Rincon Hill neighborhood map 

First a note of place – the Rincon Hill Neighborhood is the portion of SoMa located east of 2^nd Street to the waterfront and between Mission and Bryant Streets. The best reasons to live in the quickly rising Rincon Hill neighborhood today are as follows.

1)      Easily get to where you want to go from Rincon Hill – whether it is by foot, by bicycle, by bus, by ferry boat, or by rail … even (gulp) by automobile. The Rincon Hill neighborhood is the multi-modal transportation hub of the San Francisco Bay Area.

2)      Waterfront views and activities between the Ferry Building and the Bay Bridge offer an ongoing reminder of why San Francisco is a wonderful place to live. On Saturday mornings, a walk up to the Ferry Building always brings a lot of passing smiles and “Good morning” greetings from strangers. Every day, the Embarcadero Pedestrian Promenade provides a safe, wide sidewalk for people to walk, jog, and practice other physical activities. The sun tends to shine in the Rincon Hill neighborhood on most days of the year, even in the summertime when the western portion of the City is blanketed in fog.

3)      Close proximity to the Ferry Building is a wonderful reason to live in the Rincon Hill neighborhood all by itself. Organic, pesticide free fruits and vegetables along with wonderful shops and restaurants make the Ferry Building a favorite destination for residents and visitors. The weekly Farmer's Markets add to the community enjoyment.

4)      AT&T Park and the good stewards of the San Francisco Giants organization provide many wonderful events for residents throughout the year. The Giants organization is also very involved with community groups on a local and citywide level. AT&T Park is a South Beach jewel that residents of Rincon Hill truly enjoy.

5)      Artwork on display for the public in the Rincon Hill neighborhood is located in obvious and not so obvious locations. If you wander around Hills Plaza towards the southwest corner, you may run across a statue of the Hill Brothers Coffee Drinker tucked away in an entryway. On the Embarcadero Pedestrian Promenade, there is a temporary installation of Louise Bourgeois’ bronze sculpture “Crouching Spider” sitting beside the Pier 14 Public Pier. Take a look at the famous 29 Anton Refregier watercolor murals along the ceiling of the historic Rincon Center at Mission and Steuart Streets, created between 1947 and 1948 and depicting the history of California. Of course, the Rincon Hill neighborhood’s landmark art piece in Rincon Park is Cupid’s Span, created by internationally renowned artists Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen.

6)      YMCA Embarcadero – a wonderful community organization that brings us together, offers many healthy activities for members, and provides a break from the stresses of life.

7)      Privately Owned Public Open Spaces (POPOSes) that are indoor or outdoor as part of office building developments, providing the Rincon Hill neighborhood some precious additional space to think, to meet, and to daydream. The San Francisco Chronicle maintains a map of POPOSes in the downtown area of San Francisco. Now, if we can just get the POPOSes developed in the coming years to stay open until 10 p.m., residents of the Rincon Hill neighborhood would have a much greater opportunity to utilize the spaces after they get home from work and school.

8)      Waterfront fireworks shows throughout the year. While New Year’s Eve provides the biggest fireworks spectacle along the waterfront, there are many other shows ranging from KFOG’s Kaboom event at Piers 30/32 to San Francisco Giants ballgame fireworks displays to private events that provide a brief period of fireworks on the water. As long as the sky is clear, fireworks over the water with the Bay Bridge in the background are a wonderful sight to see.

9)      Rincon Hill neighborhood restaurants are among the most favorite in the City.  Some of the best offerings include fancy meals at Boulevard, dim sum at Yank Sing, sushi and sake at Ozuma, Chinese with some jazz music at Shanghai 1930, fabulous American faire at either Town Hall or Salt House, yummy pizzas and wine at Local Kitchen and Wine Merchant, seafood at Waterbar or a $25 burger at Epic Roasthouse, Hawaiian fusion at Roy’s, Thai at Osha, or just plain tasty grill food at either Beale Street Bar and Grill, The Hi-Dive, or Red’s Java House. Many more wonderful restaurants are planned or will be appearing as the Rincon Hill neighborhood is developed and more residents move into the area that want and need splendid dishes and experiences after long days at work.

10)   Probably the most exciting aspect of living in the Rincon Hill neighborhood is the anticipation of the changes that are occurring and planned to appear over the next 7 to 12 years. The new Transbay Transit Center is easily the most ambitious of the projects, but many other current parking lots are due for a renewed life as mixed use housing or office buildings that will help to fill in the empty spots of the neighborhood left over from highway overpasses that, thanks to the Loma Prieta earthquake, no longer exist. The streetscape plans with plenty of trees, widened sidewalks, and additional space for recreation will increase the enjoyment at the street level for residents, workers, and visitors in the Rincon Hill neighborhood in the future. While the economy is not so bright right now, the location to the waterfront, to public transit, and to the jobs center of San Francisco make the Rincon Hill neighborhood a slam dunk waiting to happen.

I hope you consider joining us in the Rincon Hill neighborhood sometime soon and helping us grow!

For more info: The Rincon Hill Neighborhood Association web site is www.RinconHillNeighbors.org