Lake Merced - Parkside - St. Francis Wood - Ingleside
We could call this southwest corner of Fog City "Unknown San Francisco", not so much because it is unknown to city residents, but because few people outside San Francisco can tell you much about it, except perhaps for people in neighboring Daly City who are drawn to its best known physical feature: Lake Merced. In truth, the neighborhood's large expanse of wilderness, matched only by the Twin Peaks area in the center of San Francisco, and its single family houses make it for this observer one of San Francisco's most attractive neighborhoods.
It does have one drawback. It's often foggy. In fact, in the murky second week of July, 2002, daytime temperatures hovered in the 50s (10s centigrade) while the part of the city east of Twin Beaks basked in clear 85-degree weather. (To be sure, the Peninsula baked in triple digit weather.) But is weather everything? Would San Francisco have coffee houses everywhere without a little fog to spur business? Weather talk is small talk, fit for, well, not fit for San Franciscans. Let us move on to the neighborhood views. A view is always worth a few thousand words in this city.
Here's one of those views. It's Ingleside, in the vicinity of the corner of Capitol and Lakeview, looking up Mt. Davidson, the highest point in San Francisco. But nowhere in San Francisco, weather permitting, are you out of sight of the Thing on Mt. Sutro. It even sticks up over neighboring moutains.
"All things considered, I'd rather be in Churchill." (Churchill, Manitoba, that is. I was there last year.)
Screechy peacock has run of the zoo. In principle, he can pop into the tiger's den. The tiger might like this!
Last of the Dogs Claimed to be the last Doggie Diner sign in San Francisco
Lake Merced
Ingleside
Middle school at Armenian
Community Center
on Brotherhood Way
The Zoo
Lake Merced (North Lake)
Penguin's Prayer,
Beniamino Bufano