I Love My Neighborhood

You’re probably thinking this is a little self-indulgent but I really don’t think there’s a neighborhood in the city that I would choose to live in over my Duboce Triangle. Although technically I’m not actually in the triangle I’m one-half block off and it’s easier to say I am than to say Upper Duboce Triangle/Lower Corona Heights (which I do use on people from time to time to push buttons).
The thing I like most about my ‘hood is the diversity. Sorry, I don’t mean population as it seems we’re mostly white and young. (47 is still young, RIGHT?) I like that we have everything we need, right here. We have one of the city’s largest supermarkets (which I try to NEVER visit), churches (repeat), boutiques, cafes, clubs, a fire station, medical labs, B&B’s, a motel AND a check cashing place (keepin’ it real). You can’t get a better transit situation without living downtown. We’re served by the K,L,M,N and F lines plus the 37, 22 and 24 lines. (I think one of those metro lines has been retired but when I relied on the metro we had all those.) But the thing I like most are the trees. Every street in the triangle is lined, at least in portions, by mature trees. It’s really quite lovely to just walk the streets here. (But you do have to watch out for dog doo since Duboce park is dog doo park and evidently the little beasts don’t always make it all the way to the park and evidently our lovely neighbors don’t always have their bags with them.) One of my most dramatic experiences ever in S.F. was walking home from a party on Noe at Market during a wild winter late-night storm. The trees were being lashed, leaves and small branches were flying around and I couldn’t decide if I should rush home or just enjoy the show. I used to be able to get dates while walking around my neighborhood but I guess 47 is clearly not a date getter. I prefer to think I rely on my motorcycle too much and I’m just not as ‘connected’ with my neighbors any more.
The other major thing I like about my neighborhood is that all the real party stuff in the area is ACROSS Market St. meaning that except for Halloween and Pink Saturday this is a really quite neighborhood. As many could tell you, my biggest noise complaint is about a bird that for some reason (which I’m sure is a harbinger of our apocalyptic future) sings ALL NIGHT LONG. I have the luxury of living on a dead-end street and next to a street that’s goes nowhere so between 11pm and 8am it’s SO quiet I can hear my downstairs neighbor snore.
If I had 2 million dollars I would consider buying something around here. Until then I’m down with rent control. Anyway, I was thrilled to find that we actually have a wikipedia entry and THANKS to the neighborhood association for the map. (Although I don’t think I would include those lower Haight blocks if I were in charge. Can’t they get their own damn neighborhood association???) The triangle is Market, Castro, Duboce which you can clearly see from the map.
Tagged:cool shit S.F.Posted by Robert Allen on Thursday, July 24th, 2008







