This article is part of I Love San Francisco, a feature series of essays that highlight what makes San Francisco iconic and irreplaceable.
I recently faced a decision that most San Franciscans know well. My housemates decided to move out, so would I keep our apartment or move to a more exciting neighborhood?
San Francisco neighborhoods feel a lot like their microclimates: A radically different experience awaits you just by moving a couple miles down the street. And while I love the Outer Sunset, it is also sedate; a slow pace of life alongside a beach town vibe. The big city feels very far away indeed.
I arrived in SF a decade ago, and I’ve always lived in the Outer Sunset. It’s close to SFSU where I was a student for many years, and it’s quiet, affordable and accessible. In my time here, I’ve heard my neighborhood called ugly, boring, lacking in trees, too foggy, and old fashioned. People who can’t find beauty in the mundane should definitely not live in the Outer Sunset.
For me, it’s unlike any neighborhood I’ve ever seen. Every house is unique, from its very inception to how they have been modified by generations of occupants. The tradition of painting your home an outrageous color combination is still strong. I’ve seen green and pink, purple and yellow, black and pink. The monochromatic choices are equally attractive; one such nearby home recently inspired me to dress more like Wednesday Addams.
We also live right next to each other — barely space between walls. No fences in our yards.
I feel less awkward admiring my neighbors front “yards” since we all share such little space and live right up to the curb. The houses might be architecturally similar, but they way we all decorate and embellish our homes are not. The weirder it is, the more I feel at home.
I even love the cold and the gray weather which plagues us for the majority of the year. The whole world is burning up, but at my house I’m blasted by air-conditioner cold wind from off the sea most hours of the day. Living in the sunset is like living in a fishbowl — the low atmospheric ceiling paired with the short skyline should make it feel oppressive, but I’ve never slept better than I do when the fog rolls over my house.
When the sky does clear up in late afternoon, we get beautifully-colored skyscapes, I love sitting on my front steps and watching the Belt of Venus streak pink and purple light off my neighbors houses. I could fill a book of poetry dedicated to the Outer Sunset in spring, the wet season pays off, and I’ve never lived somewhere so full of flowers.
People always applaud San Francisco for being so walkable, but the Outer Sunset really is. In between all those multicolored homes sit all the stores, restaurants, bars, hardware shops, even specialty businesses that I ever wanted. I’m living my dream of being within walking distance to three cafes, and did you know the frigid waters of Ocean Beach helped inspire the creation of the wetsuit? Or that there is a great little record store on Taraval Street across the street from the historic Riptide Bar?
There are no historic walking tours in my neighborhood, no double decker get-on-get-off buses and very few tourists, but there is history out here! My list of “did you know” grows the more I live here, like for instance, did you know there used to be a train rail that ran up and down Ocean Beach? That one I’m real bitter about.
And oh yes — the beach. Sure, it doesn’t have that cheery Baywatch feel, but it’s perfect for a contemplative walk. Ocean Beach gets crowded enough on sunny days, but locals know the best conditions for a bonfire are slightly overcast, and humid days when the wind is at its least fierce. I love seeing groups of young people lugging firewood from the Safeway out onto the northern stretch of the beach.
I also feel safe in the Outer Sunset. I can walk around at night alone if I want and go about my life un-accosted. The secret of living so close together is that — for the most part — everyone minds their own business. We are suburban but also cosmopolitan, we live in a perfect balance of hectic city life and quite suburban existence. Isolation, which is the death of community, is not possible in a place like this.
T Von D. is a local museum worker and lesbian.
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