City of dreams

One visit is all it takes to fall in love with San Francisco, with its myriad districts each possessing a different character and appeal, says Octavia Pollock

- Octavia Pollock

THE cool grey city of love is certainly urban. Yet it is the place for people who don’t like cities, who long for fresh air, dog walks, open spaces and endless views.

San Francisco, or SF—never San Fran or Frisco—has a unique character, preserved from untrammelled development in much of its 49 square mile demesne by the simple fact that it’s bounded on three sides by the sea. Only in its southern environs, where neighbourhoods stretch down the Peninsula to merge eventually with tech capital Palo Alto, does it become more akin to other urban areas.

In SF proper, SoMa (south of Market, the long street that cuts diagonally through the city’s road map from Twin Peaks to the Ferry Building) is the epicentre of new building, with skyscrapers springing up so quickly the skyline seems to have changed every time one drives west across the Bay Bridge.