One of the things I love about American cities is the wonderful mix of architecture. From Victorian houses to the grand designs of the early 20th century, to sweeping modern skyscrapers. The city of Oakland, just a short metro ride from downtown San Francisco, was no...
San Francisco is famous for its colourful and provocative street art. You can find it everywhere, with a thousand or more murals across the city. But the greatest concentration is in the Mission District, with whole streets full of vibrant murals and mosaics. Balmy...
San Francisco is built on 49 hills – not just ordinary slopes, but tall steep inclines. Yet the city’s early planners and developers chose to lay out the roads in a grid pattern, paying no heed to contours. This resulted in some very steep streets, causing problems...
One of the pleasures of San Francisco is its historic architecture. Of course, the city is full of the impressive modern buildings that you’d expect in any American city. However there are also rows of well preserved Victorian houses. They seem to be everywhere, on...
The links between San Francisco and Japan stretch back to the end of the 19th century, when the first emigrants arrived in the city. Today San Francisco has the largest remaining Japantown area in the US. And in 1957 it strengthened its relationship with Japan by...
