Visitacion Valley, San Francisco, California

Visitacion Valley is a neighborhood located in the south eastern quadrant of San Francisco, in the U.S. state of California.

The Visitacion Valley is roughly defined by McLaren Park to the West, Mansell Blvd to the North, Bayview Hill and Candlestick Cove to the East, and the San Francisco / San Mateo County line to the South. The streets of this neighborhood straddle the border between San Francisco and Daly City, hence Visitacion Valley partially blends in with the adjacent Daly City neighborhood of Bayshore. The grounds of the Cow Palace, straddling the San Francisco/Daly City border, is partially within Visitacion Valley.

Vicitacion Valley takes its name from Rancho Guadalupe la Visitacion y Rodeo Viejo, a large tract of land that also included the Bayshore district of Daly City, the city of Brisbane, and San Bruno Mountain.

The area has long had a large proportion of immigrants and is now home to many people who were originally from Asia, particularly Vietnam.

For many years, the area was also one of San Francisco's most violent neighborhoods, frequently home to gang violence and drive-by shootings, with its notorious housing projects on Sunnydale Avenue. The 2 high-rise towers, originally built as private housing in the 1960s, had been converted to public housing in the 1970s. They suffered through dilapidation and poor maintenance throughout the 1980s, and were plagued by gangs and drug activity. The City finally stepped in and eventually razed the buildings the 1990s, and replaced them with lower-density units that have avoided most of the previous crime issues.

The neighborhood was featured in the movie Sucker Free City. One of the gangs featured in the movie called themselves "The V-Dubs" (a.k.a. The V-Dub MAFIA). The word 'Dub' is not an abbreviation of 'W' but means 'double'. San Franciscans may notice the inaccuracy in this part of the film, as the gang in the film was actually located in the Hunters Point neighborhood of the city, which is located several miles away.

External links

* [http://www.vvcdc.org/ Visitacion Valley Community Development Corporation]
* [http://www.visvalley.org/ Visitacion Valley Planning Alliance]
* [http://www.visitacionvalley.org/ San Francisco Visitacion Valley]
* [http://www.vvbeacon.org/ Visitacion Valley Community Beacon]
* [http://sfpl.lib.ca.us/librarylocations/branches/visitacionvalley.htm Visitacion Valley Branch Library]