Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Francisco
(www.edgesanfrancisco.com)
is more of a general catch-all publication
about gay life in and around town, and it can be useful for finding out what's
going on.
If you're still worried about possible harassment, the
International Gay and
Lesbian Travel Association
(
%
800/448-8550 or 954/776-2626; www.traveliglta.
com)
can connect you with gay-friendly hotels and businesses. There is a gay and
lesbian community center here (p. 208), but its outreach is mostly for locals.
STAYING CONNECTED
A civic effort to provide free wireless access to the entire city fell flat, but getting
online isn't hard if you bring your own laptop. Most hotels will have access—
sometimes in common areas, sometimes in the room, and sometimes in both
places. Strangely, it's the least expensive properties that seem to offer this service
for free.
You can also find access at Starbucks (www.starbucks.com), FedEx Kinkos
(www.fedex.com) and at almost any cafe. In San Francisco, where so many com-
puter professionals work, it's a mark of a quality establishment to offer free Wi-
Fi, so you'll never have to look very far before locating someplace that does.
Those without their own computers can usually find at least one computer at
their hotel, sometimes for use at a nominal fee. Because of this, and the fact that
relatively few tourists need to check their e-mail who haven't also brought the
means to do it, there are no dedicated Internet cafes to speak of; that seems to be
a '90s trend that has died.
Alternatively, locations of the
San Franciso Public Library
(http://sfpl.lib.ca.us)
have terminals for public use, although you may have to sweet-talk a desk clerk to
get near them. The main branch at the Civic Center is the busiest, so it might be
the best place to try your luck at squeezing in.
RECOMMENDED BOOKS & FILMS
Few American cities have been as memorialized and affectionately delivered in
works of literature and in movies. Many of us had our first and most romantic
exposures to this exceedingly photogenic city through celluloid.
BOOKS
The
Tales of the City
series, by Armistead Maupin. This breezy, soapy, easy-to-read
seven-book series about life in the city will make you wish you could have been
here in the 1970s.
The Sam Spade novels, by Dashiell Hammett. The gumshoe was based in San
Francisco, and these pages bring out the noir in the early 20th-century city.
A Crack at the Edge of the World,
by Simon Winchester. Self-indulgent but
informative examination of the Great Quake and its aftermath.
Slouching Towards Bethlehem,
by Joan Didion. Her brilliant essays include a
snapshot of the late-'60s hippie culture.
Howl and Other Poems,
by Allen Ginsberg. The 1950s Beat generation of enve-
lope-pushing writers took San Francisco as the center of their universe, and this
is the definitive Beat generation book of verse.
McTeague: A Story of San Francisco,
by Frank Norris. Grim late 19th-century
tale of revenge, later filmed (in town) as the classic
Greed
(1924).
