Potrero Hill, San Francisco, California

Potrero Hill is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California, USA, located on the east side of the city, east of the Mission District and south of the South of Market area. It is roughly bordered by 16th Street to the north, Potrero Avenue or U.S. Route 101 to the west and Cesar Chavez Street to the south. There are many docks located on the eastern edge of the neighborhood, which are mainly built atop landfill.

Notable features of Potrero Hill include the Anchor Steam Brewery located on Mariposa Street, between Carolina and DeHaro Streets and owned by the washing machine heir Fritz Maytag, a section of Vermont Street between 20th Street and 22nd Street that has many switchbacks, similar to Lombard Street, Bottom of the Hill on 17th Street, a popular music venue in San Francisco, and the public housing projects on the southeastern side of the hill. The powder blue water tower, located near 22nd Street and Wisconsin Street, was demolished in mid-2006 (as part of a seismic upgrade and due to the fact that it was no longer needed).

"Potrero" is Spanish for "pasture": the name derives from a 1835 land grant to Don Francisco de Haro to graze cattle in the "potrero nuevo" ("new pasture").

Notable residents

* O.J. Simpson — Former star football player who played for Galileo High School, San Francisco City College, University of Southern California, and the Buffalo Bills. Simpson grew up on Potrero Hill.
* Wayne Thiebaud — Famous and prolific painter lived on and painted Potrero Hill for years
* Robert Bechtle — Photorealist painter used the hill for both a home and subject matter for his art.
* Peter Orlovsky — Poet Allen Ginsberg's partner. Lived at 5 Turner Terrace, one of several Potrero Hill public housing projects, in the 1950s. Ginsberg probably worked on "Howl" in that apartment.Fact|date=July 2008
* Lawrence Ferlinghetti — Poet and co-founder of City Lights, America's first all-paperback bookstore. Ferlinghetti bought the house at 706 Wisconsin St. in 1957.
* The offices of social news site Digg are located above the SF Bay Guardian newspaper on Mississippi St.
* Devin Woolf — Notable mixed-media artist and photographer, also dabbled in moonlighting apiculture
* Miguel Migs — Internationally recognized deep house producer and DJ. Founder of Salted Music: a house music record label (originally spun-off from another San Francisco-based label; Om Records).

Notable streets

* De Haro Street is named after Francisco De Haro. Along with Potrero Avenue, it is one of the main streets of the neighborhood. Most of this street is served by the Muni 19 Polk route.
* Vermont Street is famed for the block between 20th and 22nd which, like the better-known Lombard Street, has several sharp switchbacks.
* 18th Street runs through the heart of the North side of the hill and is home to three blocks that serve as the primary shopping and dining spot in the neighborhood. [ [http://www.sfgate.com/traveler/guide/sf/neighborhoods/potrerohill.shtml SFGate San Francisco Neighborhood Guide] ; last accessed 16 February 2008.] [ [http://www.sfweekly.com/search/restaurants.php?regionGroup=&price=&feature=&cuisine=&region=769930 SF Weekly Restaurant Guide] ; last accessed 16 February 2008.] [ [http://www.7x7sf.com/home_design/real_estate/8496497.html 7X7, "Bringing Up Baby"] ; last accessed 16 February 2008.] [ [http://www.sfstation.com/a-magnificent-potrero-hill-trio-baraka-chez-papa-and-chez-maman-a899 SF Station, "A Magnificent Potrero Hill Trio"] ; last accessed 16 February 2008.]

Transportation

Two freeways run through Potrero Hill, U.S. Route 101 on the western side, Interstate 280 on the eastern side. The San Francisco Municipal Railway provides bus service on the hill and light rail service on 3rd Street. Caltrain commuter rail has a stop at 22nd street beneath Interstate 280.

The names of most streets in Potrero Hill are taken from battleships constructed at the nearby shipyards during World War II and are ordered chronologically by the ships' completion dates. This naming scheme extends slightly beyond Potrero Hill into the Dogpatch neighborhood to the East and the Mission District to the West.

The streets, in order from East to West are:
*Illinois St.
*Tennessee St.
*Minnesota St.
*Indiana St.
*Pennsylvania St.
*Mississippi St.
*Texas St.
*Missouri St.
*Connecticut St.
*Arkansas St.
*Wisconsin St.
*Carolina St.
*De Haro St. (not a ship name)
*Rhode Island St.
*Kansas St.
*Vermont St.
*Utah St.

The streets in the Mission District that follow this naming scheme are:

*Hampshire St.
*York St.
*Florida St.

In film

* Potrero Hill has been a location in the movies and TV, 1948's "I Remember Mama", 1990's "Pacific Heights" (the actual house is at Texas and 19th Street, not in Pacific Heights) [http://www.movie-locations.com/filmarchive/p/pacificheights.html] , 2002's "40 days and 40 nights" and 2001's "Sweet November" [http://www.filminamerica.com/Movies/SweetNovember/] , and in chase scenes in "Bullitt", "The Dead Pool" and "Just Like Heaven". TV shows include "The Streets of San Francisco" and "Nash Bridges".
* Potrero Hill is also mentioned in the dark thriller "The Game" (1997) as being the location where the mysterious 'Christine' lives.
* Potrero Hill begins the Dirty Harry film, "Magnum Force" (1973), with a murder at 18th and Pennsylvania.
* Australian band Architecture in Helsinki reference Potrero Hill in their song "Rendezvous: Potrero Hill", found on their album entitled "In Case We Die" (2005).
* Other films shot in the famed Potrero Hill neighborhood, "The Organization" (1971), "The Laughing Policeman" (1973), "Chu Chu and the Philly Flash" (1981), "The Rock" (1996), "Sweet November" (2001), and "High Crimes" (2002).

ee also

* Potrero Point
* Mission Bay, San Francisco, California
* List of San Francisco, California Hills. Protrero Hill is home to James Patterson's character "Detective/Sargent/Lieutenant Lindsay Boxer" of the Womens Murder club book series, and is mention regularly.

References

Further reading

* "San Francisco's Potrero Hill" by Peter Linenthal, Abigail Johnston, and the Potrero Hill Archives Project, was published by Arcadia Publishing Co. in their Images of America series in 2005. Its 128 pages are full of photos and neighborhood history. It includes early Native American Ohlone history, Mission Dolores, early industry, both world wars, the 1960s, and recent developments. Many photos come from family collections.

External links

* [http://www.sfgate.com/traveler/guide/sf/neighborhoods/potrerohill.shtml San Francisco Neighborhoods: Potrero Hill] - Neighborhood guide from the San Francisco Chronicle
* [http://www.potrerohillsf.com Potrero Hill SF] - Neighborhood guide and blog
* [http://www.potreroboosters.org/ Potrero Boosters Neighborhood Association]