Pierce St, Alamo Square

There is a quaint corner store at Pierce and Sutter streets in the residential neighborhood with scattered shops. This section of Pierce St. starts and ends with Hamilton Rec Center and Alta Plaza Park. Hamilton Rec center is pretty small and does not allow dogs, but Alta Plaza is one of the nicest parks in the city with great views and regular dog visits. It is at the top of Pac Heights and overlooks the bay. Pierce Street is residential with nicer houses the closer you get to Alta Park, which is a steep uphill climb.

Living on Pierce and Chestnut in SF is an interesting experience. There are a lot of bars around which adds to the party. There are nicer bars around for sure. But, then there's Pierce Street Manor. CC, the women who's owned the bar for a while -- and hates the landlord -- is quite the character. This place is truly for townies and view young people hangout there. Those that do only do it for the one-off scene. There used to be a huge underage drinking problem here. She served anyone. This has cleaned up some recently.

The parking in the area is difficult. It's not easy to find parking. If you end up parking in the garage, then make sure you remove all valuable items from your car. Cars are broken into in this City garage on a daily basis. It's not worth the risk.

Other than, that, enjoy hanging out on Chestnut. Lots of great food (A16, Mommacitas) are some of the best.

To the north, you've got Alamo Square (home of the Painted Ladies, hilly park space, a tennis court, and great views of the city) and to the south you've got Duboce Park (for dogs) which has a great cafe nearby as well as a convenient N Judah stop. At the intersection with Haight, Burger Joint is a great neighborhood backyard-style burger, and good cafes and restaurants on neighboring streets. And once a year, there is a "dead enders" block party that all are welcome to which is a great event.