Neighborhood Profile

Aside from a year-round temperate climate, proximity to countless Internet startups, and some of the priciest housing in the country, the Peninsula towns of Burlingame, San Mateo, Woodside, Menlo Park, Palo Alto, and Mountain View share something surprising in common: They all have Michelin-starred restaurants.

Unless you’re familiar with the Oakland neighborhood, the word “temescal” probably doesn’t ring a bell. That’s because it’s derived from the ancient Nahuatl language of the Aztec people.

With more than a million residents, San Jose, California is the tenth-largest city in the United States—but you’d never guess it if you visited Willow Glen, one of the city’s most coveted neighborhoods.

There is no better way to learn about a neighborhood than to get the perspective of a local. Nihaar Gupta has lived in Alameda for seven years and generously shared his recommendations.

In the West Portal neighborhood in southwest San Francisco, you will likely not encounter tourists—either from the other side of the world or other side of town. But, for the locals that live on the west side and rely on Muni’s K, L and M lines, West Portal, with its cozy, unassuming personality and small town charm, is the essential, do-everything, go-to hub for many of their daily needs.

Berkeley, California holds worldwide renown for two things—being home to the University of California, Berkeley, and serving as the hotbed of 1960s counterculture—and it’s on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley that you’ll find the epicenter of both.

Head 10 miles east of downtown San Francisco, and you’ll find the epicenter of another bustling Bay Area metropolis: the downtown district of Oakland.

Take a waltz through North Beach, and you may notice a few things: alleyways named after famed Beatniks. An entire avenue lit up by risqué neon signs. Street lamps displaying green, white, and red stripes. Young urban professionals and families (along with plenty of tourists) occupying sidewalk cafes and ristorantes.

According to the historians over at San Francisco’s Western Neighborhoods Project, the whole Sunset District of San Francisco was named in 1889 and was reportedly called “Great Sand Waste” when it was still just sand dunes instead of the lively avenues filled with homes and businesses that are there today.

A uniquely San Francisco phenomenon, the Mission is a place where taquerias, family bodegas, and thrift shops coexist next to sleek juice bars, designer clothing boutiques, and Michelin-starred restaurants.