What Do You Mean There Aren't Any Flower-Covered Hills?!

           Once upon a time, I was forced to explore the Sunset District of San Francisco for a class. I thought the Sunset looked like a nice place. Now my views have changed.

This is not THE Sunset, but it is A sunset.

            I now think that looks can be deceiving. 

            Before, I believed that crime in the neighborhood was virtually nonexistent. I thought everyone ran up flower-covered hills singing "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In."

            Talking to people wasn't very difficult. They were generally pretty open to discuss the goings on in the neighborhood. And the more I talked to people, the more I found out.

            Nothing too scandalous happens around the Sunset, but there are tons of vehicle break-ins and robberies. Murders and sexual assaults seem to be rare, but they do happen.

            One thing in particular that police are cracking down on is marijuana grow houses, which I had no idea even existed in the Sunset.

            And now with the appearance of a new medical marijuana dispensary, one that is causing a lot of controversy, people are even more concerned. What about the children, right? Yawn.

            Of course, I shouldn't offer my opinion on that, since I'm writing about it for my final story and need to be unbiased and objective and all that. All I can say is thank Cheeseus that I went to the Taraval police station meeting last month and found out about this issue because I would be up you know what creek without a paddle.

            Besides this, the neighborhood appears to be this family oriented utopia, where crime is rare and it's always foggy, but that is obviously not the case. Except for the fog. The fog is there a lot.

            There are perks of course. I can't count how many cute little shops there are in this neighborhood alone. The necklace I bought at Pearl on Irving, which has quickly become my favorite, is almost godlike in its awesomeness.

The genius who did my tattoo.

            And of course I can't talk about shops unless I talk about Tuesday Tattoo on Judah, where I got my very first tattoo in September. For my next tattoo, and yes I am definitely getting another, I will claw my way through to get an appointment at Tuesday.

            OK, OK, enough gushing.

            There are some coffee shops, eateries, Irish pubs and a whole heck of a lot of Asian shops and restaurants. Not to mention the never-ending supply of Asian-owned beauty shops, nail salons and massage parlors.

            The Sunset was once predominantly Irish and there are still Irish people around, but the neighborhood is now most definitely an Asian epicenter that prominently caters to Asian interests.

            All in all, there isn't anything exceptionally special about the Sunset. It's just another place with more of the same.

            I get a strange feeling from the police station on Taraval though. I've talked to a couple of people there and they seemed closed off, only telling me what they thought was right to tell me and not exactly what I wanted to know.

            I've heard stories that say all police like that, especially with journalists, so maybe I can understand. I guess I just thought that because of how different the Sunset seemed from the rest of the city, the police would be too. But I've come to learn that the Sunset isn't all that different, it's just a lot quieter about it.

Haven for Hippies?

           Would it be appropriate to say it was as cold as hell in Other Avenues, an organic food store in San Francisco's Sunset District? Probably not, since hell isn't supposed to be cold, but I digress.

            Now that I think about it though, the cold could also be attributed to the icy temperature outside the store. Since I was already cold, maybe it just didn't make much of difference for me. To be fair, the store did have vegetables and things to keep crisp, so I suppose the cold was necessary.

            When you walk through the store, you're greeted with organic candles, spices, candies, fruits and veggies, breads, etc. In the front of the store is all the candles and incense, which smell like heaven and unicorns and fluffy kittens. It rivals the smell of the bread located a little ways away.

            There were even free samples of some random wheat type of bread with nuts in it, but blech. It wasn't exactly my cup of tea. But a free sample is a free sample.

            I did talk to Larry Bernard, a very tall older man, about the store. He'd been around since it opened down on Ninth Street in 1974. Its current location is near the beach on Judah Street.

            "They've got everything," he said. "It's all organic and the people are nice."

            The store's website has a detailed account of its history, starting with members of a group called the Food Conspiracy, which was a collective of a bunch of food buying clubs that wanted to buy and distribute wholesale food. They turned into an umbrella group called the Peoples Food System.

            "Food for people, not for profit," was their cheesy slogan.

            They created a bunch of stores like Other Avenues, but most of them bit the dust in the 1990s.

            Bernard shops at this particular store every week, but confesses he goes to others occasionally when the store doesn't have something he needs – a rarity.

            Right now they're out of a particular chocolate bar he's fond of. He said it's happened before with other things, sometimes resulting in a multiple week disappearance. Perhaps the store should invest in some of those "wanted" signs and offer a reward for recovered food.

            Even though Bernard is a bit disappointed with those disappearances, overall he's absolutely head over heels for the store. He practically did a cartwheel while he was talking about it. Well, not really, but he was happy.

            I first went to the store about a month ago when I was just browsing the Sunset. I didn't find much there, but I did find some delicious sort of bakery item. I couldn't tell you what it was, but boy was it tasty.

            The store seems to fit well within the community, or at least the perceived San Francisco community where everyone is frolicking through the flowers with peace signs, cannabis and rainbow flags. Organic is the hippie way of life and it works well in the Sunset.

            It's a bit on the pricey side for a broke ass college student, but if I did have some extra dough, I'd do a little shopping here when I'm not selling my soul to the man by shopping at Target or Safeway.

Coffee, Conversations and Community

           This week was different. I met a 73-year-old woman in a coffee shop, who shared so much with me. She was lovely and made me miss my family. After I said goodbye to her, I was emotional. I didn't want to say goodbye. I told her I'd come visit her again soon, and I will.

            As for discovering things about transportation in the Sunset, I didn't have much luck with finding a juicy story. Most people said the same things: parking was terrible and meters were expensive. So I went with that.

            I did find the Sunset Beacon, which is a monthly published newspaper centered on news in the Sunset. There are many community groups, too, like the Sunset Heights Association of Responsible People (S.H.A.R.P.), which meets every month, some merchant associations, and the Sunset Neighborhood Beacon Center, a wonderful center that provides free classes and support for families in the community. 

First Impressions

At first glance, the Sunset district in San Francisco is a picture perfect example of suburbia. Minivans pull out of one-car garages, joggers and dog walkers frequent the sidewalks, and moving and garage sale signs are posted everywhere. Each house is eerily similar to its neighbor, with differences in color and orientation, and there seems to be a forest of trees straight out of a Robert Frost poem surrounding some neighborhoods. Once you reach Lincoln Way, you're greeted with Golden Gate Park, a must-see attraction for tourists and natives.

First Glance: Sunset homes near Judah

            "Who doesn't love Golden Gate Park?" Victoria Phoenix asked me. She works on Irving Street in Pearl, a newly opened jewelry and rock photography shop (a new favorite place of mine).

            With the Botanical Garden, de Young Museum, Academy of Sciences, Japanese Tea Garden, Conservatory of Flowers and more, who doesn't love Golden Gate Park? is right.

            Another place that is not to be missed is Judah Street, especially around the beach. There are artsy little coffee shops and restaurants, a fabulous organic food store, a general store and more.

            Irving Street is another must-see. Ninth and Irving is a popular area, which every Sunday hosts the Inner Sunset Farmers' Market.

Fruit at the Inner Sunset Farmers' Market

            I went to last Sunday's Farmer's Market and am in awe with what I saw. Fresh fruits and vegetables, gorgeous flowers, honey, amazing baked goods and even organic eggs. Everything was organic and beautiful and the people who came with baskets and reusable bags surely spent a pretty penny on all the wonderful goods presented (as did I).

Inner Sunset Farmers' Market

            During the market, I spoke to a couple of vendors who frequent farmers' markets all around the bay. Christine Morrissey, the organic egg vendor said that business is booming for her and others who provide organic eggs ever since the recent salmonella outbreak in eggs from supermarkets all over the United States.

            "People want to work direct with the farmer," she said. And by shopping at farmers' markets like the Inner Sunset's, they can be.

            There is more to Irving than the Farmers' Market, though.

            "Ninth and Irving is one of the most underrated spots in the city," a woman named Katie said.

            "It's [the Sunset] changed so much over the past 25 years," she said. "Once it was all Irish, everyone had ten kids, the demographics changed."

            "Now, it [the Sunset] is mostly Asian and students," Marge Heard, owner of The Last Straw gift shop on Judah said. The Asian population is so prominent, that its influence is seen all over the district, especially on Irving Street.

            All along Irving Street, there are small Asian grocery stores or produce stores, multiple Asian-owned house ware stores and countless Asian restaurants.

            Among all of that, the Irish pubs and Lefty's Tattoo Company stick out like a sore thumb.

            As for why people live in the Sunset, there was one answer I heard over and over: It's very safe.

            In fact, according to CrimeMapping.com, a national resource for crime data, a little more than 100 reported crimes (mostly for disturbing the peace) have occurred in the Sunset District during the week of August 22, 2010 to August 28, 2010, compared to Haight/Ashbury, which, during the same week, had over 200 reported crimes.

            "It's a wonderful neighborhood, very safe," Phoenix said. "The people are very nice…in general."

            Overall, I find the Sunset to be a pretty amazing little area. It has hidden gems like Pearl and The Last Straw and a deafening multicultural atmosphere. It's very different than other better known areas of San Francisco like the Haight and the Castro, but it deserves more recognition for being a good place to walk around and spend a weekend in. That's what I did, and I have the sunburn to prove it.