Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
47
any price range, ar e located in other
neighborhoods.)
You'll find no shor tage of noise and
congestion her e, but gr een space is
another matter . The actual U nion
Square plaza, located within S tockton,
Powell, G eary, and P ost str eets, once
provided the gr eenery that is other wise
absent in the city center , but a 2002
redesign of the plaza did away with a lot
of it. A t least the ne w design is better
suited to hosting the squar e's fr equent
art exhibits and cultural events. Also on
the plaza is the
TIX B ay Ar ea half-
price ticket booth
(see chapter 10 for
more information on the TIX booth).
Despite Union Square's urban feel—
there's not a playgr ound to speak of—
staying in this area is worth considering
as it has the gr eatest concentration of
hotels. M oreover, it 's close to many
other city attractions, with readily avail-
able public transpor tation. F inally, if
your children are actually old enough to
enjoy shopping as much as you do, this
could be the neighborhood for y ou.
South of Market
SoMa, as the blocks
encompassed by Market, 10th, Steuart,
and King streets (including South Beach
and AT&T Park) are familiarly known,
exemplifies the best and worst of urban
life. H ere y ou will find some of the
city's top cultural institutions, such as
the
San Francisco Museum of Modern
Art
and the
Yerba B uena Center for
the Arts.
With its lovely gardens, galler-
ies, and performance space, and numer-
ous attractions for childr en of all ages,
the Yerba Buena Center is a testament
to successful urban planning.
With the expansion of the
Westfield
San Francisco Centre
mall and r ecent
opening of a massiv e B loomingdale's,
whose doors open south to S oMa, the
neighborhood has now integrated more
fully into the U nion S quare shopping
scene. I n S oMa y ou'll also find the
continuously expanding
Convention Center
and
M etreon,
with its o wn collection of kid-friendly
attractions. D elightful bay vie ws and
AT&T Park
ar e ar ound the corner in
nearby South Beach. Brand-new restau-
rants seem to pop up daily in this for-
mer industrial neighborhood. The
Museum of the African D iaspora
arrived a fe w y ears ago, and the
Con-
temporary Jewish Museum
no w calls
SoMa home.
But the ongoing dev elopment has
not yet reached all of S oMa, and just 1
block west of the toniest shopping mall
in town is the heart of skid row: 6th and
7th streets below Market Street. Market
Street itself is also home to a shar e of
the city 's homeless r esidents. S o
although S oMa has some of the city 's
greatest cultural attractions and ev en a
few of its best hotels, families with
young children may prefer lodging in a
less gritty part of town.
Chinatown
It's with good reason that
Chinatown is the second most visited
3
destination in S an F rancisco, behind
Fisherman's Wharf. The densely popu-
lated ar ea betw een B roadway, Taylor,
Bush, and M ontgomery str eets is ev ery
bit as color ful, cr owded, and atmo-
spheric as adv ertised. The much-photo-
graphed Dragon Gate entrance on Grant
Street leads to one tourist shop after
another, all visually enhanced by colorful
banners in red, gold, and green.
If y ou're in the mar ket for a rhine-
stone tiara or a set of chopsticks, this is
nirvana. Kids lo ve all the little knick-
knacks: you could lose many hours pok-
ing around the stores, snacking on freshly
baked for tune cookies, and wandering
the alleyways. S tockton S treet, with its
exotic grocery stores and traditional herb
shops, is equally alluring. Ov erall, Chi-
natown is great for shopping and eating,
and several of its restaurants are listed in
chapter 5. Given the noise and cr owds,
Moscone
