either serving the needs of San Francisco’s more fortunate inhabitants or working for the powerful railroad companies, who sought cheap labor to complete the transcontinental railroad.

Of course, with the Chinese and other Middle Kingdom immigrants came the Wan Kuei, the Ten Thousand Demons. It was not that the August Courts had any interest in a frontier city in a barbaric land, but the presence of some Kuei-jin was inevitable. A few, disgraced in shadow wars or fallen from favor in the August Courts, chose self-imposed exile over facing the Eye of Heaven and Final Death. Some found the freedom of the frontier exhilarating while others suffered in silence, hoping to redeem themselves and return to civilization. There were also those mortals who crossed the ocean only to die in their new land, fight their way free of torture in Yomi and take the Second Breath. More experienced Kuei-jin usually dealt with the resulting chih-mei.

Regardless of their reasons for coming to the Golden Mountain, though, the Wan Kuei who made the ocean crossing quickly discovered they were not alone in San Francisco’s nights.

The Kanbujian

In Chinatown’s early years, the Kuei-jin learned that leaving the Middle Kingdom behind did not necessarily free a soul from the weight dragging it down to Yomi after death. On occasion, a mortal of Chinese descent would take the Second Breath outside the bounds of civilization and away from the watchful eyes of the Kuei-jin jina and elders. With no aid from others of their kind and no knowledge of their nature, most of these poor unfortunates succumbed to their Demons, becoming ravening flesh-eaters that the Kuei-jin were forced to hunt down and destroy. On rare occasions, the Kin-jin discovered one of these chih-mei and destroyed it as a threat to the Masquerade, unaware of what it really was or where it originated.

The Wan Kuei called these poor wretches kànbujiàn — “unable to see” — because they were blind to Dharma and the path to the Hundred Clouds. If found soon enough, they were often able to master their P’o nature and join Kuei-jin society; if they failed or were not found in time, the Wan Kuei “mercifully” gave them Final Death. What the Kuei-jin did not know at first — and later refused to acknowledge — was that some rare kànbujiàn mastered their Demon nature on their own. Most did so by surrendering to the Yama Kings and becoming akuma, but a few struggled to find their own way, even discovering some Dharma principles through trial and error. Their Way was flawed and fraught with peril, but their determination was great.

East Meets West

The first encounters between Kuei-jin and San Francisco’s Kindred were brief and fleeting. The Kindred quickly discovered the clannish Chinese immigrants were better left alone. While most Europeans and Americans had abandoned such “childish” notions as vampires, the Chinese still maintained their old ways. The Kindred were surprised that Asians knew enough to take precautions against creatures of the night. Some of them — paper charms, rice scattered across thresholds and the like — were laughable. Others, such as prayer beads, charms backed by a true and abiding faith or the simple wisdom to huddle close to the light in groups, made the Chinese more difficult prey.

Of course, most Kindred created excuses not to bother rather than admit difficulty. “Chinese blood is thin and not as satisfying,” some said. “They’re not as vigorous, and less lively than other mortals.” “It’s a small loss, since there is so much already available.” Still, it vexed some Kindred to be denied anything. Some accepted the challenge by hunting more “interesting” prey in Chinatown... only to vanish and never be seen again.

Rumors circulated among the city’s vampires. They said the Chinese knew far more than they let on, luring Kindred into some kind of trap. Another whisper claimed that their numbers included mysterious magi or vampire- hunters. Yet others said that they had forged a pact with the Lupines, or they were host to a hitherto-unknown clan of Cainites . This last fiction was the closest to the truth.

The Wan Kuei needed the Chinese community to build Scarlet Screens in this new and alien land. To protect their interests, they destroyed any threat to Chinatown. In the process, the Demon People learned more about the White Demons dwelling among the Western mortals, the ones who came with the gweilo to the Middle Kingdom.

The first thing the Kuei-jin realized was that the Westerners were too numerous; they were too few to risk open confrontations. So the Wan Kuei remained in Chinatown’ s shadows and kept to their own affairs and council. They gave the gweilo vampires good reason to avoid their domain, but did not venture too far outside of it either. Those who disobeyed or threatened this version of the Kindred’ s Masquerade paid with their unlives.

Shadow Plays

Lawlessness ruled San Francisco’s streets in the years immediately following the Gold Rush. The population surge overtaxed the city’ s limited law enforcement, and bribery helped ensure the law looked the other way for almost anything. Along the waterfront rested saloons and whorehouses where miners spent their money, with roving gangs of criminals more than willing to help lighten their pockets.

One of the most notorious gangs was the Sydney Ducks, comprised of criminals who had escaped exile in Australia and made their way to California. They would waylay passers-by, throwing a bag over their heads and relieving them of their money and valuables (often leaving the victim dead or merely stunned with a strike from a sap or fist). The practice became known as “hooding” and the criminals who did it as “hoodlums.” The Australian gangsters also operated protection rackets in and along the Barbary Coast. The Sydney Ducks set fire to parts of the city five times for denying them tribute. It happened so often that Chinatown and Barbary Coast residents built exclusively with brick and stone rather than wood, so their homes and businesses would not burn so easily.

Some Kindred thought it too convenient that the depredations of the Sydney Ducks hurt businesses influenced by the Camarilla as well as burning out portions of Chinatown. Rumors claimed the gang was under the influence of a Sabbat pack or anarchs. Some even believed that its roster might have included vampires, though no proof of these conjectures ever manifested. The fires, however, did convince many local Kindred and Kuei-jin to find fireproof havens — a precaution that would prove vital a few decades later.

By the mid-1850s, miners had panned or mined out most of California’s surface gold, leaving only the deeper underground veins to be tapped. Those wise enough to invest their money carefully (including the Ventrue and other Camarilla vampires) funded large mining operations to dig out the gold that remained beyond the means and reach of individual miners. The continually expanding waterfront also became the mouth by which to feed the hungry factories of the East Coast and Europe. During that period, trading companies shipped every product workers could dig, drag, chop or tear from the mountains, fields and forests. The city became the premier center for commerce along the Pacific Ocean, finally drawing the attention of the elders and Princes that their childer had left behind years before. The unspoken truce between Camarilla, Sabbat and anarch vampires in San Francisco was over.

Of course, “peace” was a relative term. Kindred from all three factions struggled against each other previously, but mostly over territory and mortals. When the Transcontinental Railway became a reality, the Camarilla mentality reasserted itself. It was decided that San Francisco should be brought under the Camarilla’s aegis, to that ensure the Sabbat and anarchs would not control the city.

Public Vigilance

As usual, the Camarilla operated behind the scenes, using mortal proxies to carry out their plans. The Sabbat Cainites in 1850s San Francisco were wealthy and powerful. In very un-sect-like machinations, they influenced mortals — usually criminals — who in turn assumed positions of power locally during the Gold Rush and held them through graft, corruption and influence peddling. Ballot stuffing was practiced openly and an honest man’s vote counted for little. The common people , however, grew tired of this lawless state of affairs. Their desire to see justice was the Camarilla’s weapon against the Sabbat.

On June 9, 1851 in Sydney Cove, a man named John Jenkins simply walked into a merchant’s store, picked up the safe and walked away. He loaded the safe into a boat and calmly rowed out into the bay. Several of the merchant’s friends and associates pursued Jenkins and caught him easily, though he dumped the safe overboard. The public outcry was considerable.

Local citizens formed the Committee for Public Vigilance, which tried and executed Jenkins on its own authority. The Committee was very loosely organized at first, but its presence did give San Francisco’s criminals pause, at least for a short while. Jenkins’ boldness and the relative ease of his capture sent rumors among the Sabbat of a Camarilla plot, but local corruption ran deep. The Sabbat knew it would take more than a few outraged vigilantes to mobilize San Francisco’s citizens against its mortal power base.

It wasn’t long, however, before matters worsened. In 1855, there were nearly 500 murders in California but only 6 legal executions. Corrupt politicians maintained a tight hold on the government. Municipal spending was through the roof — much of it went into graft, bribes and embezzlement, lining the pockets of the city’s “civil servants.”

James King was a prominent San Francisco banker who had lost his fortune when local financial panic closed his bank. Outspoken against local corruption, he used his remaining money and the encouragement of his friends to found a newspaper voicing his opinions. In October of 1855, King began publication of the Evening Bulletin, a four-page paper. In it, he denounced criminals and political figures alike in fearless editorials that had people all over the city talking.

When notorious gambler Charles Cora shot and killed U.S. Marshal Richardson, he was “formally arrested” by friends of his who held public office. It was considered likely that he would walk away a free man. Following the incident, King ran an editorial saying that that if Cora wasn’t hanged, Sheriff David Scannell should take his place on the gallows.

King also took on city supervisor James Casey, revealing that Casey was a felon who had served time in Sing-Sing Prison in New York. In retribution, Casey shot King outside the Bulletin office on Montgomery Street. Witnesses rushed the wounded reporter to a doctor while Casey’s cronies in law-enforcement “took him into custody.”

In response to the shooting, over a thousand people turned out at the Montgomery Block in a show of support for James King. The crowd later made its way to the Plaza, where word circulated that the Committee for Public Vigilance was reforming. The following morning, members of the 1851 Committee met and created a new, more organized group. They penned an oath of fealty and assigned each member a number by which he would be known within the organization, to maintain anonymity. A few days later, the Committee consisted of some 3,500 members. In the meantime, however, James King died from his gunshot wound at home.

The Committee for Public Vigilance marched on the jail guarded by hundreds of local militia and law officers loyal to James Casey. Using a cannon to batter down the door, the Committee took Casey with little protest from his protectors. They also took gambler Charles Cora into custody. Both men received advocates and stood trial before a jury of Committee members, who summarily convicted the two men and sentenced them to a public hanging. An immense crowd filled Sacramento Street to watch the double execution, cementing the Committee for Public Vigilance’s power in the minds of San Franciscans.

Meanwhile, the Camarilla encouraged the Committee’s vigilantes to attack the Sabbat’s mortal proxies in the name of justice. They eliminated many of the Sabbat’s pawns from positions of power. The so-called revolution also hid the nightly movement of Camarilla scourges eliminating Sabbat targets and consigning vampires to ash. As far as the Camarilla was concerned, the strikes were clean and precise. They believed that they were the cause of the Sabbat’s fall in San Francisco. What they did not realize was the extent of the Sabbat’s internal dissent and scattered resources. The Sabbat were defeated as much by their own lack of foresight as the Camarilla’s attacks.

After the Committee’s cleanup of the city’s political echelons, legitimate businesses thrived — with the Camarilla riding their coattails. San Francisco formally incorporated as a city of some 30,000 people. The City by the Bay became reality, and the Inner Circle recognized the rule of Prince Jebediah Hawthorne in the Domain of San Francisco.

Emperor Norton

"At the preemptory request of a large majority of the citizens of these United States, I Joshua Norton, formerly of Algoa Bay, Cape of Good Hope, and now for the last nine years and ten months past of San Francisco, California, declare and proclaim myself the Emperor of These United States." — Joshua Norton, September 19, 1859

The first and only Emperor of the United States was born in London, England in 1819. He arrived in San Francisco by way of South Africa at the age of 30, with the sum of $40,000 to his name. Within five years, he’d lost that considerable fortune by speculating in real estate and attempting to corner the local market on rice. Living in poverty, Norton wrote a proclamation declaring himself Emperor of the United States. It was published in a local newspaper, at least in part due to the sheer novelty of the idea. He wore a uniform that he obtained from a second-hand store and walked the streets, administering to the daily needs of his “ domain.”

Emperor Norton issued various proclamations during his “reign,” including the abolition of the Democratic and Republican parties and a decree against using “the abominable word ‘Frisco,’ which has no linguistic or other warrant.” That alone carried a $25.00 fine. He also proposed the idea of a “League of Nations,” where the international community could settle its disputes (many years before the actual League of Nations signed its charter in San Francisco). He issued his own money, which he traded for legal tender; many stores came to accept Norton’ s currency as payment. He even mediated public disputes, defusing one anti-Chinese demonstration by quietly standing and reciting the Lord’s Prayer. His example shamed the demonstrators so greatly that they returned to their own affairs.

Idle speculation about Emperor Norton circulated among San Francisco’s Kindred. One account said he was the victim (or, perhaps, beneficiary) of Malkavian manipulation. Others suggested he was a puppet of one faction or another, or that he provided a useful spectacle for the mortal herd. Some even believed he was fey-touched. Whatever the case, vampires considered Norton inviolate because of his fame and public standing. He was left as a purely mortal phenomenon.

Norton died on January 8, 1880 on California Street. He was buried in the Masonic Cemetery, and his funeral procession ran two miles long. Between 10,000 and 30,000 people attended his funeral to bid farewell to America’ s first and only Emperor.

Paths of Iron

San Francisco continued to grow steadily through the next decade, remaining a key center of commerce for North America’ s entire West Coast. As gold mining dwindled, the discovery of the Comstock Silver Lode in Nevada sent a new infusion of wealth into San Francisco’s coffers. Many of the city’s most powerful mining magnates owned either the Nevada mines or the machines to properly drill them, setting up a continuous circle of wealth. The newfound prosperity further cemented the Camarilla’ s hold over the city, their only real victory of any substance in California. It was a bastion of influence amid a sea of Sabbat and anarch power.

San Francisco’s only limitation was its isolation from the rest of the United States. Out on the edge of the continent’s westernmost frontier, travel to and from the City by the Bay required East Coast ships to circumnavigate Cape Horn. The building of the Transcontinental Railroad in the 1860s rectified that problem by connecting the Pacific and Central rail lines.

Chinese immigrant workers did much of the hard labor required to extend the Pacific Line through the harsh Utah desert. This elicited jealousy from Caucasian workers, who grumbled that the Chinamen stole their jobs. The government responded by passing “coolie laws” that penalized the Chinese workers and made it hard for them to earn a living. It was only part of a prejudice against Chinese people that simmered and festered beneath the surface — occasionally erupting into accusations or even violence.

San Francisco’s Chinatown remained a city-within- a-city; people mostly kept to themselves, running their own schools and businesses and generally catering to the area’s inhabitants. In turn, the city government passed laws limiting “foreign” ownership of property. It also enacted laws taxing foreign (mainly Asian) workers more heavily, thus protecting jobs for “good Americans.” The situation suited Chinatown’s few Kuei-jin and shen, since it kept their havens secure from foreign devils and prevented expatriated Chinese from intermingling with local Westerners.

Black Bart, the Plundering PO8

One of the most notorious criminal figures of late 19th century San Francisco made his debut in August of 1877. The man who later became known as Black Bart stopped a Wells-Fargo stagecoach, leveled a double-barreled shotgun at the driver and uttered his famous command: “Throw down the box.” The driver surrendered the wooden strongbox, after which the robber allowed him to leave unharmed. The box turned up later, empty except for a poem scrawled on the back of a waybill:

“I’ve labored long and hard for bread —"
“For honor and for riches —"
“But on my corns too long you’ve tread,"
“You fine-haired sons of bitches."

It was signed: “Black Bart, the PO8.”

News of the mysterious Black Bart and his “po8try” spread quickly, though the robber himself remained out of sight for roughly a year afterward. When he finally resurfaced, he robbed another stagecoach, followed by several more. He always worked alone, apparently traveling on foot through the rough hills outside San Francisco. Wells- Fargo and the city placed a considerable reward of $800 on his head, but Black Bart remained at large.

Authorities didn’t capture Black Bart until 1883, when he was wounded in a stagecoach robbery. Although he escaped, he left his possessions behind. Investigators tracked him through the San Francisco laundry that cleaned his clothes, leading them to Charles Bolton, AKA “Black Bart.” Bolton confessed to the robbery, but the courts sentenced him to only six years in prison. He served a little over four.

At his release, reporters mobbed Bolton, looking to interview the infamous Black Bart. When asked if he planned to rob any more stagecoaches, he replied that he would not commit any further crimes. The questions continued, until one young reporter asked, ”One final question. Do you plan to write any more poetry?”

Bolton smiled and said, “Young man, didn’t you just hear me say I would commit no more crimes?”

Charles “Black Bart” Bolton left San Francisco heading south. He disappeared shortly thereafter and was never heard from again.

The Dragon Thrashes its Tail

"Fire has reclaimed to civilization and cleanliness the"
"Chinese ghetto, and no Chinatown will be permitted in the"
"borders of the city... it seems as though a divine wisdom"
"directed the range of the seismic horror and the range of the fire"
"god. Wisely, the worst was cleared away with the best."
— The Overland Monthly, 1906

On April 18, 1906 at 5:12 AM , Kuei-jin geomancers sensed a shift in the dragon-lines, a stirring of powerful forces — the Earth Dragon was restless, and a tremendous earthquake struck San Francisco in response . The quake itself lasted for less than a minute, but it toppled buildings and buckled streets. Broken gas mains and fallen lamps ignited fires that swept through the city.

The local fire department mobilized almost immediately, but the earthquake had ruptured all the water mains, leaving them to fight the fires with buckets instead of hoses. They retreated, hoping to contain the inferno and allow it to burn itself out. That, unfortunately, did not happen. The fires raged and spread, burning all of one day and into the next. They consumed some 28,000 buildings, including all of Chinatown.

Despite both the Kuei-jin’s and Kindred’s best precautions, the fires caught them all by surprise. A few vampires perished in the blaze, unable to flee without facing sunlight and frenzied by Rötschreck or wave soul. Retainers helped some Kindred escape from mansions on Nobility Hill, while other vampires sought refuge in the earth that had seemingly turned against the city. A handful remained underground for several nights, fearful of the heat they felt above their heads. The horror of being burned to kindling frightened one or two Kindred so greatly that they waited too long and sank into Torpor, where they lay to this night. Some sires tell their neonate progeny that on still nights, you can hear them, scratching at the underside of sidewalks and roads.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers finally created a firebreak by dynamiting entire city blocks in the western districts. The blaze lasted for three days, as did the quake’s aftershocks. When it was all over, reporter Jack London wrote in a newspaper dispatch, “the City of San Francisco is no more.” The city was devastated, with some 3,000 people dead, 225,000 injured, vast numbers homeless and $400 million in damage (valued in 1906).

San Francisco’s vampire enclaves were in great disarray. Worse yet, with the mortal survivors huddled together for protection and comfort, hunting and feeding became exceedingly difficult. Forced to pick on lone stragglers and looters, many vampires turned on one another for vitae, sect be damned. The following weeks endured nightly destructions, with the strongest eliminating the weak . During the inevitable reconstruction, however, the Camarilla sent scourges into San Francisco to halt the indiscriminate feeding and make examples of Kindred who committed diablerie. The scourges caught and destroyed three Kindred, including one member of the primogen, but any other culprits either fled the region or hid their crime expertly.

The surviving Kuei-jin suffered the loss of their havens as well, and they would have to struggle against gweilo opposition (both mortal and Kin-jin) to regain it. Bereft of their sanctuaries , they hid among the mortal refugees of Chinatown as best they could, taking advantage of the deaths caused by the disaster to conceal their own feeding.

Some heralded Chinatown’s destruction as a blessing of sorts, and publicly hoped it would not be rebuilt.

Chinese and Western businessmen, however, planned to turn Chinatown into a tourist attraction — a unique part of San Francisco’s heritage that would draw people from around the world. The plan received the quiet support of Chinatown’s shen, including Father Li T’ien.

The city could not ignore the potential for prestige and income. Even Kindred who bothered concerning themselves with the “Chinatown problem” believed a tourist-town would eliminate the barriers the Asian enclave presented before. What they did not know was that the Kuei-jin chose to sacrifice their previous security for the opportunity to hide in plain sight.

In some ways, the fire and reconstruction following the Great Quake benefited both Cainites and Kuei-jin. With decades of influence among the wealthiest and most powerful mortals, the vampires subtly directed the reconstruction to suit their own needs. The rebuilt mansions on Nob Hill and the new Chinatown’s maze-like urban topography took shape under the watchful eyes of the city’ s oldest residents, with few people the wiser. The destruction of so many important papers and public records in the fire facilitated the flood of forged identities and birth certificates. In fact, a new wave of Chinese citizens known as “paper sons” gained their citizenship through such fake documents, swelling the local Asian population. Vampires “reset the clock” and established new, “legitimate” identities that withstood official scrutiny. The earthquake was a setback, but it would not keep San Francisco down.

Of cardinal importance to the Kuei-jin was that the earthquake revealed the shifting dragon lines in and around San Francisco. The shaking of the Earth Dragon’s tail released reservoirs of Chi that the Demon People tapped for their own purposes. They ensured that the new Chinatown controlled one such Dragon Nest. This life- force filled an invigorated San Francisco, thinned the Wall between worlds and drew the attention of other shen as well, who migrated to the city over the years. The Kin-jin remained largely ignorant of the geomantic implications of the quake, as the Kuei-jin hoped. Let the barbarians play at their petty struggles... the Demon People controlled San Francisco’s true power.

WHERE THE DEAD OUTNUMBER THE LIVING

"Such room to roam in after death!" — Joaquin Miller, speaking of the new graveyards in Colma

In 1901, San Francisco passed an ordinance banning any burials within the city. Land on the peninsula was simply too precious to waste on cemeteries. In fact, the city fathers encouraged the relocation of existing graveyards to outside the city, so that land currently allocated for cemeteries would be open for development. This need only increased following the 1906 earthquake and the city’ s reconstruction. Many landowners found it lucrative to move bodies to other plots and sell the land at a considerable profit (or, sometimes, to leave the interred bodies and sell the land anyway).

Between re-interring the previously deceased and the number of quake-related fatalities, it was a simple matter for a cart laden with caskets to move through San Francisco’s streets unnoticed. This allowed the city’s Kindred to go about the business of rebuilding and relocating with minimum duplicity during the years immediately before and after the reconstruction. Disturbing the graveyards also stirred the occasional ghost, drawing more psychics and mediums to the area.

Several new graveyards opened in the small town of Colma. In fact, the “town” consists mostly of cemeteries, with only a few homes and businesses for the cemetery attendants and other support services. Even tonight, Colma’s deceased far outnumber the living, a situation that draws the occasional Bone Flower, Giovanni or Samedi.

For Their Own Protection

After rebuilding, San Francisco settled into a seemingly quiet existence for the local Kindred and Kuei-jin. Anarchists found the City by the Bay less appealing than Los Angeles, but this was mostly thanks to the reconstruction process. Camarilla and Kuei-jin alike helped fund or support the city’ s restoration, thus claiming territory and businesses from the ground up. The Sabbat and anarchs, however, contributed little. Thus, they found themselves with no grip on the city whatsoever, be it socially, politically or financially.

Conflict between Kindred and Cainite in San Francisco was tame by comparison to domains like New York or Mexico City. Resultantly, the Camarilla’s reign over the region grew weak and decadent, raising concerns over Sabbat and anarch activities that local Kindred largely dismissed. San Francisco’s inhabitants were confident in their mastery of the night — confidence perhaps justified in the years following the quake, but that turned to unsupported arrogance as the years passed.

The city’s Kuei-jin, on the other hand, saw considerable activity in the first decades of the 20th century. Unrest in China sent thousands of rebellion- weary refugees across the sea, filling Chinatown’s already crowded streets. Occasionally, this deluge of mortals hid survivors from shadow wars and conflicts within the August Courts, fleeing the Middle Kingdom and seeking shelter in the West. These Kuei-jin — taught the formal manners and precise discipline of the Quincunx — were shocked by the laxity of North America’s kànbujiàn. The friction between traditionalists and Chinatown’ s undead inhabitants inevitably degenerated; shadow wars spilled over into conflicts between the city’s Tongs and associated criminals during the 1920s and ‘30s.

In December of 1941, the Empire of Japan attacked the United States Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, drawing the U.S. into World War II. In response, the American government displaced over a hundred thousand Japanese (two-thirds of them American citizens) from their homes to detainment camps in California, Utah and Idaho “for their own protection.” Many San Francisco gaki hid initially, while the army spirited their mortal screens and protection elsewhere. Eventually, however, the gaki realized that they were imprisoned as well. They possessed no freedom of movement, since no individuals of Japanese descent were supposed to be left behind.

When war workers and low-income families moved into the housing vacated by Japanese families, the gaki were forced to relocate. One or two gaki returned to Japan through the Yellow Springs, but most sought refuge in Chinatown. This latter lot suffered at the hands of their Chinese Kuei-jin hosts, who treated the gaki like slaves in retribution for Japan’ s invasion of the Middle Kingdom. Eventually, a few gaki escaped into the countryside, waiting for the matter to resolve. When the displaced Japanese returned, they found their homes and neighborhood occupied. Most resettled elsewhere. Japantown shrank from 30 blocks to a mere six.

Kuei-jin of Chinese descent capitalized on the Japanese deportations to eliminate or subjugate many of the gaki in San Francisco, deliberately ignoring the shadow war rules and requirements detailed under the Precepts of the War. What was the point, after all, since the August Courts were across the sea and thus could not appoint a ganshezhe (mediator) to oversee the conflict.

San Francisco was a pale reflection of the struggles transpiring in Nanking and Shanghai, but it was traumatic nonetheless. The city’s gaki population never truly recovered from the experience. Any Kuei-jin of Japanese extraction faces a difficult existence under the watchful eyes of San Francisco’s New Promise Mandarinate. Conversely, the Kuei-jin’s actions taught the gaki they could effectively play dirty pool in shadow wars, a trick they use to their advantage against the tradition-bound Mandarinate.

THE GREAT LEAP OUTWARD

As the 20th century drew to a close, signs and portents of an impending storm grew. In San Francisco, the status quo changed in ways few people anticipated, making the city a pivotal location in coming events.

The Dragon Wakes

In October of 1989, a powerful earthquake struck the San Francisco Bay Area incurring billions of dollars in damages and resulting in 63 deaths and numerous injuries. It thankfully did not spark the same terrible fires of 1906. In addition, most of the city’s buildings were constructed to resist earthquakes (although some “quake-proof” structures failed miserably). The event damaged portions of the city, however, including the Marina District and sections of the freeway and Bay Bridge.

To the citizens of San Francisco, the earthquake was a disaster. To local Kindred it was a nuisance, but also an opportunity to hide their activities in the resulting chaos and again influence reconstruction. To the Kuei-jin, it was something far more. The regional dragon lines shifted once more. The city’ s presence and continued growth polluted the wells of Chi in the area, sending out poison arrows that disturbed the slumbering Earth Dragon. The city’s life force waned, and the Kin-jin were bloated parasites feeding on its weakening Chi.

In the early 90s, Jochen Van Nuys was a junior member of a cabal of East Coast Ventrue, sent to San Francisco as their envoy. What Van Nuys found was a city of great wealth and potential ruled by a weak and ineffectual Prince, who did little to either keep the anarchs in check or even to enforce the Camarilla’s traditions. He also uncovered vampires existing in fear of the Prince and his primogen, squabbling over feeding territory and committing diablerie against each other in a dog-eat-dog struggle to survive. In short, he found a city of great potential that was ripe for a revolution. He decided to provide it.

By 1996, Van Nuys was ready to act. With allies back east as well as newfound local support, he executed a swift and masterful coup that deposed Prince Vannevar Thomas and his few remaining supporters. The Inner Circle was aware and tacitly approved of Van Nuys’ coup, backing his claim as the new Prince of San Francisco.

From the very first night he assumed power, Van Nuys walked a thin line. He replaced Thomas’ weak and ineffective leadership with decisiveness and action, but not so much as to rankle San Francisco’s anarchs or foster resistance against his rule. He guided with a firm but light touch, and San Francisco remained an unusually free and open city. Ventrue money followed in his wake, and San Francisco’s economy strengthened while the Ventrue’s coffers grew fatter.

The Two-Fang Serpent Plan

The first stirrings of San Francisco’s current woes began far from California’ s shores, in the August Courts of the Quincunx. In 1997, two of the five regional capitols of the August Courts were in foreign hands, with Hong Kong controlled by the Kin-jin and Shanghai under the gaki akuma of Japan. The “bamboo curtain” of Maoist China grew increasingly tattered. Western influences reverberated throughout the Middle Kingdom, carrying with them the influence of the Kin-jin. Elders and jina alike pointed to the impending Sixth Age and demanded something be done, while the Running Monkeys lived up to their names and strayed even further from tradition. The Bamboo Princes, in turn, demanded modernization and an abandonment of the ancient ways, practically courting the Demon Emperor’s arrival.

Two factions formed within the August Courts, each advocating their own plan of action. The Righteous Foreigner-Vanquishing Crusaders followed Mandarin Hao Wei-Liang, a cunning Resplendent Crane politician. It consisted of Resplendent Cranes, Devil-Tiger extremists and Thrashing Dragon hotheads. They called for a crusade to sweep the foreign devils from the shores of the Middle Kingdom and carry the battle to the unrighteous in their own lands. They proposed the Ash Plan as a means of accomplishing just that, which found support among Wan Kuei opportunists and those frustrated with the August Courts’ apparent weakness.

The Harmonious Menders of Broken Fences, led by Bone Flower elder Jiejie Li, proved more moderate. They claimed the Middle Kingdom needed to put its own house in order before beginning any crusades against the unrighteous. Corruption and evidence of the Yama Kings were rife in their own domains, yet the Foreigner- Vanquishing Crusaders would charge off to other lands, leaving their homes to rot from within. This was foolishness, the Fence-Menders said. The Crusaders countered by accusing their opponents of being cowards unwilling to take action while the world slid screaming into Hell.

The Menders of Broken Fences offered a compromise they called the Two-Fang Serpent Plan, which dealt with both the threats facing the Quincunx at home and abroad. The Kuei-jin directed the first “fang” toward securing the borders of the August Courts and dealing with dangers close at hand, like the occupations of Shanghai and Hong Kong. The plan’s second “fang” proposed taking and holding a western city to probe the Kin-jin’s strengths and abilities while establishing a foothold for a later time.

Shadow wars erupted between the two factions, each struggling to win the support of the August Courts. Finally, the Elders decided Hao Wei-Liang presented the greatest danger to their power and the Quincunx’s traditional ways. They chose the moderates’ plan, with some slight revisions. The August Courts created the Extraordinary Commission on the Rectification of Borders and appointed Jiejie Li its Ancestor, with experienced Devil Tiger General Chiu Bao as her lieutenant and First Oni. The Courts placed Hao Wei-Liang in command of a force known as the Glorious Ocean-Crossing Warriors, and charged him with capturing and pacifying Los Angeles, under the watchful eye of his rivals. The Ancestors would see whose approach proved more successful.

In the first days of 1998, scouts for the Ocean- Crossing Warriors entered Los Angeles, launching the Kuei-jin’s invasion. Initially things went smoothly. Kuei-jin warriors struck the Kin-jin like a hurricane, sweeping away loners and small, independent gangs of anarchs, while leaving the other Kindred scrambling for information and protection. By contrast, the Fence-Menders’ efforts in Shanghai and Hong Kong were slow and costly, both in terms of resources and the number of Kuei-jin who met Final Death. Hao Wei-Liang’s star was rising, to the concern of the August Courts’ Ancestors.

In 1999, however, a new star arose and changed everything. The red star known as the Eye of the Demon Emperor appeared in the heavens; it was believed an omen of the impending Sixth Age. Organized resistance spread among Los Angeles’ anarchs, sending Running Monkeys and war-wu to their Final Deaths in greater numbers. The Righteous Crusaders allied themselves with the spirits of the Yin World and the Yellow Springs, preparing a final, massive assault on Los Angeles from the Spirit Realms. In the midst of the attack, however, a storm of unprecedented fury struck the Yin World, smashing Kuei-jin and spectral forces alike. The Kin-jin pressed their advantage until, by summer, both sides were too exhausted to continue fighting.

Meanwhile, the Fence-Menders made considerable progress in Shanghai while maintaining a stalemate in Hong Kong. Jiejie Li also secured the defection of high-ranking Tremere Oliver Thrace, providing the August Courts with valuable information. Meanwhile, Hao Wei-Liang’ s troops were decimated and demoralized, his assault a failure in the eyes of his superiors. Ancestor Ch’ang of the Blood Court sent Hao an inkstone and calligraphic brush as a sign of his judgment. In late 1999, the Resplendent Crane Mandarin Hao met the Eye of Heaven with honor, leaving the Foreigner-Vanquishing Crusaders greatly weakened.

The invasion of Los Angeles sent shock-waves through the Anarch Free State and the Camarilla, which quickly moved to secure San Diego and San Francisco. Refugees from the fighting in LA sought shelter in Prince Van Nuys’ domain. He generously granted it, swelling the number of local anarchs. The Camarilla’s western princes strengthened their borders, looking to the Inner Circle for aid and waiting to see what the Cathayans would do next.

THE NEW PROMISE MANDARINATE

With the Final Death of Hao Wei-Liang, the Ancestors of the August Courts turned their attentions on Jiejie Li. Although the Fence-Menders won a considerable victory, Li knew full well she must now succeed where Hao failed, or she would follow him into the mouth of Yomi. If she were killed, the Ancestors could eliminate two powerful rivals and still reclaim Shanghai in the bargain. She didn’ t intend to allow them that opportunity.

As Li studied the situation, it became clear that a direct assault was no longer viable. The ranks of the Glorious Ocean-Crossing Warriors were severely thinned and morale was just as depleted. Elements loyal to the Foreigner-Vanquishing Crusaders also needed to be weeded out and replaced with jina and mandarins loyal to Li and the Fence-Menders. Li appointed Monkey Trip Wu ancestor of Los Angeles, with Mandarin Fun Toy of the Flatbush and Stockton Posse as his seconds-in-command. With that accomplished, she and Chiu Bao went to Los Angeles to oversee matters directly.

The new Kuei-jin strategy used a weapon from the arsenal of Western colonialism: divide and conquer. The Cathayans approached some of the prominent surviving anarch leaders and offered them a deal: their cooperation in exchange for aid in wiping out their closest rivals. It only took the agreement of a few to break the back of the anarch resistance and drive most of the surviving rebels out of the city. The Kuei-jin dubbed their alliance the “New Promise Mandarinate” and created a power structure that included both Wan Kuei and Kin-jin.

Jiejie Li presented this as a victory to the August Courts. Not only were the Kin-jin under control, but the Kuei-jin could civilize and teach them proper behavior, making them a useful resource in the coming struggle against the Sixth Age rather than chaff thrown to the winds.

To the Kindred of Los Angeles, the Mandarinate presented itself not as another process towards “enlightenment” or an egalitarian society, but as the fruition of those pursuits. It promised to upend the Camarilla’s status quo and offer advancement based on merit and ability rather than generation or diablerie. This strategy worked, leaving The Kuei-jin and their allies in control of Los Angeles. The Camarilla knew it would be a matter of time before the New Promise Mandarinate turned its attention elsewhere along North America’s Pacific Coast.

AN HONORABLE AGREEMENT

To forestall the Mandarinate’s expansion, the Inner Circle appointed Justicar Madame Guil to deal with “the Cathayan problem.” Of course the Camarilla’ s idea of confronting the situation was to sue for peace with the Cathayan invaders and cede Los Angeles to them. Hopefully this would keep them contained while the Camarilla dealt with a more pressing threat in the Sabbat. Theoretically, the justicar’s presence would also remind the western princes where their loyalties lay and help keep other cities from defecting to the New Promise Mandarinate.

Madame Guil and her entourage traveled across North America from Boston to San Francisco, dealing with several minor matters along the way and “marching out the flag” to rally the Camarilla’ s western holdings. Unfortunately, the local princes realized the Camarilla was essentially leaving them to the mercy of not just the Sabbat but also the Cathayans.

Once Guil established herself in San Francisco with Jochen Van Nuys unable to do anything save cooperate, negotiations with the New Promise Mandarinate began in earnest. To the Camarilla’ s surprise, the Cathayans eagerly discussed terms and welcomed the offer of a settlement. Negotiations took place throughout 2000, with meetings alternating between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Negotiators sent flurries of messages back to their superiors in the Camarilla and the Quincunx every step of the way, finally resulting in an acceptable agreement for both sides. The Kindred saved face by recognizing Kuei-jin authority in Asian matters and “approving” their recovery of the renegade domain of Los Angeles, allowing them to retain it so long as they kept “good and reasonable order” in the city. The Camarilla also agreed to compensate the Cathayans for the costs they incurred in “recovering” Los Angeles from the anarchs.

In short, the Camarilla capitulated, agreed to let the Cathayans keep what they’ d stolen and offered them a bribe in hopes they wouldn’t plunder any more territory. The Kuei-jin willingly allowed the Kin-jin to ascribe whatever face they wanted on the compromise, since it provided the Quincunx with significant gains — and even Western barbarians should be allowed to save face. The deal was set, but there was something on which neither side had counted.

THE WHEEL TURNS

Regardless of the Camarilla’s intentions, the western princes were not about to accept the Inner Circle’ s betrayal to Cathayans. Neither were the surviving anarchs driven from Los Angeles by the invaders. In the anarchs, the princes found the perfect tool. They would use one problem to solve another and, regardless the outcome, they would come out ahead. The plan called for the anarchs to execute a coup in San Francisco as the Camarilla’s delicate negotiations came to a close, eliminating both the Eastern and Western envoys. Once in control of the city, the anarchs could raise a force to move south and re-take Los Angeles with the backing of the western princes.

If the anarchs succeeded, they would eliminate or at least weaken the Cathayan threat and owe their success to their former political enemies. If they failed, the anarchs would be eliminated and the Camarilla would be forced into conflict with the so-called New Promise Mandarinate instead of suing for peace. Even if the Inner Circle discovered the culprits behind the coup, they would still need support to deal with the Cathayans (as well as the Sabbat). Any retribution would be minor at best and long in coming, even in the worst case scenario.

The details of the meeting between Kindred and Kuei-jin representatives on San Francisco’s Telegraph Hill are hazy, but what remains clear is that a well-armed force of anarchs attacked the meeting site. Many vampires met their Final Death that night with many more destroyed in the following hours. Accusations of betrayal and collaboration with the anarchs flew on both sides, as Prince Van Nuys watched his hopes of becoming the Camarilla’s peacemaker crumble.

THE TAKING OF SAN FRANCISCO

The August Courts graciously accepted the Camarilla’s tribute, then sent “envoys” and “peacekeepers” to San Francisco to ensure the safety of their own kind. In short order, the city’s Tremere and Toreador primogen met their Final Deaths at the hands of Kuei-jin assassins. The Wan Kuei swept into San Francisco like a black wind. It seemed nothing could stand before them. They seized control of the city’s prime areas, then opened “negotiations” with Prince Van Nuys and his surviving primogen.

Although couched in diplomacy, the Kuei-jin made it clear that the Kindred would be relocated to specific areas of San Francisco and allowed to exist under the watchful eye of the New Promise Mandarinate. Those who showed “merit” (i.e., loyalty to the new order) had the potential for advancement, while any threats would meet with swift retribution. The local Kindred had little choice; most complied with the invaders’ terms and moved their havens and strongholds to Cathayan-appointed areas.

After Van Nuys’ failure to hold the city, the Inner Circle stated they needed his diplomatic skills to “continue negotiations” with the Cathayans. They relieved him of his duties as prince, conferring that title on Sara Anne Winder, an ambitious and cunning Ventrue tactician charged with eventually re-taking the city.

In turn, the New Promise Mandarinate named Van Nuys Minister of the Office of Western Affairs, making him their official representative and mouthpiece for dealing with San Francisco’ s Kin-jin population. In their view, this places Van Nuys above Winder in the city’s hierarchy, even if many within the Camarilla don’t see it that way. It also secures the ousted Van Nuys’ loyalty for the New Promise Mandarinate.

Having taken the city, of course, the Fence-Menders now face the challenge of holding both Los Angeles and San Francisco while dealing with affairs at home. To worsen matters, the Quincunx expects them to expand their holdings in North America — against the better judgement of Jiejie Li and her advisors. The Two-Fang Serpent Plan is something of a victim of its own success, leaving the Kuei-jin stretched thin across California’s coast. The Kindred have regrouped from their early defeats, and the Camarilla now makes the Cathayans a greater priority than before. Robbed of the chance to gather intelligence while maintaining the element of surprise, the New Promise Mandarinate faces the prospect of organized resistance and an inevitable Camarilla counterattack while they fortify their holdings.

In San Francisco, these two powerful factions dance a delicate and dangerous diplomatic tango, each carefully hiding its weaknesses while ferreting out the enemy’s vulnerabilities and making plans for the future. On the city’ s fog-shrouded streets, Kuei-jin and Kindred encounter each other almost nightly, sometimes slipping past one another in the mist with the barest acknowledgment, other times exploding into violence that may eventually consume the city. As the pressure grows, each side can’ t help but reflect upon the prophecies of the End Times, watching the signs manifest all around them and wondering if hope still exists.

An Uneasy Peace

For thirteen years, a tentative peace held based upon the the Kuei-jin and Kindred joint awareness that war is bad for business and immortality. However, public peace, simply gave way to clandestine struggles in the shadows of skyscrapers and in the all concealing fog. Despite the regular, low-level internecine conflicts that consumed lesser domains within the city, the two primary powers kept the official peace. In 2014 a third party decided to shift the balance of power. Suddenly business fronts and havens were burning, peripheral Kuei-jin met the final death while prominent Kindred were diablerized and feral neonates were everywhere creating chaos enough to shatter the Masquerade - the Sabbat had returned with a vengeance. The Camarilla under Princess Winder and the New Promise Mandarinate under Jiejie Li were able to mount a counter offensive that while effective left both the Kindred and the Kuei-jin dangerously weak. In the aftermath, the surviving lords of the night cobbled together San Francisco by establishing five domains belonging to five theoretically equal barons. This political amalgam was never meant to last, but to the exhausted vampires of East and West, it was a welcome respite from the hell of war.

FIVE YEARS GONE

The city was preparing for another assault on the city by the Sabbat. Members of the Kindred and the Kuai-jin both ready to defend the city. The attack was expected at any time, but the attack did not come from the Sabbat but a completely unexpected enemy. In one day a great deal of the elders of the city were destroyed by a Government controlled group of hunters, including Jiejie Li and Sara Winder. In one 10 hour period the city was thrown into a desperate fight for survival. Most of the Kindred and Kuei-jin who lived stayed in hiding over several weeks.

When all was said and done, very few elders survived and the population of the city was cut in half. A rebuilding period slowly took place, Ancilla of the city were now the most powerful members of the city. The Sabbat had all but disappeared, their cities empty and notable figures gone. Members of the city found that if they were not careful with technology the hidden government organization would find and try to destroy them.

The balance of power changed again five years after the attack. Information was discovered that would give the person that had it enough power to rule the city. A young coterie of kindred decided to help the Brujah Baron, Sebastian Toc, get the information and rise to the princedom. The most powerful Kuei-jin, Cho of the Thrashing Dragons, became senechal. No one is saying what information gave Toc the power he needed.

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Population

• -- City (883,305) - 2018
• -- Metro (4,729,484) - 2018
• -- CSA (9,666,055) - 2018

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Attractions

• Fisherman's Wharf of San Francisco

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Bars and Clubs

• -- The Way Down -- A club known for its mixed supernatural clientèle.
  • -- Laura - Waitress at the The Way down
• -- Dracula's Daughter -- A Kindred club that has admitted a number of other supernaturals.
• -- Gold Club -- High End Gentlemen's club

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Cemeteries

• Star of the Sea Church
  

  • Pastor Father Andrew

    • John (Gravedigger and Handyman)

      Jacob (Gravedigger and Handyman)

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Changing Breeds

San Francisco is friendly to the Garou in almost direct proportion to its unfriendliness to the Kindred. There are more werewolves here than in just about any other major city in North America, drawn by the relaxed atmosphere and eco-friendly politics. Many live on the Peninsula, occasionally interacting with the fae of the Edge of the Labrys, but there are quite a few Glass Walkers lurking in Silicon Valley as well. The Bone Gnawer population of San Francisco is on the rise as well, as word gets around of the relatively easy pickings.

There are many bay area caerns, and as they are places of power for others as well, the Garou often share them with nunnehi. There is an unspoken mutual aid pact between the two groups, and Queen Aeron of the fae generally considers the two as a unit in reference to matters of policy. Of all the Kithain rulers, Countess Evaine sees more of the werewolves than any other. Certain sept leaders have observed her dealings with the selkies, and hold her as trustworthy. Regional Garou

• Rufus McLaren
• Wears-Many-Stories
• Andrea MacNilnoc

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Crime

In 2011, 50 murders were reported, which is 6.1 per 100,000 people. There were about 134 rapes, 3,142 robberies, and about 2,139 assaults. There were about 4,469 burglaries, 25,100 thefts, and 4,210 motor vehicle thefts. The Tenderloin area has the highest crime rate in San Francisco: 70% of the city's violent crimes, and around one-fourth of the city's murders, occur in this neighborhood. The Tenderloin also sees high rates of drug abuse, gang violence, and prostitution. Another area with high crime rates is the Bayview-Hunters Point area. In the first six months of 2015 there were 25 murders compared to 14 in the first six months of 2014. However, the murder rate is still much lower than in past decades. That rate, though, did rise again by the close of 2016. According to the San Francisco Police Department, there were 59 murders in the city in 2016, an annual total that marked a 13.5% increase in the number of homicides (52) from 2015.

Gangs

Several street gangs operate in the city, including MS-13, the Sureños and Norteños in the Mission District,. African-American street gangs familiar in other cities, including the Crips, have struggled to establish footholds in San Francisco, while police and prosecutors have been accused of liberally labeling young African-American males as gang members. Criminal gangs with shotcallers in China, including Triad groups such as the Wo Hop To, have been reported active in San Francisco. In 1977, an ongoing rivalry between two Chinese gangs led to a shooting attack at the Golden Dragon restaurant in Chinatown, which left 5 people dead and 11 wounded. None of the victims in this attack were gang members. Five members of the Joe Boys gang were arrested and convicted of the crime. In 1990, a gang-related shooting killed one man and wounded six others outside a nightclub near Chinatown. In 1998, six teenagers were shot and wounded at the Chinese Playground; a 16-year-old boy was subsequently arrested.

Peace Officers

The San Francisco Police Department was founded in 1849.

The portions of Golden Gate National Recreation Area located within the city, including the Presidio and Ocean Beach, are patrolled by the United States Park Police.

The San Francisco Fire Department provides both fire suppression and emergency medical services to the city.

The city operates 22 public "pit stop" toilets.

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Citizens of the City

• Ernesto Albani --
• Gaëlle Biondi -- French Girl and former roommate
• Theudemar Donne -- Cannibal Cardiac Surgeon
• Rino Hathway -- Twenty Something R.A. from the University of San Francisco
• Yu Jiang -- Police Detective
• Zhen Hou -- Masters Degree Student in Chemistry
• Polly Ball -- East Coast Addict (medium)
• Matthías Tómasson -- Graduate Organic Chemistry Student
• Diana Ninfa Rivero -- Nicaraguan Botanist

Ghosts

• Tina Ó Nualláin -- Irish/American English Lit major who died of an overdose in the Church
• Coby Seymour -- Dead drug addict and mental health patient

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Culture of the City

The Culture of San Francisco is major and diverse in terms of arts, music, cuisine, festivals, museums, and architecture but also is influenced heavily by Asian culture due to its large Asian population. San Francisco's diversity of cultures along with its eccentricities are so great that they have greatly influenced the country and the world at large over the years. In 2012, Bloomberg Businessweek voted San Francisco as America's Best City.

Music

Classical and Opera venues in San Francisco include the San Francisco Symphony, the San Francisco Opera and the San Francisco Ballet. They all perform at the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center. San Francisco's Ballet and Opera are some of the oldest continuing performing arts companies in the United States. San Francisco is the birthplace and home city of the vocal ensemble Chanticleer. The city is also home to the American Conservatory Theater, also known as A.C.T., which has been routinely staging original productions since its arrival in San Francisco in 1967. Additionally, the New Conservatory Theater Center (NCTC) is known for being an intimate theater that routinely stages original productions by the local, national, and international LGBTQIA+ community. Hundreds of smaller, alternative theaters also attract a significant portion of the audience given their historical role in the San Francisco performing arts culture. The oldest of these are Intersection for the Arts, founded in 1965, and the Magic Theater, founded in 1967. A major player in the promotion of theater in the Bay Area is Theater Bay Area (or TBA). A non profit organization, Theater Bay Area has members from more than 365 Bay Area theater and dance companies, is the publisher of Callboard Magazine, and runs San Francisco's Half-Priced Ticket Booth.

The Herbst Theater stages an eclectic mix of music performances, as well as public radio's City Arts & Lectures.

The Fillmore is a music venue located in the Western Addition. It is the second incarnation of the historic venue that gained fame in the 1960s under concert promoter Bill Graham, housing the stage where now-famous musicians such as the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, Led Zeppelin and Jefferson Airplane first performed, fostering the San Francisco Sound. Beach Blanket Babylon is a zany musical revue and a civic institution that has performed to sold-out crowds in North Beach since 1974. Bimbo's 365 Club, in North Beach, is one of the city's oldest entertainment venues and plays host to music shows of all genres.

Additionally, San Francisco is home to the 200-member San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus, the world's first openly gay chorus, as well as the San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band, the world's first[citation needed] openly gay musical organization. Two additional gay choruses, the Lesbian/Gay Chorus of San Francisco and Golden Gate Men's Chorus, also perform throughout the year.

Theater

San Francisco has a large number of theaters and live performance venues. Local theater companies have been noted for risk taking and innovation, as documented in the film Stage Left: A Story of Theater in San Francisco. The Tony Award-winning non-profit American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) is a member of the national League of Resident Theaters, and has been in San Francisco since it moved from Pittsburgh in 1967. Other local winners of the Regional Theater Tony Award include the San Francisco Mime Troupe, and Berkeley Rep in nearby Berkeley. The Magic Theater was the home theater of the playwright Sam Shepard during his most productive period, and many of his plays were first staged there. San Francisco-based SHN hosts productions of Broadway shows in its vintage 1920s-era venues in the Theater District: the Curran, Orpheum, and Golden Gate Theaters.

San Francisco has had a thriving improv theater community, with a distinctly different style of improv than much of the rest of the country[citation needed]. Unlike Chicago where one venue will host three 30-45 minute shows in one evening, most San Francisco improv shows are 2 hours long, complete with their own intermission. And while Chicago and New York are full of improv companies who perform formats based on the Harold (with multiple storylines going on at the same time), San Francisco is full of improv shows with single-story formats. Often referred to as play-length improv shows, these improv shows are rooted in the idea that if someone can perform something scripted (like a play, movie, or musical) then it can also be improvised just as well. Some groups that define the improvisation scene in San Francisco are: BATS Improv, The Un-Scripted Theater Company, and The San Francisco Improv Alliance.

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Holy Ground

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Hospitals

• Saint Francis Memorial Hospital
  • Cynthia Spicer - High Security Terrorist attack survivor

• St. Mary's Medical Center (San Francisco) -- SMMC is the oldest continuously operating hospital in San Francisco.

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Landmarks

Alcatraz Island -- is home to the abandoned prison, the site of the oldest operating lighthouse on the West Coast of the United States, early military fortifications, and natural features such as rock pools and a seabird colony (mostly western gulls, cormorants, and egrets).

Three Brother's Storage -- Owns several storage units inside office buildings in financial district

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Missives

• Letter from Everett Young to Lorraine

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Museums

The Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) contains 20th Century and contemporary pieces. It moved to its building in South of Market in 1995 and attracts 600,000 visitors annually.[2] The California Palace of the Legion of Honor contains primarily European works. The De Young Museum and the Asian Art Museum have significant anthropological and non-European holdings.

The Palace of Fine Arts, a remnant of the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition, used to house the Exploratorium, a popular science museum dedicated to teaching through hands-on interaction, which moved to a new location on the Embarcadero in 2013. The California Academy of Sciences is a natural history museum and hosts the Morrison Planetarium and Steinhart Aquarium. The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco has one of the most comprehensive collections of Asian art in the world. From 1958 until 2003 the collection was housed in a wing of at the original de Young in Golden Gate Park. When the de Young closed while constructing a new building, the Asian Art Museum moved to the former San Francisco City Library building, which was renovated for the purpose under the direction of Italian architect Gae Aulenti who had previously overseen the conversion of the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.

The San Francisco Zoo cares for a total of about 250 animal species, 39 of which have been deemed endangered or threatened.

Other museums include the Museum of the African Diaspora, the Contemporary Jewish Museum, the Museum of Craft & Folk Art, the Cartoon Art Museum, and the Mexican Museum. Some "offbeat" museums and galleries dealing in unconventional topics include the Antique Vibrator Museum, the Musée Mécanique (dedicated to penny arcade machines), the Museum of Ophthalmology, Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum, the Stamp Francisco/Stamp Art Gallery (rubber stamps not postal stamps), the Tattoo Art Museum (old tattoo machines and instruments), the UFO, Bigfoot and Loch Ness Monster Museum, and the Wax Museum at Fisherman's Wharf.

The Haas-Lilienthal House (2007 Franklin Street) is the only intact private Victorian-era home in San Francisco that is open to the public year-round and available for private functions.

• Asian Art Museum of San Francisco

• California Academy of Sciences

• California Palace of the Legion of Honor

• Palace of Fine Arts

• San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

• San Francisco Zoo

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Newspapers

• -- San Francisco Chronicle -- It is the only major daily paper covering the city and county of San Francisco. {Est. 1865}

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Shopping

• -- Doc's Comics & Collectables -- Owned by Dr. Diego "Doc" Soto, a PhD in both Criminal Justice and Civil War History, author of books on Alcatraz, comic book store owner, writer, and artist.

• Graven Goods -- A shop that sells only items belonging to dead people.

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Strange Objects

• Apple Macintosh Portable M5120 Vintage Mac Laptop 1990 -- Laptop of Ghostly Communications

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Transportation

Cable Cars

The passenger cable car was invented by Scotsman Andrew Hallidie of San Francisco. The first operating line was on Clay Street and began service in 1873. Based on similar systems used in mines, Hallidie hoped to improve on the horse-drawn omnibuses then laboring up and down the city's steep hills.

Cable cars are powered by a moving cable that passes under the streets. The car is equipped with a "grip" which, reaching down through a slot in the street, clamps to the moving cable, drawing the car along. Cable cars cruise at a speed of ten miles per hour... no more, no less.

Hallidie's design was quickly copied and soon cable car systems were found all over the world, from Providence, Rhode Island, to Melbourne, Australia. Within a few years, however, the electric-powered trolley was invented. Requiring less maintenance, and generally safer, they quickly replaced cable car systems in most cities, save those with the steepest hills. San Francisco's various cable car systems once stretched over most of the city, but by the 1950s, the last two remaining lines were scheduled for removal. Only a last-minute citizen's movement saved the cable cars and they are now designated a National Historic Monument (just a mobile one). Expensive and far less safe than most forms of public transportation, they are a symbol of the city. Other Mass Transit

At the hub of the bay area, downtown San Francisco is well-served. Electric and diesel buses run regular routes to all parts of the cit. Electric trolleys, usually referred to as the Muni, travel underground along Market Street, emerging a few miles away to disperse along different routes. The Muni lines share the underground with the BART system, which runs one level deeper. From central San Francisco one can catch frequent BART trains south to Daly City, or travel under the bay all the way to Richmond, Concord, or Fremont.

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Warehouses

• Warehouse of the Garden Gnomes --

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Mages

One thing a few Kithain dislike about living in San Francisco is all the damned mages. Fortunately, Frisco is primarily a Tradition city, being especially friendly to Virtual Adepts and Sons of Ether. There's a strong neo-pagan community in San Francisco, providing friendly base for Verbena and Dreamspeakers as well. While the Technocracy does have a strong presence on the West Coast, it is concentrated further up the coast, at major research and software concerns up in Washington State. Hollow Ones by the score wander the streets, and one cannot help but wonder if the existence of so many Orphans is part of someone's plan. It hardly seems likely that so many could arise otherwise. (The Waydown Chantry is located here.)

• -- Penny Dreadful -- Born as Penelope Anne Drizkowski, is a mage and signature character of the Hollow Ones.

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Vampires of the City

Court of San Francisco

• -- Sebastian Toc -- Brujah Prince
• -- Cho -- Seneschal -- Dance of the Thrashing Dragon

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Primogen of San Francisco

• -- Thalia Toreador Primogen
• -- Tristram Ventrue Primogen
• -- Zen -- Bone Flowers -- Place: 8 Immortals Restaurant

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Brujah

• --Angelica White -- (PC)
• -- Amira - Brujah Bodyguard to Thalia
• -- Cord Brashen -- Sebastian's Muscle
• [[]] -- Che Amaya -- Street Kid

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Gangrel

• -- Esko -- Gangrel Elder
• -- Logan Wakefield -- Gangrel wanderer (Former PC) <<Now in Torpor>>
• -- Liborio Tosetti (PC) [Morgan]
• -- Nannette Liborio's Child

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Giovanni

• Diego -- Drug-dealer of Death
  • Bob -- Black gang-banger who loves cocaine
    • Jesus -- Hispanic gang-banger who is entranced with Everett

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Malkavian

• --Stephen Carvell -- (Mac PC)
• -- Alban -- Sebastian's Accountant
• -- Delight -- Hacker?
• -- Isaac Thompson -- Mob Doctor

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Nosferatu

• 150px -- Alpin
• Eugene McGibbon
• Wen Doc
• Leslie Wooden

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Ravnos

• -- Waraj Sind -- Ravnos Fixer

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Toreador

• -- Lorraine - Owner of The Way Down club
• -- Quon Corbyn - Teen Hacker
• -- Katia -- Sebastian's Second
• --Simon Bass -- Childe of Leslie Booth --Sire of Lydia Dax

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Jade Dragons

The Jade Dragons are a local chapter of the Japanese Yakuza and their relationship with the Gaki of San Francisco is as complicated as it is potentially profitable or deadly.

• 150px -- Akemi -- Cho's Second
• -- Goru -- Cho's Bodyguard

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Golden Dragons

For the most part, the Golden Dragons are a Chinese Tong, but one beholden to the undead.

• [[]] -- Zhou Ong -- Mistress of Profits
• -- Zhou -- Negotiator for Zen

• [[]] -- Zhihao Chai -- Corpse Father

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Vox Deorum

• -- Everett Young -- Anarch Musician {On Tour}

  -- Justine McDavid -- New Child of Everett Young {On Tour}

• --Annabel Nolan -- (Former PC)

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Deceased or Missing

• -- Sara Anne Winder -- Ventrue Duke of San Francisco. {missing}
• -- Vannevar Thomas -- Former Ventrue prince of the city, {deceased}
• -- Bashe -- Destroyed by mortal hunters

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The Baronies: Undead Territories

• Barony's of San Fransico

Places of Interest

• San Francisco State University -- San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different bachelor's degrees, 94 master's degrees, and 5 doctoral degrees along with 26 teaching credentials among six academic colleges.

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Coteries of San Francisco

• The New Crew -- An unofficial gang of neonates and fledglings that has recently sprung up.

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Stories of San Francisco

• The Case of the Strange Cats: 11/22/2019 - 10/03/2020
• Session Recap: 2022-05-28

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Websites

• https://mynoise.net/noiseMachines.php
  • https://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/customRainInTheCity.php
  • https://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/cafeRestaurantNoiseGenerator.php

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https://www.audioblocks.com/royalty-free-audio/music/night+club+background+music?bpm_max=250&duration_max=10000&page=1&sort=most_relevant&vbonly=false

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https://environment.ambient-mixer.com/

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https://tabletopaudio.com/

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https://washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/julyaugust-2012/the-power-broker/ {How politics really work in San Francisco}

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcatraz_(TV_series)

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https://www-sfgate-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.sfgate.com/bayarea/amp/Slow-Streets-San-Francisco-closed-map-SFMTA-15286136.php?amp_js_v=a3&amp_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQFKAGwASA%3D#referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sfgate.com%2Fbayarea%2Farticle%2FSlow-Streets-San-Francisco-closed-map-SFMTA-15286136.php

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http://www.foundsf.org/

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https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/northern-california/san-francisco/abandoned-san-francisco/ {Abandoned San Francisco}

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https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/author/sgarr/ {Visitor's guide to San Francisco}

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https://www.travelchannel.com/shows/metropolis/photos/metropolis-san-francisco-then-and-now

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_San_Francisco

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https://www.killerurbex.com/abandoned-places-in-san-francisco/#2

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Errata

SF - Character Sheet