South Park, San Francisco

South Park is a small neighborhood South of Market in San Francisco, California. It centers on the small, oval-shaped park of the same name, and South Park Street, which encircles the park. The area is bounded by Second, Third, Bryant, and Brannan streets. [http://www.sfnpc.org/southparkhistory San Francisco Neighborhood Parks Council] article "South Park History"]

The two halves of the South Park Street re-join at both ends of the park, and continue for short, straight stretches before terminating at Second Street on one end and Third Street on the other. This creates a curved line of buildings which gives the street and park an unusual enclosed, urban character. Local businesses and restaurants dot the street, as well as a large number of apartment buildings.

History

The South Park block was assembled in 1852 by English entrepreneur George Gordon.cite web|url=http://www.sfnpc.org/southparkrevisitedhistory|publisher=San Francisco Neighborhood Parks Council|title=South Park Revisited History|author=Jeanne Alexander]

The park was originally constructed in 1855 as the center of an exclusive residential community. It was modeled after a square in London, England, as a housing development of seventeen mansions plus townhousescite news|url=http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-5840242_ITM|Publisher=Chicago Tribune|title=Search for housing bargains turns up few nuggets in San Francisco|date=2001-02-15] (a total of 58 residences) on a 550-foot oval around a private grassy park. It featured the first paved streets and sidewalks in San Francisco. A windmill in the center of the park pumped water for the houses.

The neighborhood began to lose exclusivity after the construction of Second Street, which made the area accessible to less affluent residents. Rich residents moved to the newer Nob Hill neighborhood in the late 19th century, and the city took over the park in 1897. It suffered further decline after the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, when most of the homes around the Rincon Hill neighborhood were destroyed. The oval park, however, has remained unchanged and is still a central meeting place in the neighborhood. After the quake the neighborhood was rebuilt as warehouses, light manufacturing, nightclubs, and hotels. Immigrants from various countries came to the neighborhood, as well as longshoremen, drug addicts, and vagrants. The neighborhood began to attract artists and young professionals beginning in the 1970s.

The area flourished during the dot-com boom of the late 1990s, due to flexible office space at initially low rent. It was sometimes described as "ground zero" of the dot com revolution,cite news|url=http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/may2006/id20060519_650456.htm?chan=search|Date=2006-05-19|publisher = Metropolis Magazine|title=All About Yves] with many start-up Internet companies based in the area. By late 2001, however, many of these companies had closed their doors. Yet, as of 2006, in an era for the Internet that some have dubbed Web 2.0, South Park has once again become home to many small Web-related companies.cite web |url= http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/04/16/BUG88I9EFK1.DTL&type=business |title= Web 2.0 has a local address: South Park, the neighborhood that fostered the dot-com boom, is back |author= Dan Fost |work= San Francisco Chronicle |date= 16 April 2006 |quote= ]

Recently, some neighbors in South Park have expressed opposition to a proposal to put an above-ground stop on the Central Subway at the southwestern end of South Park Street, on Third Street. Final routing of the line has not yet been decided by the Municipal Transportation Agency, but will likely be along Fourth Street, one block farther west.

outh Park companies

Current

*Adaptive Path, Web consulting
*Alternet (Independent Media Institute), journalism website
*Caffe Centro, coffeehouse frequented by many technology workers and executives
*Engine Yard, Web Hosting (Ruby on Rails)
*Friends of the Urban Forest, nonprofit
*Fuseproject, product design and branding studio that designed new Mini, founded by Yves Behar [cite news|publisher=New York Times| title=Curve Your Enthusiasm|author=Pilar Viladas|date=2004-03-14|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9500E5DF173FF937A25750C0A9629C8B63]
*Grid Net, WiMAX based power meters
*Hummer Winblad, Venture Capital firm [cite news|title=Born Again:Silicon Valley, the site of busted dot-com dreams, is bustling once more as entrepreneurs focus on business' I.T. infrastructures|author=Charles Babcock|publisher=InformationWeek|date=May 2, 2005|url=http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=162100052]
*Leverage Software, Social networking software
*Levy Design Partners, Architecture
*Lumos Labs, Brain fitness
*LookSmart, online advertising
*Loomia, video and audio search
*Mule Design Studio, Web design
*MySpace, Social Network
*Odeo, podcasting
*PC World, magazine
*Podshow, podcasting
*The Butler and the Chef Bistro, restaurant, [http://oralpleasureinc.com/cafe/AboutUs.htm]
*Sfist, regional version of Gothamist
*Splunk, software awesomeness
*Sputnik SF, online design"
*Technorati, blogging
*Twitter, micro blogging [http://twitter.com/help/contact Twitter Contact Page] ]
*Twistage, [http://twistage.com] ]
*VerticalResponse, direct marketing
*UE Architects, User experience strategy and design [http://ueArchitects.com/contact UE Architect Contact Page] ]
*VideoEgg, video sharing
*Wcities, 340 brannan St.,
*Wikimedia Foundation [cite news|title=Wikimedia pegs future on education, not profit|author=Chris Cadelago|publisher=San Francisco Chronicle|date=2008-08-24|url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/24/MNIJ12ETP4.DTL]
* Wired, tech magazine
*Xoom Corporation, money transfer
*BruceAndTom (BAT) Architects, 522 2nd Street, San Francisco, CA

Former

*Bigwords.com, used textbooks [cite news|title=Web 2.0 has a local address: South Park, the neighborhood that fostered the dot-com boom, is back|author=Dan Fost|publisher=San Francisco Chronicle|date=2006-04-16|url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/04/16/BUG88I9EFK1.DTL&type=business]
*frog design inc., design consultancy
*Obvious Corp., blog-related company, acquired by Odeo. [cite news|url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/03/11/MNGKKOCBA645.DTL|publisher=San Francisco Chronicle|title=Where Neo-Nomads' Ideas Percolate:New 'bedouins' transform a laptop, cell phone and coffeehouse into their office|author=Dan Fost|date=2007-03-11] [cite news|url=http://mashable.com/2006/10/25/odeo-gets-acquired-by-obvious-corp/|title=Odeo Gets Acquired by Obvious Corp|publisher=Mashable|date=2006-10-25|author=Pete Cashmore]
*Organic, Inc., formerly in same building as Wired Magazine.
*Sherman Clay (Steinway distributorship), now rented out to dot com companies) [cite news|url=http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2003/03/03/newscolumn3.html?page=2|publisher=San Francisco Business Journal|Date=2003-02-23|title=UCSF lease adds medical facilities near Mission Bay|author=James Temple]
*Rubyred Labs, Web applications

Neighbors

South Park is located between the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge (Interstate 80) and AT&T Park, the city's baseball stadium. Most of the nearby numbered streets are one-way, and carry traffic to and from the bridge, the stadium, and Interstate 280, which terminates slightly to the south of the neighborhood.

AT&T Park (formerly Pacific Bell Park, then SBC Park) where the San Francisco Giants major league baseball team plays is two blocks south and east of South Park.

Moscone Center, San Francisco's main convention facility, is four blocks north and west of South Park.

References

External links

* [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/11/30/BUOMTKNJA.DTL San Francisco Chronicle] article "As Wikipedia moves to S.F., founder discusses planned changes" published November 30, 2007 says "Wikipedia [...] has found office space in the city's South Park neighborhood."