SF Filbert steps (1278)

We wound up spending a lot of time on the Filbert Street steps in our one visit to San Francisco in 2007, mostly because we'd seen a documentary about the parrots of Telegraph Hill a month before we went, and we wanted to see if we could find them. I'll admit, I didn't come away from San Francisco with that great a feeling (I know because we only did tourist stuff), but I did really like the Filbert steps.

I've heard Chicagoans complain of the SF architecture as uninspired, boring. Admittedly, too, much of the attraction of San Francisco for many years was as a safe and comfortable haven for gays. The 'tourist' SF is fairly routinely tourist, but a more intimate knowledge of it gives it more flavor -- though the commercialization of the last decade has eliminated some of that nuance. Much of my appreciation of it was actually due to the ease of getting to wonderful hiking areas that aren't in the city.

While Chicagoans are justifiably proud of Chicago architecture, I think they tend to be a little more proud than is justified. I suspect they have trouble getting used to anyplace where all the buildings aren't brick.

I liked the look of San Francisco (though I have to agree with the Chicagoans that the skyscraper skyline, at least in 2007, wasn't terribly impressive.) There was something about the mood of the place, though, that didn't sit well with me. I think the biggest part of that was the particular sections of the city we wandered. (I don't know the neighborhoods, but it was mainly the places you see in the tourist brochures ... Lombard St., Telegraph Hill, et. al.). My guess is that these were the sections most likely to have been affected by the ongoing gentrification and commercialization you often talk about in your photos, making it all seem a bit bland. Of course, I was a lot less traveled then, I hadn't been out of Kentucky long, and I was less likely to know what to look for. If I went back and took some more time, I think I'd get a better feel for it.

More superficially, the dominant driving style seemed very Midwestern to me, and that sort of perception plays a larger role in my mind than is really justified. In general, I'm not really trouble by California traffic, but driving in San Francisco bugged me. It was too much like driving in Chicago.