Sunset District (San Francisco)

The Sunset District is a neighborhood in the west-central part of San Francisco, California, USA that is primarily residential and is built along a grid pattern. It was one of the last areas of San Francisco to be developed, and most of its homes and buildings date from the 1920s through the 1950s, with the fastest rate of construction occurring during the 1930s and 1940s (although parts of the Inner Sunset were developed beginning in the 1890s).

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. The Sunset District's southern and eastern borders are not as clearly defined, but there is a general consensus that the neighborhood extends no further than Sigmund Stern Grove and Sloat Boulevard in the south and no further east than the Parnassus campus of the University of California, San Francisco and Laguna Honda Hospital. Prior to the residential and commercial development of the Sunset District, the area was covered by sand dunes and was originally referred to by 19th-century San Franciscans as "the Outside Lands."

The Sunset District is in fact often considered to be two separate neighborhoods: the Inner Sunset and the Outer Sunset. The commercial area of the Inner Sunset is centered around Irving Street between 7th and 11th Avenues, and the Outer Sunset is generally considered to begin at 19th Avenue and to extend for approximately 30 blocks to Ocean Beach. When "Sunset" is used alone, it is generally taken to mean the Outer Sunset. The southern half of the Outer Sunset is sometimes reckoned as a separate neighborhood, known as Parkside.

Though relatively prosperous economically, the area is considered by many observers to be one of the less fashionable neighborhoods in San Francisco, due to its reputation for frequently foggy weather and the prevalence of its mid-20th century single-family housing stock. However, the neighborhood has several assets that belie this reputation, including a low crime rate and the proximity to Ocean Beach and Golden Gate Park. The Church of St. Anne of the Sunset on Judah Street is a striking landmark, and the commercial area along Irving Street is animated and attractive. The San Francisco Conservatory of Music at 19th Avenue and Ortega Street provides almost daily free classical music concerts. The steeply hilly area that rises to the south of Irving Street, around Grand View Park and the Golden Gate View Park, contains attractively winding streets sometimes linked by staircases, and many striking and desirable properties with stupendous views over the city and out to the ocean and the Marin headlands. The N Judah and L Taraval lines of the Muni Metro provide a fast and convenient link to downtown, with easy connections to BART. Despite the Sunset's less-than-glamorous reputation, the neighborhood's property values have risen along with those in the rest of San Francisco, most spectacularly during the late 1990s.

At least half of the Sunset's residents are Asian-American (mostly Chinese-American), a result of a demographic shift that began in the late 1960s and accelerated from the 1980s as Asian immigration to San Francisco increased dramatically and much of the original, nearly exclusively white, heavily Irish American population of the Sunset moved to outlying suburban areas. A major commercial area of the Sunset District, Irving Street between 19th Avenue and 24th Avenue, is today lined with businesses catering to Asian-Americans, with additional commercial areas filled with Asian grocery stores and restaurants in other parts of the Sunset District as well, such as on Taraval Street west of 19th Avenue. In addition, there is still a significant Irish-American and Irish minority in the neigborhood and there are several Irish pubs in the Sunset.

The strip near the Pacific Ocean has a notable population of surfers who take advantage of the strong waves and currents of Ocean Beach.

The Outer Sunset — and especially Parkside — is regarded by the city's political observers as being one of the most conservative communities in San Francisco. Often, the area's residents have been more opposed to gay rights ordinances and rent control than voters in other parts of the city, and more strongly in favor of stricter policies toward the homeless.

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. The first numbered Avenue is 2nd, starting one block west of Arguello Boulevard (which takes the place of 1st Avenue), and increasing incrementally to as high as 48th Avenue near Ocean Beach (the last road before the beach being named Great Highway instead of 49th Avenue). The only exception is that there is no 13th Avenue; instead, it is known as Funston Avenue (named for Frederick Funston, a Spanish-American War general who was sent to the city to direct its recovery from the 1906 earthquake). Most of the east-west streets in the Richmond and Sunset Districts are named after Spanish explorers in ascending alphabetical order in a southward direction. In the Richmond District, these streets are: Anza, Balboa and Cabrillo. In the Sunset District, these streets are: Hugo, Irving, Judah, Kirkham, Lawton, Moraga, Noriega, Ortega, Pacheco, Quintara, Rivera, Santiago, Taraval, Ulloa, Vicente, Wawona, and Yorba (Fulton Street, on the north side of Golden Gate Park, and Lincoln Way on the south, taking the place of the streets which would otherwise have begun with "D" and "G" respectively, with "E" and "F" being pre-empted by Golden Gate Park and "X" and "Z" being omitted).

External links

• Inner Sunset guided photo tour (http://www.dreamworld.org/sfguide/Neighborhoods/sunsetinner/)
• Center and Outer Sunset guided photo tour (http://www.dreamworld.org/sfguide/Neighborhoods/sunsetcenterandouter/)
• Western Neighborhoods Project (http://outsidelands.org/)
• Inner Sunst Neighborhood Guide (http://www.sfgate.com/traveler/guide/sf/neighborhoods/innersunset.shtml)
• Outer Sunset Neighborhood Guide (http://www.sfgate.com/traveler/guide/sf/neighborhoods/outersunset.shtml)
• Sunset Beacon (http://www.sunsetbeacon.com/), local newspaper

Aerial photo

• Aerial photo of the Sunset District from Microsoft's TerraServer site (http://terraserver.microsoft.com/image.aspx?T=4&S=13&Z=10&X=340&Y=2610&W=1&qs=%7cSan+Francisco%7cCA%7c)