[BTinSF]

Originally Posted by Cirrus

Part 2 - Neighborhoods

A couple of San Franciscans said I should see the cathedral on Nob Hill. I was not impressed. It's much smaller and constructed of cheaper materials than the DC cathedrals.

Sadly, very few other American cities have the kind of money to lavish on public edifices that DC (where I grew up) has. But the Episcopal cathedral on Nob Hill does have bronze copies of the Ghiberti doors (called the "Gates of Paradise") from the baptistry in Florence:


Source: http://www.artchive.com/artchive/G/g...adise.jpg.html

This grocery store (on the left) wasn't so great:

That's the Market St. Safeway--where I and most residents of the Castro (which I am not) shop. I'm not sure what you don't like about it--architecturally, of course, the great expanse of surface parking lot is hated by urban purists. But the store itself is well-stocked (though there's better produce just across Church St) and had you not had your girlfriend with you (nor had one at all) you might have found it much more attractive--if you get my drift.

I assume this is the mission whence the district takes its name?

Actually not. That's "Mission Dolores Basilica", a relatively modern church next to the Mission whence the district takes its name: Mission San Francisco de Asis (built 1776).


Source: http://www.colonialvoyage.com/viaggi...on_Dolores.JPG

The Tenderloin.
I was surprised to find such a relatively seedy neighborhood so close to Union Square. That having been said, it was probably my favorite neighborhood in the city. I'm jealous of the density. DC's densest neighborhoods still have a lot of rowhouses mixed in with the apartments. My uneducated guess is this is probably the densest neighborhood in the country outside New York. Can anyone corroborate?

The city overall is the densest outside Manhattan and the T-loin is its densest part so you are probably right. Anyway, it is where it is because the city stopped gentrification in its tracks in the 1960s and 1970s by blocking conversion of single room occupancy hotels (sometimes know as "flop houses") to tourist uses and by limiting heights mostly to 9 stories. The purpose was to stop the loss of low income housing and it largely worked. These days the T-loin has lots of new construction of subsidized "affordable" housing due to the SF law requiring developers of market rate housing elsewhere to provide the subsidies. Did you see any of the newer buildings?

What the eff is this thing?

That's the Cathedral Church of St. Mary of the Assumption--otherwise known as St. Mary's Cathedral--the Roman Catholic Cathedral, designed by the Italian Pier Luigi Nervi in 1971. Not everyone likes it--it's called the "washing machine agitator"--but some consider it one of the 3 best modern Catholic cathedrals in California. It may be better inside than out:


Source: http://www.stmarycathedralsf.org/

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Enjoyed all your photos. Hope I answered your questions adequately.