Oceanview, San Francisco

Despite its panorama-promising name, Oceanview really doesn’t have one. It’s hard to see much besides surrounding hills from most vantage points in this neighborhood, which sits in a kind of valley bounded on the north by Lakeview, on the south by Sagamore, and on the west by Orizaba. In fact, the neighborhood gets its name from a station on the defunct railroad line that once linked San Francisco and San Jose in the mid-1800s. The old “Ocean View” station itself likely referred to what the train passed a mile or so to the southwest, on what is now Junipero Serra Boulevard, beyond the confines of today’s neighborhood. Though there’s no trace of the station today, the intersection where it stood—the crossroads of Alemany, Sagamore, Plymouth, and Sickles—is a reminder of what was once a kind of town square for the self-contained community that sprung up around the station, complete with a fountain in the middle (now long gone).

In the 1880s, when the railroad still carried San Franciscans out to what was then considered “the country”—to picnic, take a stagecoach to the beach, or to gamble in one of many of the area’s notorious “road houses”—the little community that grew up around the train station had its own post office, police station, firehouse, bakery, market, and more than a couple of bars. Early settlers—Italian, Irish, and German—came here to live a simple, countrified life amid dairy and vegetable farms. The Railroad Homestead Association had already laid out its wide streets and long rectangular blocks that ran in a straight east/west line—a grid that holds today. By the time the other neighborhoods were developed around Oceanview in the early 1900s, they had to conform to the streets already in place here, resulting in an interrupted street pattern, particularly along Orizaba. This also meant that Oceanview had a large number of older homes, many of them good examples of Victorian architecture that stand out among the low-slung houses built from the 1920s through the 1950s, as the rest of the city engulfed the area. It was perhaps because of these older homes that Oceanview was among the few neighborhoods where African Americans could buy property without facing discrimination in the post-World War II era, as urban renewal in the Fillmore District prompted them to seek housing elsewhere.

But over time, the absorbing of Oceanview into the rest of San Francisco did not bode well for the little community. When passenger service ended on the train line in 1904, and commercial development shifted to the electric train line along Mission Street, the area’s businesses declined. By the time the Southern Freeway (I-280) was built along the neighborhood’s southern fringe in the 1960s, Oceanview was deteriorating fast. By the 1980s, drug dealers and gangs made it their home, further stifling the district. Were it not for the efforts of a neighborhood group, Neighbors in Action, Oceanview might still be a forbidding place.

But thanks to neighborhood activism, the area is on the rebound today. Though some streets still have boarded-up homes and graffiti-covered walls, there is a new community center on Montana Street between Capitol and Plymouth—the Minnie and Lovie Ward Recreation Center, a considerably refurbished park with a new playground and four handsomely designed buildings connected by a loggia, including a freestanding gymnasium, community room, and teen building for use by participants in the city’s Safe Haven Program. Kitty-corner from the park is Sheridan Elementary School, a K-5 elementary that was totally renovated in the late 1990s and received a 5 out of 10 rating by GreatSchools.

Elsewhere, the old Engine Co. No. 33 Firehouse on Broad Street has been restored and now offers tours of the site as well as sites throughout San Francisco in an old fire engine. The firehouse is situated in the middle of an up-and-coming commercial area centered around Broad and Plymouth. Though it’s far from quaint, the intersection features a number of shops and businesses (including a holdout barber shop, Furlough’s Tonsorial Parlor) that beckon pedestrians and commuters using the “M” streetcar, which has stops along Broad Street. (The area’s tiny library has moved a few blocks away to new, bigger, and much-improved quarters on Randolph Street.) There are also a number of houses of worship in the area, along with St. Michael’s Korean Catholic Church, a large complex near this new center of activity, with services in English and Korean.

Oceanview, like its immediate neighbors, is a prime candidate for undergrounding utilities. Overhead on most streets is a dark tangle of wires and poles, eyesores that block views and add to the area's unkempt look. The city has begun replacing the modern “cobra” streetlights with a classic “teardrop” more in keeping with the era in which the neighborhood flourished, but lack of funds has stymied a full-speed ahead approach on burying utility wires.

The 15,000 or so people who live in Oceanview are, according to U.S. Census Bureau statistics, a diverse mix: 40 percent Asian, 30 percent African American, 18 percent white, and the remaining 12 percent of two or more races. (Almost 20 percent identify themselves as Latino of any race.) They are by and large middle class, with a median annual household income of $60,000, and 75 percent own their homes.

Outside of the budding commercial stretch near Broad and Plymouth, there is little in the way of mercantile activity elsewhere in the neighborhood. A few storefronts, a gas station, and a car repair garage sit at the eastern end of Sagamore, and an isolated corner market or two are scattered elsewhere in the neighborhood. But for the most part, people travel outside the area, to Ocean View Village in adjacent Ingleside Heights or beyond, for major shopping.

Public transportation here is fairly limited here. The “M” streetcar runs east and west along Broad Street, on the way either downtown or to the Balboa Park BART station. The local No. 54 bus runs along Sagamore and up and down Plymouth, bound for the Balboa Park BART station. The scant business activity in the area means that parking is fairly easy, and there are few on-street parking restrictions, save along a small section of San Jose Avenue, where the “V” residential permit enables holders to disregard time limits.

Crime is moderately high in the neighborhood, led by disturbing the peace (in the form of noise nuisances), robberies and burglaries, as well as vehicle thefts and auto break-ins. Assaults are also common in a three-month period, and there have been four homicides in the last three years, including one reported in late August of 2010.

Real estate here is gradually staging a comeback from the doldrums of 2008-2009, with a 12 percent overall increase in median home prices during 2010. Many of the homes for sale are considered low- to bargain-priced, with a two-bedroom, one-bath home on Plymouth listing for $419,000 and a handyman’s special of similar dimensions on Majestic going for $315,000. Rentals here are hard to find, but are generally multi-bedroom homes, such as the four-bedroom, two-bath across from the new recreation center that listed for $3,000 a month.

Although the deterioration of Oceanview has slowed (if not halted altogether), the revitalization has been fairly slow. Nevertheless, the neighborhood has the potential to become a good choice for those who need easy access to I-280 for commuting, for young families looking for a starter home, and for couples seeking to downsize in a district with distinct possibilities.