California Line - Nob Hill and Polk Street
Nob Hill
From Powell Street at California (where the cable car lines cross), walk west along California. Nob Hill is even quieter than Russian Hill - quiet like a library. People, even children, are all in a hush. Around 1900, the hill was adorned with the finest homes in San Francisco, built with money earned from the Gold Rush and the railroad. Only the Huntington Mansion survived the 1906 fire and, while the area was rebuilt with grand hotels and buildings, it seems somehow sad and lonely, as if it misses its contemporaries.In Huntington Park, even the trees are formal. There are artists sketching, classical fountains, and everyone is very civilized. The playground is quiet. Next to the park is Grace Cathedral, a gothic cathedral with Florentine bronze doors. Inside are frescoes of California history, from the Spanish explorers to the twentieth century, secular and religious. People sketch here too while others work their way through a spiral inlaid into the floor.
Polk Street
Continue on California and get off at Polk Street for a look at a different kind of San Francisco neighborhood - one in transition. Once the vibrant center of San Francisco's gay culture, Polk Street (and the San Francisco gay population) suffered greatly from the AIDS epidemic. Stores closed. People died. The center of the gay community moved to the Castro. The neighborhood that was left behind is just now beginning to recover.Stop at Royal Grounds Coffee for a bit of the real San Francisco. San Franciscans loved their coffee long before anyone heard about Starbucks and this is an old-fashioned establishment - they serve great coffee, the sugar is in plastic containers (none of those brown chunks of "natural" sugar here), and milk is served right out of the carton. There are chess boards in back and a bulletin board layers deep in notices. You can tell a lot about a neighborhood by the bulletin boards. This one had notices for the ballet, a beer festival, furniture for sale (the most expensive piece was $40), a Himalayan Fair, voice lessons, a handy man, and an invitation to "Become Miraculous in the New Millennium". The essence of San Francisco was concentrated on that bulletin board - the diversity, the tolerance and the everyday life.
Polk Street is a place where people LIVE. Along it there are a hardware store, a drug store, and the other necessary shops. Acorn Books at 1436 Polk has a great selection of books. The Swan Oyster Depot has been here forever. On California, the Lumiere Theatre shows art and foreign films. Just up California, near Leavenworth, is Zeki's Bar.
At the end of the day, you will have an understanding of San Francisco that few tourists ever achieve. Enjoy your trip.
