FlowerGirl

Right at the convergence of I-80 and I-5, Metro Center is basically an office park on its eastern end, with several apartment complexes in its center and uncultivated fields, just waiting for further development to the west. You are right on the northwestern edge of Sac with long stretches of farmland to the west, and you definitely feel as if you have reached the edge of Sac’s little civilized world.

The office park is made up of law offices, engineering firms and regional HQ’s (I believe Ikon and Comcast both have offices here). There is also a fairly strong health care presence here with the Huntington Disease Society having an office here, as well as yet another Sutter Health office (related perhaps to the Sutter Health down in Gateway Center to the south.

Both the University of Phoenix—the well-known private business and trade college—has a campus in the office park, as does Art Institute of California (though the office parks manicured lawns, symmetrically placed trees and extensive parking lot are anything but inspirational).

Three gated communities make up the rest of Metro Center, each with its own wrought iron gates blocking their only entrances—like medieval villages weary of strangers. Each of the three communities has its own architectural style with the one at the western edge having slightly older, block-like two story homes with variously shaded tile roofs, the northeastern community having gray roofs and pleasant green spaces interspersed throughout, and the southern community having red tile roofs in a faux Spanish theme, palm trees and a swimming pool and tennis courts at its heart.

What does it cost to live in one of these complexes?

Rents are pretty standard throughout this area with 1 bedrooms going for around $1000/mo while 2-bedrooms hover at around $1300—slightly higher than neighborhoods to the south but not significantly so. Home prices are depressed by the real-estate troubles we’ve been having, with few home prices going for more than $300K. Most homes in the area were built in the last decade.

Nightlife is virtually non-existent here, but if you are looking for a quiet gated community or want to take some art-classes, this isn’t a bad place to set down roots.

Nestled right up against the I-80 on the northwestern end of Sac, this is the kind of neighborhood where you are just as likely to see a motorboat parked up on the street as an automobile. The southern border of the neighborhood is the river, so thoughts of the river are never far from your mind when you are here.

The homes here are mostly stucco with red-tiled roofs throughout, but they do have a number of variations within these parameters. Streets are nicely kept and there are several parks where little kids can play.

The local schools are below average, however, which undermines the nice suburban feel this neighborhood would otherwise have.

Perhaps this partly explains the low home prices here with median being around $225K and no homes breaking the $500K barrier. The homes here are all relatively new with the two big building booms coming in 1980’s and since 2000 (more than half have been built in the last decade). As you would expect given what I have said so far, about half of the homes up for sale are foreclosures.

Other than homes there isn’t much here however. You have to head over to Gateway Center to find even fast food places and even then it is mostly the usual bland suburban selection of eateries. That said it is a relatively quiet area where you can definitely find some deals on homes.

Up in this newer section of northwestern Sac, you are basically in an area dominated by gated communities where only residents and their visitors can make their way into the surface streets. It is basically Sac’s own little version of Orange County in that sense--though not really in terms of the price. Rents here are only slightly higher than normal, with a typical one-bedroom going for around $900 and a two bedroom for $1200.

Typical of these kinds of communities all the lawns are well-kept and clean, so you feel as if you are in a safe, if a bit of a boring, environment. Homes are all fairly similar, though not so similar that you can’t tell them apart.

On the eastern end of the neighborhood is a commercial area, largely made up of motels like the Hilton and the Springhill Airport hotel, that take advantage of the nearby freeway and the airport some five miles north. You also have the headquarters for several businesses as well—many related to health, and coordinating with the big Sutter Health facility on the southern end of the neighborhood.

Another feature of the area is Northwestern University School of law near the river.

As far as eateries goes, there is nothing you won’t find in a hundred other communities like this with the highlight being the Chevy’s by the river.

Overall, this is a nice, quiet place that would be nice for raising a family if it were not for the below average middle school that serves the area. Boring but good.

East Sacramento is really a pretty big area that could be itself broken down into several different neighborhoods if you were so inclined. Some people break it down according to the parks: McKinley, Herschel, East Portal, and Lubin. In that way you can roughly get this expansive area broken down into smaller sections. This is not a bad way of doing it.
McKinley Park, itself, the actual park that is, is fairly large with tennis courts, a baseball field and a garden area. It is also home to Clunie Community Center which runs a pool on the park grounds.

McKinley Park is also fronted on the east by a number of very attractive Tudor style cottages which perfectly match the early Century style lamps that are a common feature of this older area of Sac. On the south it are larger manor style homes on palm lined H Street. On the north it’s a little California bungalow city and on the west? A Greek Orthodox Church and a bank just to break up the fun for residential architecture lovers.

The UC Davis Neurosurgery Clinic is on the far north of neighborhood. While Mercy General Hospital is on the southeast of what you could call the McKinley section of East Sac.

Despite the attractive homes in the area of McKinley rents through East Sac remain relatively moderate, with a two-bedroom home going for about $1250/mo on average. And you can find some absolute steels in the area.

The Herschel Park area sprawls out to the east surrounding yet another hospital, Sutter Memorial. The homes here are a bit more difficult to describe. There are a number of Ranch and Prairie style homes but then there are also a fair number of unusual homes with strange architectural features that you don’t see that often—such as a backyard garage whose driveway has an overhanging bedroom extension for the main house—or dormer windows and strangely sloping roofs. Kind of cool really.

The neighborhood is also unusual for having a number acutely angled corners on streets, so that you get pointy extensions, too narrow for buildings.

The East Portal Area borders Cal State Sacramento and is made up of mostly bungalows and Ranch homes. Kit Carson Middle School is here (test scores indicate this is a pretty awful school) and so is St. Mary’s—which, of course, is a private Catholic school, so who knows how good the instruction is.

And then there is the Lubin Park area on the southwest of East Sac, which is a residential area that is largely made up of bungalows and older homes. It is also home of Forest Lawn Cemetery.

Taken together, East Sacramento does have a few unifying characteristics. The streets, for example, tend to be slightly wider than in other neighborhoods, though the abundance of trees along sidewalks does not make it feel like a race track at any point. The homes through East Sac also tend to be of the older variety.

Home prices throughout East Sac vary quite a bit with most homes going for under $500K, but about 20% rising above that amount. You will even find a handful of homes for sale at over the $1 Mil range. ($3.2 mil is the high I recently saw).
The schools vary as well, which is one of the reasons why I can’t recommend the neighborhood for families.

What about nightlife and that sort of thing?

There are a number of bars in the area ranging from sports bars to places that dub themselves dive bars. There are also a number or restaurants in the area, ranging from Mexican to Italian, but also including a few more unusual choices such as Moroccan food at Café Morocco.

Put simply, this is a whole bustling little city in itself here. Very good spot to get a house if you can.

Being just to the north of the UC Davis Med Center, Elmhurst, Sacramento is a favorite neighborhood for people who work at the hospital and want a commute so short they could practically do it by foot. Unlike the North Oak Park neighborhood to the east this is not known as a gang infested neighborhood, though it is right on that edge where Sac starts to get a little sketchy.

Now, despite having some doctors and a fair number of nurses, this is not a fancy neighborhood. The majority of homes here date to about WWII—lots of Ranch homes--and are on the smallish side as far as I’ve seen. This is not true across the entire neighborhood, of course. For example you can find at least one one-million dollar home up for sale in the far west of Elmhurst, which has a patch of stately manors just by the Med Center. The average home here, however, is about $250K—pretty low.

The neighborhood has also been hit very hard by the Foreclosure Crisis with more than half the homes currently on the market here being due to foreclosure. Rents will probably start to climb again as the Real Estate Crisis ebbs.

The area, is, of course, dominated by the large hospital to its south, but generally has a pleasant, leafy feel—almost sleepy.

Although Elmhurst itself does not have a lot of restaurants and nightlife, you can perhaps give it a pass since it is so close to neighborhoods that do.

The Fairgrounds are also just to the south, so you will often get spill over from events held there.

Overall, Elmhurst is a great spot to live if you work at the Med Center and want to be able to walk to work.

South Oak Park is pretty much the same as Central Oak Park in terms of being deep in gangs, except it is even worse here. It is pretty much a mess—boarded up houses, empty lots, police actions at night time. It is pretty much like Sac’s version of Oakland. Apparently putting the name “Oak” in a name makes it a magnet for gangs and crime.

Houses are inexpensive since few people really want to set down roots here but many of the homes are very old and definitely require fixing.

I pretty much would simply recommend avoiding this area if at all possible.

Just like North Oak Park, Central Oak Park is the beginning of Gangland Sacramento. South Sacramento pretty much has the rap of being a heavy gang area, and despite the recent additions of the UC Davis Medical Center and an influx of funds to try to revive this area of Sacramento, the gangs have pretty much remained entrenched.

The neighborhood is largely made of run down looking California bungalow style homes, with faded lawns and fenced yards.

Because of the gang problem, you will also find the least expensive houses in all of Sac with more than half of the homes in the area going for less than $100K.

But who is willing to come live in an area where you have to fear for your safety every day of your life?

Not for me, that’s for sure.

North Oak Park is the mostly residential neighborhood just to the west of the UC Davis Medical Center. It is at the junction of the El Dorado and Sacramento Freeways.

North Oak Park is home to Sacramento Charter High School—which I hear is a very good school though I don’t know for sure.

The neighborhood is also home to Underground Books—a bookstore owned by the mother of current Sac Mayor Johnson (whom those who are from this neck of the woods will know from his time as an NBA player).

The homes in the area have a somewhat run down feel to them. They are a mix of older style homes with ranch homes
being the newest of those that you find here. Prices here are rock bottom with the vast majority of the homes in the area going for less than $250K and many even dropping to less than $100 K.

There is definitely a crime problem here and to the south of this area, which partly explains the low rents. Generally speak, you want to avoid the area.

Med Center is the location of the UC Davis Medical Center, probably the premier hospital facility in Sacramento with both medical and educational functions. Like most hospitals attached to universities it features cutting edge technologies and so is a prime destination for those looking for the latest in care.

Located right by the junction of the El Dorado and the Sacramento Freeways it gets a lot of traffic both for emergencies and long term care. It also attracts many hospital workers to live in the surrounding areas so they can cut down on their commute times.

Curtis Park is the neighborhood just to the north and east of Sacramento City College. It is mostly a residential neighborhood except on the northern end where there are some offices such as the headquarters for Golden Credit Union. Broadway on the northern edge of the neighborhood has lots of fast food restaurants and there is also a smaller cemetery up there as well.

The neighborhood gets nicer the farther south you head, with lots of Tudors mixed in with the Ranch Homes on the southern edge. As you might expect the most expensive homes are on the south side of the neighborhood, where they can climb as far as $600K. Typically however, most homes in this neighborhood are in the ~$300K range, with about half all the homes here being sold due to foreclosure.

The proximity to Sacramento City College means there are a fair number of single rooms for rent in homes. One can also imagine that property prices would be higher in this neighborhood with the Bret Hart Elementary were a stronger school, but test scores are below average virtually across the board.

That said, the neighborhood is really leafy and nicely kept and it is clear that, despite being hit hard by the Foreclosure Crisis, this is still a neighborhood where people take good care of their homes and have a strong sense of neighborhood.
Curtis Park is an actual park on the southern end of the neighborhood. It is a long green space with basketball and tennis courts right in its middle section. As I alluded to, restaurant choices in this neighborhood aren’t great, with a lot of fast food dominating Broadway. But there are some better choices along Franklin on the western end of the neighborhood. There some Chinese and Mexican places, as well as a couple of crepe joints—so you definitely won’t starve. Not to mention you are close to Downtown and Midtown, so there are plenty of places there.

You can also find fitness places in the neighborhood, so Curtis Park definitely has a lot to offer.

Overall, this is a very nice, densely packed neighborhood, and right now, the foreclosure crisis has made it a good time to get in.

Okay, so this is the home of the Sac Zoo, which is--compared to every zoo I have ever been to-- SMALL! How small? I have a Vet friend who has more exhibits in her house than this place does. Okay, so maybe I’m slightly exaggerating on that score. But if you have been to the SF Zoo or the Oakland Zoo, this place is really pretty pathetic in comparison. (Not to mention that really none of these places compares to the San Diego Wild Animal Park which is the best zoo in California, and probably on the West Coast, imo.)

In fact, the zoo is so small that the neighboring golf course is about four times its size. I guess if you can’t make the trip to Oakland or SF, that this might be an okay place to take the kids. They have a Fairytale Town, so the kids can have a bit of fun once in a while. I can’t say I recommend it though.

Okay, so now that we have established that the zoo is not the reason why I like this neighborhood, what do I like about this place. Well, my reason for coming here is the Tower Theatre on the northern end of the neighborhood—the Midtowners always try to claim it for themselves but it is technically on our side of the street. (So suck eggs, Midtowners!)

What’s so great about the Tower Theatre that I’m willing to not only start a turf war with those toughs the Midtowners, and to accept the Brit spelling for “theater” for a place with no live actors? Well, this is the place to see Indie movies in Sac.
Old timers, like my BF, speak fondly of the days when it was one giant movie palace and Tower Records used to be across, but it is still one of the few places devoted to showing the movies that didn’t cost the GNP of Belize to make. Right now, for example, they are playing the Johnny Depp/Hunter S. Thompson semi bio-pic, The Rum Diary; the latest Almodovar flick, The Skin I Live In; and a couple of other movies I would never have heard of if I didn’t frequent this joint.

Now Tower Records lives only in memory, but Dimple Records has moved into the spot across the street and taken up the mantle that Tower used to carry. Tower Café is still there as well—and packed as always—and so is Tower Liquors in case you want to drown your sadness about the remembrance of things that no longer exist; though I would recommend some of the cool bars down the street like the X-O Lounge for that purpose. There are also an assortment of restaurants there as well.

Okay, so there are some cool spots to spend the weekends on the northern end of the neighborhood, but what is it like in the residential section?

There are a mix of styles in this neighborhood, with the real highlights being on the southern end of the neighborhood where you will find a number of Tudor Style homes and English manor-house types. Really cool and, of course, super-expensive. (This is where the majority of near million dollar homes that make up about 10% of the offerings are concentrated.)

The other 90% of homes available in Land Park however, are far more affordable (though not as cheap as north of the I-80) with most homes going for under $400K and about half being victims of foreclosure. This is not much of a renter’s market here though you will find an occasional offering.

Oh yeah, and given all that there is in this neighborhood, I forgot to mention that this is also home to Sacramento City College—Sac’s best community college, imo. In other words, this is a vibrant neighborhood with a lot going on—which is yet another reason why I think Upper Land Park is due for a revival as well.

On the northern half of Upper Land Park, you have the Sacramento Cemetery, a strange housing project like place, and an industrial area—none of which is terribly inviting for obvious reasons.

The cemetery is actually kind of nice. It’s big and old, so if you’re into that, its sort of cool. But, of course, it is a cemetery.

Just to the west of that there is the strange looking housing project that looks like a bunch of barracks. These look like one room apartments in non-descript brick shells with tiny front yards—about as inviting as a flea bag motel and just as weird. Not sure what those are or who lives there.

On the northwestern end of Upper Land Park is an industrial area that is home to auto-body shops, warehouses and the Sacramento headquarters for ABC News—the antenna for it is a landmark in the neighborhood. This is basically big rig and warehouse territory, all rust and dust.

On the western end of the neighborhood is Jedediah Smith Elementary and Health Professions High School. I don’t have any personal knowledge of either one, but I hear their test scores are less than spectacular.

To south of there on the western end are more of those strange looking housing units, this time not in brick but still as uninviting.

The overall southern triangle of the neighborhood takes on a very different feel from the rest however, with nice older homes with pools in the backyards and leafy streets. This part of Upper Land Park feels like it was once one of those idyllic 1950’s neighborhoods. It also feels a little bit like that was its height—it now feels more like your grandparents’ neighborhood than one that is quite as attractive for you.

Which is not to say that there aren’t signs of change. You do sees newer VW Beetles alongside monster gas guzzlers, and much of the neighborhood in this area is well kept. It has that sleepy Sacramento feel of a lot of this area but it also feels rather quaint and is very flat and walkable.

One of the real attractions to the area, I’m told, is the elementary school—Crocker/Riverside Elementary that does very well on its assessments.

As to the cost of living here? The area has been hit pretty hard by the Recession and the Real Estate Crisis so although there aren’t many homes for rent here there are a lot of good deals for those looking to buy a home. A number of the homes here go for as little as $200K. (Mostly due to foreclosure.) The most expensive home I found on a cursory look was one really nice place with a nice backyard for about $440K.

In terms of night life and restaurants, though there are some greasy spoons on the northern end of the neighborhood, this is not the neighborhood for that.

Supermarkets are few and far between as well with Muir Market being the local independent grocery store. It basically looks as old fashioned and sleepy as the neighborhood—though there is a Safeway north of the I-80.

Overall, I personally think that it is a neighborhood that is primed for a rebirth.

So this area of the city is one of the more dangerous areas in Sac in terms of crime, which makes it sound pretty bad, until you compare areas like this in Sac to Oakland or San Francisco which are both far more dangerous. You do get some assaults in this area—which is what you would expect for any place whose dive bars boast that they open their doors at 6 am.

Which brings me to the bars in Richmond Grove. It isn’t packed with bars, but there are definitely a couple of them—both fine representatives of the dive bar category. My favorite is the Flame Bar which is totally packed on the weekends with a cool college aged crowded, but is far more chill on the weeknights. If you prefer the kind of dive bar that might be a just the first stop on a trip to the hospital the Monte Carlo is your kind of place. It’s like being at a Raiders’ game. (And it opens at 6 am so you can start getting your drunk on with a true ‘early bird special’.)

In terms of restaurants, there are some pretty good sushi places and Chinese joints here. They are not amazing but they are good places if you don’t happen to go during lunch hour when they fill with government workers grabbing a bite to eat.

As far as living in the area, it is definitely affordable. You can rent a studio for around $650 here and you can outright buy most of the older homes in this neighborhood for under $300K.

I don’t know if I would rent here. There are just so many offices around here that in some ways it feels like more of a commercial area than anything else. Overall not that great an area unless you are heading for one of the bars.

There are some strange looking houses in this neighborhood. They have a lot of roof and they sort of remind me of bungalows because they have the same kind of recessed, highly sheltering verandas. But unlike bungalows they are bigger and sometimes two-storied. This neighborhood also has a lot of those really ugly 1970’s style apartments—very square and ugly.

As to living here, the rent prices vary a bit going from about $800/mo to $1400 for a two-bedroom in the area. The price of homes here are a little higher than in some of the surrounding neighborhoods going for closer to $400K than $300K. They aren’t that much better but the neighborhood is somewhat quieter than the surrounding areas.

This is actually a pretty chill area. It’s residential so you’ll have to step out of the neighborhood to the north to go to a bar or get a bite to eat. This is kind of a good thing, if you live here, because then you can have less traffic and some peace and quiet.

Overall not a bad little place to live if you want to be within walking distance of the action in and around Downtown.

For me Midtown is mostly about the bars like the Monkey Bar and especially the Lounge ON20. There are a number of bars in the neighborhood and even a gay dance club or two. There are also a number of cool restaurants in the area, including places like Kru—as sushi place and Waterboy—a pricey French and Italian place that is a good date spot. My favorite restaurant in the area, however, Bombay Bar and Grill—a great Indian place that is wonderful.
It’s a pretty cool place to live too, and right now, because the area was hit so hard by the Recession, so if you happen to have the money you can find recently foreclosed homes for as little as $250K. But don’t be fouled. This is really a pretty mixed neighborhood in terms of prices. The proximity to the Capitol means that many government workers and lobbyist take apartments here. So although you can rent a studio for as little as $600/mo, you can also find a 2 bedroom for $3000/month. Similarly, some homes here go for as much as $900K.
As far as a family atmosphere there is a Winn Park, on the east of the neighborhood which has a nice play area for the kids. Moms will also be happy to know that there are Pilates and Yoga places, so you can definitely stay healthy here as well.

Okay, so Boulevard Park is little bit of a quaint little residential neighborhood on the northern end but also has a bit of restaurant activity on the southern end where it borders Midtown. So it’s sort the best of both worlds with really affordable rents to boot.

First, the homes here are mostly of the old wooden Victorian variety. You know the kind, where there are walk up steps and a veranda. There are also some bungalows and newer style homes sprinkled in, but for the most part it looks like the Berkeley flatlands in the East Bay.

Rents here in Boulevard Park are like those in the surrounding areas. You can find a one-bedroom for about $700 here and most homes go for less than $400K (though some are in the $400 to $600 range).

Being so close to Mid Town (often considered to be a part of it), this place is choc-full of restaurants, from a high end place like Moxie, to more moderately priced joints like the sandwiches at the Old Soul coffee house. Some of my favorites here include Michelangelo (for Italian obviously), Tapas the World (I love cheesy puns almost as much as I love a good tapas place), and Celestin’s (a Cajun place). There are also some more unusual places like Marika’s, a Hungarian place. (I have never been to Marika’s but I like that it is there should I ever get hungry for Hungarian.)

There aren’t a lot of bars in Boulevard Park specifically, but there are so many nearby that it doesn’t really matter.
I don’t really know what the crime rate is like here, but I don’t really feel in danger walking around during the daytime. Like any other city, of course, I wouldn’t feel as comfortable walking the streets in the middle of the night but it seems okay to me.

Overall, this is a cool little neighborhood in which to live.

I love neighborhoods like this. It is, first of all, not a “park” but a neighborhood—don’t be thrown by the name. That’s, of course, not what I love about it.

What I love about this neighborhood is that it has one of those classic American town feels to it. You feel a little bit like you have stepped into a 1950’s, a little bit like It’s a Wonderful Life before the parallel universe section. It’s not quite Mayberry, but it’s leafy and filled with really old, pre-World War II homes.

On the western side of the neighborhood, you get those old wooden Victorians (stick Victorians?) with walk-up steps in the front and sometimes verandas of the kind that no one really uses anymore but that you could maybe hang one of those swing benches from. On the eastern side of the neighborhood it’s Bungalow City—with a bunch of cute squat houses.
Really, really reminds me of Pasadena’s bungalow neighborhood in So Cal. I love those little houses—so cute and they just seem very sheltering in spots.

It’s also a very shady neighborhood. I don’t mean this in the slang way and I know this is the kind of observation you would just put in as a passing adjective—as in “the shady front yards” or “the leafy streets.” But that doesn’t really do it justice. I mean this is the kind of place that my red headed friend with fair skin could play outside all day long without getting burnt—that kind of shady. And if you have ever experienced the blistering summers in Sac you know that having a nice shady spot for a walk is the kind of luxury for which people will pay a high price.

The neighborhood is known for its bike trails and for the skateboard park created from the old recycling plant that used to be here. It is also home the B Street live theater, which doesn’t stick to tried and true classics like A Doll’s House, but actually puts on plays from contemporary playwrights. (The theater was founded by Sac native son and all round good guy, Timothy Busfield—the red headed guy from Thirty-Something and the West Wing.)

What I am constantly astounded by is how inexpensive it is out here compared to the Bay Area. Rooms in this lovely little neighborhood go for as low $400-$500 in spots and rents rarely rise far above $1000 (often with the landlord picking up utilities). And few homes in the area go for more than $400K to buy outright.

Now there aren’t any restaurants or nightclubs here but just to south you start getting into the heart of the midtown area, so though I take off a star from nightlife rating above, it is only because you’ll have to walk five minutes out of the neighborhood to finds lots of great stuff to do. (Of course, you can go to the B Street for a play first before doing any of it.)

Overall, I would say this is great little neighborhood for young people and college students. I’m not sure if you’re in the kids-and-minivan set you will find it quite as exciting. But no place is perfect.

Alkali Flats is somewhat like its neighbor, Mansion Flats, except that many of the older buildings here really do show a lot of sign of age—faded and cracked paint jobs from who knows how many decades ago. This is not the case with the whole neighborhood however. There are some newer buildings and renovated residences that make the area look as if it is undergoing a rebirth of sorts, but it does look more uneven here than in other areas of the city.

You can even find a former mill—Globe Mills—that has been transformed into lofts, evidently with artists and hipsters in mind. Sac’s relatively low rents make it a little easier for artistic types who cannot really afford the cost of living in the SF Bay Area to the west.

Alkali Flat is also a nice spot for commuters because it not only has bus lines but an Amtrak Station—so those commuting to Davis to the west or the Bay Area have easy access to transportation.

Alkali Flat is also home to KCRA one of the local TV stations—whose transmitter tower can be seen from most of the neighborhood, and is close to the Down Town area with the Capital Mall and all that not too far to the south.

It’s not a great area but the low rents and the good transportation give it a lot of positives.

One of the things people appreciate about Sac in relation to the Bay Area is that you can actually find affordable housing here. I mean where in the Bay Area could your find a five-bedroom home for rent for $1250 or a studio for $650. And to buy? The homes and apartments in Mansion Flats rarely rise above $500K (most are more in the $250K range).

As you might guess this is one of the poorer neighborhoods in Sacramento. Despite this the homes here are actually pretty big and though they are older homes they are not unattractive. They are basically large wooden block like homes of the kind that often populate the bad parts of cities, but they are relatively nicely kept.

In terms of crime, here is the deal as far as I can tell. The Sacramento Police depart doesn’t report any murders here in the last six months (though there is one in the surrounding neighborhoods). Sac overall is considered to be relatively more dangerous than the overall average city in the US, but despite the cheap rents and low incomes reported for the area,

Mansion Flats doesn’t seem like a particularly dangerous neighborhood. When you are walking down the streets, things seem relatively pleasant—leafy streets and bushy front yards, with people walking outside. (Public transportation, including light rail is plentiful here. You also have some attractive European style roundabouts.)

Down at the southern end of the neighborhood where Mansion Flats borders Downtown, you have the Sacramento Convention Center which is a really nice facility and which has attracted several restaurants to the area, including the Ella Dining Room, Momjii Sushi and Thirteen—all very nice upscale restaurants. My personal favorite in the area is the Melting Pot—a Fondue restaurant.

The Sacramento Community Theater is also in this neighborhood and there is an Imax Theater, so you will not be at loss for artistic and cultural events to attend if you live in Mansion Flats. You can also find some dance and live music places as well, Dream Ultra Lounge being an okay version of the first and the Torch Club being an example of the second. (Torch Club is actually a really cool place to chill to live music, I would highly recommend it.)

So overall, a pretty singles friendly neighborhood, great for college students and artistic types.

There is really not much here. This is barely even what anyone would call a neighborhood. It is mostly just some businesses like restaurant supply shops and mechanics stores.

The only other thing is the Elementary School which I don’t know much about.

Not much of interest here.

This is not much of a residential area, being known mostly as the home of the sheriff’s office, the highway portal, and a few hotels up on the western end. It is actually fairly empty around here, and not terribly inviting in terms of appearance. This is also where they keep the water treatment plant for Sacramento (or this part of Sacramento).

Part of Discovery Park is at the northern end of this neighborhood. So if you are a biker (of the peddling kind not of the Hell’s Angel variety) or boater you will be quite happy to have such a great place to go during summers.
As far as restaurants and that kind of thing, there is nothing much to write home about. There are a few taquarias and there was a diner called Stonebrooks but I hear they have gone under. The Monterey Cannery also runs a seafood place in the neighborhood but I have not heard good things about its quality. Other than that, it’s MacDonalds and Subway and that kind of thing.

Oh yes, and this area is also home to Club Fantasy—an “adult” club (basically what used to be called a stripper joint).

So, basically, the only reasons to come out here is for Discovery Park or the hotels, unless you happen to be a cop or into strippers (of cop that moonlights as stripper—heck you wouldn’t even have to change between shifts).

Vallejo Street in North Beach to Russian Hill is one of the most walkable streets I have ever been on. There are steps on both ends, on Montgomery as you hit the eastern edge of North Beach and then again way at the other end, on the border with Russian Hill. In between you have one of the really fun streets in SF. For one thing, at the corner just east of Columbus you will find Café Trieste, which, if you can find a place to sit, is really one of the great little cafes in SF. It is always crowded. Across the street there is both a good pizza place and a great Thai Place.

If you move farther east along Vallejo and get away from Columbus, you come across some really beautiful, multicolored Victorians. Then when you reach Mason, you get the Vallejo Steps which are great also. You move through Ina Coolbrith Park and then as you reach the top of the steps you get a really nice view.

I would love to live anywhere on this street. It would be like a dream come true.

Jones Street is a long street that drops down from Nob Hill into the Tenderloin. I’m not that familiar with it in other areas but if you are into Asian food—especially Indian food—than this definitely the place to go. First, along the 500 hundred block, you will find at least four great, authentic Indian places—Pakwan, Shalimar, Chutney and Little Indian Deli. Shalimar is the best deal in terms of food and cost, but it is all authentic and fantastic.

Jones also has some great restaurants that stretch beyond Indian subcontinent. On the corner with Post there is Borobudor—an Indonesian Place, Tajine, a Morrocon place, and if you want a restaurant that defies national borders and mixes it all up in an eclectic blend, you might try the Millennium at the corner with Geary.

After you’re done with your meal, there are also a couple of really cool watering holes in the area. On the high end, right by the Indian places, you will find a classic speak-easy type establishment called, Bourbon and Branch (you have to make a reservation). If that is a bit too much hassle try the High Tide or Jonell’s Cocktail Lounge, two great dive bars that not only don’t take reservations but they post signs outside of their bathrooms threatening to break in if you shoot up in there—just another reminder that you’re in the Loin.

As for living on Jones, you would probably have to go up into the Nob Hill area to find a place. I don’t really know it that well, so my review is only based on the area around the Indian Food district.

Fifth in SoMa is a nice wide city street with lots of stores and hotels. It is just beyond the museum district but not yet into the gay leather section of SoMa or the more industrialized looking section. The Chronicle has its headquarters here in a big building that Minna carves through. You can also find a couple of hotels, the classic looking Pickwick with its Dickensian reference and overall charm; and the tall skyscraping Intercontinental with its tinted glass windows. I would recommend the first, just because of the nice name and outward appearance though I haven’t been in either one.

As far as I am concerned Fifth Street in SoMa is all about the Irish and the French. For the Irish, you have the Chieftain. I don’t mean to sound like a lush, but this is a great Irish Pub. The food is yummy and the atmosphere really does make you feel like you stepped across the Atlantic and into Ireland. (Of course, I’ve never been to Ireland, but my fantasy version of Ireland anyway.) The other reason to take a trip down Fifth is the French food. Le Charm French Bistro is one of the French places on 5th. It is a nice little place although the prices are a bit high and there is not much to look at outside the window, unless you like a bit of rundown looking section of street. Then there is Chez Papa, which is on a better part of the street but equally expensive. Both are good places to celebrate an anniversary, if your spouse likes French food.

Beyond these more Continental draws, 5th also has an Abercrombie and Fitch, just in case you were hooked by their naughty catalogue and if you would like to exercise, the SF Tennis Club is on the south side of Highway 80.

Much of the rest of the street is unremarkable. There is, for example, a place called Harvey’s Place down near Highway 80, but don’t be fooled, this is just a dingy liquor deli. It is not cool Bar and Grill in the Castro, though no doubt it is trying to capitalize on the name of the murdered representative, Harvey Milk. As you get close to Highway 80, the street also gets down right ugly. There are far too many parking lots.

I don’t recall there being anywhere to live on this street, but looks can be misleading in SoMa since so many of the apartments are lofts above the stores. All in all, I don’t think I would want to live right here anyway, regardless of how much I might like the Chieftain.

The two major features of 4th Street in SoMa are City College and the Metreon. This is one of the reasons why you will find so many young people in this part of the city. City college is not a great school but it is a good one.

The Metreon, on the other hand is little more than a very small, glorified mall with a very begin theater. It is little to write home about. There is an Imax theater, of course, so if you are into that sort of large screen experience go for it. As far as the dining goes you have stands like the Buckhorn Grill that serves fancy fast food basically, Jillians which is basically a pole joint that happens to server food (very bad food!), or Luna Azul that somehow finds a way to ruin Mexican food. Quite an accomplishment. Stick with Buckhorn if you are stuck here for some reason. Otherwise watch your big screen movie and take off.

If you are stuck you are much better off going to the Artist’s Alley gallery on Mission. It is just like a mini-SoMA—lot’s of really cool modern paintings that you can’t afford unless you are filthy rich. If you like to support education instead of the arts, you might try the nearby Educated Palate which the restaurant that is run by the City College students. A little bit like the students at the college itself, the food is a little bit hit-or-miss, pretty good some days, atrocious others. The best bet on the street in terms of food is clearly Annabelle’s Bar and Grill, a new place. They look like they are off to a great start but get there early or you’ll end up waiting. Definitely don’t try to squeeze it in before your movie.

The other highlight of the street is Yerba Buena Gardens which is definitely the prettiest place in SoMA. If you have kids the carousal should definitely be given a try. In fact, your best bet on the street is here. It is especially nice when it lights up at night—very Christmas in New York (or so I gather from the movies).

When you are on 3rd Street in SoMa, you feel as if you could be on any street in any major metropolitan city in the North America. There is no sign that you are in SF. No signature Victorians, so bay, no curving street or hills. In fact 3rd street has that big city feel that you might get in place like New York.

3rd Street at this point is about the arts. Along the street, you will find the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the Museum of Modern Art (abbreviated MoMA) and the Museum of the African Diaspora. The MoMA is known for its ground breaking exhibitions that help continue to define and redefine art. If you want to have your notions about art challenged, just take a step inside. The YBCA is similar in that it too tries to blow your mind by challenging things like our notions of consumerism and progress. If you are in a bit of a rut, YBCA can really shake you up and get you going again. The Museum of the Africa Diaspora will shake you up in a different way. It is a museum devoted to art created when Africans were taken from Africa and brought to this country. Like the nearby Museum of Jewish history it will really bring the effects of history to life for you. All three are well worth the visit.

If these thoughts have shaken you from the appetites of your stomach, then 3rd street also has some great places where you can grab a bite to eat while you discuss what you’ve seen. I would recommend Pazzia, a moderately priced Italian food place with a nice clean atmosphere. If you are in a hurry or want to grab something to go and have your dejeuner sur le herb, then you can grab some Indian food at Chaats and take it to go. It is about as inexpensive as Indian food gets and delicious. On the other hand, if the exhibits have made you feel like you need a stiff drink in cozy familiar atmosphere, try Dave’s right by Market. Classic bar atmosphere.

This is also a good place to recommend for anyone who really wants to splurge on their accommodations during their visit to SF. I hear the St. Regis is a fantastic hotel.

As to living in the area? Right by the Yerba Buena there is a great east coast style apartment building that must rise to at least twenty stories even though we are in earthquake country. It is one of those modern buildings with interesting variations in the architecture and lots of magnificent views out over the baseball stadium and towards Oakland. I suppose if you just sold your dot.com and are set for life, this might be affordable to you. To other 99% of us, I suspect that anything in this area, even the more modest apartments over the stores across the street, will be completely out of reach. I am also not sure that if I did have that kind of money, that I would choose this particular spot. Lot’s of things to do, but not enough good old peace and quiet.

2nd Street in SoMa is one of those truly metropolitan commercial city streets—the sort you can only get in a big city like SF. Back in my former life as a paralegal, I often used to find myself here during my lunch hour or after work. It was an excellent place to go for lunch because you had basically an international kitchen within a space of a few blocks. You could have a burger at Flames, Thai food at Osha’s or Hunan at Henry’s, spaghetti at Umbria, Indian at Mefhil’s or a burrito at Maya.

Then there were a couple of stand-outs, the Fly Trap and Eddie Richenbacher’s. The Fly Trap is a Mediterranean place just around the corner at Folsom. It was way out of my price range, but I got taken there by one of the young up-and-comers at the place I worked. It has a very cozy, classy appeal to it and the food is great. Little tables, white table clothes and little early twentieth century type curved lamps as wall fixtures over the tables. Great, but more as a nightspot than a lunch spot. Then there is Eddie Rickenbacker’s. The food is not so great but any place that has motorcycles hanging from the ceiling is worth a visit at least once.

There is also a small park/plaza like place, kinda a mini-Yerba Buena Gardens, that is nice to sun yourself at and have lunch on nice days, although it tends to get a bit crowded around 12:30 so get there early. There is a 24-hour fitness there, which one of the other girls in the office used to go to during her lunch break.

There are a few other cool spots on the street as well like the really cool mural right around the corner on Minna which can be fun to stare at for a fifteen or twenty—very detailed and colorful. Minna is less of a street than a glorified alley, but it has a certain attraction. The Minna Gallery is also there but I never went in.

If you would rather spend you lunch money on clothes or books rather than food—my favorite kind of diet—2nd street gives you a couple of fat reducing options beyond the 24 hour fitness. It is worth hopping over to the south of 80 to Jeremy’s where you will find a good selection of moderately priced heels, for example. The Alexander Book Company near Market is also a good place to find an interesting read if you would rather fill your mind than your stomach.

There are also a bunch of dot.com type companies on 2nd street like Zedo, Giga, and Friends of the Urban Forest, which means that you run across a lot of cute, creative techy types out-n-about. I happened to run across a guy from Honk!, a car review site that was just getting started last year, and when I got canned and had extra time on my hands I wrote some reviews for the Beta version of his site just for fun. So, it is a good place to network as well, if you are the go-getter type.

In short, 2nd street in SoMa is a great place to work and play.

Dolores Street is a beautiful two-laned street with a palm tree lined meridian and several elms along the side walks. It is filled with beautifully painted Victorians whose bay windows stare out onto the palms. This area of the Mission has been largely gentrified and is filled with young dot.com types—something that you can tell by the web and computer support stores that dot the street.

There are two central highlights to the street that attract people here. Mission Dolores, the oldest building in San Francisco is at the corner with 16th street. You will find the smaller older chapel there and the larger church. It is a beautiful building and well worth the visit for anyone interested in the history of the area. Several other churches and synagogues also call Dolores home and you can see them farther south as you move along.

The central highlight for the young, however is Dolores Park where sunbathers mix with residents from the nearby Castro and Latino families who like to barbecue in the park. The park is a great place to spend warm days. You will also find a great Ice Cream place—B Rite Creamery just off 18th—and a good little café, the Dolores Park Café on the corner.

There are schools in the area, including a magnet school and a couple of private schools, which gives parents in the area several choices in the education arena. Farther down the street, beyond the park the street is almost completely residential. The nearby stores and entertainment venues—like the Roxy Theatre that shows foreign films and classics—make Dolores a great place to live.

Crime in the Mission is unfortunately a fact of life so you should expect the occasional break-in to your car and hearing about a shooting on a nearby street on the nightly news every so often. This is as close as most residents come to experiencing actual violence however. In addition, the police have lately been focusing on reducing crime in the Mission so things are looking up.

Overall, a great place to live and visit.

Duboce really picks up at Duboce Park which is a long swath of grass that the three story fifties style buildings stare down onto. It is unfortunately a dog park—I say unfortunately because it smells in most spots like a dog park.

What you really admire after you pass the medical center are the homes here. They are classic three story beauties, well-maintained and all made up in burgundies and tans. The last three blocks after Castro Street are the highlights. As Duboce begins its final climb, you get these old fifties buildings of the kind you see in Vertigo, where Jimmy Stewart lives. Each and every home on these blacks has a picturesque appearance to it. If I were a painter, I could spend six months just painting aspects of these three blocks.

The final block tops it all though. You are at a fairly steep angle here and suddenly the street is lined by palm trees! Now I’m not really into palm trees—it is more of a So Cal aesthetic as far as I am concerned—but these squat beauties really work here. The two homes on the end are beauties too--especially the one on the south corner. It has all these great little details—its kind of an Italian style—very baroque—the more you look at it the more you see.

And then there is Buena Vista Park. You probably get the best views of the city from the top of these hiking trails--you can see the Golden Gate on one part, the Mission on the other. The lovely bay trees frame it all for photos as well. On the other side, you will find these cool stone steps that look like they came from a sword and sorcery film. When the fog hits these trails just right it must make for a transformative experience.

Church Street at the border with Castro and Mission is all about Dolores Park. Dolores Park is the beach with everything except the sea. On warm days—which as true San Franciscans know doesn’t mean the summer necessarily given our finicky weather—Dolores Park fills with sun bathers looking for the perfect tan. People often knock Nor Cal for not having any good beaches, but So Cal does not have Dolores Park. I would argue that Dolores Park is better than any beach in Nor Cal for sun bathing.

Plus, what those other beaches north and south don’t have (except maybe Venice from what I have heard) is the diverse mix of people we get at Dolores Park. First, of course, you get the pretty gay boys that come over from neighboring Mission. They have no interest in a girl like me, not even as a shopping buddy, but they are friendly and great to just to eaves drop on—no one knows how to gab like the effeminate guys from Castro. You will also get your share of Butchy moms and older gay dads who come with kids (usually a rainbow coalition of children that not even Jesse Jackson couldn’t hope to match).

Second, you get the Mission beatniks and crazies who come over either to hit on you or to try to sell all kinds of less than legal and often unidentifiable substances. Sample at your own risk—not everyone comes back from some of the trips they started in Dolores Park. They are mostly harmless however and some are the truly talented artists and entrepreneurs of tomorrow. Watch for the Butterfly Man, a guy in a butterfly costume who likes to ride around Dolores Park doing all sorts of crazy stuff.

Finally, the cute college guys. Dolores Park is better than any single’s bar because you can get a good look at the guy and his friends, and you can actually hear what they are saying, even over the usual blend of Grateful Dead and weird alternative beats.

There is also a great ice cream place on the north side of the park that people literally line up for. Great place to take the newbie you just met at the park—they say nothing mimics falling in love like chocolate ice cream.

I wouldn’t want to be a student at the high school on the northern end of the park. I would never make it to class with this park right next door. It would be like a surfer trying to go to school in Santa Cruz.

Oh, the Castro! The Castro! How can I capture what Castro Street is? Castro is where I go when I want to be invisible. At night when the boys come out, I feel like a ghost or an alien watching the mating rituals of another culture. If I go with my metro guy friend, boys will literally elbow by me to hit on him. He swears he has no bisexual or homosexual tendencies but he takes inordinate enjoyment in the attention. (My little circle of friends has a little bet on when he will come out finally—no heterosexual guy spends an hour and half trying to find the perfect T to match his khaki shorts). But to get back to the point.

Castro Street at Market. The pink flag. The monument to Harvey Milk. The Castro Theater with it perpetual rotation of film festivals.

The joy and the energy of the place! The bars with names like Moby Dick—I bet you didn’t know the gays love Melville. Or, the Best in Show Pet Boutique offering the latest in designer poodle wear. Or, if you want something more direct, try Booty Call Wednesdays—no double meaning there as far as I can tell, although it is open all week not just on hump day (ohhhhh, I get it now…)

And then there is Harvey’s on the corner of 18th just down the street from the theater. You can find a great photo homage to Harvey Milk there and good food as well. Lot’s of the pictures really capture Milk’s vibrancy. You can see how human he was and how he could inspire people.

But of course, Castro street is about the beautiful boys—some playing it up with their high squealing voices; others playing it cool, leaning against the side of the buildings checking everything out. Of the older men, who been around these blocks more than once and are just heading out with lovers of twenty years, as stable and married as any couple in Walnut Creek. And of course there are the first timers, who just got off the bus or crossed the Bay and feel for the first time like they are truly home.

Have you ever seen that film, Groundhog Day, where that guy is stuck in the same place and doomed to repeat the same day over and over? Well, my Ground Hog day street, the street that I would choose if I had to be doomed to repeat one day over and over again, would be Columbus Ave. Firstly, Columbus has restaurants where you can eat all three times of the day. There are great coffee shops where you can get coffee and eggs and all that. There are also great restaurants for eating lunch, where you can sit out on the street—European style—and people watch while you have lunch—great Italian food and gelatos. At night you can have dinner at the garlicky Stinking Rose, one of my favorites.

In the early morning you cam watch the Yoga people doing their thing in Washington park. Later in the day you can lay out in the sun on the grass. If you want to get a book and chill out there is the Beatnik landmark, City Lights Books. You can read it sipping espresso at El Greco, with its high windows and clean décor.

At nighttime, you can listen to live jazz or just hang at one of the many pubs on Columbus. Great for just talking, catching up, or meeting someone new. If you are into strip joints and peep shows and drunk frat guys, you can find your share of those too. I am more into scruffy artsy guys, and they tend to pop up around here as well.

In other words, it’s the perfect place to have on infinite loop.

Broadway Plaza is a short little one block long street that basically just cuts through the Broadway Plaza outdoor mall, but it is a great little chunk of real estate as far as retail therapy goes. I don’t love the suburbs for the most part but I must say that shopping areas like this make the boredom of the suburbs worth it. First, there is the fact that this is an outdoor mall. This is not your usual fluorescent lit behemoth of a mall like the Sun Valley mall. This is not so much of a teenager’s mall either—this more for your average twenty something or married gal.

You have great places to meet and eat here, like the China Bistro on the corner with Mt. Diablo—or Il Fornauo across the street. Both are outstanding with the Bistro being relatively affordable (and you will usually get a cute waiter to boot). There are the usual big department stores like Nordstroms here but the other smaller chain stores are the reason to go here. Banana Republic, Benneton, and Victoria’s Secret are all here.

If you just want to chill out for a while during your lunch break, there is a great little fountain area where you can sit and watch suburban moms with their cute little babes and toddlers having ice creams or gossiping about their lives. There is a nearby Barnes and Noble and a Peet’s coffee right by here too so you can get a book and coffee and sit pretending to read while you eavesdrop on people’s fairly mundane discussions. Every so often, you will be rewarded with a juicy detail from some stranger’s cell phone conversation that makes it worth it.

Lot’s of people work in the area as well—Walnut Creek, though largely overlooked in the Bay Area, has a thriving business community. When I used to work nearby I would spend my lunch hour here sometimes just taking in the sun and people watching. Granted, it’s not as interesting as Berkeley, but sometimes your average square suburban type can be fun to watch as well.

I love the Golden Gate as much as the next person, but other than that part of it, the rest of the 101 is a busy mess. Unless you like sitting in traffic you should probably avoid it. Also, the signs telling where to go are not that well posted so that if you are new to the city you are likely to get lost or miss your exit. The junction with the 80 is especially bad. It is certainly not one of the best streets in SF.

I happened to be visiting someone in the area so I got curious about the Best Street in California and supposedly one of the best streets in the entire country and I must say that on seeing it I was underwhelmed. That is not to say that this isn't a very nice place to live and one that I am sure most of the people here really like, but the best street in the state it is definitetly not. First of all, its just a circle, with maybe four houses on it. Second, it is one of those planned neighborhoods with the manacured lawns that makes you feel like you are living in the Stepford Wives. Its like everything just feels more than a little bit overly manacured--too lacking in authenticity to really appeal to our sense of the beautiful.

Fresno is just too flat to be called beautiful no matter how nice a house is. In a planned neigbhorhood like this there is just too much of the same to really appeal to the imagination. I also visited it a couple of weeks ago when the weather was still relatively cool in the Bay Area. I can only imagine what a furnace it is around now. I would take almost any street closer to the ocean than one in land where the temperatures sore.

And, unfortunately, whatever the attractions of Fresno may be, a mecca for fun seekers it is not. I mean, what can you do in Fresno that you can't do in a million other places in the United States. And think of all the things you can't do. Where is the museum that you can go to? Where is there a cool park with odd types to go hang out with? Where is the cool little coffee house (I don't mean a Starbucks or a Peets)? I mean I really don't see how this street can compare the to hundreds of much more interesting, more compelling and more authentically unique streets in the Bay Area. (I am not even completely convinced it is the best street in Fresno or even in its own neighborhood.)

Solano Avenue just past the tunnel on the border with Albany offers a nice little change of pace to the hectic craziness of Berkeley. It still has lots of stores and restaurants and a relatively youthful culture, but the crazies and panhandlers seem to stay on the other side of the tunnel for the most part. This area is home to lots of little restaurants and eateries—there’s a Noah’s Bagels and a Peets, like everywhere else. There is a Zachary’s Chicago Style Pizza, equal to but less frequented than the one on College. Pegasus Books is right there—it’s a bit messy, but every so often you can find a nicely priced older book there. La Farine bakery is really good and there is a variety of different kinds of restaurants—Chinese, Japanese (Mexican, a little bit farther down the street).

It is definitely a pedestrian culture around here. People pack the sidewalks and on weekends eat on the sidewalk patio seating of places like Peet’s that take advantage of the wide streets and nice weather. It’s a great place to go on weekends if you are at student at Cal and want to get away from it for a while.

If you really want to get the full Berkeley experience, this is definitely the street to do it on. Telegraph has just about everything you could ask for on a street, although most people when they refer to “Telegraph” usually mean from Dwight to Sproul Plaza. The section of Telegraph that most people neglect is from about Parker to 66th Street (where Telegraph enters Oakland). This later section of Telegraph is mainly for people who live in the area, although there are lots of restaurants that we should not forget, including the Smokehouse, a great Ethiopian place and lots of little joints that come and go. There are also supermarkets, auto parts stores, chiropractors and hair stylists—basically all the sorts of things that you need to get by. If this were all Telegraph had to offer, it would still be a pretty good street.

However, the four of five blocks as you come up to Cal are the part of Telegraph that take it to a whole new level. First, there is the history. Telegraph is home to what’s left of People’s Park, that great icon of Berkeley in the Sixties. (It’s mostly a hangout for diehards and drug dealers these days and you can definitely still smell the drug culture as you come up to it.) Telegraph also spills on to Sproul Plaza, the epicenter of Free Speech Movement in the first part of the Sixties. That’s where Mario Savio, the Martin Luther King of the Free Speech Movement, gave his famous defenses of political protest on campus.

You can still find a fair representation of the Berkeley crazies on Sproul Plaza and Telegraph. Guys like the “Hate Man” and “J’Shua” (a guy who preaches for your soul’s salvation, but thinks that J’Shua not Jesus is the man to save you). It’s not as strong of a group as there used to be. No more Rick Starr (a Sinatra impersonator with everything Sinatra had except for the talent and the fame) or the Naked Guy—but you can still find a lot of drumming down by Zellerbach and your share of wanna-be Hippies and actual former Hippies. There are also lots of relatively aggressive teenage panhandlers and although I always feel safe on Telegraph itself, I can’t say the same for the side streets at night. It seems like especially as the weather gets warmer near the summer that things get a bit dicey.

Telegraph also has not one but three great Bookstores. Moe’s is the place to go for used and cheap foreign books. Cody’s Books is a Berkeley Icon. It is just a great store with a great selection of just about every kind of book and what they don’t have they will order for you. It gives what Amazon simply cannot: A knowledgeable staff (you as them thing like what was that French book about the alienated guy who shoots some Arab guys on the beach and they will actually be able to tell you) and an intellectual culture. Authors often speak at Cody’s. And it is clean, well lit place to browse and really feed your mind.

Telegraph also has lot’s of great relatively inexpensive places to eat from Blondie’s Pizza and Noah’s Bagels to Blakes and the Mexican place across the street from Cody’s. (There are also a plethora of eateries and coffee shops just off Telegraph up or down a block.) Mediterrano (sp?) is a good coffee shop right by Shakespeare Books and there is a really nice Sushi place right around the corner on Dwight.

As far as cool places to buy clothes or accessories, here are a couple of recommendations. The Buffalo exchange just past Dwight is great for used hipster clothes. You can, not only sell some of your clothes there, you can often find a great little slightly used shirt or pair of pants. If you are into leather or tattoos, or the goth look, you can definitely find places to outfit yourself on Telegraph. There are three tattoo parlors, of which I personally like Zebra’s. (I bear more than one of their samples on my body and they also did the majority of my piercings—though I’ll leave the specifics to your imagination.) There is also a very substantial trinket market that closes the street down on Sundays and that is a great place to find interesting handcrafted jewelry and that kind of thing.

Put simply, this is the place to hangout if you are young and alternative. Just be sure to come ready to get panhandled at every block.

Piedmont is a wide tree lined lane with a large meridian and lots of European style turnabouts. Traffic is terrrible but it is great for pedestrians and taking in the flavor of the campus. International House has great food an is also great if you want to mix with lot's of people from lots of foreign countries. It is one fo the best places for mixing.

There are also lots of Frat Houes and sororities in this area so you get the usual drunken hijinx on occasion but not half as bad as at most party schools. A great little spot for Sunday morning walks.

As most locals know, the Lafayette Reservoir is a great place to go exercise or spend some time outdoor. There is a great trail that circles the reservoir with lots of surrounding picnic areas an places for kids to play. If you want to go for the run or take the dog or your kids of walk, this is where you go in Lafayette.

Not only that, but there are summer camps here and you can also go out on the water in paddle boats (though I must admit, I've never actually seen anyone using these). I'm not generally a nature type, but even I enjoyed coming here once in a while for the exercise.

At night, the park closes down and then all you can find is occasional teenage degenerate doing the sorts of things that bored suburban teenagers do--don't ask me how I know.

With an exit from Highway 680 just past the 24 merge, there is just too many stores and highlights here to list them all so I'll just take a few of the highlights to give you a sense of what it's like.

First, you have to remember that this one of the major arteries taking your through Walnut Creek and up into the hills before you hit Highway 4 heading to Antioch, Pittsburgh etc. Because of this, Ygnacia is a wide road with three lanes going in each direction at most points--it even has a center meridean to keep cars form crashign itno eachother and to make it so that jay walkers have an island of safety to stop at when trying to cross. Also, because it is used by lots of commuters it gets heavy traffic during the expected commute times in the expected commute direction. Try not to get stuck here between 6 and 10 am and or 3 to 7 pm. (Not fun!)

However, there are also lots of attracttions to this area. Near downtown Walnut Creek, you can find a Target and the Bart Station. There's fast food and gas, of coruse, and places to get your car fixed.

Further east you come to John Muir Medical Center, one of the really great hospital in the area (and my birth place). Right by there is my mom's Vet Hospital, Valley Veterinary. There is this really great doc there so I take my cat's there too, (even when I lived in Berkeley). Heather Farms is right there; if you have kids that's the place to take them for baseball, summer camp or swimming.

Further down it starts to get fairly suburban though you will also find a museum (Shadelands--I have no idea what's inside.) and the local headquarters for Safeway Corporation--the supermarket chain.

As you go up into the hills you get a view of Concord to north and Walnut Creek to the south--both rising out of what look like a forest of trees. (There sure is a lot of green in Walnut Creek--strange given that Contra Costa County is also supposed to be the third worst air polluted county in CA.) It gets pretty rural up here despite all the construction and the homes seeming to rise up daily. You will see cows and lots of green fields in the spring. These hills are also home to Cal State Hayward's East Bay campus. (It looks a lot like an industrial park, but its nice little campus if you're a working adult looking to take an interesting class or brush up on some skills.)

Overall, if you need something you can probably find it on Ygnacio Valley Road.

Mount Diablo picks up again at this exit from Highway 24. Right by the freeway you find one of the prettiest parts of this boulevard right by all the shops and the mall area. Between North Main and the Safeway is a really great little commercial district. When I used to work in the area it was always packed at lunch time.

You can find a great mains stream sort of a movie theatre, some good clothing stores, and a Marie Calenders (if your nana's in town). There's tire stores and good place to fix your car. There's a Kinkos and a really good Italian and a Mexican food place.

If you can afford it this is a pretty good area to live.

Except for the fact that this street borders the north side of campus it a pretty average sort of a Berkeley street. The best spot on it is where it meets Euclid, less because of it than becuase of Euclid and the Campus at that spot.

I had a friend that lived right off of Hearst on Milvia. Hearst is okay but mostly you have to get off of it to find anything interesting. The Victorians on Hearst are particularly attractive and there is nothing very memorable about it. In addition, I once parked on Hearst a little ways down from my friend's house and I got my radio robbed. So I'm predisposed to see it as somewhat unsafe.

I would not feel safe walking here by myself at night. I would definately prefer the activity one block over on University.

Bancroft is one of the great Berkeley streets if you’re a Cal student or a just a visitor. It starts up on Claremont at International Students where most of the visiting international students usually stay while they are at Cal. The I-House café is a great place to go if you want to get a sense of Berkeley’s cosmopolitan flavor. You are sure to hear some exchange students talking in their native tongues there.

From I-House Bancroft rolls down at a steady pace along the south side of campus. Along the way, you find some of the major intellectual attractions of the city, including the Kroeber Museum of Anthropology, the Museum of Modern Art and especially the Pacific Film Archive. The museums rotate their exhibitions so be sure to get a schedule or check one out on line. The Pacific Film Archive is great (technically though, the entrance is the next street over). If you love wonderfully obscure films and quirky themes, you will definitely not be disappointed.

Zellerbach Hall is also here. It is one of the great theaters in the area. You can find everything from a speech by a former Clinton Administration official here to the Mark Morris Ballet company. Be sure to check out the schedule of events. It is well worth it.

Bancroft is also home to two of the best coffee houses in the city in most people’s opinions. First, there is Strada (right across the street from Kroeber and perhaps the ugliest building on campus—the architecture building, ironically). I personally find Strada overrated both in terms of coffee and the outdoorsy ambience; but if you’re an earthy crunchy type or the kind of person that loves biking this seems to be the place to hang on a week end. Second, and more importantly, this is the street that has Milano on it. One of the really great coffee shops in Berkeley. I have known people who fell in love with this place just by spending an afternoon there.

I should also mention that Bancroft has some good eats and a couple of good clothing stores as well—depending on your style of dress, of course. There is a cool Urban Outfitters there that is only slightly overpriced. (Although if shopping is what you’re into I would suggest going down Telegraph past Bancroft to some of the second hand stores—much better value!)

And finally, Bancroft at Telegraph is The Berkeley locale. This is where you go onto campus to Sather Gate (the green gate that is always filmed whenever a director wants to show that someone is a Berkeley student). There you will find Sprawl plaza, where all the famous Free Speech Movement rallies began and where the heart of activity still is. Great just to sit and people watch. (On the weekends, drummers take over and make a racket.)

This is the way that you can take if the Caldecutt Tunnel is closed. It will take you all the way up to Grizzly Peak where you can take Fish Ranch Road back down to the Contra Costa side of the Caldecutt. Unless it is totally closed it is unlikely to actually save you much time, however, you will probably be moving the whole time which is more enjoyable than sitting in traffic. Also it is very woodsy and soon there will be no houses.

Claremont overall is a residential street with large Victorian houses, often shared by groups of Cal students or professors. The highlights are the corner of College where you can find great places to eat and a nice bar called the Graduate--and, the historic Claremont Hotel--a white giant that sits up at the edge of the hills. If you can afford it, this is a great place to stay. It is probably the premier hotel in Berkeley where star prospective faculty are sometimes put up to be wined and dined.

Wow! Am I really the first person to review this street? I'm astonished. This is not only the most aesthetically pleasing street in Berkeley, but perhaps a one of the best streets in Northern California. In fact, I think it may be my favorite of all streets. You can literally walk from one end of college to the other and never really come across a truly ugly block.

It also can claim three great coffee houses and an assortment of eclectic restaurants. You can eat Russian food, Chinese food, a Barney's hamburger, a Chicago style pizza, a fantastic pesto crepe, a great traditional pancakes and bacon and eggs breakfast all on College. Its a street filled with Victorians and wonderful archetecture all just in the shadow of the Contra Costa mountains. It's got bookstores and used clothing stores.

If I had to live the rest of my life only on one street in the East Bay, this might be it.

This is the local secret that people use to avoid the 680-24 junction. It really isn't much of a secret since just about everybody and their mother know about it, but you can sometimes save yourself a little bit of time if there is a crash in that area. It will take you to Contra Costa Blvd. right around Sun Valley mall and Diablo Valley College. You can also use it to cut across to Highway 4/Martinez.

Not much on this road if you don't live there. Right at the 24 you will find Acalanes High School where all the Lafayett kids go. They have good tennis courts and their track isn't bad either.

I am not that in to most suburban streets—I’m more of a city gal, but I love N. Main Street. The little outdoor mall—Broadway Plaza, is great. The Eats right by the corner of Mount Diablo are fantastic—a China Bistro, CPK, a Sushi place, a Mediterean place and a Mexican place. Further down there are also some pricier Italian places, but by far the best joint is Tomatina’s, affordable and yummy—I used to meet up with my high school posse there.

Parking, if you can’t find it for free, is inexpensive. There is a very good Barnes and Noble there (free parking underneath if its not full), a nice though busy Starbuck’s, a ballet studio where my best friend spent years practicing her plie’s and jete’s. The highlight of the street, for me, however, are two shoe stores—Foot Candy and Deliciousz! Oh, if only I still had my paralegal job!

Mount Diablo boulevard is the main street cutting through Lafayette from East to West. It runs parallel to Highway 24, going from the border with Orinda all the way down to and into Walnut Creek. At the Orinda end there is some open undeveloped ground along the southern side walk, while on the other side there is a nursery for plants, etc. and some kind of a temple.

A little ways down you will find the Lafayette reservior which is a great outdorsy sort of area. There is a trail around the reservoir, little peddle boats, plenty of picnic areas and playgrounds. Its great for hiking, running and bringing your kids if you have any.

A little ways after this you start coming across actual buildings and restaurants, etc. as you enter Lafayette proper. There are lots of usual fast food placed you would expect to find just about everywhere (MacDonalds, Taco Bell, KFC, Panda Express, etc.) but there are also some great unique to Lafayette restaurants like Pizza Antica, Mangia, two Mexican restaurants, El Charro and Celia's and quite a few rather bland retail stores. (You really have to get out of Lafayette to get anything decent.) You have a couple of different Supermarkets and the usual set of Peets and Starbucks as well. There are also several shops to get your car fixed, including Big O tires.

As you need the other end of Mt. Diablto you come across Lafayette's only Hotel (which I here is good but pricy though I have never been there) and right next to it is the Lafayette Cemetary.

Once a year there is a Jazz and arts festival that closes down several blocks of Mt. Diablo Blvd. The festival is a bit snooty and snarls up traffic, but most people seem to enjoy it. The whole place is Dullsville if you are single, but a great place to raise kids or retire.