- Excelsior District, San Francisco, California
The Excelsior District in
San Francisco is the area alongMission Street , south of Interstate 280 and north ofGeneva Avenue . Many of the area's streets were named forEurope an countries and cities. Excelsior Street itself was originally named "Japan". It was renamed during the Second World War, as was "Germany" Street. In its earlier days the Excelsior was predominantly Italian, Irish, and Swiss. Today it is one of the most ethnically diverse neighborhoods in San Francisco, with manyAsians ,Latino s, and other groups having also settled there in recent decades. [ [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/10/01/DD182831.DTL&hw=EXCELSIOR+CROCKER+AMAZON+JERRY+GARCIA&sn=001&sc=1000 Excelsior district takes care of its own ] ]Noteworthy Excelsior residents include surrealist poet
Philip Lamantia , Grateful Dead singer/guitaristJerry Garcia , Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame shortstopJoe Cronin ,DJ Qbert , and San Francisco mayoral and supervisoral assassinDan White . A movie was once filmed there with Julie Andrews. The neighborhood is represented by Gerardo Sandoval.There are several events associated with the Excelsior District. Jerry Day celebrates the district's most famous native son - Jerry Garcia and typically draws thousands of dead heads and other revelers to John McClaren Park, bordered by the Excelsior, Visitacion Valley and the Portola districts. This annual event typically occurs in August.
The Excelsior Festival draws thousands to Mission Street to celebrate the neighborhood's assets such as its cultural diversity, food and to draw people together in a family-friendly environment for music, shopping and fun. The Excelsior Festival typically occurs on the first Sunday in October.
Central to the neighborhood for quite some time was the landmark Granada Theater, at the intersection of Mission and Ocean. In 1922 it opened with the name "Excelsior" but, was replaced with the name "Granada" in 1931 after the downtown Granada Theater changed its name to the Paramount,freeing up the name. Both the name and a vertical "Granada" sign were deployed in the Excelsior. However, the theater closed in 1982.
Among the various schools in the district is the "San Francisco Community Alternative School", a public grade school with a unique 'project-based' curriculum. [ [http://www.my-sfcs.org/ San Francisco Community School - Welcome ] ]
References
http://portal.sfusd.edu/template/?page=es.sfc
External links
* [http://www.san-francisco-home.com/maps/10-Excelsior.html Excelsior District Map]
*http://www.jerryday.org
* [http://www.excelsiorsf.org Excelsior District Improvement Association]
* [http://www.eagsf.org Excelsior Action Group]
*http://www.excelsiorfestival.org
* [http://www.excelsiordistrict.org The inactive EDIA website]
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