Central Richmond

Central Richmond is a middle class family friendly neighborhood conveniently nestled in between Sea Cliff and Golden Gate Park. From a bird’s eye view, the district embodies the cookie cutter style neighborhood, with houses squeezed together in perfectly ordered rows leaving behind no extra space. As you walk through the area, you’ll see many houses painted in unconventional colors like green, red and blue. However, many residents pay upwards of a million dollars for these homes.

Although the neighborhood bleeds of plainness, there are plenty of perks that make Central Richmond an hot destination. On sunny days, lofty parts of the neighborhood has sweeping views of the Golden Gate Bridge as well as the woodsy Presidio. For families, the district is home to many prestigious schools, including George Washington High and Presidio Middle School. Geary Boulevard acts as the main commercial drag. It offers plenty of ethnic cuisines and fine dining experiences. Many residents also venture south to the Golden Gate Park where the large open space offers a myriad of outdoor activities, including 21 tennis courts, a basketball court, a 9-hole golf course and a disc golf course.

Parking is pretty painless with the area offering plenty of free street parking. While many homes and apartments have attached garages. Consequently, many residents own cars and drive into the city for work. Public transit comes relatively frequently for those who choose not to drive. The 1, 31 and 35 run east and west while the 5 treks up and down Fulton Street. The neighborhood is relatively safe, while most crime comes in the form of disturbing the peace and car-theft.

With Sea Cliff just to the north, you might expect Central Richmond to be yet another really expensive SF neighborhood. In fact, however it is just average for SF: average household income $74K (SF average is $70K) and average rents $1400 (SF is $1350). So really, this is a fairly average neighborhood.
Partly this has to do with location. It is just far enough from the action that it is a bit of a commute to reach the rest of the city—but it is not far enough away that you get too many views of the bay or the bridge. Basically, it is an inbetween spot. That said, it is actually really quite nice. I’ve had friends live here in college and they really liked it. Your just north of Golden Gate Park which is great on weekends and in the summer when they have concerts and things.
You’re also pretty close to the Legion of Honor and there are a fair number moderately priced restaurants and a couple movie theaters. I’m not sure if there are any supermarkets nearby but there are a lot of corner groceries which is pretty cool.
I could definitely see myself living here—just far enough away from the action but not so far that you feel like you are in the burbs.

The Central Richmond doesn’t get nearly enough respect. The Outer Richmond has Sutro Heights and spectacular views of the ocean. The Inner Richmond has the Presidio, some of the best spots of Central Park, and downtown just a few blocks away. What can Central Richmond possibly have to offer? Oh, I’m soooo glad you asked.

First off, this is one of the best segments of Geary. You’ve got Tommy’s (the Mexican place, not the meat place). You’ve got John Campbell’s Irish Bakery (god, this place is to die for). You’ve got Joe’s Ice Cream. And don’t forget Trad’r Sam – that place is awesome. It gets even better if you go just a couple blocks up to Clement Street. One Hundred Percent Sweet Café is a terrific dessert place. PPQ Dungeness Island is one of my favorite place to eat crabs in this city. And the Pho Garden Vietnamese Restaurant is a hidden treasure.

Got an afternoon to kill? Take a stroll through the shallow hills of Seacliff – most San Franciscans never get away from Sea Cliff Ave down by the bottom on their way to Land’s End Trail. Or if you’re looking for less water and more green, take the quick hike down to Golden Gate Park – this part of the park is fantastic (and about as often forgotten as Central Richmond itself.

Central Richmond is not a neighborhood where many San Francisco visitors will visit, but it is fairly busy and buzzing. Geary Boulevard has plenty of bars and nightlife to go around, without the airs or pretenses of some of the other San Francisco neighborhoods. Ethnic food, particularly Chinese food, is prevalent, but this is no Chinatown - the area is safe, clean, and far more residential.

That being said, houses here are more reasonably priced than some other neighborhoods in the city, but are still fairly close together. Parking is decent and free, but this is no suburb by any stretch of the imagination. Like most of the western part of San Francisco, the fog looms large and the weather is chilly.

Overall, this is a nice little neighborhood. My only recommendation is to stay away from Hong Kong Lounge, which has great Yelp reviews and crowds to substantiate them, but food that makes die-hard Dim Sum lovers nauseous.

The recent saga of the 4-Star Cinema tells much about the Central Richmond. This tiny independent moviehouse, a fixture on Clement Street since the 1920s, has screened a mix of Hollywood, European, and Asian films for a generation of filmgoers, reflecting the diverse makeup of its customers, many of whom are from the neighborhood. When the 4-Star was in danger of closing its doors for good a few years ago—victim of a lease dispute—patrons rallied behind the owners, gathered 12,000 signatures, and invoked a San Francisco law protecting historic theaters. Though the fight to save the place was long and a little costly, it ultimately resolved in a compromise that spared the 4-Star and kept a symbol of the area’s polyglot residents and their cultures intact.

The Central Richmond is indeed a neighborhood of many languages and traditions. From its earliest days in the 19th century as pastureland and racetracks formed from the sand dunes that predominated in the so-called Outer Lands, with only a few buildings and makeshift stops on the Point Lobos Toll Road that connected the rest of San Francisco with the Cliff House, it has attracted entrepreneurs and developers of various nationalities. Early on came the Prussian-born land baron Adolph Sutro, who at one time owned nearly a tenth of San Francisco west of Twin Peaks. After Sutro began putting in streetcars, the area witnessed a boom that only increased after the quake and fire of 1906, when settlers moved here seeking new homes. They were obliged by home builder Fernando Nelson and his sons, whose company was credited with constructing a house a day for six years after the disaster, each structure unique in its architectural details.

By the 1950s, the area had become home to Irish, German, Jewish, and Russian immigrants, each group adding its cultural layer to the neighborhood (restaurants, bars, houses of worship, and clubs—with many saying the Russians who moved here mid-century giving the neighborhood its strongest character). Then, Chinese immigrants began moving in, a trend that accelerated after the 1965 Immigration Act. Today, according to U.S. Census Bureau information, the Central Richmond is among the city’s most diversely populated areas, its 25,000 residents about 45 percent Asian, 45 percent white, and the remaining 10 percent mixed race, African American, or some other race. They tend to be middle-aged (40 is the median age, with about 17 percent age 65 and over) and financially secure if not affluent (median annual household income is $65,000). Almost 40 percent own their homes; the remainder rent.

Travel down Clement Street or Geary Boulevard west of Park Presidio Drive and you’ll see the ethnic variety spelled out in the culinary establishments. Geary, which carries the most traffic, has numerous Asian eateries—Japanese (beef fondue at ShaBu House to sushi at Kabuto); Chinese (dim sum at Ton Kiang to seafood at Mayflower); Korean barbecue (Jang Soo); Thai (Khan Toke, the granddad of all the city’s Thai restaurants); and Vietnamese (La Vie, a relative newcomer noted for its superb crab dishes)—as well as European and New World ones, including Moscow and Tblisi Bakery, Russian Renaissance, Tommy’s Mexican, Blarney Stone Bar and Restaurant, and Aziza (Moroccan).

Likewise, Clement Street, which is less trafficked and more residential, hosts a panoply of world-cuisine restaurants: India Clay Oven, Patpong Thai, Layaly Mediterranean, Blue Fin Sushi, Pho Garden, Tia Margarita, Ernesto’s, Grassland Hot Pot, Café Mereb, Golden Gate Dim Sum, Mescolanza. Even California Street has a few: Rumble Fish (sushi), Bazaar Café, Angelina’s.

Some of the city’s most striking places of worship are located along these streets as well: the gold onion domes of Holy Virgin Russian Orthodox Cathedral (at Geary Boulevard and 26th Avenue); St. Monica’s, with its Mission-style pink and amber stucco façade (at Geary and 23rd); the strikingly modern Congregation Beth Shalom (on 14th Avenue at Clement, on the area’s eastern boundary); and even the more modest St. Peter’s Episcopal on 29th Avenue, a red-brick church in the English style that is being rebuilt after suffering extensive damage in the Loma Prieta quake more than 20 years ago.

The many schools of the Central Richmond attest to the fact that this is a neighborhood in which families settle to raise their children. Among the highly rated public schools, George Washington High (at 600 32nd Avenue, off Geary), which received a 9 out of 10 mention by GreatSchools, attracts a diverse student body with solid basics leavened with numerous artistic and creative options. Presidio Middle School (on 30th Avenue, between Geary and Clement) garnered a 9 GreatSchools rating; Alamo Elementary, on 23rd Avenue, got a 9 GreatSchools rating; and Argonne Elementary, on 18th Avenue, got an 8 GreatSchools rating. Among private schools: Lisa Kampner Hebrew Academy (K-12) on 14th Avenue (near Balboa); St. John of San Francisco Orthodox Academy (K-8, Russian; associated with Holy Virgin Cathedral, see above); St. Monica’s (K-8, Catholic, associated with church of the same name); and Bais Menachim Yeshiva Day School (on 28th Avenue).

The Central Richmond borders Golden Gate Park along Fulton Street, giving residents a number of options for open-space games and frolicking—even in the frequent fog that cloaks the area, especially in the summer. A number of other spaces break up this densely populated area, including the new-ish Richmond Recreation Center (with its programs for toddlers), Richmond Playground, Argonne Playground, Richmond District Neighborhood Center (noted for its after-school and art programs), and Fulton Playground.

With all of this activity, it’s not hard to imagine that parking in the area can be difficult. Fortunately for drivers, many homes have attached garages, and many of the area’s numerous apartment buildings and rentals have parking spaces. Other than the block or so west of Park Presidio—when you’ll need the “N” sticker—the city issues no resident parking permits.

Public transit comes as buses: numerous lines ply the east/west streets (the No. 1 along California; the 38 along Geary; the 31 along Balboa; and the 5 on Fulton). The No. 29 goes up and down 25th Avenue, as does the 28 along Park Presidio, where Golden Gate Transit buses bound for Marin County also stop.

According to San Francisco Police Department stats, disturbing the peace is the most common crime in the Central Richmond (generally, these are noise nuisances from bars and restaurants), followed by car theft/break-in (increasingly commonplace in San Francisco), then burglary, robbery and assault, especially on east/west streets (Geary, Anza, Balboa, Cabrillo, and Fulton). There has been only one homicide in the last three years.

Home prices here remained stable during the recent economic downturn, and they have led the market in rebounding. A three-bedroom, two-bathroom single-family home can go from $750,000 to $1.3 million, while condos in the neighborhood go from about $500,000 to $900,000, depending on size, amenities, and location. Rentals are considered affordable here, though that may mean a fairly spartan, modern building with few architectural details; studios fetch from $1,200 to $1,400, with one-bedrooms starting at $1,250, and two bedrooms ranging from $1,600 to $2,500. As with many neighborhoods with a heavy ethnic influence, square footage, light, and proximity to public transportation can make or break a deal.

Richmond is quickly becoming the place to be if you want to live in the city with great amenities but still retaining that community feel. I love the ability to go from wide city street to small town neighborhood within 2 blocks. Richmond is a fast growing area for families with children. Discovering the pocket parks and local youth center means that families with children have options for school age youth. The home prices are average for the Greater SF area but there are bargains to be found for those willing to invest some sweat equity. A quick look online and you can order delivery of groceries and dinner without hassle of extra work. That alone makes this neighborhood worth it for professionals with children.

Central Richmond, I use to go through all of Richmond for four years via MUNI transportation, and there has not been a single moment where I didn’t enjoy every second of it. Granted there isn’t much to Central Richmond as there would be in other parts of San Francisco, it still is a pretty well inhabited area with various shops, restaurants, and food markets. The weather is a lot similar to that of Central Sunset except at a slightly higher altitude. From my knowledge and experience, the Central Richmond area contains mostly non-Asian residents as the Central Sunset does. There are mostly Russians and various other ethnicities, but primarily Russian. So if you’re Russian and want to look for a place to live, Central Richmond is the place for you to go to. Not only is the neighborhood predominantly Russian, there are also a good number of Russian shops and restaurants on Geary Boulevard that runs through Central Richmond. In the Central Richmond there are MUNI bus stops at the big streets so transportation is never far from reach. The traffic gets heavy at times because of the transitioning exits and entrances into Golden Gate Park through to the Sunset District.

The neighborhood in general looks nice, but at times, especially in the mornings, in fogs, or on a cloudy day, Central Richmond looks gloomy and murky for some reason. It could be the old style wooden homes that I pass by often or it could be just how it is. Except on really sunny days, the neighborhood looks really beautiful; I guess it all depends on the lighting. The neighborhood is relatively safe as I’ve never run into any trouble myself in Central Richmond. I’ve never done anything recreational in Central Richmond so it would be hard for me to write in this review where you could go to relax, read a book, or go for a jog. However, I do see a good number of bikers riding on the streets in Central Richmond containing a bike lane very often.

When I visited San Francisco last time, I stayed with my friend who lived in the Central Richmond neighborhood. It seems like a pretty decent area in which to live. My friend seemed pretty content with it and she had very reasonably priced rent.

You will see that many of the streets are named after Spanish Conquistadors. However, there are a lot of people from Eastern European countries living in this part of town. Between the Spanish named streets and all the Russian people, it is an interesting blend of culture. There are lots of Russian oriented places like a big Russian Orthodox Cathedral and delis that serve Russian food. Katia’s is a cute tearoom that serves Russian style tea and dessert. So if you have been craving Borsch, you know where to go.

Clement Street has a lot of different stores, bars and restaurants. Geary Blvd also seems to have some interesting spots to hang out including a Hookah bar. You will find lots of interesting restaurants on these streets. One great thing to mention is although this neighborhood seems to be predominentaly Russian, you can find food from different regions including Thai food, Mexican Food, Italian Food, Jewish Food and Chinese Food. I love San Francisco!

Central Richmond neighborbood is bisected by the east-west Geary business corridor, where the area's diverse population abounds. Boundaries around the community include Geary Boulevard, Balboa Street, and 30th and 32nd Avenues. There are eight blocks of homes, flats and apartment homes surrounding George Washington High School whose white columns create vaguely a Partheon effect.

Russian bakeries, Middle Eastern delis, Irish bars and French restaurants are filled with families, young urban professionals and students from the nearby University of San Francisco on Lone Mountain. There seems to be a little splash of something for everyone.

As the Asian population has grown and Clement Street exploded with dim sum houses and Chinese restaurants, the district has been nicknamed "Chinatown West".