Geary St, Downtown

If you want to get San Francisco’s version of New York, this is the street to try.

Near Market, you find SF’s top theaters. For starters, you have the ACT where you can see outstanding performances in one of those great old theatres that gives you a great excuse to dress-up and disregard the California casual style for a night. All of it so ornate that you feel you just stepped into the 19th century. The Curran next door is on a par with it, offering great Broadway shows without the plane ticket fair east.

The shopping experience goes along with the big city feel as well. Geary skirts Union Square and around Christmas, you can almost fool yourself into thinking you are on 5th avenue. With stores like Saks and Macy’s in the vicinity, and nice old time hotels like Drake’s, there is a definite New York vibe. The art galleries along the street also have an east coast sophistication that seems somewhat alien to its laid back California surroundings.

If you are more into the dirty, dingy concrete jungle sort of a New York experience, you just need to follow the street farther west. Soon you will find yourself well within the Tenderloin. Hold your wallet close and stay alert the whole time or you might make an easy mark—there is a reason why Dashell Hammett set the Maltese Falcon in the area—the crime statistics match the Tenderloin’s reputation.

There is generally, however, something very un-San Francisco about this street. It is about as flat and straight as an SF street gets and the architecture here is decidedly east coast urban—not a single Victorian for block on block. Many of the buildings—you even get brown stones for a stretch—just seem like the type found in other, older cities—though by California standards, SF is no spring chicken, being as old as the country itself.

Even the bars on this street don’t seem like the kind you would get here. Edinburgh Castle just doesn’t sound like the sort of establishment that usually crops up in SF. Or the Outsider. These bars lack that campy sort of gay bar aesthetic that pervades many of the best known bars in the city. And there is a certain world weariness to these places that seems better suited to Brooklyn than the “soft” west coast. So, if you are from the Big Apple—or just spent some time there like me—you should definitely give Geary a try.

San Francisco's longest street, Geary encompasses just about everything that makes San Francisco, San Francisco. Coming out of downtown, it forms the south side of Union Square, in the middle of San Francisco's shopping district (and is crossed by Grant Street, right before Grant Street turns into the main drag of Chinatown). As it continues west, you see the Union Square Theatres, then it crosses into one of San Francisco's tougher areas, the Tenderloin. It continues, touching the Western addtiion, and running right past the infamous Fillmore as well as St. Mary's Cathedral. Just another couple of blocks out, you see Japantown on the north side of the street, and then Kaiser Hospital (America's first HMO) on the south. As you cross into the avenues, Geary becomes more of a shopping street, and crosses Park Presidio. As you approach the beach you pass through a Russian district, a Jewish district, and end up at Sutro Heights park, just a block over from the street to the Cliff House. Geary also enjoys double-length bus service and is a major arterial.

Union Square Park is a beautiful square in the heart of San Francisco. In the winter you can enjoy the skating rink they put up temporarily as well as the Christmas tree. During the year there are events you can enjoy -- The Congo Line during Bay Area Dance week is lots of fun (http://www.bayareandw.org/).

You can even enjoy fire dancing there. 2 times per year Temple of Poi does a show. In the late fall (typically first Monday of December) as part of the San Francisco Food Bank's Canned Food Drive (http://www.sffoodbank.org/) you can see one show. And as part of Bay Area Dance Week you can enjoy another show (http://templeofpoi.com/events/expo09.php).

Geary Street is one of the longest and busiest streets in San Francisco. It literally spans across the city in one straight line. The 38 and 38 Limited buses will take you directly to any part of Geary you need to get to when you’re on that street. This street gets progressively busier once you are closer to downtown, it’s quieter when you’re closer to the beach because there are less businesses. Once you reach around the 20’s in avenues, you will see an increase in businesses. There will be familiar stores like Ross, Best Buy, and Office Max. There are also some bars and some palm reading stores. You will find Kaiser Hospital on Geary Street. This street has terrific night life because people love dining out. This street can get fairly traffic-heavy sometimes, and parking can sometimes be difficult, so public transportation is highly recommended.

Geary Street has a thousand different identities. It spans almost the entire width of San Francisco, from east to west, beginning at Kearny and Market and continuing straight out to the Pacific Ocean. Its most well-known identity is the Union Square retail district, with many upscale department stores and prominent designers operating stores there. There are a lot of great restaurants here, too, although most of them are expensive. It continues through the rough-and-tumble Tenderloin (the Mason/Leavenworth area) which, although scary, has quite a few Vietnamese restaurants, many of which I've heard are quite good. As it continues further into the Richmond, you will notice many upscale Asian restaurants of every kind, and again, there are many here that are quite popular and supposed to be excellent. Going even further out into the Richmond, it becomes less commercial and more residential, and actually kind of desolate. Approaching the ocean, it loops down the hill and turns into the Great Highway, which provides a dazzling view, so be prepared for it.