Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
miss the door camouflaged by spray paint, or the new rooftop mural by Brazilian street-
art-star duo Os Gemeos.
Union Square
SQUARE
Powell-Mason, Powell-
Hyde, Powell, Powell)
Free spirits and socialites converge on Union Square, named after pro-Union Civil War
rallies, ringed by department stores, and presided over by bare-breasted bronze socialite
(and Legion of Honor founder) Alma Spreckels as the Goddess of Victory. Public outcry
obliged Apple to revise its Union Square flagship plans in order to preserve SF sculptor
Ruth Asawa's beloved Stockton St fountain, featuring SF icons by 250 contributors.
THREE CHINATOWN ALLEYS THAT MADE HISTORY
earthquake and fire devastated Chinatown, developers schemed to relocate Chinatown
residents left homeless to less-desirable real estate outside the city. But representatives
from the Chinese consulate and several gun-toting merchants marched back to Waverly
Place, holding temple services amid the rubble at still-smoldering altars. The alley is the
namesake of the main character in Amy Tan's bestselling The Joy Luck Club.
China's last emperor at No 36, and the 1920s brought bootleggers' gun battles to this al-
ley - but Spofford has mellowed with age. In the evenings you'll hear shuffling mahjong
tiles and erhu(two-stringed Chinese fiddle) players warming up at local senior centers.
Mexico St after the working girls who once worked this block, mural-lined Ross Alley is
occasionally pimped out for Hollywood productions, including Karate Kid IIand Indiana
Jones and the Temple of Doom. Duck into the alley's
Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Fact-
ory
(56 Ross Alley; admission free; 8am-7pm) for custom cookies hot off the press (50ยข
each), and write your own fortune.
