Oak St, Civic Center

This would be a great (but expensive) street to live on. When you are on the west side of the street there are some really nice parks and those old triple decker houses that everyone imagines when they think of San Fran. These are the upper-scale ones, really nice neat (historically accurate, I am sure) paint jobs. Lawns looked like a lot of people had gardeners. Expensive fences, gates, etc. But, still looked friendly. If you could afford it, the really great thing about living here would be that you have a straight shot in to downtown.

This street, which runs along the south side of the Panhandle, is a rapid conduit to South of Market, or you can eventually turn onto the freeway if you keep to the right (so if that's not what you want to do, stay in the two left lanes). There isn't much to it -- it's a fast-moving, one-way, multi-lane, mostly residential street, with a cafe here and there. If you're headed to South of Market, at Franklin you will be forced to make a left turn, and then a right onto Fell, which will eventually lead onto 10th Street. From there you can navigate to anywhere South of Market you choose to go.

Oak Street is just South of the Panhandle. This street starts at Stanyon Street and ends at the crossing of Van Ness Avenue and Market Street. Oak Street is a one way road heading away from Golden Gate Park. But what makes this street so busy is that many commuters take this road to get to the Downtown District or to get onto the freeway to get to their jobs. During the weekends and afternoons, you will see many joggers, bikers, and skateboarders all over the panhandle for a little exercise and such. Transportation on Oak Street is great as well as it is one of the main roads for the 16AX and 16BX Muni buses.

Oak Street is a very busy one-way street with lots of traffic, stores, and office buildings. Oak Street is home to the San Francisco DMV, lots of various retail, and lots of restaurants. However, I know Oak really well just because it’s the fastest way to connect to the freeway if you are from the Sunset District. Right off of Oak Street is the on ramp to Highway 280 which takes you to various parts of the city or down south. Oak Street eventually spills out onto Market Street in the heart of the Civic Center district downtown.

There is plenty of housing on Oak but the majority of it is apartment buildings and complexes. It would be a good spot for a young person to live with easy connections to downtown and highway 280 for commuters. There is plenty of public transportation on Oak to take you literally anywhere in the city. A thing to consider is the noise can be a factor as it’s very busy with lots automobile traffic.