The Mission Dolores

This Upper Market district, which includes Duboce Triangle, Mission Dolores and Eureka Valley/Dolores Heights, offers a rich variety of attractive homes, many of them Victorian that are very well maintained. This hilly area offers a variety of dramatic city views. The many amenities on and around Market and Castro Streets make this one of the City's more self-contained neighborhoods. Buses and light rail make commuting downtown and elsewhere within the City easy. It's a vibrant, walkable neighborhood and a great place to people watch. Upper Market houses a progressive population with trendy Castro Street being its hub. The Duboce Triangle is a transition zone, being strategically located between the Lower Haight and the Castro. This former enclave underwent a personality change in the 1970s, when business and home-owners began renovating the area's Victorians, a trend that quickly spread to other parts of the city.

Much of the Mission district survived the 1906 earthquake and fire, and refugees, primarily Italians and Irish, flooded in from across the city. They were joined by Mexican immigrants from the 1910 Mexican Revolution and Central Americans fleeing political oppression. Wave after wave of primarily Latino immigrants arrived in the ensuing years, melding the area into a rich and vibrant cultural community. As evidenced in the neighborhood murals in Balmy Alley, the Cesar Chavez School, the 24th Street Bart Station and numerous other locations, working class social causes and art and music thrive in the Mission. The latest wave of immigrants, young, affluent, high-tech set, lured by burritos and bungalows with potential is creating quite a stir and the gentrification debate roars on.

Mission Dolores, the oldest structure in the city, dates from 1776 and was established by Spanish Franciscans as one of 21 missions, each about a days journey apart, on the California coast. Not far from the Mission is Dolores Park, where rebellion is the rule: dogs are allowed to run without leashes, people have been known to run (or sun) without clothes, and many a protest march has begun or finished at this popular gathering spot.