South of Market, San Francisco, California
Encyclopedia
South of Market is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California
, United States.
to the northwest, San Francisco Bay
to the northeast, Mission Creek
to the southeast, and Division Street, 13th Street and U.S. Route 101 (Central Freeway
) to the southwest. It is the part of the city in which the street grid runs parallel and perpendicular to Market Street. The neighborhood contains many smaller neighborhoods such as South Park
, Yerba Buena, South Beach, and Financial District South (part of the Financial District), and overlaps with several others, notably Mission Bay
, and the Mission District.
As with many neighborhoods, the precise boundaries of the South of Market area are fuzzy and can vary widely depending on the authority cited. From 1848 until the construction of the Central Freeway in the 1950s, 9th Street (formerly known as Johnston Street) was the official (and generally recognized) boundary between SoMa and the Mission District. Since the 1950s, the boundary has been either 10th Street, 11th Street, or the Central Freeway. Similarly, the entire Mission Bay neighborhood is sometimes counted as part of SoMa, sometimes not. Excluding the entire Mission Bay neighborhood puts the southeastern boundary at Townsend. Redevelopment agencies, social services agencies and community activists frequently exclude the more prosperous areas between the waterfront and 3rd Street. Some social services agencies and nonprofits count the economically distressed area around 6th, 7th, and 8th streets as part of the Mid-Market Corridor.
The terms "South of Market" and "SoMa" refer to both a comparatively large district of the city as well as a much smaller neighborhood. The smaller neighborhood apparently consists of the largest contiguous portion of the South of Market area that, at any given point in time, is in the early stages of gentrification, and still retains much of the older character of the larger district.
While many San Franciscans refer to the neighborhood by its full name, South of Market, there is a trend to shorten the name to SOMA or SoMa, probably in reference to SoHo
(South of Houston) in New York City
, and, in turn, Soho
in London
.
Before being called South of Market this area was called "South of the Slot", a reference to the cable cars that ran up and down Market along a slot through which they attached to the cables. While the cable cars have long since disappeared from Market Street, some "old timers" still refer to this area as "South of the Slot".
Since 1847, the official name of the South of Market area has been the "100 Vara Survey" (alternately "100 Vara District") or simply "100 Vara" for short (with "100" sometimes spelled out). Since the mid-20th century, the official name has been gradually forgotten, and today is found mainly in history books, legal documents, title deeds, and civil engineering reports.
, alcalde
of the pueblo (village) of San Francisco, commissioned surveyor Jasper O'Farrell to extend the boundaries of the pueblo in a southerly direction by creating a new subdivision. At the time, the streets of San Francisco were aligned (approximately) with the compass points, running north to south, or east to west. Each block was divided into six lots 50 varas on a side. (A vara is about 33 inches.) O'Farrell decided that the streets in the new subdivision should run parallel with or perpendicular to the only existing road in the area, Mission Road (later Mission Street), and thus be aligned with the half-points of the compass, i.e., northeast to southwest, and northwest to southeast. O'Farrell also decided to make the new blocks twice as long and twice as wide, with each lot 100 varas on a side. Finally, O'Farrell created "a grand promenade" linking the old pueblo with the new subdivision, Market Street. Since then, downtown San Francisco north of Lower Market Street has been officially known as 50 Vara, while the South of Market area is officially known as 100 Vara.
During the mid-19th century, SOMA became a burgeoning pioneer community, largely low-density residential, except for a business district that developed along 2nd and 3rd streets, and emerging industrial areas near the waterfront. Rincon Hill
became an enclave for the wealthy, while nearby South Park became an enclave for the upper middle class. By the early 20th century, heavy industrial development due to its proximity to the docks of San Francisco Bay
, with the advent of cable cars, had driven the wealthy over to Nob Hill and points west, as the neighborhood became a largely working-class and lower-middle-class community of recent European immigrants, sweatshops, power stations, flophouses, and factories.
The 1906 earthquake completely destroyed the area, as many of the quake's fatalities occurred there. Following the quake, the area was rebuilt with wider than usual streets, as the focus was towards the development of light to heavy industry. The construction of the Bay Bridge
and the U.S. Route 101 during the 1930s saw large swaths of the area demolished including most of the original Rincon Hill.
From the late 19th century to the mid-20th century, the South of Market area was served by several streetcar lines owned by the Market Street Railway Company, including the No. 14 Mission Street electric railway line, the No. 27 Bryant Street line, the 28 Harrison, 35 Howard, 36 Folsom, 41 Second and Market, and the No. 42 First and Fifth Street line.
Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, South of Market was home not only to warehousing and light industry, but also to a sizable population of transients, seamen, other working men living in hotels, and a working-class residential population in old Victorian buildings in smaller side streets and alleyways giving it a "skid row" reputation.
The waterfront redevelopment of the Embarcadero in the 1950s pushed a new population into this area in the 1960s, the incipient gay community
, and the leather
community in particular. From 1962 until 1982, the gay community grew and thrived throughout South of Market, most visibly along Folsom Street. This community had been active in resisting the City's ambitious redevelopment
program for the area throughout the 1970s. But as the AIDS
epidemic unfolded in the 1980s, the ability of this community to stand up to downtown and City Hall
was dramatically weakened. The crisis became an opportunity for the City (in the name of public health
) to close bathhouses
and regulate bars---businesses that had been the cornerstone of the community's efforts to maintain a gay space in the South of Market neighborhood.
In 1984, as these spaces for gay community were rapidly closing, a coalition of housing activists and community organizers started the Folsom Street Fair
, in order to enhance the visibility of the community at a time when people in City Hall and elsewhere were apt to think it had gone away. The fair also provided a means for much-needed fundraising, and create opportunities for members of the leather community to connect to services and vital information (e.g., regarding safer sex
) which bathhouses and bars might otherwise have been ideally situated to distribute.
Redevelopment plans were first planned in 1953. These plans began to be realized in the late 1970s and in the early 1980s with the construction of the conference center, Moscone Center
, which occupies three blocks and hosts many major trade shows. Moscone South opened its doors in December 1981. Moscone North opened in May 1992, and most recently Moscone West in June 2003.
With the opening of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
in 1995, the Mission and Howard Street area of the South of Market has become a hub for museums and performances spaces.
The area has long been home to bars and nightclubs. During the 1980s and 1990s, some of the warehouses there served as the home to the city's budding underground rave
, punk
, and independent music scene. However, in recent decades, and mostly due to gentrification and rising rents, these establishments have begun to cater to an upscale and mainstream clientele that subsequently pushed out the underground musicians and its scene. Beginning in the 1990s, older housing stock has been joined by loft-style condominiums, many of which were built under the cover of "live-work" development ostensibly meant to maintain a studio art
s community in San Francisco. During the late 1990s, the occupant of the "live-work" loft was more likely to be a "dot-commie", as South of Market became a local center of the dot-com boom, due to its central location, space for infill housing development, and spaces readily converted into offices.
A major transformation of the neighborhood was planned during the 2000s with the Transbay Terminal
Replacement Project, which if funded, is planned to be open by 2013. In addition, new highrise residential projects like One Rincon Hill
, 300 Spear Street, and Millennium Tower are transforming the San Francisco skyline. In 2005, the Transbay Joint Powers Authority proposed to raise height limits around the new Transbay Terminal. This led to proposals for more supertall buildings, such as Renzo Piano
's proposal for a group of towers that includes two 1,200-foot. (366 m) towers, two 900-foot (274 m) towers, and a 600-foot (183 m) tower. The 1,200-foot (366 m) towers would have been the tallest buildings in the United States
outside of New York City
and Chicago
. In addition, the Cesar Pelli and Hines Group have also proposed another 1,200-foot (366 m), 80-story office tower. However, the late 2000s recession halted altogether, or canceled outright construction as well as many future development plans for the area.
Despite the Dot-Com crash of the early 2000s, major software and technology companies have headquarters here, including Wired
, Sega of America Inc.
, CNET Networks, Twitter
, Dropbox, Justin.tv
, BitTorrent Inc.
, Yelp
, Rapleaf
, and Advent Software
among others. The area is also home to the few Big-box store
s in San Francisco such as Costco
, REI
, Nordstrom Rack
, and Best Buy
.
SOMA is home to many of San Francisco's museums, include SFMOMA
, the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
, and the Museum of the African Diaspora
. The Cartoon Art Museum
, the children's Zeum
, and the Contemporary Jewish Museum
are also in the Yerba Buena area. The Old Mint, which served as the San Francisco Mint from 1874 to 1937, has been restored and is schedule to reopen to the public in 2012 following an 8-year renovation. The Center for the Arts, along with Yerba Buena Gardens
and the Metreon
, is built on top of Moscone North. Across Howard Street, built on top of Moscone South, is a children's park featuring a large play area, an ice skating
rink, a bowling
alley, a restaurant, the Zeum, and the restored merry-go-round from Playland-At-the-Beach
. The children's park and Zeum are joined to Yerba Buena Gardens by a footbridge
over Howard Street.
Many small theatre companies and venues add to the cultural attraction of the SOMA, such as the Lamplighters
, The Garage, Theatre Rhinoceros
, Boxcar Theater, Crowded Fire Theater, Off-Market Theaters, FoolsFURY Theater
, and Climate Theater.
Because of its Gay Rights history, the Folsom Street Fair
is held on Folsom Street between 7th and 12th streets. The smaller and less-commercialized but also leather subculture-oriented Up Your Alley Fair
(commonly referred to as the Dore Alley Fair) is also held in the neighborhood, in late July on Folsom between 9th and 10th streets and in Dore Alley between Folsom and Howard. Also home to the annual How Weird Street Faire
featuring dancing and costumes, held in early May along seven city blocks including Howard and Second streets.
Public health facilities in the area include the South of Market Health Center. Those seeking sexual health make use of the district's San Francisco City Clinic
to get STD tests and treatment in addition to counseling and condoms.
Because the streets in the area are aligned with the half-points of the compass, people's sense of direction tends to get skewed 45 degrees clockwise. Thus, while driving towards Market Street, people have the sense that they are driving "northbound" even though it is actually northwest, the same principle applying to the other three cardinal directions.
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, United States.
Name and location
Its boundaries are Market StreetMarket Street (San Francisco)
Market Street is an important thoroughfare in San Francisco, California. It begins at The Embarcadero in front of the Ferry Building at the northeastern edge of the city and runs southwest through downtown, passing the Civic Center and the Castro District, to the intersection with Corbett Avenue in...
to the northwest, San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
to the northeast, Mission Creek
Mission Creek
Mission Creek is a river in San Francisco, California that has been largely culverted. The only remaining portion above ground is in the Mission Creek Channel that drains into China Basin....
to the southeast, and Division Street, 13th Street and U.S. Route 101 (Central Freeway
Central Freeway
The Central Freeway is a roughly one-mile elevated freeway in San Francisco, California, United States, connecting the Bayshore/James Lick Freeway with the Hayes Valley neighborhood. Most of the freeway is part of US 101, which exits at Mission Street on the way to the Golden Gate Bridge...
) to the southwest. It is the part of the city in which the street grid runs parallel and perpendicular to Market Street. The neighborhood contains many smaller neighborhoods such as South Park
South Park, San Francisco
South Park is a small neighborhood South of Market in San Francisco, California. It centers on the small, oval-shaped park of the same name, and South Park Street, which encircles the park...
, Yerba Buena, South Beach, and Financial District South (part of the Financial District), and overlaps with several others, notably Mission Bay
Mission Bay, San Francisco, California
Mission Bay is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California.-Location:Mission Bay is roughly bounded by Townsend Street on the north, Third Street and San Francisco Bay on the east, Mariposa Street on the south, and 7th Street and Interstate 280 on the west.-History:It was created in 1998 by the...
, and the Mission District.
As with many neighborhoods, the precise boundaries of the South of Market area are fuzzy and can vary widely depending on the authority cited. From 1848 until the construction of the Central Freeway in the 1950s, 9th Street (formerly known as Johnston Street) was the official (and generally recognized) boundary between SoMa and the Mission District. Since the 1950s, the boundary has been either 10th Street, 11th Street, or the Central Freeway. Similarly, the entire Mission Bay neighborhood is sometimes counted as part of SoMa, sometimes not. Excluding the entire Mission Bay neighborhood puts the southeastern boundary at Townsend. Redevelopment agencies, social services agencies and community activists frequently exclude the more prosperous areas between the waterfront and 3rd Street. Some social services agencies and nonprofits count the economically distressed area around 6th, 7th, and 8th streets as part of the Mid-Market Corridor.
The terms "South of Market" and "SoMa" refer to both a comparatively large district of the city as well as a much smaller neighborhood. The smaller neighborhood apparently consists of the largest contiguous portion of the South of Market area that, at any given point in time, is in the early stages of gentrification, and still retains much of the older character of the larger district.
While many San Franciscans refer to the neighborhood by its full name, South of Market, there is a trend to shorten the name to SOMA or SoMa, probably in reference to SoHo
SoHo
SoHo is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City, notable for being the location of many artists' lofts and art galleries, and also, more recently, for the wide variety of stores and shops ranging from trendy boutiques to outlets of upscale national and international chain stores...
(South of Houston) in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, and, in turn, Soho
Soho
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster and part of the West End of London. Long established as an entertainment district, for much of the 20th century Soho had a reputation for sex shops as well as night life and film industry. Since the early 1980s, the area has undergone considerable...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
Before being called South of Market this area was called "South of the Slot", a reference to the cable cars that ran up and down Market along a slot through which they attached to the cables. While the cable cars have long since disappeared from Market Street, some "old timers" still refer to this area as "South of the Slot".
Since 1847, the official name of the South of Market area has been the "100 Vara Survey" (alternately "100 Vara District") or simply "100 Vara" for short (with "100" sometimes spelled out). Since the mid-20th century, the official name has been gradually forgotten, and today is found mainly in history books, legal documents, title deeds, and civil engineering reports.
History
In 1847 Washington A. BartlettWashington Allon Bartlett
Washington Allon Bartlett was the first alcalde of the American-era San Francisco serving from August 14, 1846 to January 31, 1847.-Early life and career:...
, alcalde
Alcalde
Alcalde , or Alcalde ordinario, is the traditional Spanish municipal magistrate, who had both judicial and administrative functions. An alcalde was, in the absence of a corregidor, the presiding officer of the Castilian cabildo and judge of first instance of a town...
of the pueblo (village) of San Francisco, commissioned surveyor Jasper O'Farrell to extend the boundaries of the pueblo in a southerly direction by creating a new subdivision. At the time, the streets of San Francisco were aligned (approximately) with the compass points, running north to south, or east to west. Each block was divided into six lots 50 varas on a side. (A vara is about 33 inches.) O'Farrell decided that the streets in the new subdivision should run parallel with or perpendicular to the only existing road in the area, Mission Road (later Mission Street), and thus be aligned with the half-points of the compass, i.e., northeast to southwest, and northwest to southeast. O'Farrell also decided to make the new blocks twice as long and twice as wide, with each lot 100 varas on a side. Finally, O'Farrell created "a grand promenade" linking the old pueblo with the new subdivision, Market Street. Since then, downtown San Francisco north of Lower Market Street has been officially known as 50 Vara, while the South of Market area is officially known as 100 Vara.
During the mid-19th century, SOMA became a burgeoning pioneer community, largely low-density residential, except for a business district that developed along 2nd and 3rd streets, and emerging industrial areas near the waterfront. Rincon Hill
Rincon Hill
Rincon Hill is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California. It is one of San Francisco's 44 hills, and one of its original "Seven Hills."-Location:...
became an enclave for the wealthy, while nearby South Park became an enclave for the upper middle class. By the early 20th century, heavy industrial development due to its proximity to the docks of San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
, with the advent of cable cars, had driven the wealthy over to Nob Hill and points west, as the neighborhood became a largely working-class and lower-middle-class community of recent European immigrants, sweatshops, power stations, flophouses, and factories.
The 1906 earthquake completely destroyed the area, as many of the quake's fatalities occurred there. Following the quake, the area was rebuilt with wider than usual streets, as the focus was towards the development of light to heavy industry. The construction of the Bay Bridge
San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge
The San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge is a pair of bridges spanning San Francisco Bay of California, in the United States. Forming part of Interstate 80 and of the direct road route between San Francisco and Oakland, it carries approximately 270,000 vehicles per day on its two decks...
and the U.S. Route 101 during the 1930s saw large swaths of the area demolished including most of the original Rincon Hill.
From the late 19th century to the mid-20th century, the South of Market area was served by several streetcar lines owned by the Market Street Railway Company, including the No. 14 Mission Street electric railway line, the No. 27 Bryant Street line, the 28 Harrison, 35 Howard, 36 Folsom, 41 Second and Market, and the No. 42 First and Fifth Street line.
Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, South of Market was home not only to warehousing and light industry, but also to a sizable population of transients, seamen, other working men living in hotels, and a working-class residential population in old Victorian buildings in smaller side streets and alleyways giving it a "skid row" reputation.
The waterfront redevelopment of the Embarcadero in the 1950s pushed a new population into this area in the 1960s, the incipient gay community
Gay community
The gay community, or LGBT community, is a loosely defined grouping of LGBT and LGBT-supportive people, organizations and subcultures, united by a common culture and civil rights movements. These communities generally celebrate pride, diversity, individuality, and sexuality...
, and the leather
Leather subculture
The leather subculture denotes practices and styles of dress organized around sexual activities. Wearing leather garments is one way that participants in this culture self-consciously distinguish themselves from mainstream sexual cultures...
community in particular. From 1962 until 1982, the gay community grew and thrived throughout South of Market, most visibly along Folsom Street. This community had been active in resisting the City's ambitious redevelopment
Redevelopment
Redevelopment is any new construction on a site that has pre-existing uses.-Description:Variations on redevelopment include:* Urban infill on vacant parcels that have no existing activity but were previously developed, especially on Brownfield land, such as the redevelopment of an industrial site...
program for the area throughout the 1970s. But as the AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
epidemic unfolded in the 1980s, the ability of this community to stand up to downtown and City Hall
San Francisco City Hall
San Francisco City Hall, re-opened in 1915, in its open space area in the city's Civic Center, is a Beaux-Arts monument to the City Beautiful movement that epitomized the high-minded American Renaissance of the 1880s to 1917. The structure's dome is the fifth largest in the world...
was dramatically weakened. The crisis became an opportunity for the City (in the name of public health
Public health
Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals" . It is concerned with threats to health based on population health...
) to close bathhouses
Gay bathhouse
Gay bathhouses, also known as gay saunas or steam baths, are commercial bathhouses for men to have sex with other men. In gay slang in some regions these venues are also known colloquially as "the baths" or "the tubs," and should not be confused with public bathing.Not all men who visit gay...
and regulate bars---businesses that had been the cornerstone of the community's efforts to maintain a gay space in the South of Market neighborhood.
In 1984, as these spaces for gay community were rapidly closing, a coalition of housing activists and community organizers started the Folsom Street Fair
Folsom Street Fair
The Folsom Street Fair is an annual BDSM and leather subculture street fair held on the last Sunday in September and caps San Francisco's "Leather Pride Week"...
, in order to enhance the visibility of the community at a time when people in City Hall and elsewhere were apt to think it had gone away. The fair also provided a means for much-needed fundraising, and create opportunities for members of the leather community to connect to services and vital information (e.g., regarding safer sex
Safe sex
Safe sex is sexual activity engaged in by people who have taken precautions to protect themselves against sexually transmitted diseases such as AIDS. It is also referred to as safer sex or protected sex, while unsafe or unprotected sex is sexual activity engaged in without precautions...
) which bathhouses and bars might otherwise have been ideally situated to distribute.
Redevelopment plans were first planned in 1953. These plans began to be realized in the late 1970s and in the early 1980s with the construction of the conference center, Moscone Center
Moscone Center
Moscone Center is the largest convention and exhibition complex in San Francisco, California. It comprises three main halls: Two underground halls underneath Yerba Buena Gardens, known as Moscone North and Moscone South, and a three-level Moscone West exhibition hall across 4th Street...
, which occupies three blocks and hosts many major trade shows. Moscone South opened its doors in December 1981. Moscone North opened in May 1992, and most recently Moscone West in June 2003.
With the opening of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is a modern art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art and was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th century art...
in 1995, the Mission and Howard Street area of the South of Market has become a hub for museums and performances spaces.
The area has long been home to bars and nightclubs. During the 1980s and 1990s, some of the warehouses there served as the home to the city's budding underground rave
Rave
Rave, rave dance, and rave party are parties that originated mostly from acid house parties, which featured fast-paced electronic music and light shows. At these parties people dance and socialize to dance music played by disc jockeys and occasionally live performers...
, punk
Punk subculture
The punk subculture includes a diverse array of ideologies, and forms of expression, including fashion, visual art, dance, literature, and film, which grew out of punk rock.-History:...
, and independent music scene. However, in recent decades, and mostly due to gentrification and rising rents, these establishments have begun to cater to an upscale and mainstream clientele that subsequently pushed out the underground musicians and its scene. Beginning in the 1990s, older housing stock has been joined by loft-style condominiums, many of which were built under the cover of "live-work" development ostensibly meant to maintain a studio art
Studio art
Studio art is made of art and studio, and the term has several implications depending on the context used. The term encompasses all art forms, be they performing or visual.-Definition:...
s community in San Francisco. During the late 1990s, the occupant of the "live-work" loft was more likely to be a "dot-commie", as South of Market became a local center of the dot-com boom, due to its central location, space for infill housing development, and spaces readily converted into offices.
San Francisco Transbay Terminal
San Francisco Transbay Transit Terminal, or simply Transbay Terminal, was a transportation complex in San Francisco, California, USA, located roughly in the center of the rectangle bounded north–south by Mission Street and Howard Street, and east–west by Beale Street and 2nd Street...
Replacement Project, which if funded, is planned to be open by 2013. In addition, new highrise residential projects like One Rincon Hill
One Rincon Hill
One Rincon Hill is a residential complex on the apex of Rincon Hill in San Francisco, California, United States. The complex, designed by Solomon, Cordwell, Buenz and Associates and developed by Urban West Associates, consists of two skyscrapers that share a common townhouse podium. One tower, One...
, 300 Spear Street, and Millennium Tower are transforming the San Francisco skyline. In 2005, the Transbay Joint Powers Authority proposed to raise height limits around the new Transbay Terminal. This led to proposals for more supertall buildings, such as Renzo Piano
Renzo Piano
Renzo Piano is an Italian architect. He is the recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, AIA Gold Medal, Kyoto Prize and the Sonning Prize...
's proposal for a group of towers that includes two 1,200-foot. (366 m) towers, two 900-foot (274 m) towers, and a 600-foot (183 m) tower. The 1,200-foot (366 m) towers would have been the tallest buildings in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
outside of New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
. In addition, the Cesar Pelli and Hines Group have also proposed another 1,200-foot (366 m), 80-story office tower. However, the late 2000s recession halted altogether, or canceled outright construction as well as many future development plans for the area.
Attractions and characteristics
The neighborhood is a vast and diverse stretch of warehouses, auto repair shops, nightclubs, residential hotels, art spaces, loft apartments, furniture showrooms, condominiums, and technology companies.Despite the Dot-Com crash of the early 2000s, major software and technology companies have headquarters here, including Wired
Wired (magazine)
Wired is a full-color monthly American magazine and on-line periodical, published since January 1993, that reports on how new and developing technology affects culture, the economy, and politics...
, Sega of America Inc.
Sega
, usually styled as SEGA, is a multinational video game software developer and an arcade software and hardware development company headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan, with various offices around the world...
, CNET Networks, Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
, Dropbox, Justin.tv
Justin.tv
Justin.tv is a website created by Justin Kan, Emmett Shear, Michael Seibel and Kyle Vogt in 2007 that allows anyone to broadcast video online. Justin.tv user accounts are called "channels", and users are encouraged to broadcast a wide variety of user-generated live video content, called...
, BitTorrent Inc.
BitTorrent Inc.
BitTorrent, Inc., headquartered in San Francisco, California, is a privately held American company that is responsible for the ongoing development of the BitTorrent peer-to-peer protocol, as well as the ongoing development of µTorrent and BitTorrent Mainline, two clients for that protocol.Today,...
, Yelp
Yelp
Yelp, Inc. is a company that operates yelp.com, a social networking, user review, and local search web site. Yelp.com has more than 54 million monthly unique visitors as of late 2010.- History :...
, Rapleaf
Rapleaf
Rapleaf is a Web 2.0 start-up company based in San Francisco, California founded by Auren Hoffman and Manish Shah. Acting primarily a B2B firm, Rapleaf's consumer information technology helps businesses understand their customers so they can personalize experiences in real time, segment customers,...
, and Advent Software
Advent Software
Advent Software is a software company that makes software designed to automate portfolio accounting for investment management firms, ranging from family offices and investment advisors to large institutional investors and hedge funds. The company has customers in 60 countries that manage some $14...
among others. The area is also home to the few Big-box store
Big-box store
A big-box store is a physically large retail establishment, usually part of a chain. The term sometimes also refers, by extension, to the company that operates the store...
s in San Francisco such as Costco
Costco
Costco Wholesale Corporation is the largest membership warehouse club chain in the United States. it is the third largest retailer in the United States, where it originated, and the ninth largest in the world...
, REI
Rei
-People:*Rei, the Biblical term for those who retained their allegiance to King David when Adonijah rebelled, as mentioned in 1 Kings 1:8*Rei Hiroe*Rei Igarashi*Rei Kawakubo*Rei Kikukawa*Rei Mikamoto*Rei Munakata*Rei Okamoto*Rei Omishi...
, Nordstrom Rack
Nordstrom
Nordstrom, Inc. is an upscale department store chain in the United States, founded by John W. Nordstrom and Carl F. Wallin. Initially a shoe retailer, the company today also sells clothing, accessories, handbags, jewelry, cosmetics, fragrances, and in some locations, home furnishings...
, and Best Buy
Best Buy
Best Buy Co., Inc. is an American specialty retailer of consumer electronics in the United States, accounting for 19% of the market. It also operates in Mexico, Canada & China. The company's subsidiaries include Geek Squad, CinemaNow, Magnolia Audio Video, Pacific Sales, and, in Canada operates...
.
SOMA is home to many of San Francisco's museums, include SFMOMA
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is a modern art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art and was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th century art...
, the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts is a multi-disiplinary contemporary arts center in San Francisco, California, United States. Located in Yerba Buena Gardens, YBCA features visual art, performance, and film/video that celebrates local, national, and international artists and the Bay Area's diverse...
, and the Museum of the African Diaspora
Museum of the African Diaspora
The Museum of the African Diaspora is a new museum in San Francisco, California, USA, dedicated to the diasporan histories of people of African origin and their influence and adaptation throughout the world....
. The Cartoon Art Museum
Cartoon Art Museum
The Cartoon Art Museum is a California art museum that specializes in the art of comics and cartoons. It is the only museum in the Western United States dedicated to the preservation and exhibition of all forms of cartoon art...
, the children's Zeum
Zeum
Zeum: San Francisco's Children's Museum is a hands-on, multimedia arts and technology museum for kids of all ages located at the Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco, California. It aims to nurture the "3Cs of 21st-century literacy - Creativity, Collaboration, and Communication - in all youth and...
, and the Contemporary Jewish Museum
Contemporary Jewish Museum
The Contemporary Jewish Museum was founded in 1984 in San Francisco, California, with the goal of offering contemporary perspectives on Jewish culture, history, art, and ideas...
are also in the Yerba Buena area. The Old Mint, which served as the San Francisco Mint from 1874 to 1937, has been restored and is schedule to reopen to the public in 2012 following an 8-year renovation. The Center for the Arts, along with Yerba Buena Gardens
Yerba Buena Gardens
Yerba Buena Gardens is the name for two blocks of public parks located between Third and Fourth, Mission and Folsom Streets in downtown San Francisco, California. The first block bordered by Mission and Howard Streets was opened in 1993. The second block, between Howard and Folsom Streets was...
and the Metreon
Metreon
The Metreon is a shopping center located in downtown San Francisco at the corner of 4th Street and Mission Street. It is a four-story 350,000 square foot building built over the corner of the underground Moscone Center convention center...
, is built on top of Moscone North. Across Howard Street, built on top of Moscone South, is a children's park featuring a large play area, an ice skating
Ice skating
Ice skating is moving on ice by using ice skates. It can be done for a variety of reasons, including leisure, traveling, and various sports. Ice skating occurs both on specially prepared indoor and outdoor tracks, as well as on naturally occurring bodies of frozen water, such as lakes and...
rink, a bowling
Bowling
Bowling Bowling Bowling (1375–1425; late Middle English bowle, variant of boule Bowling (1375–1425; late Middle English bowle, variant of boule...
alley, a restaurant, the Zeum, and the restored merry-go-round from Playland-At-the-Beach
Playland (San Francisco)
Playland was a seaside amusement park located next to Ocean Beach at the western edge of San Francisco, California along the Great Highway where Cabrillo and Balboa streets are now...
. The children's park and Zeum are joined to Yerba Buena Gardens by a footbridge
Footbridge
A footbridge or pedestrian bridge is a bridge designed for pedestrians and in some cases cyclists, animal traffic and horse riders, rather than vehicular traffic. Footbridges complement the landscape and can be used decoratively to visually link two distinct areas or to signal a transaction...
over Howard Street.
Many small theatre companies and venues add to the cultural attraction of the SOMA, such as the Lamplighters
Lamplighters Music Theatre
Lamplighters Music Theatre is a semi-professional theatrical company based in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1952 by Orva Hoskinson and Ann Pool MacNab, the Lamplighters specialize in light opera, particularly the works of Gilbert and Sullivan, as well as such works as The Merry Widow, Die...
, The Garage, Theatre Rhinoceros
Theatre Rhinoceros
Theatre Rhinoceros or Theatre Rhino is a gay and lesbian theatre based in San Francisco. It was founded in the spring of 1977 by Lanny Baugniet and his partner Allan B. Estes, Jr....
, Boxcar Theater, Crowded Fire Theater, Off-Market Theaters, FoolsFURY Theater
FoolsFURY Theater
foolsFURY Theater is a bi-coastal ensemble theater company based in San Francisco and New York. Its mission is to revitalize the American theater by 1) creating ground-breaking visceral performances that inspire audiences and artists to reconsider and reconnect with the world around them, 2)...
, and Climate Theater.
Because of its Gay Rights history, the Folsom Street Fair
Folsom Street Fair
The Folsom Street Fair is an annual BDSM and leather subculture street fair held on the last Sunday in September and caps San Francisco's "Leather Pride Week"...
is held on Folsom Street between 7th and 12th streets. The smaller and less-commercialized but also leather subculture-oriented Up Your Alley Fair
Up Your Alley Fair
The Up Your Alley Fair, also known as Dore Alley Fair or simply Dore Alley is a leather and fetish event held in San Francisco, California on the last Sunday of July on Folsom Street between 9th and 10th Streets and on Dore Street from Howard Street to half a block southeast of Folsom Street...
(commonly referred to as the Dore Alley Fair) is also held in the neighborhood, in late July on Folsom between 9th and 10th streets and in Dore Alley between Folsom and Howard. Also home to the annual How Weird Street Faire
How Weird Street Faire
The How Weird Street Faire is an outdoor street fair held every May in San Francisco. Held on several blocks of Howard Street and the surrounding area, in the SoMa neighborhood...
featuring dancing and costumes, held in early May along seven city blocks including Howard and Second streets.
Public health facilities in the area include the South of Market Health Center. Those seeking sexual health make use of the district's San Francisco City Clinic
San Francisco City Clinic
San Francisco City Clinic also known as SF City Clinic or usually as City Clinic is a rather unique municipal public sexual health clinic specializing in sexually transmitted infections testing and sexually transmitted disease treatment, in addition to advocacy work and medical research...
to get STD tests and treatment in addition to counseling and condoms.
Because the streets in the area are aligned with the half-points of the compass, people's sense of direction tends to get skewed 45 degrees clockwise. Thus, while driving towards Market Street, people have the sense that they are driving "northbound" even though it is actually northwest, the same principle applying to the other three cardinal directions.
See also
- List of tallest buildings in San Francisco
- Moscone CenterMoscone CenterMoscone Center is the largest convention and exhibition complex in San Francisco, California. It comprises three main halls: Two underground halls underneath Yerba Buena Gardens, known as Moscone North and Moscone South, and a three-level Moscone West exhibition hall across 4th Street...
- San Francisco
- San Francisco Transbay developmentSan Francisco Transbay developmentThe San Francisco Transbay development plan consists of three supertall skyscrapers and ten other skyscrapers and highrises proposed in San Francisco. The towers are proposed to fund the replacement of the San Francisco Transbay Terminal in the South of Market neighborhood near the Financial...
- Transbay Terminal